Ken Levine's new game isn't an FPS, it's a 'Judas simulator'

BioShock creator Ken Levine will release a new game in 2026, but it's not a shooter--it's more of a simulator where choice and consequence shape gameplay.

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Judas, the new game from BioShock's Ken Levine, has been in development for over a decade. Half of that time was spent creating the game's principal gimmick: a next-level reactivity system where NPCs dynamically respond to what players choose to do.

In that way, Ken Levine offhandedly jokes in a recent interview with Game Informer that the project is a "Judas simulator" because players take on the role and essentially shape their own version of the titular character, interacting with the world through the eyes of, well, a Judas.

• Read more: BioShock creator Ken Levine reveals key narrative beats on Judas, his new sci-fi FPS

"It's our first game where you truly inhabit a character in a way you didn't in... say BioShock. When we began, we didn't want to just make a first-person shooter. We wanted to make a Judas simulator where you not only get to decide how she proceeds through the story, but also who you should trust and how you should deal with the consequences of your choices.

"The most important thing is really placing the player inside the character and letting them feel a little bit of what it's like to be on that ship as the sun is setting on the human race.

"In addition, what sets it apart from other games is the way we're building it (and the reason we spent five years in just R&D).

"We wanted the characters to not only respond to major choices, but to also recognize and respond to your sequence of actions, down to the smallest details."

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Ghost Story Games, the studio behind Judas, has revealed lighter details about the game's dynamic responsivity, displaying how the ship itself will change over time based on a player's choices.

In the context of what it means to be Judas, it's apparently exactly what it sounds like, with the main character being labeled a betrayer:

Back in December 2025, Levine and Ghost Story Games put out an update on Judas that discussed how the studio thinks about the character, and how the name fits into the narrative:

";Judas,' as she came to be known, understands machines in a way she can never understand people. That became her greatest strength... and greatest weakness. We put her in a science fiction world, a colony ship filled with robots - a futuristic setting that makes someone like her extremely powerful.

"But it's also a world where personal success hinges on how well you can conform to the rules, because dissent would lead to the failure of the mission. That makes her an outlaw, a pariah - a Judas.

"That tension at the heart of the character came to inform everything about the game, which we stopped thinking of as an FPS and started calling a "Judas Simulator." Everything comes back to that core idea of you interacting with the world as Judas."