Concept Ideas

* See also Finks_experiments
* See also Weapon_Fun
* See also The Dennys Meetings
* See also Rejected_Heavy_Hitters
* See also Game Story Rewrites
page too long - separate this for Rapture vs Columbia4
CONCEPT AND PROMOTIONALS
OFTEN SOME/MANY WERE IDEAS WHICH WERE MUCH BETTER CONCEIVED THAN WHAT 'WOUND UP' IN THE GAME
BUT OTHERS WERE JUST CRAP
FOR SOME, I WONDER WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE SMOKING ..." 
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Did Levine & Co get the idea for the Slug from "Stargate One" ??? 
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===BIOSHOCK RAPTURE CONCEPTS===
The Original Concept was to redo a modern/futuristic setting like System Shock ... A strange closed in artificial environment with alien-like mutated behemoths as Opponents.
Original BioShock - Much (Weird) Concept Stuff Was Soon Rejected :
A Reason why you couldn't let the human mutants in Rapture grow too weird (Tentacle-y, etc ...) is : 
Genetic change has its limits before too many body systems don't work anymore. It is also creepier (Uncanny Valley) to have them retain much more parts of their humanity ( than have some badly done C-Grade Movie monsters ). Players have to fight their Empathy ( maybe only a little ) when they have to shoot fellow human beings ( versus killing unwordly slimey masses of tissue ).
Massive mutations are disruptive to the body's systems they change/damage ( most often to the point of being fatal ), if not sooner warping things past use for their original function. Living things are a complex system of interdependent biological mechanisms, which when one is disrupted interfere with the rest. Shambling around clumsily on one and a half legs kindof limits mobility, and hands/arms deformed past the point of usefulness are not conducive to weapon/tool/doorknob use. They also did not much 'fit' the 'nostalgic' scenery theme, which eventually made up most of the game's terrain/story.
AND (more Practically), weirdly shaped/non-anthropomorphic body types are MUCH MUCH harder to animate plausibly ( Important when you are paying to have animations created, and the hired employees generally won't have experience in non-human animations ).
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An Early Design For Rapture was Going To Be in Space, and also run by a Cult in an Underwater Nazi Base :
Been there, Done That. (Space - System Shock)
See : Rapture On The Moon ( All things are possible with the MMORPGs Tools and Processes )
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==-BioShock Concepts :==
PneumoConcept.jpg|Burial At Sea Pneumo
Problemanimating.jpg|Animators Hell - Tentacles very hard to animate ...
ConceptLedToBD.jpg|Crabby/Squiddy Guy ...
Alldiedwhenranoutofducttape.jpg|"Survivors" were to be Non-Splicers
ConceptBathysphereCable2.jpg|Movie artist saw the Bathyspheres as being On Cables
Bathyspherecableway.jpg|Zoom in on Bathysphere Cable (from Movie Concept Art)
Movie_bathy_better.jpg|Bathysphere with a more logical design.
FromMovie.jpg
Origartthingee.jpg|Big Interiors which were made Less Roomy in the Game
ConceptArtFeltLikeThis.jpg|Concept art was bigger monstrous interiors.
TheSurvivors.jpg|Guy Who Cleaned The Big Daddy Toilets ?
MoreRealistic.jpg|Submarine Concept ( Actual Engineering Principles )
ActualBuildingFoundations.jpg|Before they Abstracted out 'Building Foundations'
AEconcept222xxxxyyyy.jpg|AE TrainCar and Station ( Gold Plated was 'a bit too much' ) 
Someartistsvision.jpg|Submarines which look like Zeppelins
BS2AEConcept.jpg|Atlantic Express Concept
Whatswrongwiddis.jpg|Why a TV set ??? 
BetaGeneBank.jpg|Interfaces had to be made to work with consoles also
Hackmatic.jpg|Early concept for a Hack of some machine.
Genenenenebank.jpg|Gene Bank Concept
NotQuiteAsCute.jpg|How many Players would be inclined to 'Save' this ??
RescueOrHarvest.jpg|Early Concept for Gatherer
BioShockConcept.jpg|Deep Sea Diver Suit Ideas
Aquasplicer.jpg|AquaSplicer
MP_Chars2.jpg|Concept of the MultiPlayer DLC Player Avatars
MP_Concept.jpg
ConceptAudioDiary.jpg|BS2 Concept Audio Diary Device
Kashmir_Concept.jpg|Ours was a dwarfed version of this.
Gil_Alexander.jpg|Concept Art for Gil Alexander's real appearance
SpideeConcept.jpg|Slimey Spider Splicers ( Slimey look eliminated due to Rendering Limitations ? )
Welcometoplaguevillepilgrim2.jpg
HeyBigBoy.jpg
Diving_hardsuitFixed.png
ConceptBigSis1.jpg|Big Sister Concept - Possibly when Eleanor was to be the game 'Villain'
MoreSenseDiscarded2.jpg
Murkyrapture.jpg|Cityscape
BioshockPeoplemover.jpg
DuckySplicer.jpg
DuckyBrigade.jpg
BioConcept6.jpg|Early Concept with Tentacles
AE_loco3.png
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Bradbury Building :
Heavily influenced by the utopian sci-fi novel “Looking Backward” by Edward Bellamy, the vast structure is magnificent in its intricacies. ( was used in original "Blade Runner""Blade Runner" - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/ for its Beaux Arts theme setting )
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Bioshock: Breaking the Mold
https://archive.org/details/bioshock-breaking-the-mold
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Figures graphically being too complicated, which would have required extensive ( and expensive, but still poor/unconvincing looking ) animations. Any close approximation of such shapes requires several times the graphics figure data when ( especially for BS1 ) the graphics processing memory budget on the targeted hardware was fairly low.
Too gristly looking. Too far from being human. Players would have little Empathy for them at all. Little Sisters would have to be equally unappetizing [], which would have the Players killing them without a microsecond of Regret or Compunction. Perhaps making all of them far less human would have brought less accusations of 'child murder' for the Game.
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NO PLAYER EMPATHY.
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Early Concept - Ambient Pressurization ( Concept - Not Our Rapture ) :
A Building Pressurized ( it's interior atmosphere ) at just above the outside water pressure needs only be built flimsy like a balloon dome ( There are Real World Underwater Hotels, most which are less than 30 feet deep, needing to be built with fairly little structural strength ).
The original designer's image of Rapture City's was NOT of something constructed like a Concrete Fortress, but more decorative - more like a space habitat - like System Shock. So, the concept designers had the idea of having this Ambient Pressurization be part of the game for a city in the depths. 
Those BioShock designers ( back when logic/plausibility was still intended ) basically understood that pressure changes 1 atmosphere ( ~14 psi ) for about every 33 feet deeper you go down in Water, and can have significant impact on the interior environment. WHEN your Interior Air is pressurized to just over the water pressure, whether you go down to 600 feet at 18 Atmospheres of pressure or 3000 feet at 90 atmospheres, your structures need not be built overly strong ( Windows, in particular, do not need 'foot thick' super glass ).
But a tall building can have significant depth differences between its floors. So to keep lighter building construction, different levels would have to vary in pressure with their depth. Consider how your ears pop in a plane with only a fraction of an atmosphere's difference, and then Imagine exaggerating that in an elevator moving you up a building 100 feet (~ 8 floors) into a very different water pressure zone ( 3 Atmosphere difference -- It is NOTHING LIKE the same as doing it above water in air ). 
ALSO - At 600 feet down (or deeper) the 18+ atmospheres of an interior atmosphere can make things have very weird Effects :
* Sudden pressure decrease shifts will cause gas to bubble in your blood ('the Bends') - which is potentially life threatening 
* Too much Oxygen in a volume of high-pressure air makes humans giddy/drunk, and worse can be toxic
* When air is denser, it can hold more water vapor ( sudden small pressure change makes clouds form )
* Boiling point (temperature) goes up with air pressure ( and causes changes in many Chemical Reaction rates - including combustion -- varying burning effects )
* Sound travels at a different speed at different air densities, and is absorbed differently at varying air pressures ( high pressure muffles sound ).
It was likely in that kind of environment that you spent the game in a pressure sealed suit - Which would kindof "cramp your style" ( That early version, the game was gonna be some kind of "System Shock" clone with weird tentacled mutants instead of almost-humans ). Suit-less Compression/Decompression transitions between 'Pressure Zones' might have been an interesting detail ( but become unrealistic if done too quickly ).
Having the City (as a practical measure) be quite FLAT ( all near same depth ) would NOT have allowed for the striking vertical cityscape images Rapture showed.
Keeping Rapture's constant air pressure interior environment ( Parts of the same building, or zones in the city, have hundreds of feet of depth different - BUT all maintained at a constant pressure ) requires the very strong pressure construction shown (mostly) in the game.
Online Water Depth Pressure Tool ( Link : http://www.calctool.org/CALC/other/games/depth_press )
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When There Was Only One Big Sister ( An Early Plot Concept For BS2 ) :
The games story/plot evolved past that. Possibly Faceless(?) would have been less interesting than the Sofia Lamb character which was developed. And what kind of interesting "Philosophy" could a grown up Little Sister have to exercise - in contrast to Ryan's (in BS1), or finally Sofia Lamb's Collectivist rantings ?? Or, for the character to even to talk legibly - other than some weird feral teenage speak (slang) ontop of the cutesy Little Sister Prattle ??? 
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It is not quite clear whether the 'Big Sisters' were the product of Sofia Lamb ( They did do kidnappings from The Surface at Sofia's instigation, didn't they ?? ) or became her 'tool' after naturally evolving ( subject to her manipulations ). Having them utilize her creepy Collectivist cultism would keep that element alive in the MMORPG.
The MMORPG could still have A Faction based on this idea ( Should have lots of those for the Player to find out there in 'The Ruins' - Small groups don't need armies of minions to be interesting, or to be challenging to 'deal with'. )
* Big Sisters spewing slang even less intelligible that rap 'artist' spiels.
* Big Sister pimping out Little Sisters to get ADAM to trade for stuff ( to bribe their Splicer minions, etc ... )
So do YOU Rescue them (Big Sisters), Or one 'aged' Little Sister JUST kidnapped/appropriated (by whom ? ), which you have to 'get to' BEFORE their 'conversion' takes place ?? Can 'Big Sisters be deprogrammed/'cured'??
In the Novel, they threw around the concept of Little Sisters being immortal ( via their regenerative ability ) an untruth which was put to the test when YOU (in the game) "Harvested" many. It was because of the prohibition game industry has with ANYTHING harming children - yet it was implied you ( behind a green mist ) still tore out and slurped down those Sea Slugs somehow ... Also, with enough explosives, you can blow ANYTHING to atoms or burn it to ash.
We need more info about this 'Becoming a Big Sister' Process. They obviously have equipment which they got assistance with from someone - which now might vary quite ALOT ( BS2 simply reused the same game Asset with no differences ).
Funny sight : A 6 foot tall girl wearing that Lil' Sis' dress still ...
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But being shorter than the similarly shaped caricature Trolley cars USED in BS1 - which made far less sense.
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At least as some proposed products ( We saw some around Minervas Den likely being Tested ). Perhaps spawned the idea for the Robotic#Robotic Little Sisters. All were static. Animating one would have been a horrific amount of effort Animation Effort - You saw how little they did for Infinite BS with the Motorized Patriots ... Non-human figures take alot of effort to do properly. ( Perhaps to be done in the MMORPG ... )
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Concept for the Smuggling Base (Smuggler Subs) supposedly for a Movie. Movie concepts likely have to be far better than for your typical computer game.
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Squishy Recordings :
Early in BioShock's development, going with the Sci-Fi theme, Audio Diaries were to be Squishy, Organic-based Objects, having mouths, lips and ears - instead of the later mechanical recorders.
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Notice the cable the 'Bathysphere' is traveling on. A number of the people who did concepts had better designed ideas (less fantasy) than were actually used in-game. This was Concept for a BioShock Movie.
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Under the Sea :
A Design that might actually work in Rapture ( The curves being integral in the structural design needed for the structure to hold out the water pressure ). Maybe for the Rapture expansion 'Suburbs' ???
The same floorplan could also be 'tube' shaped ( up down stacked residences ) and employing the same ( patented Ryan Plasma Cutter ) Tunnel drilling techniques, used normally to horizontally interconnect the structures ( which are all embedded in solid rock, to lower construction cost ).
IF this structure is to be 'Out in the Ocean', its External Wall and Windows would have to be as massive as seen in my Amended_Game_Level_Maps like this [] Medical Pavilion one. 
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Wow. They got someone with a little more knowledge about how such a mechanism would have to be designed to actually work.
* Rear door access - not overlapping with the (reinforced) main window. 
* Door more reasonably sized - more like a submarine style pressure door.
* Actual propellers with obvious water intakes and propulsion flow
* Has somewhat LESS volume inside ( Buoyancy which opposes weight - the big air bubble inside - needs to all be neutralized )
* Guard protectors for some of the vehicle's mechanisms
* They have Ditched the simplified Art_Deco stylized shape ( more Streamlined )
* Heavy machinery at the bottom - to have the vehicle maintain an upright orientation.
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 "CHOICE" History :
Originally, Levine planned for the BioShock game to have only one ambiguous ending ( instead of 2 ambiguous endings ) , which kindof puts the (much touted) 'Choice' thing out of his original intentions. So give credit to the Company, and 'NOT to the game's primary designer.
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Community Planning was looked at and proposed in the 1930s and 1940sCommunity Planning - Projects also were done in the 1920s and the 'Teens' with blocks of small worker housing ( integrated with shops and community facilities ) in redevelopment plans in large cities. Often they were in close proximity to public transportation hubs. ( known as 'The Projects' in the US ). Rapture would have its own version of this kind of thing to help contain the majority of the ~2000020000 population for Rapture was the Novel author's estimate. (or more) people who were supposedly in Rapture. Rapture High Rises ? But they should be less 'high' than the buildings the game generally shows - being made like the majority of buildings in real Cities, which do not generally exceed 6 stories.
See Streets
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Heavily Distorted Humans Don't Animate So Easy :
You cannot adequately reuse (all the many) standard 'human' animations, because the body geometry of limb/body distortions won't match those used to create animations for 'normal' human form. ( You could try but it would look VERY wrong and badly done. )
Tentacles and other added appendages/protrusions likewise need many ADDITIONAL animations to be custom created ( for ALL the actions the diverse action scripts will call to be used - and for a DIVERSE set of weirdly shaped bodies ).
Fortunate Logic : Significant physiological changes ( as in mutatious-warpage ) to a human are quickly fatal - the disruptions/impairments to their body operations ( so we don't really can have the distorted weirdness seen in so much of the Concept Art ). 
Splicers in the MMORPG would follow what BS1 did : mostly retaining the normal human shape with minor distortions, which don't affect the body geometry ( possibly with a FEW specializations being created ). In time weirdness animations could be created, but that would take ALOT of Player work.
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Another Reason for NOT Having the Fairly Twisted Looking Splicers Seen in the Concept Art :
( Besides the difficulty animating such things to have them move convincingly ).
Physiological Reality ( not that the writers/designers would care about it ).
You change the body's form too much, and it is unstable and quickly dies. 99% of significant mutations in single cells are fatal ( ie - similar for Cancer or Radiation damage ). How much more if you disrupt the entire human body genetically ?
Most of what was shown in the Concepts were deformities - Tumors, etc ... Which are aberrations of the basic human genetic pattern. Spider Splicers were the most changed ( besides Gilbert Alexander ), and even they weren't changed too far from the basic anthropomorphic form.
Further Mixing in weird forms that don't exist in humans. Tentacles and such which require complex rafts of supporting genes - which with the least part missing will result in a pile of random goo. Where would such genes come from to be compatible with the human body ( genes from animals are generally incompatible ). Much of the ADAM Plasmid Products modified/adjusted existing Human Genes. The more complex Plasmids ( those requiring structural change ) required very specific changes ( generally to one part of the body ). The majority of the 'genetic' change was to build the functioning structure and to try to make its effect stable. 
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Sofia Lamb's weirdness. Her thinking that Human Nature could be changed was one of the biggest Follies ranking her with "The Great Deluded" of History. Her intended Dystopia was thus a nicely exaggerated thing, foreign to most Real People - and became as murderous as most Collectivists historically become Collectivists Mao and Stalin were Mass Murderers who made Hitler look like an Amateur - with their 100 million state-murdered victims. .
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Bioshock Concept Art had what Looked Like a DDT Flit Spray Gun : 
Which could be resurrected for 'gaseous' application of various substances.
Consider annoying insects and such which might be found in many parts of Rapture ( to justify the commonality of the 'Flit gunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flit_gun' )
Or for Agricultural use ( they had DDT still then ... ) Flybot Crop Dusting ( or Smoke screen ) or Spraying to keep those damned flies under control.
SO Chemistry would be part of the MMORPG's Fabrication mechanisms, with all the wonderful pretty bubbling chemistry lab equipment ...
Perfume for all those corpses that nobody seems to want to remove ? 
A Pheromone Control Spraygun ?
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Did BS2 designers see THIS and had their idea for the Atlantic Express ???
NOTE - That strange Skyway Skyline in Infinite BS wasn't even close to visions of reality.
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Concepts From Magazines (and Such)
Not that Levine & Co actually did use such sources, but they were out there ...
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==Infinite==
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There are some early concepts discussions from Infinite BS which had a mute Elizabeth - as in 'Clinically Mute' and such that you had to guess by her body language and signs as she was struggling to tell you something. Possibly the result of earlier lobotomy treatments ? 
Something like "LA Noire" ( computer game ) where you had to pay attention to detailed faces and facial expressions of their reactions - a centerpiece to THAT game - BUT probably NOT a good match for the typical "Shooter" Demographic which the game company was catering BioShock to where the Players don't have the patience for such things.
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Floaty Concept :
In the BioShock Infinite panel at "Momocon 2014", Troy Baker provided additional information :
"I wish that the explanation of why Columbia was in the sky was explained, it was originally supposed to be a way bigger part of, it wasn't supposed to be just like a Vox-o-Phone that you found. It was supposed to be like really big, and how that came through, and I wish that would have been more clear, because I think it was such an ingenious conceit, that it was because it was continually going back in time to the second that it wasn't falling."
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 "THE INFINITE PATH TO SHIT" : 
Infinite BS because of its endless pre-game advertising hype ( expensive, and thus subtracting Resources from the work of making a Better Game ) - Resulted in creating a game which tried to follow through on TOO MANY later downsized/divergent ideas.
So many better ideas wound up 'goin down the tubes'.
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One Original Plot for Infinite BS Was :
To have conflict between Techno-Geeks and Ludditeshttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Luddite ( reactionary Rejection of Machines and all new Technology )
As it turned out ( after delivering a dismal departure down a dark-road to a detestable distorted and deceitful deviations derpyland ) -- THAT earlier concept theme might have been a far better story. With ALL the Ultra-Faux everything the writers came up with, you might as well have had it be 'All be a Dream' ).
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That 'Early' (Hypothesized) Infinite Game Design Meeting : 
Discussion : So they decided on a Floating City for the new Dystopic Shoot-em-up 'Class War in the Sky' story ?
: Its decided : It be a 'real long ago' setting, using 'stuff' the Players will little understand beyond public school history buzzwords.
: But with a 'Nostalgia' aspect - done so the stuff can be easily copied using 'Google It'. Yep, That way, all the simplified 'social relevancy'/crap will be made into a Puppet Show which won't SEEM to be "Munchkins in Oz, asking to be treated like normal people ..." 
: NOT "Flying Monkey Lives Matter !!!" 
: Heh, nor 'Gollum Suing the Ring Maker for Damages' ...
: "Yeah, We have to make believe it is Real America circa 1900." 
: OK. Ideas ? AND No more 'Frogs with Tubes up their Butts', Please ... 
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So many things were proposed in those early 'Infinite' Denny's meetings, which got written on the Napkins.
Unfortunately, When things are done wrong : Such a game (allegedly 'story') seen by the non-ignorant, It is like : Having a Ford Mustang that's a TWO-WHEELER - JARRING in its wrongness. IT IS : 'Mr Spock with two heads and clown hair' ... 'The Greatness of Carrot Top' ... It disturbs the ability to take anything further about it seriously. When trying to figure it out, people recommend "not bothering".
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The SideKick :
There are also some early concepts from Infinite which even had a Mute Elizabeth ( as in clinically mute ). 
You had to guess her body language and signs as she was struggling to tell you something.
I can understand how most Players would find that distracting ( Imagine the exaggerations they would have to do to make things clear to a majority of Players ), and it would severely limit her game role in explaining things.
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===BIOSHOCK INFINITE CONCEPTS===
EarlyElizabethConcept.jpg|More upper class looking ...
EarlyElizabeth.jpg|Now add the Garish Lighting ...
ConceptSkyHook.jpg|Something far more realistic to hang from the Skyline on
BizarreConcept.jpg|No real reason for a dangerous 'ad hoc' device.
Mothman-bigdaddymuch2.jpg|In 'Airy' Columbia, why would a Hulking Brute make sense ? Even then we didn't get 'Angels'...
MothmanDaddy-.jpg|Early proposed Iconic Figure ?
Concept-more-popish.jpg|Some ideas just didn't make that much sense. ( Artist latched onto the anti-Catholic theme ? )
ConceptPreQuantumz.jpg|IT IS BALLOOON !!! ( Derp Physics !!! )
Concept4.jpg|A few more balloonish solutions.
CreepBigDaddyEquivalent_Concept.jpg|More SteamPunky mechanical NPCs ...
Merge_Weirdness_Concept.jpg|You rarely got this close to see face details
OrigSkyHook.jpg|Wow - Something that actually might mechanically work !!
Gearthatmakessense.jpg|Gear which wasn't Bad Fantasy Shit.
OOPS-TOO-PAPIST2.jpg|Bizarre Religion - More Crosses here than you ever saw in the entirte Published Game. Levine's weird "American" Cult is no kind of Christianity at all.
Debute_trailer.jpg|First seeing this I said - "This is really Dim." 
NoUnderstanding.jpg|Some artists just don't understand the past nor engineering ( Not seem to be able to "Google It" )
AntisemetismEnvelop.jpg|Yep 'Authentic Diversity' ... ( so Stereotypical ) Anti-Semitism was all but cut from the game.
WHoThotThisOneUp.jpg|Original concept - which was decimated and retreaded into Half-Assedness In-game.
Whythenalltheimpure.jpg|Good Racist Propaganda 
Faceless.jpg|Levine should have been made to Wear a suit like those for a day before including such ignorance in the game.
ConceptDark.jpg|Darker Columbia ( Perhaps a Day vs Night change idea for Columbia ?? )
Incrediblybadarchitecture.jpg|Attempt to copy Raptures Skylines ??? Derpy Design Ignorance.
Passengervehicleconcept.jpg|Too many curves ( And a 'Technological Throwback' ) 
TearDemo.jpg|Back When there Still Were To Be 'Choices'
Heavyhitterthrowssteelballs.jpg|Ken Levine again ?
ItGotzGiantFartProjectors.jpg|How many copies Did this Derp sell ? Which THEN turned out to be pretty much 'A Nothing' in-game.
Oops1000feet.jpg|A bridge which would have required TOO BIG a 'level' ??
Abominator.jpg|The First Lady's DERP ... ( Unfortunately these ridiculously designed things stayed IN the game. )
IntoLandOfStupid.jpg|MIGHT have been interesting ... EXCEPT they nerfed it down to virtually nothing in-game.
Oldnoircolumbia.jpg|When they mighta gone to Vampires ...
Mergedquartet4.jpg|Merging was to have been a bigger thing in the game.
Gonnakillallthehonkys.jpg|Daisy was gonna be Native American (or part)
TearWeirdness.jpg|Need for Politically Correct opponents to murder wholesale ( made Inhuman ...)
SoSadSoLame.jpg|Some things just never should have been ...
ILuvStructurallyUnsoundStatues.jpg|"Big" I suppose was thought to be "Better" 
Lasvegasnotasabsurd_g.jpg|Having actual streets, and a surface transport (Trolleys)
Balloono.jpg|Would have fit in with stuff the game kept.
NahTooRealistic.jpg|Gianourmous Factory ( Earlier game theme was more being Class Warfare )
AllAboutHowThingsWork.jpg|Wow an Autopilot -- Love to see the 30-ton mechanical computer this connected to ... 
Weird2.jpg|Early attempt at ADAM biological explanation for the game's Super-Powers
Building1912.jpg|When artists just glue stuff together. People in Columbia MUST have loved Stairs.
ColumbiaRollercoaster.jpg|WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
OlderSkyhook.jpg|This Artist actually though about this.
Oldturret.jpg|I guess this didn't look SteamPunky enough.
Itisballooon.jpg|Back before that Quantumz Fantasy took over the Story ...
Betterinwegot.jpg|Imaginitive "Vertical" nature - which was missing in the game's 'City' setting
Clone-or-not-clone.jpg|Automated Machine Gun Nest - Perfect to Keep The 'Lower Orders' OBEDIENT
Building66.jpg|A distance view of this in-game would have been quite impressive.
RodanColumbia.jpg|Genesis of Songbird ???????? ( besides "Batman" ... )
ColumbiasBatmanNotUptoSnuff.jpg|"Song BAT" just doesn't have that 'RING TO IT'
SoMuchWrong.jpg|So much empty space ... 
Yeahrighttt.jpg|Plasmid Clones were too Unimaginative ( Should have followed thru on the Quantumz theme )
Gonnakillallthehonkys.jpg|Concept - Amazing the Vox could make this 
Thisisfunnyinastupidway.jpg|Balloons at least fundamentally could work ( Except when you set them on Fire )
MasterOfTheFlyingGuillotine.jpg|Add a bit more Bloody Execution to the game ... (now from a distance)
SpaceLighthouse2bww.jpg|Perhaps some alternate dimension Lighthouse ( Didn't fit that End-Game Sequence )
Finqton.jpg
InfiniteClockPunkStuff.jpg
ConceptBook.jpg
30000.jpg|Back when was "Native American" 
PlausibleSkyline2.jpg
MeBeMerged-n-Shit.jpg
HumongosityFantasy.jpg|Fink Manufacturing
PlausibleSkyline3.jpg|Oh look : A Skyline designed to move People - Why didn't we see that in the game ???
Freighthookthing.jpg
ConceptComstock76.png|Very Early Comstock
ColumbiaMailz concept.jpg|Primitive and Stairs-Unfriendly ... Wouldn't a Skyline version made more sense ?
LoadOfInfiniteBS.jpg|Read the Detail - Pretending there is an Ellis Island-like Process 
Concept_handymann.jpg|Earlier Clock Motif'd Handyman ( Was it even called that then ??)
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The Infinite Concept Art was Generally Better Than The Game :
For Infinite BS ( shown amongst all the pre-marketing hype ) - The Skyline Personal Hook Concept -- before they decided they wanted a chainsaw equivalent melee weapon. Still, no matter what odd mechanism resulted, you would still probably dislocate Every Joint in your Arm/Hand/elbow/Shoulder/Back trying to use it ( as they show THAT HOOK thing to be used in-game snagging on 'rails' while falling ).
You STILL could thoroughly whack the hell out of someone with the more realistic concept prop ( ie- shove a chunk of metal into a face, or used to crush a spine ). But I guess that was 'not good enuf' for Kenny & Co ... ( With all the things they poorly REGURGITATED/cloned from BioShock, our nice Wrench was the thing discarded Scene we shoulda seen was : Booker crushing Comstock's skull with The Wrench - with cool splashes of blood and brains AND really nice crunchy sound effects ...).
One early concept Skyline 'Hook' mechanism DID have it with a body harness - Showed the girdle it was attached to ( and a weapon mount arm ). But I guess that was just too realistic to have in a Fantasy game. ( Needless to say, that one was discarded early ). Not really usable to 'whack' with OR to saw faces off, AND it made the characters not look so 'Disney' clean if they wore such things Maybe Mary Poppins umbrellas for both Booker and Elizabeth ??? The game was about that warped in what it showed.
The things which normally ran on the Skyline were seen by an artist to look like this ( most noticeably the way its fastened to AND the Cable itself ). This here is NOT some bad fantasy magic mechanism ( Derpishness which the game unfortunately turned this transportation thing into ), but WAS a serious attempt to make something workable. 
(( The More I look at so much better concept, the more I think that : IF it made actual engineering sense, it 'HAD TO GO'. The splashy GAME ideas ( ie- riding the skyline hanging by 4 fingers, with reversible player direction controls while hanging from magically floating rails ) which physically/technically were not justifiable, ***THEY*** trumped any plausibility. ))
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The Concept Art illustrated a more SteamPunky Theme for the game, from before all the Parallel Universe crap was adopted ( and then the better ideas for that were abandoned ).
The Automatic Gentleman was to be some mobile interactive game object ( the remnants seem to be the Vending Machines ).
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Automatic Gentleman (Infinite Concept) - Their Animations :
If they weren't too badly done to interact with the Player, they needed to react/do many actions -- Which equals $$$ development costs. Their body/skeleton framework doesn't operate/move like a humans, so another set of animation movements would have to be choreographed.
Understandable that they would have those Motorized Patriots with their simple limited motions and those other 'Beast'/Firemen/Boys-o-Silence things reusing many humanoid movements, which would offset the cost of the more varying (more unique) Handymen movements.
MMORPG Redo of "Infinite : Fixed" could have a sub-story about the mechanical men putting alot of The Untermenschen serfs out of work ( so all those 'impure' immigrant/racial types could be discarded and no longer taint the 'Eden' / 'Ark'). SO it could be back to the Luddite plot concept element ( and also have more non-human Politically-Correct 'robots' as targets for the Player to mass kill ). It also could be a return to the 'hacking' type activities for the game also ( gear/mechanical puzzles and whatnot now ).
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When the primary action of the Player is to be committing Mass-Murder, these games usually have to hide the humanity of the opponents, or even to make them not human at all ( Aliens/ Zombies/ Mutants/ Insanes/ Robots/ Vampires/ etc ... ).
Here you have some bizarrely over-equipped 'Vox', made conveniently faceless to remove their humanity for some nice player mass-murdering.
Separately, Artists who came up with dim stuff like these overdone uniforms should be sentenced to have to WEAR a encumbering/suffocating uniform like that ( and the added bag over their head ) for a full day as punishment, and to (try to) teach them to not be so ignorant of reality in future 
(( WW1 uniforms in documentaries to be had ALL OVER over the internetz, and these 'artists' come up with crap like this ... )).
Note to dimbulb gamemakers : Leather armor doesn't stop bullets, but is very EFFECTIVE in encumbering your mobility, AND 'rebels' usually aren't so well equipped as standard soldiers ( if that's what you can label THOSE unfortunate uniforms to be ).
Add the choking stench of new red paint to the suffocating effects of these 'Vox' rigs.
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OMG OMG - Anti-Semitism !!!!
This ( as actually used in-game in a OMG defaced state ) is a rather token representative of that widespread prejudice in America -- The term here is 'Paying it Lip Service' ( and NO for you younguns, that is not a reference to something you saw in a 'Prince' Music Video ).
Actually, WHY would the 'White People' running Columbia build such a vending machine, when it expressed an identity they detested ?? (Rampant Antisemitism ) "Fritz the Mechanical Tailor" might've been more appropriate ( Much of America had a high regard for Germany in the early part of the 20th century ).
THIS weak-tea is just hints at the actual social issues without the balls to show what real anti-semitism was like in that time ( Like having a 'Beat the Jew Usurer' game at the Faire, or a more stinging "Duke & Dimwit" parable exhibiting the common racialisms anti-semitism - With allusions to Protocols of The Elders of Zion - https://www.conservapedia.com/The_Protocols_of_the_Learned_Elders_of_Zion, etc ... ).
This machine maybe could have been reused as a 'interrogation' machine built for Fink to deter 'Worker Pilfering'. Fink's Patented Sin Corrector...
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So many things not understood - A Frequent issue with game 'artists' doing 'What Looks Neat' :
* A Pistol doesn't need a Telescopic Sight
* A "Revolutionary's" Pistol IS supposed to be handy for Concealment - NOT with all this Crap glombed onto it (Ditto for the bright red accessorized dim motif)
* Tiny little gas reservoir ( For BBsexample - The Red Rider BB gun - Kind, You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" ... it might work, but not bullets. Ditto for that short barrel ) for 7 rounds - NOT!!!
* Silencer ? The velocity of a Pistol is already slow/inaccurate enough ( Pistol silencers work only for very short range )
* High Pressure Gas system in the STEAM age ? ( No sign of how you FILL the Gas back up - a RATHER important feature ) KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID !!!
* Useless in Closed-quarter fighting ( that's most Revolutionary's use for a 'Pistol' )
* Gas system - WHY ??? - Normal bullets are easier to get, and work perfectly well ( You NEED special perfectly-fitting Lead Slugs for something like this ... it cannot use normal bullets. ) 
* As A Clandestine weapon, you might as well have made a simple gun ( so much easier ).
* THIS Kind of KLUDGED thing -- a real User throws away in Disgust ( or it gets them soon killed )
* A problematic Limited Use (if realistic) -- In a game where you can keep ONLY 2 guns ...
* Mod'ing like this usually ruins the existing gun design's functionality. A TYPICAL 'artist' designed gun.
THIS Earns A Whole 3 Derps on the DERP-I-LATION GAME GUN SCALE
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Originally they were looking at having these 'booths' for Booker to be 'Resurrected' at when he (the Player) got killed in the game ( like BioShock's Vita-Chamber ). They disposed of the idea and just had Elizabeth use her 'god' powers.
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Museum of Orphaned Concepts - a Few More Sets of Usable Data Assets :
At least a starting point ( the themes look ) for reworking and expanding the Asset data to what would be needed to be operational in the MMORPG. With the Players doing most of this work (once given proper Tools and Processing), all kinds of goodness can flow.
BTW - With Splicer Dreams(tm) you can have just about anything you want ( perfect place for the weird Infinite BS fantasy... ), so it doesn't matter how lame or wrong the objects are in THAT environment.
Other things (Sea Life, Diving Suits and Splicer variations, ...) can be represented as main game Assets.
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Balloons holding up bricks always makes me laugh. ( AND What is that weirdly shaped chunk under the streets ??? ) 
Yes, the social relevancy of the game can use this as a proper foil. (( A Floating America Chunky is a Racist hellhole ... ))
I particularly like the tiny slack cables/ropes ( "Keep em tight people ..." ) that are supposedly being used to support the HUGE CHUNK OF GROUND AND BUILDINGS.
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I don't know, is this EVEN MORE MONSTROUSLY LARGE than Fink Mfg in Infinite BS ?? Perhaps THIS was drawn when the Class Warfare theme was going to be central to the game plot. A few Elites and a mass of 'Workers' who need to revolt. The workers have to just be expendable cogs in an assembly line hell. THIS has the same problem as Fink Mfg in the game : What market to sell the mass output to ?? Big factories make just a few things - Who will buy such quantities ? Where are all the raw materials to come from ?? 
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OTHER CONCEPT ART THAT LIKELY INFLUENCED BIOSHOCK :
Someones vision ( way back in the 1930s ) of the future. The elevated pathways reminded me of the tubes connecting buildings seen in some of the Rapture concept art. It might be said that RYAN was influenced by visions like this.
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Columbia : A Scattered Mess :
Some of the 'concept art' showed a much more interesting cityscape for Columbia ( instead of turning into a ridiculous exaggeration of some Cultist Disneyland ).
They could have make it one chunk that was grouped bit less "open" ( massing the way real cities do ), and taking advantage of being more 3 dimensional in the game levels ( not delivering mostly just a "run of the mill" game's simple movement surface, with a few of the usual player-maze dodges ). Traversable '3D' terrain has more difficulties for the game developer.
Needed a Rail/Trolley travel ( think something closer to the elevated train lines in NYC ) to make getting around the ENTIRE city convenient, instead of wholly bothersome ( Floaty Taxi Cabs might've been something to make the whole thing resemble a real operating city/town, more ). There was little sign of the [[Skyline|Skyway]] being used for passenger traffic ( the absurd hookon idea wouldn't really work for anything like what a city/town needs ). A big part of 'modern' life, circa 1900, was "why walk, when you can ride".
Have the City not be so disjoint/separated/floating off in distance. But the (games) 'skyline' was pretty (and originally a much bigger part of the game), and justified the city layout to be separated ( and now it was harder for the player to be able to ask "Why Cant I Go Over There" -- which would require more details to be provided rather than distant views of simple static backdrop pictures and simplified gianourmous objects ). The playing "Level" size had to be strictly controlled -- Meaning : those early Trailers showing Booker 'Skylining' though a huge cityscape were ONLY advertising hype ( a lie to the customers ) *OR* they completely Botched It by thinking it was possible, and THEN not being able to deliver ( I don't recall the company giving BACK the industry awards for what basically was a lie/fraud, when they probably KNEW at that point they could NEVER deliver it. But, but, but NOTHIN ).
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A Gondola to traverse some locations in Columbia. Unfortunately it is enclosed, so there is no potential of 'leaping from great heights' to land upon its deck. Restrictive - Hard to fire weapons through those windows, and to get proper views of the 'wondrous' gianourmous game terrain and huge signs. This Atrocity was used instead.
This thing looks like something out of the "Willy Wonka" movie (the original). Imagine Booker and Elizabeth getting into this to 'put-put-put' to the next game scene, over and over ( NO 'BATHYSPHERE' FOR COLUMBIA ).
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One Concept Artist illustrated part of the mechanism which made Columbia 'Float'. Detailed Large machinery which may have been both too difficult for the game artists to have in game, and possibly not fitting (discordant with) the 1900s flavor they wanted for Columbia.
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"NOSTRUM THIS MOFO" - Infinites 'Tonic' Equivalent. :
The initial Game Design had these things called 'Nostrums', which once applied could not be removed. Somewhere there are details of what exactly they were and did for the Player, so we can't be sure what impact Locking-Them-In would have had on gameplay. Perhaps they were pretty much the same as the 'Gears' element ( maybe SOOO much more logically substituted for those ), which Players apparently found NOT WORTH CHANGING MUCH anyway, and with so little replay value, most Players probably never did that much. At least BS1/BS2 you had many more slots active at once for better flavor variations.
Here's a List (Concept/Suggestions) :
* Amateur Arms Bearer
* Amateur Ammo-smith
* Amateur Chemist
* Bronco Storm
* Carver
* Clear Skies ( also called Clear Skies Winter )
* Fade to Black ( also called Fade to Black Juice )
* Fiery Aura
* Fool's Luck
* Hacker's Delight
* Ice Storm
* Insult to Injury
* Journalist
* Left Hand Spells Love
* Levine
* Lifebloom
* Mesmerizing Melee
* Overkill
* Refill Ammo
* Reinforced Shield
* Soul Trap
* Sweet Tooth
* The Third Hand
* Thirst for Blood
* Thunder Storm
* Wellspring
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Some Early Concept for Infinite BS with prefabricated ( Fink Factory-made ) homes on some Floatyshit(tm) parcel. I'm Not really sure WHY any such should exist in some 'America', except that its due to some whacky/bizarre misunderstandings which some people have about the reality of America in that era and today. Note - a 'generic' church, which any D-graded student of History would laugh at as an absurdity.
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Historic Tidbit (Real) - Early BS3 Themes :
One was some "Renaissance" theme (Leonardo Di Vinci ???) which a release of 'Assassins Creed" stopped in its tracks. Subsequently it was 'another take' at Rapture. Then it became some "Luddite Vs TechnoGeek" something-or-other theme (SteamPunkish ??). Later, after the game was half developed, they mutated it into their Bizarre Quantum Fantasy, and thus their Doom. Many commentators mention how disjoint the game appears, and blame it on Levine's changing his mind repeatedly and delivering the epitome of the proverbial 'Half-Arsed' product.
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CONCEPT : CHOICE
Choice - Not Really Realized in Bioshock:InfiniteThoughts are that Levine never wanted "Choice" in the first BioShock Game story and it was imposed by the game Company. Some point about there being NO "Choice" or "Free Will" for people which is a very cynical opinion for any American to have.
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Inspiration Doesn't Always Work :
Levine probably saw "Avatar" (2009) and thought to make Columbia something like that, with all the pretty floaty stuff in Infinite BS. But the result of that concept applied to THIS game wasn't too good. Either that or "Oz The Great and Powerful" was responsible for this architectural theme ( Nope that was 2013, but maybe it was pre-seen in a 'Tear' ??? ). In the end, it WAS "shit run through a blender with a dead squirrel added" ( Something Booker's grandpappy used to say ... ).
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pix
 "Chemo Toaster" Rejected (BaSx) Concept Art :
Getting a little too derivative/stupid - A too obvious something created to be 'weaponized' ( like that really idiotic microwave gun thing ). Well its DLC, made at a game studio that was packing up and being shut down ... "Didn't Really Care" is written all over that DLC.
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Instead They Came up With THIS :
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Daisy Fitzroy was Originally going to be part Native American
Somehow did that cause (rewrite) Booker later to be 'Part Injun" , or the original story to somehow relate to that ?
Actually, doesn't that now make Elizabeth part Native American also ??
Comstock likewise ... ( Racist America ... Duh ! Writers missed the chance for some story about Comstock hating what he was. Is that too deep for a Shooter game ? A bit too controversial ? )
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The game artists must really be ignorant of how bothersome all the needed stairs would be.
Little balloons ? Well, they are sorta Zeppelin (football) shaped - for that original SteamPunk theme.
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Commentary ( from some magazine or newspaper ) about Cities - the concentration/clutter, crass commercialism, and such . Looks like it was from around the time of Columbia being built ( going by styles and the Trolley and Train details ).
Unfortunately the labeling is largely unintelligible ( but many are guessable ).
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Wholly unrealistic for what is supposed to be an Anarchist/Revolutionary group that is to exist in the Police State which Columbia is shown to be.
Giant painted canvases you would need a crane and a whole lot of effort to hoist there ( and a large truck to move there ). It is Utter Ignorance of any REAL protest scenes documented in the last 100 years.
This was the same thing as the Gianourmous details the gamemakers shoved in the Player's face across the whole game.
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A potential good idea, likely nixed because the Player would move '3D' and that would thwart the usual plot path blockages in such an open exterior setting and its access to such large areas would not work in their Game Engine.
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Another Infinite BS Historic Tidbit :
That Oh So "Pushing-the-Envelope"Paraphrasing something Ken Levine Said in a Interview BEFORE the game was released.... BUT Kennyboi & Co had to significantly change some game scenes because it offended a religious (important) employee who threatened to quit --- THUS (perhaps) LEADING TO SOME OF THE STUPID UN-AMERICAN OVER-EXAGGERATED IGNORANCE ABOUT THAT NO_FRICKEN_WAY_IT_IS_CHRISTIAN CULT RELIGION HENCEFORTH BEING PRESENTED IN THE GAME ??? If you look, there is virtually nothing to indicate that religion in Columbia is 'Christian' in any way, even though it is couched in many of the forms. SO the whole alleged writer point of accusing Americans about their religion(s) is castrated/nerfed - rendered wholly idiotic and contrived and irrelevant -- as nothing there properly represents anything historic or logical. Selling it to ignorant Players is just wrong.
Yes, 'EDGY' -- as in *NOT REALLY* -- and that all being market HYPE -- fraud/lies/deceit ... (( But then the milque-toast presentation of 'social ills' was just more of that same BS HYPE ... No ? What a waste of $200 million, and the Players' time and interest. ))
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The strange glowing eyes and the 'waving face' effect showed from when they were still going with the 'Merging' idea ( nice mutants that Players don't have to worry about slaughtering wholesale ).
Hey, It was real convenient there to have a barrel full of sniper rifles for Booker to be able to grab one just before this picture to be used to fire at a distant opponent. I assume this Saltonstall speechifying is for a 'Right to Bear Arms' - a campaign issue being proposed/supported by Saltonstall in his candidacy ( I guess this issue is one of those 'evils' the writers have a problem with in America's society ? ).
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Concept - The Bio Element Was Bigger :
"In the original BioShock design, the Vending Machines and other computer-run-devices were actually Splicers whose Brains had been transplanted into the machinery." :
This was an idea for the 'Hacking' mechanism, where you somehow 'bribed' the device to your advantage ( with some sweet sweet ADAM ).
Maybe parts of human brain tissue might find their way into Rapture's Bio-Electronics mechanisms, but that's more as components ( ie- memory functional circuitry ) than as 'a complete will-possessing brain'. Sea Slug brains ( or parts of them ) no doubt were easier to train for the logic/processing functions needed ( their whole input-processing-output structure is magnitudes simpler than the same cell logic/data paths in a human brain ... )
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Concept - It is NOT "Canon" :
Some Fanbois insist that concept pictures are Canon in the BioShock Uninverse ( the game company even sold whole books of 'concept' art for BioShock ), or that such concept art supports various 'pet' assumptions, assertions and interpretations about game events/personalities, etc ... Things which are NOT actually IN the game. 
Counter to this Fanboi argument : What really what is actually IN THE GAME is the PRIMARY 'Canon', and the DLC is Secondary, and non-conflicting materials from the Novel is Tertiary, and all the Interviews and strange 'Concept' Art rate even lower.
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