http://www.cnn.

com/2013/03/25/tech/gaming-gadgets/bioshock-infinite-elizabeth
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Elizabeth, a companion character in "Bioshock Infinite," is designed to ramp up the
player's emotional involvement in the game.
Meet Elizabeth: The heart and soul of 'BioShock Infinite'
By Larry Frum , Special to CNN
updated 6:31 PM EDT, Mon March 25, 2013 | Filed under: Gaming and Gadgets CNN.com
The realistic
look and feel of
Elizabeth didn't
fully come
together until
within the last
year. But
gamers who
already loved
the expansive,
altered-reality
world of the
series first met
her in 2011 at
the Electronic
Entertainment
Expo, the
world's largest
video-game
gathering.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/25/tech/gaming-gadgets/bioshock-infinite-elizabeth
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27/03/2013 15:20 PM
Levine said
that demo of the game showed what Elizabeth could do from a narrative standpoint, but that he still wasn't
comfortable with how she behaved.
He postponed the game from its original release date of March 2012 several times, specifically because Elizabeth
wasn't right.
"She's the extension of what we were trying to do with the Big Daddy, which is more to me about an emotional
resonance than a combat experience," Levine said. He was referencing characters from "BioShock" who are painted
as both deadly monsters and loving companions to the "Little Sisters" they protect.
"What made the Big Daddy work was the emotional impact it had on the player. Same with Elizabeth. The goal was
emotional."
It seems to be working.
When Elizabeth was again revealed to the world in videos displaying her personality and emotional range, she was
an instant hit. Fans and players clamored for more and seemed to form a bond with the wayward young girl.
So much so, in fact, that when later videos showed Liz in different clothing or with a different hairstyle, the outcry
over the changes was swift and harsh.
The Liz Squad took that as a sign their work was on the right track.
"The fact that people are already so concerned about what Elizabeth is doing, how she's reacting, what she's wearing
is just incredibly powerful," Jeffrey said. "If nobody cared, it would just be a horrible place to be."
Emotional resonance aside, animation director Sean Robertson said the toughest thing to make Elizabeth look and
move like a real person was her dress -- which comes with a long, flowing skirt that originally wouldn't behave.
"You don't see a lot of companion characters wearing dresses -- at least not of the non-miniskirt variety," Robertson
said. "Liz's character is important as she is a character of the time and women wore dresses then. We put a lot of
work into the physics of the dress so it behaves correctly, the way it needs to and doesn't put her in any embarrassing
positions."
While Robertson struggled with a dress, Holmes, the writer, said his greatest task was making gamers ultimately care
as much about the teen companion as her creators did.
"She was the hardest thing we could have possibly tried to do," he said. "It's one thing to get her in the game and get
her to move around the world. It was another to then breathe life into her."
"BioShock Infinite" will be released worldwide on Tuesday, March 26, and be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox
360 and Windows PC. It is rated M for Mature due to blood and gore, intense violence, language, mild sexual
themes, and use of alcohol and tobacco.
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