Ken Levine, a lead developer of the upcoming first-person shooterJudas, has confirmed that the game will not follow a live-service model. Instead,Judaswill be a fully offline, single-player experience.
Levine is a celebrated auteur in the game industry, best known as one of the key figures in the creation of theBioShockfranchise. His past work was recently thrust into the spotlight again this past June thanks toNightdive’s remaster ofSystem Shock 2, a game which he originally served as the lead designer for. Levine’s latest creative endeavor, however, isJudas, which will be the debut release of his development team Ghost Story Games.
Ina recent interviewwith Lawrence Sonntag of Nightdive Studios, Levine shared the principle that guided development onJudas. It’s “a very old-school game,” he said, “there’s no online component, no live-service, because everything we do is in service of telling the story and transporting the player.” TheBioShockgames were often praised for their complex narrative themes, and it seems that Levine’s heavy emphasis on story will be present in this title as well.The three main characters ofJudaseach embody different philosophies regarding existentialism and the human experience, and the interplay between these ideologies will give the narrative designers many different ways to “transport the player” into a fictional power struggle.
Judas Developer Comments on Monetization Models
Later in the interview, Ken Levine touched on the financial side of game development. Before mentioningBaldur’s Gate 3andClair Obscur: Expedition 33as recent examples of successful games which eschewed microtransactions and the online multiplayer model, he said that “unwisely, I think, the industry has decided that you need all these elements. But if you look at the games that have really landed in the past couple of years, they are… traditional, single-player games.” DespiteJudas’departure from many industry trends, Levine acknowledged the factors that led tothe prevalence of live-servicemonetization in the contemporary gaming landscape: “This is no diss on any of the developers who have done that, because, look, games are expensive to make… I understand why it happens and I don’t blame anybody for trying to make a living.”
One of the major benefits of online multiplayer games is that, in theory, they have an infinite amount of content. As long as there are enough players to be paired up with, an online game can continuously facilitate unique, unreplicable experiences. Periodic “seasons” and other forms of DLC help to bolster this system, keeping the core gameplay fresh and providing new reasons for players to return.
Ghost Story Games has been outspoken about its plans to maintain a high level of replayability, though, even in an offline game. Ken Levine has describedJudas’ storytelling systemas “narrative LEGO,” where each decision the player makes will build on top of their previous decisions and influence the overarching story in a complicated, nuanced way. The developers hope that this high level of agency will keep players returning for repeat playthroughs to experience different permutations of the game’s branching plot.
