Remember E3 2011, when Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine took to the stage to announce a BioShock game that was being designed from the ground up for the PlayStation Vita? That clearly didn’t happen, and since since 2K refuses to talk about it, all we’ve known about the mysterious game is that it was planned to be a new, standalone entry in the series, rather than a port of an existing game.

Now that Irrational is no more, the original idea for the game will likely never see the light of day. The series’ future is in the capable hands of 2K, so it’s up to them to decide whether or not they’ll pursue a BioShock game on the Vita.

As for Levine’s original concept — what would it have been like? What did we potentially miss out on?

According to some tweets by Levine, who now runs a more “entrepreneurial endeavor” within 2K along with a small hand-picked staff comprised of former Irrational developers, the game would have been radically different from what fans have come to expect from the series.

Levine tweeted “on the Vita game: 2k and sony couldn’t put a deal together when I last checked. They seemed way more optimistic about this back in 2011.” As for what kind of game it would have been, a follow-up tweet confirmed it would have been “something that would work well on the vita and not be a compromise in any way. also, as some know, i’m a turn based whore.”

“I was thinking a Final Fantasy Tactics style thing set in pre-fall Rapture.” Levine revealed.

I’m not a fan of turn-based combat, but this concept actually appeals to me. It sounds like a natural extension of the 2K Marin-developed BioShock 2, which introduced a level of strategy and preparation into each combat scenario.