The floating city of Columbia was built on a foundation of fractured realities

Cultures · Published 30 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1912, the airborne city of Columbia appeared to be a triumph of American exceptionalism. But beneath its steampunk splendor lay a dark conspiracy of stolen children, temporal tears, and a cycle of violence that spanned across infinite dimensions.

Set in a floating city-state, BioShock Infinite follows Booker DeWitt, a veteran tasked with rescuing Elizabeth, a young woman held captive by the prophet Zachary Hale Comstock. The game's setting, Columbia, was originally funded by the U.S. government as a floating world's fair, drawing inspiration from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. However, the city eventually seceded from the United States after intervening in the Boxer Rebellion, transforming into a theocratic police state characterized by institutional racism and class warfare between the ruling Founders and the rebel Vox Populi.

The narrative complexity is driven by 'Tears'—fractures in the space-time continuum that reveal alternate universes. These anomalies allow characters like the twins Robert and Rosalind Lutece to communicate across realities. The plot reveals a devastating cycle: Comstock obtained Elizabeth from another reality by exploiting a moment where Booker's infant daughter, Anna, was severed from him during a tear. This event caused Elizabeth to exist in two realities simultaneously, granting her the power to manipulate the fabric of time.

The development of the game was as turbulent as its setting. Led by creative director Ken Levine, the five-year production at Irrational Games was marked by shifting priorities and a management style that led to missed deadlines and wasted work. While the game achieved massive success, selling over 11 million copies, the expansion of the studio from a small group to 150 employees reportedly shattered the company culture, forcing Levine to balance his intense creative focus with the heavy burden of production management.

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