Excerpts from journalist Jason Schreier's new book on game development in Polygon tell a familiar story about triple-A game development: BioShock Infinite was a mess for much of its development, and many developers had to rack their brains for months to get the game shipped in 2013. Developers interviewed by Schreier spoke of how "rewarding" it was to work with Ken Levine. Many called the BioShock director a creative "genius," but said he often had trouble communicating his ideas and leading Irrational's 200-plus developers. Since this excerpt was published, other former Irrational developers have taken to Twitter to share their own experiences and personal stories from their years working on "BioShock Infinite."

"While waiting in the drinks line at the Gold Party, I overheard two Irrational developer spouses talking about how glad they were to have their SO back and how the past year had felt like a divorce. I looked at my wife and asked if she felt the same way ... 'Yes,'" tweeted developer Mikey Soden. "How Infinite changed me: I promised my wife I would never do that to her again, and the next thing I knew I started looking for a position outside of Irrational. As a producer, I promised myself I would never do that to my team."

Soden tweeted that Irrational's method of developing BioShock Infinite was not sustainable, in an excerpt from Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry, Producer Don Roy said he was shocked by the lack of organization when he joined the studio in March 2012, a year before release. That summer, the studio brought in Epic Games' Rod Fergusson (who later headed Gears of War studio The Coalition before moving to Blizzard) as a "closer" to build a schedule that could actually ship Infinite.

An important part of Fergusson's role was to work with Levine, which was a difficult task; Xbox Accessibility Program Manager Tara Voelker said, "When I joined Irrational, I was the multiplayer QA leader. When I left, I was technically the QA level lead, but honestly, 50% of my time was spent as Ken's personal secretary, sitting in on 1:1 meetings, taking very specific notes, tasking them, and following up with Rod"

Voelker wrote that it was difficult to do real work while spending so much time in those meetings, recalling how difficult it was for the team to make some of the cuts made to BioShock Infinite during development. Multiplayer was cut the same day Voelker submitted his QA report. The multiplayer team was taken to the staff's favorite bar.

"I remember the day the remappable controls were cut. That feature was buggy and we didn't have time to fix it," Voelker tweeted later in the thread. 'I stormed into Rod's office and started crying. He gave me a shot of whiskey and let me cry while he told me how hard this project was.

Other former Irrational developers responded to Voelker's tweet, not only highlighting the friendships they built at the studio, but also how the development of Infinite affected their mental and physical health. Soden tweeted, "It hurt when the studio was shut down, but the recovery process has also begun."

Press Reset excerpts quote several developers about working with Levine and the long days of the last months of "Infinite" As with Twitter, some good things happened, such as they became more proficient game developers, and artists Chad LaClair recalled the bad, as he summed it up by saying, "I've never been as crabby with a game as I was with 'BioShock Infinite.'"