On the eve of BioShock's release, at a Boston launch party complete with costumed splicers and glowing green shots served in syringes, I sat down with Irrational Games--now 2K Boston and 2K Australia--co-founder and creative director Ken Levine, the formidable mind behind not only BioShock but classics such as System Shock 2 and Thief. I spoke with Levine about the massive collective internet hysteria over BioShock, challenges and arguable missteps in development, how his design role has changed, exhibiting creative freedom in game development, how to sneak philosophy into action games, and much more.

Come back next week for the second part of this epic interview--but be sure to complete the game first. In the followup, Ken and I delve deep into the plot points and themes of BioShock for an in-depth discussion about the world of Rapture, its philosophies, and its unforgettable heroes and villains.

For a critical appraisal of BioShock, check out Carlos Bergfeld's review. Otherwise, read on--and rest assured, this installment of the interview is spoiler-free.

Shack: How does it feel to have the game hit such a critical mass of hype? It seems like suddenly the buzz shot through the roof.

Ken Levine: There's a book called The Tipping Point, which is not about gradual change, but a point where things radically change. It talks about prime rates, where things go off a cliff, up or down, and the reasons why. BioShock, and I think video games in general, I think we in the industry misunderstand how gamers think. We think most gamers are like us--journalists and developers--where we scour every page for information, but in reality, most gamers think about games like we think about Diet Coke or Oreos.

Shack: Yeah, I'm very aware of that having worked in retail, but it's easy to forget.

Ken Levine: Yeah, they go to the store and say, "Oh, there's a new game out. Awesome!" But maybe there's a friend in his group who goes to GameSpot or Shacknews and he's reading about every game, and there's one game that, when it gets cool enough, he'll tell his friends about it--but he's not going to tell his friends until it's cool. BioShock, at some point, hit a point where the hardcore gamer in every group said, "Okay, that shit's cool," and told their friends about it. That started happening after that event in New York, and then built up recently.

We've never been through anything like this before. It's gratifying, because I want to make more games like this. The money and everything is nice, but no matter who you are nobody is going to give you $20 million to make some screwed up game if it doesn't sell well. I love these kinds of games, from our first game, and I've really been dreaming about popularizing these kinds of games. Hopefully, this is the one that does.

Shack: Do you think in five or ten years, games like BioShock will be more common, or an anomaly?

Ken Levine: It's hard to say. What is it about the game that's appealing to people? I think it's always very hard to tell. I went to a lot of people you wouldn't think of as gamers who were interested in the game because of the aesthetic and the vibe and the mood, whereas I think if they saw a System Shock 2 or a Deux Ex they may not care because as much. Aesthetics draw people in and introduce people to gaming in general, at least for this type of game.

So it's unclear whether it's particularly BioShock, or if it's that people like these kind of mechanics. I hope it's the mechanics, because I love these kind of mechanics, but we cared a lot about the aesthetic and the world.

One thing I realized while making BioShock was that we had a lot of arguments about what people liked in System Shock 2. In reality, I think the fact that the world is so interesting, and the kind of interactions you can have--more than any specific gameplay, it's the fact that you're in this world that's very unique, and you can interact with that world on many levels, is what makes it fascinating. It's not this stat system or that stat system. Make an interesting world, and let people interact with it in unprecedented ways.

Shack: For me, the single most appealing thing about BioShock is its aesthetic--its world, its philosophical considerations, its visual design, and so on. Now obviously the combat gameplay is a big part of it too, but I notice that marketing focuses almost exclusively on those elements. The back of the box mentions combat alone, with no allusions to the greater themes. Did you find you had to manipulate how you presented the game to different groups?

Ken Levine: You know, marketing it as "The ultimate in first-person Objectivist shooters" is not really the right path to go. [laughs] I think you really have to sneak up on people. You have to mix in that stuff. If you beat people over the head with it, they're not going to be interested. We were really careful about story.

My parents don't know anything about video games, and they asked if gamers were going to be interested in these kinds of themes. Well yeah, if you can mix Objectivism and freaky mutants, they might be interested. If you just give them Objectivism, probably not. The medium is about entertainment.

I think about movies like The Matrix, which tries to inject all kinds of heavy themes, but within the context of a great action movie. I think the problem with the second two movies is that they stopped being great action movies and got too caught up in the themes. Lord of the Rings has themes of the seductiveness of power, but you've got to have the orcs, and the trolls, and the dragons. BioShock is the same way; you've got to have the splicers, and the plasmids, and the Little Sisters, and the Big Daddies.

Shack: That said--and I assume you will answer this in the negative--would you ever consider making a game like this without combat, or without very much combat? When playing BioShock, I got the sense that the world is so rich and compelling that one could theoretically develop a game there not centered around combat.

Ken Levine: Well, I like shooting stuff. [laughs] I've never been a fan of adventure games, but obviously, that's another medium that's been used to tell stories. At the end of the day, I'm a game first kind of guy, so I don't know if it's something I'd do. I'd probably do it as a book or a movie or a comic book or something.

I just want to push forward in the context of what you can do within an action game. Our goal was always to be shooting and telling stories at the same time, and that was a goal with BioShock. We wanted to have our cake and eat it too.

Continue reading for Ken's thoughts on BioShock's hacking mini-game--and why he might have done it differently if given the chance--creative freedom with 2K Games, building on System Shock 2, expanding aesthetics in video games, and more.