21 Random Qs: Getting to Know...Ken Levine (BioShock)
By Dan Hsu in Ken Levine, BioShock, 2K Boston, 21 Random Qs on Jun 10, 2009
We're beginning to wonder if developer 2K Boston modeled BioShock bad guy Frank Fontaine after the game's Creative Director, Ken Levine.
It's not that Levine's a master manipulator of us common folk (uh...we don't think so, anyways). He's just a no-good cheat. Just look at some of his responses and non-responses to our 21 Random Qs interview below! (See #3, 17, 18, 19, and 21.)
And don't miss the vague hint as to what he's working on next....
1. Who is your favorite comic-book superhero? Outside of anyone from Freedom Force, that is.
Ken Levine: When you're getting beat up in the 7th grade every day and you find Spider-Man, it changes your life.
2. Favorite water-based activity?
Levine: Drinking.
3. If you could have dinner with any one person in the world, who would it be?
Levine: Coen Brothers. They're two people, so I cheated.
4. Favorite childhood toy?
Levine: Atari 2600, natch.
5. Earliest gaming memory?
Levine: Playing Avalon Hill board games with my brother: PanzerBlitz, Starship Troopers, etc.
6. One thing you most wish you had invented or created?
Levine: Magic the Gathering. Amazing design and brilliant business concept in one.
7. Tell us one interesting fact about yourself:
Levine: Speech impediment until the 7th grade. Couldn't say my "S" sounds.
8. Favorite sports team?
Levine: 1973 Mets.
9. Favorite magazine you still subscribe to?
Levine: Amazing Spider-Man.
10. Current favorite TV show?
Levine: Mad Men.
11. Political lean?
Levine: Disappointed. Except for gay marriage -- that's been going well. Congrats Pat and Mark!
12. What pieces of media or entertainment did you make your team soak up to research for BioShock?
Levine: Very partial list: The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Miller's Crossing, New York architecture, Fight Club, Django Reinhardt, The Manchurian Candidate...
13. Developer or studio you really admire?
Levine: Brian Reynolds, amongst a million others.
14. Website you visit every day?
Levine: Quarter to Three.
15. Favorite all-time gaming platform?
Levine: PC.
16. Best videogame of all time? Excluding any you've worked on...
Levine: Civilization.
17. Favorite setting and era you've researched for a game?
Levine: Can't say, doing it now!
18. Who's more irrational: Game publishers or fanboys?
Levine: Pubs. No, fanboys! Wait, no, pubs!
19. What one piece of modern technology would you bring with you to your new, sealed-off-from-the-world underwater home?
Levine: Computer with Internet connection. Is that cheating? Screw it.
20. All-time favorite singer or band?
Levine: John Lennon.
21. If you can only have one BioShock plasmid power in real life, which would it be?
Levine: Most of them wouldn't be much use around the house, unless your house was really, really violent.
