How Thief's Stealth System Almost Didn't Work | War Stories | Ars Technica
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ก.พ. 2018
- 1998's Thief: The Dark Project was a pioneer for the stealth genre, utilizing light and shadow as essential gameplay mechanics. The very thing that Thief became so well-known for was also the game's biggest development hurdle. Looking Glass Studios founder Paul Neurath recounts the difficulties creating Thief: The Dark Project, and how its AI systems had to be completely rewritten years into development.
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How Thief's Stealth System Almost Didn't Work | War Stories | Ars Technica - เกม
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Thief's shadow mechanics is the secret sauce that made it satisfying to play as a stealth game. People often complain that it's not very realistic, but as a gameplay mechanic it makes total sense. You know exactly what the rules of engagement are, and it gives you some leeway to survey a room instead of just waiting behind an obstacle until you hear a guard pass by.
Plus it pushes the Dark Engine's technical achievements (variable dynamic lighting,) to the forefront by integrating them into the gameplay.
Obviously this is a response to a 3+year old comment, but I'd honestly take this 'not very realistic' mechanic over the literally unrealistic mechanic way too many games these days have, where enemies have no peripheral view and we see things in third person.
All too often I find most games these days are about trying to work out where the flaws in the AI are and exploiting around it, rather than establishing the mechanics and using them to your advantage.
I always justified it in my head as being much darker than it appears to the player (being mostly preindustrial and all) and Garrett just has extremely good vision.
Exactly. Irl you wouldn't know exactly how well hidden you were from others but in a game that kind of feedback is necessary to make it fun.
@@drkissinger1 well the default gamma settings certainly are dark enough that it'd be plausible for you to be invisible when you can barely see the game on modern displays. So when you crank it up and lose the high contrast with a brightened image it's easier to forget.
"One of our engineers, Tom, he had- a mental break..."
me: oh no
"... through-"
me: aw yiss
Loool
Almost got me at the same spot. :D
He clearly paused in order to not say “down”.
Lol.
He was about to call out his boy for having a breakdown lmao
9:08 "Our lead programmer Tom...he had a bit of a mental break..."
Having worked for some years in the games industry I wasn't expecting the next word to be "through" :P
Haha, I haven't worked in the games industry but my brain also autocompleted this to "breakdown" =D
It sounds like game development may not have been such an inhumane human-mill back then as it is now. These days, that spark of life could probably only be found in indie games.
@@PhirePhlame the guy literally described Tom putting HIM SELF thru crunch.
He was going to say breakdown but stopped and corrected it before it came out. Working 14 hour days for weeks would make me kill myself.
His story about the guard really does explain why Thief and its sequel are two of my favorite games of all time. It really does capture the visceral sense of being someplace you're not allowed and the tension of trying to hide. I just wish the interview was longer. I could listen to him talk for hours about the creative process of building the game. I'd love to know where the inspiration for the art design, the writing, the game's factions, and the storyline came from.
Damn. I guess it's time to reinstall.
Angmor Dagnithil one of the looking glass employees took a vacation in Europe and took a bunch of pictures of old cathedrals and archways. I think that's where the concept art got it's general structure
You are not alone. Would love to see more of these interviews and videos on the old Thief games. I can easily say that Thief is some of my best gaming experiences
Exactly my thoughts on it. The games have a pricelessly great atmosphere. Truly unique.
Agreed. That really is the secret sauce that makes this experience so visceral. Thief was magical.
Same here. It's one of my all time favorite
The original thief series is hands down the most amazing stealth series ever
Well i personally preferred Hitman Codename 47
casperado666 that’s more sandbox
@@casperado666 Hitman Codename 47 is extremely rough around the edges. Thief is a classic for a reason, whereas the Hitman franchise, beloved as it is, the original game (codename 47) is mostly forgotten. My top stealth games are definitely Thief 2 and Blood Money, though. Can't count the hours I've poured into those 2
Better than splinter cell?
i prefer mgs and hitman.
Nowadays even dishonored.
Don't get me wrong, though. Thief games were absolutely amazing.
High fives for Tom the engineer for rewriting the AI!
Tom Leonard, he also worked on HL2 and Portal.
@@Trandul credentials of a legend!
I have so much nostalgia for Thief. It gave me the most memorable gaming experiences I ever had. The stealth, sound, dialogue, enormous levels, and sheer imagination was ahead of its time. Pity the game did not receive more recognition that it greatly deserved.
If Thief was released today with updated graphics but the exact same gameplay, story, controls, etc, it would work well in 2018. It was that far ahead of its time.
Thief (2014) ensured that, for now, the Thief franchise is dead. Why did they reboot something that still works? Hubris.
They tried to adapt an old game to the mainstream market, in the process losing the original fans mostly. Another victim of people who joined the videogame industry for profit and don't really understand the market
lakie92 another victim of misinterpretation and don't really understand the new game
This is somewhat off topic, but I was running through Crysis the other day and that game (aside from its rather stupid AI) feels like it came out yesterday.
We really haven't gotten past Ultima Underworld, Crysis, and Thief in many areas. That's pretty sad.
+lakie92 Yeah they "tried" to adapt the mainstream marked but what they really did was turn away from it. Modern slow paced stealth gameplay with the same five or six guards walking in a circle for every 'stealth-puzzle room' you enter is really boring and was never taken well by the mainstream anyway. Even good games like Deus Ex Human Revolution or Dishonored suffer from tedious stealth gameplay despite being good at delivering the stealth fantasy thematically and through action. Thief 4 would have had a much better chance with the mainstream if they used the more fluid "explore while tiptoeing around guards" gameplay of the classic thief's.
My best friend had Thief when we were kids, and I never actually played it myself till I bought it on Steam last year. I absolutely love the stealth system and it's amazing how well it's aged.
hope you played thief 2 the metal age afterwards. imo improves on everything Thief 1 was good at plus A super good story with a super badass and unique antagonist
not enough thiefery and too much crazy fuckery in my opinion. but still a very good game I agree on that @Lord Bafford
@Lord Bafford Yeah Cathedral was really great and you could cut through the atmosphere thats true. Still like Karras as an antagonist more. the narcissistic genious/madman with a plan to destroy all organ life. really loved the way they told his story. never really showing him (until the end at the chamber) but still managing to make you fear that guy was a stroke of genious if you ask me :).
like I said, im not really disagreeing on you that Thief 1 was great. just a taste thing I guess
@Lord Bafford bought it but never really liked the new graphic style of the game. watched a lets play to enjoy the story which was still very good.
Extra maps and community mods are also good.
Fantastic visuals to go alongside Paul's narration. Thank you again for featuring us!
OtherSide Entertainment you guys are my fav and ive grown up with your games and its a dream to see the old looking glass people together again! Btw otherside sounds very much like looking glass reincarnate ;)
OtherSide Entertainment please make a legit another stealth game like Thief!! Noting else comes close to the immersion and art style of the originals.
For your Thief cravings, check out the Dishonored games, they are superb stealth-based titles. They aren't as good as Thief as pure stealth games - partly because you become powerful enough that being found isn't near as scary as in Thief, but they are still superb games. Prey also has some pretty good stealthy gameplay, but is more of a spiritual System Shock successor.
I'm surprised I haven't heard of this studio until now, I've been a big fan of the original Thief series of games (The Dark Project and The Metal Age, Thief 3 was alright but that was Ion Storm). Can't wait for System Shock 3 :D
dishonored comes *close* but doesn't make the grade quite :)
Thief 1 & 2 are still to this day my favorite games of all time. I've played some amazing stuff over the years, but nothing has ever quite dethroned these champs.
Looking Glass one of the best studios ever
Great interview! Not a lot of Thief fans realised how demanding it was to create the first immersive stealth game.
Yeah they do, go check out TTLG.com. Thief fans hangout.
BrokenArts
Not all Thief fans know about those forums, and not all people on those forums know about the difficulty of this game's development. Probably 90% of people who played the original Thief, if not more, have no idea about the development of the game.
By the way, Stealth Docs, love your channel.
Correct, not all no. But the die hard Thief fans, that I'm thinking of at TTLG, that have been there since the beginning, including myself. They do know. It was ground breaking. You're talking 20 years. Mind blown. Videos, any information on Thief, its been picked apart by many.
BrokenArts
A "Thief fan" is not necessarily equal to a "die-hard Thief fan." That's like someone saying "not a lot of Halo fans know this obscure fact from the novels" and then responding with "yeah they do." I get what you're saying, but you were so adamant about countering his comment completely that you spoke falsely.
Thief 1 & 2 are my two favourite games. I still play them through each year.
Ever played some of the fan missions? There are literally a thousand of them around and a lot of them are really, really good!
I tried a handful back in the day but i guess i picked the wrong ones and didn't enjoy them much. Are there any essential ones people recommend?
Some of the most well-liked ones are:
The Seven Sisters by Lady Rowena - pretty much one of the best FMs ever made, must play
Ominous Bequest and Broken Triad by Eshaktaar (BT is a sequen to OB, they're both great)
Godbreaker, a recent-ish campaign (about a year old now) by Random Taffer with an amazing swamp level, and a really cool city level after that
anything made by skacky, this guy makes great classic Thief 1 style city missions, except much larger. Very atmospheric. Endless Rain is his best.
In the same vein as skacky's missions are those made by Melan. Try his mission Disorientation, it's amazing - very vertical level design.
We thieves hang out here. www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=100 That's the Fan Mission forum addy. Check the stickies for all the info you need to get started. In short you'll need to make sure your Thief install(s) are patched and current. Then you'll need to install one of the Fan Mission loaders. Then you'll just have to grab a few missions. A search should yield many many threads of people discussing favorite missions. It's very easy, free and there's many of us around if you've got a question. I personally would start with a nice gem of a mission..."Ominous Bequest."
Thanks man. I really appreciate it :)
As for immersion, this game puts many, many modern games to shame. You'd think we'd have come farther than this. Taffers...
The problem is the culture of gaming. You have fans you have developers, and you have a middle ground. Games like this come out from the middle ground. That barely exists anymore since most studios that produce passion projects get swallowed by publishers who then shut them down after they fail to do it again with deadlines and constraints that didn't exist before. Games like this sacrificed little environmental and cinematic things that aren't necessary for the overall experience without sacrificing gameplay and story.. Modern games focus on the experience and cinematics of the game and sacrifice the gameplay. Thief 2014 is a perfect example. You can't jump, fall from a ledge or do almost anything without a context cue. That, to me, made me feel like I was tremendously limited. Thief 1 is full control. Thief 2014 made me feel like I was watching the game more than playing it.
It's the loss of the middle ground I suppose.
You have indie developers, but by virtue of how that works, and the budgets (and later sales figures for most projects), such games are restricted to what can reasonably be created by 1-2 people, or at most a team of under 10 if it's a particularly successful indie studio.
Add onto this that many of these games are projects that have dev periods of 3 months or less. (quite a few much longer as well, but that's a different situation usually), and the results are quite creative, but very limited in scope.
Then at the other extreme you have the large publishers and the AAA development teams with budgets in the 100 million plus range, and teams of 300-1000 people...
Great, but the funding model of such games demands sales figures in the tens of millions, and the publishers, as a result are very risk averse and push a lot of 'focus group' crap onto devs, or otherwise force them to tack on stuff just because the publisher thinks it is a bullet point on the marketing slides that could improve sales.
What we've largely lost in the modern world is the middle ground. The game that isn't some independent dev's passion project, and isn't some huge high budget craziness, but has a team of say 30-40 people working on it and a budget more in the range of 10-15 million.
Granted, the nature of modern technical expectations hasn't helped either.
Wing Commander 3 and 4 both set records for being the most expensive games ever made in 1994 and 1996 respectively. How much did these games cost? $5 million and $7 million. And most of this was caused by lots of live action video with B and C list celebrities, which don't come cheap. (in that light, the actual budgets are surprisingly low)
Sure, we have to take into account inflation, and a rough ballpark estimate for that is you can more or less triple the budget, but that's still only into the 15-20 million range.
And remember these aren't low or mid budget titles - for the time period these are THE MOST EXPENSIVE GAMES EVER MADE.
A more typical game budget for a high profile game through most of the 90's can be said to be about 350,000 british pounds. (apologies for mixing units, but this is going off old magazines that I had access to, and those come from a variety of countries.) roughly converting to US dollars gives about $700,000, and inflation pushes that up to the equivalent of about $2 million in modern terms.
That's your AAA budget for the 90's. Your extreme high profile 'expensive' games.
You can sort of see what's happened here from that alone - the cost of working with modern technologies has been somewhat crippling, and of course, standards are higher.
Once upon a time having voice acting at all was considered a crazy and rare feature. (and frequently those voice 'actors' were just the devs themselves messing around.)
Yet nowadays a modern game is generally expected to have voice acting as a matter of course, and not just cheap, amateur voice acting, no, professional voice acting, with all the costs associated with that.
So, the workload just for keeping up with technology has gotten heavier, the expectations are a lot higher for what is considered a 'standard' feature... And thus the costs have gone way up.
What happens when things get more expensive? The people funding things get more risk averse.
And of course, it makes the middle ground much harder - because the indie developers can get away with all kinds of 'primitive' things that would probably get laughed at in other contexts - we've given them that leeway because we know they have next to no resources.
The AAA devs are expected to throw everything they can at a game, with costs associated with doing so...
But we don't really have the leeway for the middle ground - if some developers were to try it, they'd find themselves compared to AAA stuff, and of course, that likely doesn't look too favourable. It's too polished and high end to get the consideration that indie developers get, yet there isn't enough money or development manpower to compete with the AAA development teams...
We really need to find some way of getting our medium sized developers back...
Those are the ones that can balance taking a risk vs creating something of a fairly decent scope...
The large devs can't take risks, and the small ones lack the resources to do anything ambitious.
But... It's hard to see how we can recover that middle ground that's been lost.
One of my favourite things about the original Thief was the maps. Hand-drawn, incomplete, hard to navigate by, and amazingly immersive.
John Anon I never was any good at any sort of level design. Hammer editor is beyond me lol
The original Thief on pc was way ahead of its time!
Easily one of the very best games ever made. This was very interesting to hear.
Thief: The Dark Project - my single most favorite-st game of all time. Thank you, Looking Glass Studios, for this masterpiece.
The Thief series is one of my all-time favorites, an excellent blend of ideas and talent. The gold standard for all future stealth games that few games have even come close to matching.
Chaos Theory, MGS V and the new Hitman trilogy come to mind, but I would love to see a new light and sound stealth game with modern tech, it's a real dead genre unfortunately :(
@@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14 Alien Isolation, where the AI alien can track you down via your breathing into a microphone.
"We need to rewrite the entire AI system"
*footage of garret murdering the guards*
such clever editing lol
Paul Neurath you are a hero. I've never had such an immersive and enjoyable experience as Thief 1 and 2 and I really doubt I ever will.
It's been 20 years and Thief is still my favorite PC game. Thank you, Mr. Neurath (and team) for this.
More War Stories! I was very skeptical of Ars' foray into video content at first but the War Stories series is a great start. I want to hear more War Stories, and maybe ones that went badly.
Just got abs. addicted to these war stories myself. Whan an awesome find!
Ditto. Some of the titles tho border on clickbait, or at best, miss the creator’s underlying stories
Thank you for this wonderful insight on the best stealth game ever made. What an amazing engine back then, utilizing the sound, light and shadow to create immersive gameplay mechanics. I hope they can do it again after Underworld Ascendant and System Shock 3!
I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Splinter Cell is the best stealth game of all time !
Heresy. Chaos Theory and Thief 2 are brothers.
And imma let you finish but dishonored do
Thank you so much guys for seeing this through and not giving up! I havent played Thief 1&2. Im from the later generation who played Deadly Shadows and the Thief reboot. But these games would not come to be if not for your pioneering work! Thank you again!
Thief came out during the time of early surround sound. I had my first game applicable experience using sound in Thief. In total darkness , because the guard was whistling ,
I knew exactly where he was to sap him with my black jack. A whole new level of game play. Never forgotten.
Long live Garrett, Master Thief! And don't forget old Benny the taffer-guard either ;-P
I would love to see more technical descriptions of both the breakthrough on that AI system and on the sound propagation. Sounds like quite an achievement to accomplish this on such old hardware.
Thief changed how I looked at games. Those guard footstep sounds are ingrained into my brain because I spent SO MUCH TIME just sitting still in shadows waiting... waiting for that gap in their patterns so I could sneak into the next area undetected. That was an epiphany for me, I remember realizing that I was short on breath, on the edge of my seat, every muscle tense, having the a great gaming experience, and my character hadn't even moved an inch for minutes. I was having a great experience not doing anything! Now THAT is immersion. Hearing that he was trying to recreated his experience and the feeling he got sneaking into a basement and almost getting caught, that makes total sense. The most successful games, I believe, are trying to create experiences. Not just adrenaline rushes or jump scares or the Skinner-Box feedback loop, but full on experiences.
i could listen to the devs talk about this game for the next year even if it was a story about them ordering pizza, this is one of my most favorite games to ever exist it's one of the few games i play though every year or so since it's release. this game will always be installed on my PC.
This team is the reason why we now have stealth today. Wow, thank you for making it so great. A lot of things take so much time, but you all added great aspects of the stealth system right away! It’s really fun to do all those things now days too, but I’d like to see some more of these original ideas come to life. If you think about it I’m doing what these people thought I’d have fun doing in games now days. So why not have a new idea, like this one, that is fresh?
Wow. Mr. Neurath is incredibly articulate and well spoken. I've never played these games but it was a joy to listen to this man.
Thief is my favourite series of all time; thanks so much for this!
His story of giving his 10 year old sneaking expierience to the player is EXATLY what Miamotos 10 year old self experienced exploring a cave and it led to zelda.
I really think that if a person has a visceral experience when their around 10 and then they are able to turn it into a game as an adult it will lead to a great game.
That is so autistic to say it blows my mind
@@marlboroml2894 because your mind is very small.
I got molested as a ten year old. Wonder how I can make a game about that.
@@Krystalmyth Degrees of Lewdity
Really interesting concept... thanks for sharing
So glad it came out well in the end. Thief I and Thief II are my favourite games of all time, bar none. I must have played each 5 times over by now, and currently still go back and play a lot of fan missions and The Dark Mod also. Amazing stuff.
Thief TDP is still one of the top 10 greatest games ever made. Thank you so much for doing this interview. I still play this game, decades later. It is glorious. We'd love to interview these guys.
Loved Thief. God, I can't believe that it's been 20 years.
i was a kid when i first got my hands on the demo for theif, never truly understanding exactly how innovative it truly was for its time. theif will always have a special spot in my heart
Along with the Civ series, Thief 1 & 2 are among the best games ever made. I still go back and play Thief sometimes, and some of the fan-made missions are incredible.
You guys should do an interview with Jordan Thomas about how he designed Shalebridge Cradle in TDS. That is still one of the goddamned scariest places ever created in gaming.
I was never into Thief 1 or 2 but I still played them some and ya they truly were amazing. Rope Arrow pretty crazy for a game back then if you think about it.
Thief I & II still going strong with a great community over at ttlg.com.
One of my favorite games from my childhood. Great documentary, glad you stuck with making these games for me to enjoy.
I love learning more about the "behind the scenes" of my favorite games. This is a great, well produced video! Nice job!
When games were not made by market research hacks.
Actually market research hacks were the first to suggest making a stealth game like that.
th-cam.com/video/9uQEBSgf_cU/w-d-xo.htmlm53s
@KenTWOu
Thanks
@@KenTWOu thanks for sharing!
@Wish Master still not made by them now so point doesnt stand at all
Csősz Máté they are really not
This talk of dont of elect them in the first place is complete nonsense and absolutely impractical. Individually we have zero say for anything that happens systemically and they will happen whether i like it or not.
I dislike shlooters, never bought one, never played one, but they are the market trend today and will continue to happen until people in general get tired of them, independently of what i do.
I'm so glad I found this channel a few months ago, just wanted to say keep up the amazing work!
Every game designer should see these videos.
Paul Neurath's games made my childhood
I love the Thief series, my favorite one is the second. I still replay it every couple of years. Thank you for his gem.
Thief was one of my all time favorite games. Thank you so much for making this video!!!
I can already tell this is going to be my new favourite series on TH-cam. Can't wait for the next episode.
the magic of his was lotsa kids experienced this too and its wonderful that this rush, this imprint, was brought into a game. and how I loved Thief, Garrett, the characters, story, the inept guards, and the whole world. thank you Looking Glass Studios!
I feel like I struck gold by finding this channel.
Every story I hear is mesmerizing. And every game they are talking about has a very special place in my heart.
This channel is amazing!!! I love the stories. So much to learn from!
Thief and Thief II, absolute classics. Some of the greatest games ever made.
One thing I like about Thief is that if you lean your head next to a door with characters near it, you can eavesdrop and hear what they're saying whether it be conversations or just listening to noise.
The sound design in this game is amazing.
I didn't know these videos existed until today. I just watched two and this is my third! I'm so glad these types of videos are being created! Thank you for making this content!
Thief is a masterpiece, back in the days when you couldn't see through walls, but still know where the guards were based on the noise, great sound design that fitted perfectly the game mechanics
And most first person games still don't have anywhere near this depth and sophistication in physical presence in the world, sound modelling, or basic AI. It's very frustrating :
Sound modelling of modern games is actually really good. The issue is they don't use it. In terms of just presenting the sounds to the speakers modern games do quite well, but they very rarely use that same data they've got going for them in actual game-play, it's just cosmetic. Kind of like how in non-stealth games they have pretty lighting but it has no effect on actual gameplay, it just there to look nice. This poses a bit of problem when there should be overlap because the most advanced lighting and sound stuff is generally locked up in graphical software packages that are specifically designed for visuals, so it's difficult to get at the raw data to use for other stuff. Basically it's a bit of a common issue and oversight in the modular method of game design in modern times. All the development into this sort of tech went into how to make it look and sound right to the player, and the actual mechanical side for use by AIs generally gets reinvented every game, with varying levels of success.
One of the many problems that has arised from the culture of splitting the graphics and game designers into different categories.
Wow.... Thank you so much for this video. I cannot begin to tell you how much Thief 1,2 & 3 meant to me. Grew up with the first and second game. To see a new video of one of the guy's from Looking Glass talk about this just made my day. Imagine if they were to start Looking Glass again and bring out a new Thief game.
Thief experience is unmatched, I still play it to this day, love the FMs too
To this day 'Thief' remains the most immersive and exiting gaming experience I've ever had. I wish people trying to make games "cinematic" would take a closer look at the set-pieces and cutscenes of this game.
You definitely captured the experience! It was a great game and I remember it well--taking turns playing in the 90s, at my friend's house.
More of this type of content please. It is so awesome to see behind the scenes of gaming's greats.
Just begun replaying Thief recently and am blown away at how much enjoyment comes from this 20 year old game. More than any AAA title I've played recently.
I wish this was an hour longer! I'd listen to him talk all day. What a fascinating glimpse into the process behind such a beautiful and innovative game. Thief made such a huge impact on me as a young teen that I still automatically revert to Thief's stealth mechanics in dreams 20 years later. It's a game that really gets into your mind and heart. Looking Glass Studios was an amazing hub of talent, and it's tragic the company had such an untimely end.
I can't believe I'm just discovering this series now. Hands down my favorite content on TH-cam.
@5:00 he's talking about how sound from the opposite side of your head
still reaches each ear, but with the some of the harmonics filtered out.
There's a term for it, Binaural-something. There's a piece of windows software that can enable it in some games, and it's *bonkers*.
Thief did a very good job of it way back in the day.
"A game that almost didn't happen because the guards kept misbehaving."
I TOLD YOU LOT TO QUIT TAFFING ABOUT
WE NEED MORE THIEF GAMES.
Super interesting content backed by great production values. Eagerly expecting more from this series. Thanks!
More of these videos please. They have the same addictive quality as SummoningSalt's speed run videos. These could even be longer and I'd still watch to the end. Would love one on Star Wars Galaxies' economy PRE-CU. Keep it up!
4:13 OMG I remember that swimming pool! I spent a few hours on that map, putting EVERY ITEM in the pool :D Good times.
Bless you, Thief changed my life.
This series is really cool. Hats off to the team, and Tom ❤️
Keep making this series its great!
Great work keep it up. This is really keeping a part of history alive. I love it.
Thank you Looking Glass and Paul Neurath for making my childhood better.
Thief: Deadly Shadows is one of my favourite games of all time. Really cool video, thanks for sharing!
I miss those games so much -- they were so well done and immersive. Thank you for making this video -- it was wonderful :-)
I simply love the three Thief games. The story, the suspense... Everything.
I really like to see a new Thief game in the style of the old games.
Destruction Derby 64 was one of the best game Looking Glass Studios have made and is very overlooked. Simply perfect
And what about Flight Unlimited?
It's amazing all the technology that the Looking Glass folks made decades ago that few games today even DARE to attempt. Valve did too in their own way with their animation systems. I wish today's world weren't all about crushing anyone creative and capable in order to build yet another installment of money printing machine. The young people of this generation will have no idea the things they're capable of because of this utter failure.
More interviews like this please!
I only finally played (or rather, binged through) the original 3 games last year for the first time ever, and it's one of my favorite series of all time now. I can't believe I missed out all these years. The world-building is just absolutely incredible.
One of the best gaming series ever. I played each of them.
One of my favourite games of all time. Garett is one of the best characters of all time too.
Man, I'm really loving this series. I'd love to hear one from Turbine about Asherons Call. They never intended to allow players to slide around while casting spells and were never able to fix it, but it resulted in an extremely rich PvP system which no other game even to today has been able to match.
Ironically, everything they couldn't fix just kept making the game better. Only game I've ever experienced where a player could single handedly take out 5+ other players with no level advantage(or even a disadvantage) if he was skilled enough.
Loving this format
That's a really great and interesting series you got going there.
One of my absolute favorite series ever.
This is by far the best game ever created. So much was focused on the story and character,and the gameplay was part of that story. The goals of s mission could completely shift to fit new events. They made a great game.
Then they went under and closed shop. But they did one thing that was brilliant. They gave away the level editor. A massive community spring up from its ashes of users who made their own missions that even exceeded the original game in quality and scope.
This made me appreciate Thief even more now. Wow. It's so complex! I'm so thankful they didn't give up!
Love these interviews! It would be awesome if you y'all at Arstechnica land interviews with the developers of X-Wing, TIE Fighter, or the old MechWarrior games.
First Game It was
Dark Camelot (1996 Demo I guess)
then the is
The Dark Project (Prototype 1997)
And Thief was Born 1998
My favorite game of all time! It was so VERY immersive that when I was heavily into it I often found myself plotting a course through shadows while walking down the street.
One of my all time favorite games. I still play T1-3 to this day. The fan missions on top of it are also amazing. Darkmod as well
I remember playing the demo of this over and over again when it came out. My brother and cousin would crowd around and we would each play through how we wanted. It was a truly fantastic experience! That first level set the tone for me and when I finally got hold of the full game I was super disappointed that it largely left its thief-like theme behind in favor of being more like a stealth shooter where you fought supernatural enemies. I didn’t get past the third level.
Ahhh Thief, one of the best games of all time! I spent years being a huge fan, highly involved in the modding scene (which is still going, by the way!). Always cool to hear stories like this.
I had put Thief on the shelf for a good while because I'd gotten to a level I wasn't greatly enthused by (Cragscleft Prison) but I recently picked it back up a few days ago and have been chewing through levels. What a great game. It still plays impeccably well for a game that's almost as old as me. One of the OG stealth games for a reason.
I love these videos. So epic to see how these engineers revolutionize game mechanics.
Great video, unfortunately marred by adverts every couple of minutes which break its flow and remind me why I should never watch TH-cam on mobile where I have no adblock facility.
I accept ads even if they ruin the experience. Nobody has to make wonderful videos like this for free.
Thief is easily my favourite game of all time. The level of immersion, tension and depth was like nothing I’d ever experienced in a game. I spent a full year playing the hell out of it on Master difficulty. When I completed the final level it was almost a spiritual experience. Very nearly like saying goodbye to a loved one. Have never forgotten it. Thank you, Looking Glass.