Irrational Games Australia

Did you know that Jonathan Chey, Managing Director & Design Director of 2K Australia (formerly Irrational Games Australia), is into Italian motorbikes and 18th Century English Rococo chairs? Well, you do now! And there's plenty more interesting facts to be had of 2K Australia's employees when you visit the shiny, brand new 2K Australia website which was launched just recently...Welcome to our new website, we are 2K Australia, previously Irrational Games Australia. As this launches, our studio is delving into our next great production.

Now, we know Irrational Games Australia / 2K Australia had a little hand in developing BioShock, and it looks like they can look forward to working on it some more! From the same Take Two conference call that revealed the delay for Team Bondi's L.A Noire, comes news that BioShock will receive a follow up. BioShock sales have been so good that a sequel was warranted, with Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick touting some impressive numbers during the conference call.

I'm a bit late on this one, but I've had this article bookmarked for a while now and have just been too busy and forgetful to post about it. ComputerAndVideoGames.com have an interview up with lead designer, Joe McDonagh, on his creative role in developing BioShock over at Irrational Games. Joe has an interesting history in the games industry, and has gone from applying at LionHead studios, being a founder at Elixir studios, and working at Australia's BigWorld...Joe: I then became friends with Jon Chey who's half of Irrational (Ken Levine being the other).

Irrational Games had hoped to include the BioShock: Breaking the mold concept artbook with the special edition of BioShock, but fans voted to have various other items instead such as the Big Daddy figurine and making-of DVD. So, the BioShock team made the concept art book available anyway as a free PDF download. It's 67-pages big, contains lots of disturbing images, and is available in 15MB and 75MB sizes. Grab it at the end of this news item!

Senior Build Engineer for Irrational Games Australia

Reports to: Lead Programmer
No. of direct reports: 1 -2
Location: Canberra, Australia
Tenure: Full-time

Job description:

Take 2 Interactive announced last Friday that Irrational games US and Australia will be adopting the names 2K Boston and 2K Australia (not 2K Canberra?). In a subsequent announcement, Bioshock is set to be released in the US on the 21st of August, exclusively for the 360, under the new 2K developer name.

It's been a while since I posted any Bioshock related news, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been saturating the media for the last couple of months. However this particular interview is directly related to the Aussie wing of Irrational, who are working on the PC version of Bioshock. gameplayer have taken the time to interview senior designer Joe McDonagh on working with an international parent company, the Australian influence on Bioshock and being a games developer in Canberra.

Screenplay has an interview with the senior designer of Bioshock, Joe McDonagh, who happens to be from Irrational Games Canberra. There hasn't been much heard from the Canberra arm of Irrational Games since Tribes: Vengeance, so it's great to finally hear what they're currently up to...Joe, many thanks for your time. Could you please start by explaining Irrational Australia's role in developing BioShock?

Dutch site J?rg Spielt has interview Irrational Games Australia's Joe McDonagh, senior designer on Bioshock. J?rg seems to be quite the fan of System Shock 2, drawing upon many similarities of the two games. But Joe quickly makes the point that Bioshock is something new to be amazed by, which is an easy reaction to what's becoming the most anticipated game this year.

Whether or not this proves to be one of the best games to be released this year, it is definitely the case that it's one of the most hyped.