Game-Art-HQ

In this article you can read a lot informations about Elizabeth and her development, see official art as well as fan art and cosplays, and last but not least concept artworks and an interview with Claire Hummel who drew Elizabeth for Irrational Games, last but not least you can also read opinions by gamers about Elizabeth and share your own one here as well

Elizabeth is a character from the Bioshock first person shooter series and debuted in Bioshock Infinite

She is 20 year old, born in the USA and arrived in Columbia as a one year old baby. She is prisoned there since her childhood and knows only the rooms she had to stay in at the start of the game.

During the game she helps the main protagonist of the game, Booker DeWitt and accompanies him through almost the complete story.

Official Wallpaper with Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a young beautiful woman who has been held captive in the city of Columbia for the most of her life.

She is intelligent and artistic and helps the player often with her skills, it is also notable that she has a unusual big arsenal of animations and was designed to move like a real being instead of a video game character.

Due to the danger of spoiling parts of the still new Bioshock Infinite for you we won’t describe her personality too much and go into the details of her character during the game.

For now this article will be more about the development of Elizabeth and what makes her such a special character.

This article will be updated in September 2013.

During the development of Bioshock Infinite, her design changed a bit, she had a lot wider eyes as example but in general her design stayed the same.

While Bioshock 1 and 2 were stunning games with an interesting story and setting, they were both experiences were the player was most of the time alone and did not met a lot friendly characters.

For Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games wanted to change that and so they started working on a partner for the player who would accompany him for the game and would be a important element of the whole game. That was the start of the development of Elizabeth.

Irrational Games wanted to make Elizabeth more of just a sidekick, she would not only be a character who can help BookerDeWitt sometimes, she also needs his help and can interact with her environment and other characters in multiple ways and forms.

The big goal by the developers and story authors was to make her “alive” for the player which lead to a complete design team called the “Liz Squad” lead by the Level Designer Amanda Jeffrey who had the job to create environment, Elizabeth would interact with and the needed animations for that.

Since Elizabeth was prisoned away for so many years, all the enviroments and people she discovers during the game are completely new for her, which made it possible that Elizabeth interacts with so many elements of the game and find them interesting while the player himself would call them normal and nothing special most likely.

Sometimes she behaves like a kid in a theme park who sees a bit attraction there for the first time 🙂

Elizabeth in the E3 2011 Gameplay Trailer

Making Elizabeth such a believable character was one of the biggest challenges for the developers, she had to always keep up with Booker, had to move realistic in the different environments, interact with them in a believable form and had to care about Booker as well.

During the years of developing Bioshock Infinite, a ton of tests were made to study the reactions of players of cutscenes with Elizabeth and her character in game to guarantee that Elizaneth is a likeable character for the most players.

A scene were she would leave the player alone and play with the sand on a beach because its her first time there was changed as example. Instead she spends more time there with the player.

The developers also avoided to make Bioshock Infinite one big escort mission, while Elizabeth does not participate in the combat, Booker does not have to protect her in that sense that he has to take care on her health, instead Elizabeth takes care on Booker’s health and supplies him often with ammunition as well.

“Young Liz first Round of Concepts”

“Young Liz 2nd Round of Concepts”

“Young Liz Color and Hair Options”

“Damage Options and Progress”

Elizabeth became one of the most popular game characters during the first quartal 2013 and even an action figure by NEC of her was developed.

Claire Hummel designed these concepts of the young Elizabeth for Irrational Games.

They wanted a 1912 period- and age-appropriate look which saw many literations before the final 2d designs which you can see to the right for the game were decided

Claire write the following to describe the final 2D design of Elizabeth:

“A couple of changes were made for the final model- fewer buckles on the skirt, shirt cuffs from an early concept, etc- but the rest of it was pretty spot-on”

You can click on the concept art to enlarge the images

Elizabeth and BookerDeWit

by Alteya

Elizabeth

by Ganassa

Elizabeth Cosplay

by Angela Bermudez

by Angela Bermúdez

Elizabeth Cosplay

by Hidrico & DawnArts

Elizabeth became one of the most popular new video game characters in 2013 when Bioshock Infinite got released, and even before its release, fans who are either drawing art or are cosplaying game characters started working on art related to her.

Here on Game Art HQ i try to show you some of the awesome artworks /coslays made about Elizabeth, including her “friends” like Songbird and Booker as well!

Elizabeth Portrait

by Speeh

The Lamb of Columbia

by Natasha Saville

“Take this Booker”

by Krit Parnsanay

Elizabeth in front of the Lighthouse

by Ghostfire

Elizabeth Portrait

by Isabella Morawetz

all by Eddy Shinjuku

Elizabeth from Burial At Sea

Cosplay by Angela Bermúdez

Elizabeth from Bioshock: Burial At Sea

Elizabeth Portrait Art

by MagicnaAnavi

Elizabeth Portrait Art

by Lance Richard

Elizabeth Cosplay

by Katy-Angel

Elizabeth Different Style

by melloskitten

Falling Elizabeth

by sbalac

The beautiful Elizabeth

by Derek Weselake

by Brett Murdock

by Tyrine Carver

by Dovile Tarutyte

 So, what can I say about Elizabeth. First of all, it’s of course her beauty that i like (yeah-yeah, not original, but still).

Second, the thing is that she’s a girl. It may seem obvious, but think about it. When was the last time in action games when a girl was acting like a girl, and not a killing machine or some kind of smart ass or something?

She doesn’t try to help Booker fight through enemies directly, she doesn’t use her “magic”. She just executes the commands as she knows that Booker is the man and he’s the chief. But here’s another thing. Though she doesn’t kill anyone, she helps more than any other characters in shooters (as example you can take Alyx Vance and Cortana). Yes, all this stuff she throws to you – I can say it’s like a dream.

About her personality:

Again, we see her as a living person, not some ideal being. She’s smart, she’s well educated, but still she’s very naive (at least at the start). But she grows very fast and then we see that in the end she’s not that cute girl we rescued from Monument Island but the girl that knows what is life and that sometimes you have to do something really bad.

And all this is absolutely logical and there’re absolutely no thoughts about “why did she do this or that” or “why does she act like that”.
Elizabeth is my favorite girl in the gaming world by now.

Opinion by Game Art HQ Member Vladimir-Holstinin

Elizabeth is the opposite kind of companion to Sheva Alomar of RE5, instead of yapping “I need ammo” x9999 times and sweep away all the ammo that you required while looking at you with a certain smugness, Liz stocks you up with them! With health and Salt as well! Hell, money too!

She’s the most ‘real’ companion up to date (and utterly useful), interacting with almost everything in the environment. not sure any games will top that off soon…

Oh yeah, she doesn’t need baby-sitting, that usually is what I’m really annoyed with most non-combatant companions (e.g. Ashley Graham RE4 and the likes)

Sorry, I haven’t completed the game yet lol, Just needed to rant a tad
Even so, I’m deeply invested in this character, well done to the guys @ Irrational Games and of course Courtnee Drape (the voice of Elizabeth)

Opinion by Game Art HQ Contributor Eddy Shinjuku

Elizabeth was actually a really nice companion to have that had such a great backstory. She really became a heightened aspect of the game, and she never really became a nuisance. Definitely a really awesomely created character.

Her personality in the beginning is really innocent but very friendly. She seemed very approachable even if you felt a little creepy staring at her through a window. She really has a human-like personality that I haven’t seen from a character in a very long time.

I like her design a lot too. Her design at the beginning of the game is done very well because it gives her the appearance of an innocent girl that wants to be free and live her life. And then when she dons her new costume, it really shows how much she’s matured and it even reflects how her part in the story drastically changes. The design is simplistic, but very captivating too.

I think the only thing I disliked about Elizabeth was that she was constantly throwing things at me that half the time I didn’t need. Sure, I needed ammo, but sometimes I’d get salts when I really needed health. Also, it was a rather noticeable flaw that she can find money with ease yet she can’t pick up a pickpocket herself when she spots it.

Overall, I like her a lot and I’m really glad to have played the game and to have gotten to know such a marvelous character.

Opinion by Game Art HQ Contributor Skytch

Elizabeth is a great, great, great character, she gives you money, ammo, first aid kits, salts, whith her powers she can bring support turrets and mechanic patriots from another dimensions, just for help you.

She also has a great backstory, and in the end… Oh you’ll not believe it.

Do you think is not good enought? well, she is pretty too, more so with the blue dress, Oh and she even dances and sings.

She’s really a great point on one of the greatest games I have ever played, not just for the beautiful desing, she evolves as the game progress, from a delicate an imprisoned little girl, to a powerful serious and determined woman.

Opinion by Game Art HQ Contributor Rhafiel