Everyone loves Ken Levine

So what’s it like working with Ken Levine? “It’s good. … What’s kind of curious is these rumors floating around, and we read them on the Internet.”

Hold on then, what are these rumors?  “Oh, there’s some rumor that like, after BioShock, everybody hated Ken and everybody left. And everybody’s in the office like ‘where did this come from? I didn’t leave. Are you leaving?  No.’ The answer is, after BioShock finished, nobody left.”

So everybody does love Ken? “Yeah. Oh, I mean I think everyone in that office is very passionate, very vocal, and very intelligent,” Kline tells us.

And how do these rumors get started, then? “We would love to know,” says Kline. “It’s rough for us, because we’re like, it’s the same old team, we’re still there, still like working with Ken, we’re doing great stuff.”

“If you ever meet Ken, he’s the most unassuming guy,” continues Kline, “He’s the biggest nerd. But what you have to do in a game is go out there and get people excited about your project.”

“What I think people like about Ken, or what’s made him an ‘icon’ is that he tells the truth,” explains Kline. “He takes his case to the gamer, and that really gets people excited.”

Anyone who follows the news recently read that Ken Levine was reported to be renegotiating his contract. “I saw that article, too,” admits Kline.

But does Kline have an agent?  “I don’t have an agent,” he laughs.  “Probably be my Mom if I had an agent.”  Then he turns serious.  “It’s funny, if you look at the spin on it, the Variety article just says ‘okay, he’s renegotiating his contract.’ And then every other article says ‘asking for more money.’

“And I find it interesting,” he continues, “that no journalist I’ve seen so far has said ‘well, could it be something else?’”  Likely no journalist has asked Levine, who may indeed want less money. “I mean, look, he sold the company, you know, it’s not like he needs an extra ten in his pocket.”

Kline concludes the thread: “I guess all I can say is that there’s a reason people at Irrational are staying together. They love working with each other.”

So what’s it like being industry rock stars? “The day it shipped,” recalls Kline, “a bunch of us were like, alright, we’re just going to go home and watch some TV. And it’s nice that people like your game – you think you’ll have the opportunity to do something cool again. And there’s this thinking feeling that ‘oh my God, we’ve got to do it again.”

Which is cool, says Kline, because that’s what they want to be doing. “No one I know has turned into a rock star, certainly. It’s a very humbling experience to go through…I’m really glad people like that game.”