Founded by 12 former Irrational devs
In 2014, the studio behind acclaimed games like System Shock 2, SWAT 4, and BioShock shed the majority of its staff in a massive restructure. “I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it,” co-founder Ken Levine said at the time. “To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers.”
Years later, it’s still unclear what exactly this small group of developers is working on under Take-Two Interactive, but the studio once known as Irrational now has a new name: Ghost Story.
“Ghost Story was founded by twelve former Irrational Games developers and our mission is simple: to create immersive, story-driven games for people who love games that ask something of them,” reads a welcome post. “While we believe our new games will have strong appeal to fans of BioShock, our new focus allows us to craft experiences where the gameplay is as challenging as the stories.”
On a job listing for a senior designer position, there’s a call for:
- Experience supporting environmental storytelling through design.
- Intuitive understanding of how FPS games work and why people play them.
- Previous experience working on levels, combat encounters, and missions/quests in FPS titles (scripting and design).
- Strong content design skills, including experience with RPG systems.
- Unreal Engine 4 experience.
- Can easily break down core level design elements and use them when creating combat and traversal sections of a level.
- Experience in semi-open (e.g. Borderlands, Shadow of Mordor) or open world games.
That certainly sounds like something Levine would want to create.
Ghost Story Games [Official site]