Ken Levine Compares BioShock’s Scope to New Game Judas

BioShock director Ken Levine wants to encourage player exploration in Judas, and because of elements like this, he seems to view it as significantly more complex than his earlier works. Judas, by Take-Two subsidiary Ghost Story Games, is set to release by March 2025, and now that the year has started, people hope to see more details about the video game and its release window soon.

Many fans are eager to get their hands on Ken Levine’s upcoming game, hoping to see Judas leave the same level of influence on the industry that the BioShock trilogy has. Because this game is a step in a different direction that takes bold risks as its own IP, gamers have wanted to know whether Judas, with all of its new concepts, will carry the amount of depth associated with Levine’s past works.

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What to Expect From Judas in 2025

With the release of Judas rapidly approaching, fans can expect an update on the game very soon, along with its distinct features once it arrives.

When describing the upcoming game in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Levine referred to his previous work as “corridors” in comparison. He shared his perspective, regarding the BioShock games as titles that take the player through “a very long corridor with a bunch of trigger points that make story elements happen.” Linear, narrative-driven video games are often described using this point of view, but with a building-block structure within Judas‘ development process, Levine and his studio Ghost Story Games aim to offer players something different.

Ken Levine Calls BioShock Games “Corridors” Compared to Judas

Levine notes that Judas‘ development process has been much more difficult compared to the experience surrounding the BioShock games, specifically because Judas is a much more ambitious title. Ghost Story Games and Levine have expressed a goal to give players much more agency within gameplay during Judas, with Levine emphasizing how important the user’s experience of the art produced is, rather than the artist that designed it.

Judas will feature roguelike gameplay elements that stand to complement its non-linear player-driven narrative, hinging on interactions with the three leaders of the Mayflower spaceship. Getting the nuances of non-linear storytelling right while making the experience feel natural can be a difficult process, even scrutinized in games that champion this approach, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. Generative AI has been suggested as a solution to those issues, and although Levine doesn’t want to underestimate it, he believes that situations like bug testing and analytics are better use cases for the tool. Many hope to see Judas iterate on this storytelling approach in a novel way for gaming, potentially pushing the previously assumed boundaries of the medium.

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Judas

Judas is a sci-fi first-person shooter game made by BioShock creator Ken Levine that’s set on a massive spaceship called the Mayflower.

Released

March 1, 2025

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

ESRB

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