Religious sensitivities impacted on BioShock Infinite development

The BioShock series has never been one to shy away from social commentary, but with that comes a heightened risk.

So much so, in fact, the creator Ken Levine admitted in an interview with OPM that changes were made to one of the characters after religious members of the team expressed concern.

I had some very valuable conversations,” he admitted. One of the characters in the game was highly altered based upon some very interesting conversations I had with people on the team who came from a very religious background, and I was able to understand they were kind of upset about something.

What I said to them was, ‘I’m not going to change anything to get your approval, but I think I understand what you’re saying and I think I can do something that’s going to make the story better, based on what you said’. So I did that, and I’m grateful for them bringing in their perspective.

The last thing I wanted to do was change something because it offends somebody, but the thing they pointed out was making it a lesser story.”

None of which, of course, steers the game away from the biggest taboo of the BioShock series – the option to kill Little Sisters. Infanticide.

I don’t think there’s a larger taboo in the world,” Levine admitted. There were people who were very nervous about that. We didn’t have that because we thought it would be cool. My feeling was if it’s not just there to be exploitive, if it’s true to the story and you’re telling something that you think is honest, then everything has a place.”