Warren Spector was instrumental in establishing the immersive sim genre with his involvement on games like Deus Ex, Thief, and, most relevant to this story, System Shock. His current studio, OtherSide Entertainment, officially released its latest game, the single-player (or cooperative if you choose) stealth-action heist game, Thick as Thieves, in May, and reception has generally been positive. The game is only $4.99 and sits somewhere between Early Access and a complete release, offering a sample of the experience’s larger ideas.
We spoke with Spector about Thick as Thieves and his wider career in the latest issue of Game Informer magazine, the issue with Halo: Campaign Evolved on the cover. Subscribers can read the full feature with Spector here, or you can subscribe before July 1 to get that issue sent directly to you.
Though not thoroughly covered in that feature, I did talk to Spector about his and OtherSide Entertainment’s System Shock 3, which was making progress until its publisher, Starbreeze, was forced to shut the project down. Spector spent some time in academia after Epic Mickey 2’s release (he was VP at developer Junction Point Studios), and his desire to return to game development led to a stint working on System Shock 3. You can read more about it in the interview excerpt below.
Warren Spector: I was going to do a startup because I stupidly like doing startups, and [OtherSide Entertainment CEO and co-founder Paul Neurath] came to me and said, “I’m doing a startup. And oh, by the way, I have the rights to System Shock.”
So I can go create a company, deal with benefits and payroll, do all of that not-fun startup stuff. Or, Paul’s already done it and I get to work on System Shock 3? I’m in.
Game Informer: So what happened to your System Shock 3?
Spector: It’s a very simple story. I worked on it for a couple of years. I had a team of 17 people. We were making good progress. It was very imm-simy. I had a core mechanic that I love that I got married to, to its detriment.
We had a publisher, it was Starbreeze. I guess it’s okay to say that. They came along and said, “We’ve gone into whatever the Swedish equivalent of bankruptcy is, and we’re killing all of our external projects.” So, at that point… three years in doesn’t sound like much of a startup anymore, but it really is. And Paul and I looked at the bank account and said, “Uh oh.” And Tencent came along and said we want to go big with System Shock. They said they could go big with it in a way that we couldn’t. They made an investment. They kept us alive. Thanks, Tencent. And at this point, if anything’s ever going to happen with it, it’s Tencent that’s going to do it, not us.
Do you think whatever work you put into it will exist in an eventual System Shock 3?
Spector: It exists on my hard drive. Other than the trailer, which we put out before that all went away – check out the trailer. It’s on YouTube – but other than that, I doubt Tencent would use any of it.
You can read our full interview with Warren Spector, which covers his career and Thick as Thieves in the Halo: Campaign Evolved issue of Game Informer magazine.