Judas ─ a "narrative Lego" from the author of BioShock, inspired by XCOM and Civilization

Some journalists had the opportunity to play the game Judas from Ghost Story Games. The project is led by game designer Ken Levine, known for the game BioShock.

The game Judas is largely reminiscent of BioShock. It is a story-driven single-player game where you'll have to rely on a gun in one hand and supernatural power in the other. The player will be accompanied by deeply tangled characters. This time the story will react much more to the player's actions. It will be full of rivalry between three characters who compete for the support and attention of the main character.

Levin suggests that this is essentially the embodiment of the "narrative Lego" concept he spoke about 10 years ago. Hand-crafted narrative fragments are assembled into a whole through procedural methods. This will create the impression of a cohesive narrative for a single player, but it will be different for different players.

Each time after the character's death, they are "reprinted." This also allows for changing aspects of the character, as in many top role-playing games. But Levin doesn't want to adhere to any specific genre labels.

"We're not trying to create a first-person shooter. We're not trying to create a roguelite. We're not trying to create a strategy game," - says Levine.

In Judas, there are elements of such genres, but the developers did not aim to fit the game into any specific framework.

Levin says some of his "favorite single-player games" include XCOM and Civilization. They are actually built on a modular principle, and they don't have a separate story like ours, says Levine.

"But I drew a lot of inspiration from those games because their map is generated during execution, and our maps are mostly generated or consist of separate elements during execution. The ship changes every time you die and come back, the layout of the ship may be different. And that's why we drew a lot of inspiration from these types of single-player games. But no one had to embody that in a story," - says Levine.