The topic of religion can almost always stir up a debate, and how it is portrayed can often offend those with differing beliefs.  In the case of BioShock Infinite, religious themes almost caused one of the game’s developers to quit.

Ken Levine, creative director and co-founder of Irrational Games, recently told GameSpot the story of how he almost lost one of his BioShock Infinite developers due to a controversial scene in the game.

“There was a scene in the game at the end where there's a gentleman here--one of our artists--who got to a point in the game, played it, turned off BioShock, opened up his computer, opened Microsoft Word, and wrote a resignation letter; it had offended him so much,” he said.  Once Levine was aware of the problem, he sat down with the upset developer to discuss his feelings.  The discussion actually gave Levine greater insight into writing the game’s Comstock character.

“And I ended up having a conversation with him; my first impulse was I don't want this guy to go because he was a good guy and a talented guy," said Levine. "And we actually ended up having a long talk; he was an extremely religious guy and when we started talking, I realized that something I could connect to was a notion of forgiveness and what an important part that is of the New Testament and why Christ was such a revolutionary figure.”

He continued: “And thinking about how I would incorporate the power of that notion to Comstock into his world was, to me, the key. Because who hasn't done things that they don't want to be forgiven for?”

In the end, the developer decided to stay with Irrational Games.  BioShock Infinite will be released on March 26th for the PC, PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.

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