![]() ![]() Doyle's belief basically destroyed his career, Levine noted, but it still makes for a wonderful excuse to add a floating woman who raises people from the dead to a 21st century video game. In a world discovering magnetism, bacteria and radio waves, a mystical ectoplasm wasn't a complete stretch to many renowned scientists and thinkers, including Arthur Conan Doyle. There was a movement in the early 20th century involving "the ether," Levine described, a serious scientific belief in an ectoplasm that could perform cosmological feats, such as resurrection. It was too fantastical, and the team wanted something new, different, and sensical for the time period. The Resurrector raised people from the dead, as his title suggested, but Irrational found the logic lacking in such a straightforward power. He was dubbed the "Resurrector" and he resembled the corrupt insane asylum warden from Beauty and the Beast, described as a "Jonathan Edwards, sinners in the hands of an angry god" character. The Siren – a mysterious, mythical woman floating above the BioShock Infinite universe in shrouded beauty – began as an old man in a cape. The final version features a glowing heart in the center of the Handyman's chest, and his depressing animated history was founded on a piece of A.I. The Handyman's iterations showed various forms of visual compassion, emphasizing his human elements within the tubes and gears of his robotic build to convey the tragedy behind his actions. Irrational wouldn't divulge its specifics, wanting players to encounter it in the game for maximum effect. Other early images had the Handyman cowering, anguished, collapsed in an armchair, highlighting the intense emotional backstory of this particular monster. The first vision of the Handyman Irrational showed the PAX audience wasn't of his hulking arms or gorilla-like mechanics, but a black-and-white sketch of him petting a small dog with one gigantic metal finger. ![]() Thanks for the psychology lesson, Levine. Or why every one of his titles features an overbearing, seemingly impermeable guardian figure. That may explain the distinctly disturbing vibe that permeates Levine's titles. He had a dream once that the doll flopped its head around on its own, and a follow-up dream where it killed his mom, he said. It had glass eyes, rosy cheeks and it "scared the fuck out of me," Levine said. The Motorized Patriot's face is a lesson in cracked veneer and fading blush, inspired by a creepy porcelain doll from the early 1900s that Levine's mom displayed in his childhood house. Levine only figured it out himself about two weeks ago, he said. Just as Rosie helped build Rapture, explaining her rivet gun and drill, the George Washington automaton has a place in Columbia's world that explains his final regalia and gun – but Irrational isn't sharing that just yet. Two such transformations: a lightning-powered creature with a weather vane on his head, and another a wandering "town crier" with a clock in his chest. The Motorized Patriot experienced a few transformations after the automatic gentleman. "There's this fantasy that people of the time wanted these automatons to do things for them," Wells said. This hive-mind imagination could have created such things as the "automatic gentleman," a personal robot servant for ladies on the go in 1912, and the first piece of concept art that catalyzed the Motorized Patriot's conception. The early 20th century saw vast advances in America's science and technology fields, leading to a widespread fascination with robots and complicated machinery. Levine takes those words to heart in his own creative direction, and before building any terrifying monsters, he makes sure Irrational develops a rich, empathetic backstory that places each of the deformed, viciously homicidal creatures in routine settings, where they perform the most base of actions: contributing to society, petting a dog, relaxing, mourning.įour Irrational members – Levine, art director Nate Wells, lead artist Shawn Robertson, and sound man Pat Balthrop – gave the PAX audience a glimpse into the secret lives and creation of five major BioShock Infinite villains: the Motorized Patriot, Handyman, Siren, Boys of Silence and Songbird.īefore crafting the grotesque, mechanical parody of George Washington with a mini gatling gun, Irrational considered the society in which its city in the sky existed. That was the advice acclaimed horror writer and director Guillermo del Toro gave Ken Levine, the creator of the BioShock franchise, during a conversation on the Irrational Games podcast. "A good monster is a monster you can imagine in repose."
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