BioShockâ??s 2002 design pitch revealed

Irrational Games has pulled the curtain back on one of the studio’s most successful games, BioShock, by releasing pitch documents for the title.

The pitch document was penned in 2002 – some five years before the release of project – and is described by the studio as “the masterful fusion of design and marketing”.

BioShock – known in the document as “the spiritual successor to System Shock 2” – underwent a protracted development phase at Irrational Games, under the leadership of game designer Ken Levine.

The documents reveal that BioShock was set to feature a multiplayer element described as a "story-based deathmatch.” The multiplayer in question never made it to the final version of the game.

Irrational says it will over the next few weeks be releasing more documents outlining how the game stepped away from its original document. It will also reveal visual interface mockups crafted by Levine himself.

You can find the documents here.