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Warren Spector joins Otherside Entertainment (Underworld, System Shock 3)

I

injurai

Banned
blackw0lf said:
What's Doug doing at Valve? I didn't even know they were developing a game.
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http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33575/Valve_Confirms_Hiring_Of_Thief_Designer_Doug_Church.php

Valve's Doug Lombardi tells Gamasutra that Church has been with the company for "a couple [of] weeks," though he was unsure what, if any, specific project the designer has been assigned to.
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It makes it sound like he didn't even have a specific position he was going into when being hired.

So probably HL
3.exe
 
C

CHC

Member
FunkyPajamas said:
Because of Epic Mickey?

I feel like the guy finally "came home". He's with the good guys now, there is no way his addition (and contribution) to their project is anything other than fantastic. He's not the lead with an unproven team.
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pastrami said:
To be fair, I don't think he's really had that many chances after Invisible War.

Fingers crossed that he does still have some of that Deus Ex magic left. I'm still blown away by that game.
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Yeah I mean Epic Mickey was pretty stupid, and of course Invisible War was terrible. But he's also just talked a lot of nonsense like:

- VR is a fad because someone could "sneak up behind me with a baseball bat"
- The world doesn't need another Wolfenstein, it's an adolescent male fantasy (New Order was AMAZING)
- Bugged by Mankind Divided trailer for featuring too much action (on it's own fine, but silly in light of the fact that MD will iterate on Human Revolution)
- Juvenile games should not be made

As I said, DX is probably my favorite game of all time, and I don't say that lightly. So obviously I'm excited for this guy to be "coming home" as you put it, but that excitement is tempered by the fact that he's just kind of been a grumpy blowhard over the past 10 years, and has zero good games to show for that period of time.
 
B

bathsalts

Member
Exciting news, he's still got great ideas to bring to the table I bet.

We got a Thief successor in Dishonored
Deus Ex is in competent hands.
And now Underworld & System Shock 3 are heating up.

Whats does that leave left to resurrect immersive sim-wise, Vampire and STALKER?
 
I

injurai

Banned
bathsalts said:
Exciting news, he's still got great ideas to bring to the table I bet.

We got a Thief successor in Dishonored
Deus Ex is in competent hands.
And now Underworld & System Shock 3 are heating up.

Whats does that leave left to resurrect immersive sim-wise, Vampire and STALKER?
Click to expand...

Hopefully we get Vampire from Obsidian + Paradox.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Blooddimond said:
I'd say Black Isle is split between inXile and Obsidian
and whatever company Chris Avellone is a kickstarter goal for
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For sure. Troika seems more like the Interplay employees that weren't part of Black Isle.

You got two out of the 3. The only other company Avellone was a kickstarter goal for was Larian. Which is sort of it's own thing.
 
L

LSauchelli

Member
bathsalts said:
Exciting news, he's still got great ideas to bring to the table I bet.

We got a Thief successor in Dishonored
Deus Ex is in competent hands.
And now Underworld & System Shock 3 are heating up.

Whats does that leave left to resurrect immersive sim-wise, Vampire and STALKER?
Click to expand...
Maybe something new? He had some really good ideas with Epic Mickey that ultimately couldn't be done, but I bet that with a new IP he could pull it off.
 
I

Instro

Member
animlboogy said:
So did they suddenly get some heavy investment, or are these guys taking big pay cuts compared to their previous positions?
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I would assume they got some injection of money from Night Dive for SS3. I'm sure some are not working for big bucks either though.
 
I

injurai

Banned
Instro said:
I would assume they got some injection of money from Night Dive for SS3. I'm sure some are not working for big bucks either though.
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Ah yeah, Night Dive certainly has a role in this. They are seemingly doing well for themselves with their remastered titles.

For the new Ultima that was partly a kickstarter injection.
 
swarley64

swarley64

Member
Kenzodielocke said:
Hope he still has it, the last game of him I liked was Deadly Shadows (2004).
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....yeah.... And most of the speeches he's given lately have a real "Get off my lawn" attitude to them. But I'm glad he's going back to making games again. Maybe he'll finally make his "One City Block RPG"
 
B

Blooddimond

Member
injurai said:
For sure. Troika seems more like the Interplay employees that weren't part of Black Isle.

You got two out of the 3. The only other company Avellone was a kickstarter goal for was Larian. Which is sort of it's own thing.
Click to expand...

The Avellone thing is more of a running joke, since he has a tendency to show up in InXile's kickstarters as a stretch goal that it essentially is his job title at this point
 
G

Gurgelhals

Member
Here's the full announcement from Otherside. He's going to be the project lead on System Shock 3:

OtherSide Entertainment is thrilled to announce that Warren Spector, one of the leading creative minds in the game industry, will soon be joining the company.

Warren has been a producer, designer, and director behind some of the industry’s most beloved games, including System Shock, Deus Ex, and the Ultima series. He led Junction Point Studios in creating the best-selling Disney Epic Mickey and recently oversaw the Denuis-Sam Gaming Academy post-baccalaureate program at UT Austin.

Warren has acted as a Creative Advisor to OtherSide since the studio’s inception. Following the end of this semester’s classes at UT Austin, he will transition into a full-time position as one of OtherSide’s Studio Directors. Warren will continue to help in a creative capacity on Underworld Ascendant and, later this year, ramp up and lead the team developing System Shock 3.

Warren has a long history working with members of the OtherSide team, having collaborated with founder Paul Neurath on the original Ultima Underworld games, Thief: The Dark Project, and System Shock.

“I’m delighted to have Warren stepping up into a director role at OtherSide and helping lead the charge with our innovative approach to gaming,” says Paul. “I can think of no one better suited to take on this creative challenge. Warren has changed the industry before and will do so again.”

“I’ve loved working with students as Director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the University of Texas’ Moody College of Communication,” says Warren. “But when the opportunity to have a bigger role in bringing Underworld Ascendant to life, as well as playing in the System Shock universe once again, helping to bring these games to a 21st century audience, I just couldn’t say no. Working on System Shock was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career and it’s hard to describe how much I’m looking forward to sharing with players what SHODAN has been up to since the last game was released.”

Efforts on System Shock 3 will accelerate this year under Warren’s direction, while OtherSide continues working on Underworld Ascendant, the successor to the Ultima Underworld series.

Everyone at OtherSide is excited to add Warren to the team and System Shock 3 as the second title in the company’s growing stable of games.
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https://www.facebook.com/OtherSideEntertainment/posts/1720799238132245

Hype get!
 
E

epmode

Member
YASSSSSS

So glad I backed Underworld. It always felt like they were onto something special. An honest-to-god Looking Glass revival.
 
G

Gurgelhals

Member
Shenmue said:
Please be the Deus Ex Warren Specter and not the Epic Mickey one for system shock 3 please!!
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Epic Mickey was the result of a AAA-focus group-tested development and publishing environment straight out of the dumb down/streamlining decade in gaming history. Otherside seems a far cry from that, so I'm not worried about an Epic Mickey-fied System Shock 3. The question will rather be whether they're going to have the means to match their ambition.

It's kind of funny actually: Invisible War (aka the Deus Ex that we collectively don't speak of) was one of the first egregious examples of that era and Epic Mickey 2 came at its tail end before the whole Kickstarter thing took off.
 
S

Sulik2

Member
Wow that is huge news for System Shock 3 development. Otherside seems like they are going to that game right if they are bringing Warren in.
 
F

FlyingSaucer

Banned
blackw0lf said:
Imagine how much the Kickstarter would have made if Warren had been there from the beginning
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Quite so. I'm still happy that we came close to 1M$, thought. And haven't they some outside financing ? But more polishing, more content, more bells and whistles are still good to have...
 
H

HyperZone<3

Member
Durante said:
I wonder how they can afford all that.

(Not trying to be negative, just slightly concerned)
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if they're starting SS3 and staffing up for it without hitting crowdfunding, they have got to have landed some sort of outside investment as of late. I would guess some nerd with deep pockets, it just seems likely to me.
 
N

Nzyme32

Member
ooooooooooooooh! Hope this goes really well, albeit I am a little cautious about how things will go. Lots of great potential
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
animlboogy said:
Seems to be happening often lately. See also: Beamdog's recent hires.
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Yep, it's a digital renaissance for these type of games and I'm loving it.
CHC said:
Yeah I mean Epic Mickey was pretty stupid, and of course Invisible War was terrible. But he's also just talked a lot of nonsense like:

- VR is a fad because someone could "sneak up behind me with a baseball bat"
- The world doesn't need another Wolfenstein, it's an adolescent male fantasy (New Order was AMAZING)
- Bugged by Mankind Divided trailer for featuring too much action (on it's own fine, but silly in light of the fact that MD will iterate on Human Revolution)
- Juvenile games should not be made

As I said, DX is probably my favorite game of all time, and I don't say that lightly. So obviously I'm excited for this guy to be "coming home" as you put it, but that excitement is tempered by the fact that he's just kind of been a grumpy blowhard over the past 10 years, and has zero good games to show for that period of time.
Click to expand...
Ah, I'd forgotten about those quotes. I see what you mean now. I wonder where those comments came from, like, is he really out of touch or is this something he believes in? I disagree with the guy but then again he's not the type of designer to work on something like Wolfenstein or Lollipop chainsaw, so it's not that big of a deal for me. Keep making well designed Adventure/CRPGs games and I'll be there.
 
F

foxtrot3d

Banned
2NKFHFU.gif
 
A

anexanhume

Member
FunkyPajamas said:
Yep, it's a digital renaissance for these type of games and I'm loving it.

Ah, I'd forgotten about those quotes. I see what you mean now. I wonder where those comments came from, like, is he really out of touch or is this something he believes in? I disagree with the guy but then again he's not the type of designer to work on something like Wolfenstein or Lollipop chainsaw, so it's not that big of a deal for me. Keep making well designed Adventure/CRPGs games and I'll be there.
Click to expand...

It comes down to not having to agree with everything a content creator believes in. His opinions in many of those areas also don't necessarily compromise his ability to make good content consistent with his vision.
 
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