New Warren Spector Interview

[Llyranor]

Deus Ex guru speaks up. For those not in the know, after leaving Ion Storm, he founded Junction Point studios (which now houses 23 devs), and is now making a game to be released digitally via Steam. It's a new IP, which details to come up at GDC.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070305...ffield_01.shtml

 

That concept of sharing authorship is where the sweet spot of game narrative is. There are some things that I think we can do to take that to the next level, and things that can be done a couple of years from now that can take it to yet another level. The end goal for me now isn't for me to allow players to play a movie, ride a roller coaster ride or provide a sandbox so they can do what they want, but is to find the compromise where I can have a dialog with each player virtually. That's what's exciting to me.

 

The problem is that most people making games, especially story games, still rely very heavily on scripted sequences and interactions among objects. If the designer doesn't think of it, it can't happen. We started doing this at Origin back in the late

[mkreku]

I can't read anything even remotely resembling Deus Ex without getting this gigantic urge to replay that damn game again.

 

It's so distracting that I missed what the interview was about

[Morgoth]

Good stuff what Warren said.... I feel a little pity for tht poor guy. He always seems to be so energized just to be rejected by stupid publishers who don't want to listen... Well well. Anyway, I'm curious what he's working on (good to know Sheldon is back), and what the heck Doug is doing at EA.....Heck, EA!!!

[mkreku]

I always say this to my teams, and they hate it when I say this, but

[kirottu]

I always say this to my teams, and they hate it when I say this, but

[Azure79]

I actually enjoy reading in a game. Especially in RPGs where the devs have made an effort to flesh out the world. I liked reading the tomes in the IE games and I think I spent more time in Morrowind reading books than actually playing the game.

 

That one block RPG sounds pretty cool. You have a week save or destroy....your city block.

[aVENGER]

I always say this to my teams, and they hate it when I say this, but

[Morgoth]

Deus Ex guru speaks up. For those not in the know, after leaving Ion Storm, he founded Junction Point studios (which now houses 23 devs), and is now making a game to be released digitally via Steam. It's a new IP, which details to come up at GDC.

That's not true any longer. JPS broke up with Valve, so the game won't be released over Steam, or entirely over Steam (heck, so many retail games nowadays get released over Steam as well).

[Morgoth]

I always say this to my teams, and they hate it when I say this, but “I would rather fail gloriously than succeed at something mediocre.

 

Love this quote. My sentiments exactly! I think I'll have to use it in another thread too.

 

Heh, I guess he came up with that quote after Deus Ex 2.

Deus Ex 2 my shadowy friend, still has to be made.

Edited March 5, 2007 by Morgoth

[steelfiredragon]

he shot john???? wicked i wonderwhat he shot him with, it be ironic if it was a bfg 9000

[Meshugger]

It's good to see that they've brought the writer from the Deus Ex-games with them, hopefully the new project wil be as great as Deus Ex was. One thing that i liked about (most) the games that Spector was involved with, was that the gameworld had mature tone and atmosphere to it, never insulting the player's intelligence.

Edited March 5, 2007 by Meshugger

[baby arm]

I'm going to take this opportunity to admit that I enjoyed Deus Ex: IW. Yes, that's right.

[Cantousent]

Might have enjoyed it on the computer. As it was, I played it on my xbox and I can never get the hang of FPSes on my xbox. The controls are clunky.

[Calax]

Might have enjoyed it on the computer. As it was, I played it on my xbox and I can never get the hang of FPSes on my xbox. The controls are clunky.

I liked the first three "chapters" of it... then it became more linear than your average FPS.

 

Also some of the mechanics were wonky... (all guns use the same ammo!?)

[Cantousent]

That ammo thing is for lazy people, like myself.

[Llyranor]

I haven't played DX:IW, but the ammo crap isn't something that would have been likely to bother me.

[Slowtrain]

The ammo crap wasn't a big deal at all. The big deal was that actions that were supposed to have consequences didn't.

 

Also, Spector did not design DX2. Harvey Smith was the Project Director; it was his game vision from start to finish. Spector has stated that he did not interfere in game design decisions at all. SMith had a free hand.

[Llyranor]

Now, see, that would have mattered.

[mkreku]

Unified ammo (unbelievably lame name) was just one of the many bad game design decisions that were made during the making of Deux Ex: Invisible War. It wasn't gamebreaking in and of itself, but it sure as hell helped make the sequel feel dumber, simpler and aimed at the console crowd. There were lots of mistakes like that around.

[Sand]

The thing it also made a sort of sense. Nanotech was the major aspect of that game and nanotech ammunition would conform to the weapon being used, with only the mass of the ammo determining how much of the base nanotech material was used. Lame game design? Yes. Plausible for the setting? Yes.

[Calax]

One of the other major things was like crash said, all the actions you took up until pretty much the last senario were pretty much just fluff.

 

In the beginning there are two groups you can "work" for.

In the middle there are two different groups (somewhat related to the first two)

In the end there are I think four groups that you can ultimatly work for.

 

The ending only has relation to what happened thirty seconds before. There is no "saving" paul from the killswitch. Nothing that has as much impact.

[Slowtrain]

I actually don't think IW was that bad a game. However, I do think it was one of the most disappointuing games I've ever played. It was disappointing both because it was ultimately so much less than Deus Ex and also because it was so much less than all the developer and publisher hype promised.

 

Most specifically Harvey Smith said it would be a game where desicions mattered. However, it didn't take long to realize that nothing you did mattered in any way that was different from a standard FPS. Yes, you could make choices, but none of those choices changed anything remotely significant. Choices had less significance than even in the original Deus Ex. The only choice that mattered was the one that set up the end game.

 

When confronted about this after the game's release, Smith said that he didn't want gamers to be restricted in the later game by the choices they had made early, which is why they designed the game the way they did. But that statement is so contradictory with Smith's stated intent of what the game would be, thast they are impossible to reconcile.

 

The game would have been better, if they had just desiogned it as totally linear and without choices rather than spending time putting in fake choices that didn't matter.

[Berserk]

I actually don't think IW was that bad a game. However, I do think it was one of the most disappointuing games I've ever played. It was disappointing both because it was ultimately so much less than Deus Ex and also because it was so much less than all the developer and publisher hype promised.

 

Most specifically Harvey Smith said it would be a game where desicions mattered. However, it didn't take long to realize that nothing you did mattered in any way that was different from a standard FPS. Yes, you could make choices, but none of those choices changed anything remotely significant. Choices had less significance than even in the original Deus Ex. The only choice that mattered was the one that set up the end game.

 

When confronted about this after the game's release, Smith said that he didn't want gamers to be restricted in the later game by the choices they had made early, which is why they designed the game the way they did. But that statement is so contradictory with Smith's stated intent of what the game would be, thast they are impossible to reconcile.

 

The game would have been better, if they had just desiogned it as totally linear and without choices rather than spending time putting in fake choices that didn't matter.

"You killed our operative and ruined our whole operation! We will remember that you went against our faction!"

 

5 minutes later:

 

"Ok, you can have another chance working for us, it's not like we've cared the last 5 times you've dismissed our requests."

[Morgoth]

Yeah that was totally ridiculous. Even worse, when you killed a kid and did this or that little mistake, the appropriate faction leaders would immetiately establish a connection with you and complain how bad that was....like they always know exactly what's going on! Would they even complain when you go into the toilet and take a crap?

[Sand]

There is no such thing as an unlisted wall.

 

HAIL! PRESIDENT SCREWB!

Edited March 8, 2007 by Sand