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The development of ''BioShock Infinite'' began after ''BioShock''s release in August 2007. 2K Games published ''BioShock Infinite'' on 26 March 2013 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as the third game in the ''BioShock'' series. The five-year development, led by studio Irrational Games, began under the moniker "Project Icarus". Irrational's creative lead, Ken Levine was inspired by events at the turn of the 20th Century and the expansion of the concept of American Exceptionalism set by the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. His story took these events to create a tale set in 1912 where the player, as former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, is challenged to rescue the young woman Elizabeth that has been kept aboard the floating city of Columbia in the middle of a civil war between its founder Father Zachary Comstock and the Vox Populi, the underclass revolting against him. Though development initially started in Rapture, the underwater city of the first two ''BioShock'' games, the team found this to be too limiting and created the open-aired city of Columbia that allowed for expanded opportunities for combat. The Irrational team referenced much of the media from the turn of the century, as well as more recent events such as the various "Occupy" protests, to shape the game's story and world. Central to the game was the character of Elizabeth, who Levine wants to be more of a companion akin to ''Half-Life 2''s Alyx Vance rather than an escort mission. Levine took a novel approach for his story by bringing the voice actors for Booker and Elizabeth, Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, respectively, into the studio to develop the characters and help refine the story. Irrational and 2K Games used a number of different marketing approaches to promote the game. They worked with various gaming magazines to create promotional artwork reflecting the turn of the 20th Century, and developed tie-in video clips teasing the game's mythology in the style of ''In Search Of...''. A standalone browser game, ''BioShock Infinite: Industrial Revolution'', was developed by Lazy 8 Studios under Irrational's direction to promote the main game and provide the player with in-game rewards. Additional promotional media included an art book, figurines of various characters in the game, a prequel novella, a board game, and a contest to have the winner have their name used within the game. ==Development== Irrational worked in secrecy on ''BioShock Infinite'' for two-and-a-half years since completing the original ''BioShock'' prior to its announcement; with the game announced as going gold on February 19, 2013, about five years of development had been put into the game, with about 200 people involved in the process.〔 2K Games gave them the freedom to develop their sequel at will.〔 Though ''The New York Times'' claimed that the game cost an estimated $100 million to develop with up to an additional $100 million for marketing, Levine countered this assertion though the true cost of development has not been affirmed. Though ''BioShock Infinite'' shares the same name with the other two games, Levine has stated that this is a new direction, and was coy to answer if they shared the same universe.〔 Levine referred to the term ''BioShock'' not as a specific location or setting, but a concept conjoined by two ideas: the exploration of a fantastical setting, and the use of a large number of tools and abilities in creative manners to survive. Along with the ''System Shock'' games, which Levine and other Irrational developers had worked on, the titles share the same idea of a "component of learning about a new place" and shocking the player into discovering more of the setting, according to Levine.〔 Levine affirmed that with the similarities between the games, "It would be dishonest to say this is not ''BioShock''". Similarly, Timothy Gerritsen, director of product development, stated they wanted to keep the feel of the ''BioShock'' experience but still consider ''Infinite'' to be a new intellectual property; as a means to sever the implied connection to the previous games, the teaser purposely shows a Big Daddy figurine being crushed at the onset. This was furthered by the selection of the word ''Infinite'' as part of the title, to reflect the "many possibilities" they wanted to explore with the ''BioShock'' concept.〔 The game does not completely eschew ''BioShock'', as certain elements like the sound effects representing the player's health or for gaining new quests from ''BioShock'' are reused without modification in ''Infinite''; Levine stated that they had worked these common elements as former ''BioShock'' players would already understand their impact, and that they had spent a great detail of time during ''BioShock'' to get these elements right and felt no need to reinvent the sounds again.〔 Further, the introduction of ''Infinite'' purposely mimics several elements from ''BioShock''s opening: one example given by writer Drew Holmes is the act of walking through a candle-lined water trough in a Columbia church to be baptized, which visually is similar to swimming through the flaming wreckage of the plane to reach the bathysphere terminus for Rapture.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Development of BioShock Infinite」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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