Irrational Games, creators of BioShock, uncovered a long-lost treasure the other day: a sketchbook, full of concept art for the game that got the studio rolling, System Shock 2.
In a cute touch (and a sign of how long it’s been since the game was released), the images are actual sketches on actual paper. With stains and everything.
Their publication is the latest in a series of neat features on the developer’s website, including a great podcast. Nice to see a developer putting some genuine effort into providing interesting content to their fans instead of just spamming a blog or a Twitter account all day.
There’s a selection of the art below, with more at the link below that.
From the Vault – The Long Lost System Shock 2 Sketchbook [Irrational]
plmko
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 9:24 PMMan this game was awesome, Bioshock just simply falls short of this.
Catalyst_27
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 9:54 PMIt’s amazing to see such raw, untouched assets from such an early point in the development of a great game. Seeing things like this, and how they changed in their translation to being in the game is very interesting.
SASmusashi
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 11:19 PMMan, I played this game through with a mate on co-op the first time. It was awesome. We would crap ourselves everytime we heard a cyber-nanny(or whatever they were called). Those things were harsh!
TailSwallower
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 9:23 AMI still haven’t played System Shock 2. I’m hoping for GOG to get their hands on it, or otherwise a HD release on XBLA.
There are copies on eBay, but I’ve heard that it can be hard to get running these days.
WTHfor
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 12:22 PMYou gotta play it. It’s the best and scariest RPG / FPS ever. There’s a fan made hi-res texture pack for it too. The only thing that lets it down is the game engine which wasn’t strong enough to support the run and gun approach as smoothly as I’d like, but everything about it is pure class.
El Phantasmogoro
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 12:38 PMWhen Irrational died, the rights for the game were broken into pieces and sold off to different companies. The likenesses and universe belong to EA and a lot of other things went to other companies. From memory the Engine tech went to someone else and so on. Short of a miracle, it will NEVER be re-released in any form. Though, I would be delighted to be proven wrong.
Pick up a copy on ebay or something. I happened to find my second copy (the original was damaged) in a salvation army store.
It is absolutely incredible. Good as it was, Bioshock just didn’t do it justice.
TailSwallower
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 9:09 AMThanks for the info El Phantasmogoro, I’ll stop holding my breath then and grab a 2nd hand copy.
El Phantasmogoro
Friday, July 16, 2010 at 1:27 PMNo worries and good luck.
My copy has followed me across three homes on two continents. I still play it through about once a year.
Sam Timmins
Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 11:29 PMThis game is legendary, and HAL 9000 would crap his pants if SHODAN was anywhere near his mainframe.