BioShock veteran leaves 2K Marin, forms two-person indie team

BioShock developer Jordan Thomas has left 2K Marin to set up a two-person indie studio, citing his long focus on triple-a as a catalyst for his branching off. Thomas has explained why he no longer wants to be a "fidelity whore" in a new interview.

Speaking with GI.biz, Thomas - who helped bring BioShock it's sequel and BioShock Infinite to market - discussed his reasons for wanting to form a new team. Primarily, seeing the world of Infinite in action told him he wanted to create something he could call his own, like Ken Levine does with BioShock.

"It cemented for me that while BioShock spoke to me, it'll never be for me what it is for Ken. I've expanded that legacy here and there, but I could never have created it from scratch. I need to build something that is, to me, what BioShock is to Ken. No matter how long it takes, I have to start now."

The game's ending proved poignant and spurred the decision, Thomas said, "Without spoiling things for anybody, there are elements of the ending that spoke to me, and I wanted to make something that evoked those feelings more consistently throughout. And that could be a niche within a niche. I have yet to complete that experiment, but it's something that's really driving me right now."

Thomas is pairing up with an unknown partner to create something new in the indie space, which will draw on the core principles of games like Thief and BioShock, but with a secretive twist. He added, "If there's interest, if it finds an audience, we might expand the vision and explore further dimensions of the same theme with more content producers.

"But we'd love to keep it as lean as possible for now, in the hopes that we're not writing checks our asses can't cash. Indie ambition is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness."

What do you make of Thomas leaving 2K Marin? Are you interested to see what his project involves? Let us know below.