Thanks to The Escapist and game video production studio Down Right Epic, here's an edited version of my recent interview with game design luminary Warren Spector, interviewed before a live audience in Sinespace. I'm joined by Russ Pitts of the Escapist (with the cowboy hat and scarf), and Adam Frisby, lead developer of Sinespace (wearing the Deus Ex-style business suit) and by dial-in Will Teixeira, Warren’s Lead Engineer at OtherSide Entertainment. (I also had to do the interview via dial-in, so my avatar isn't featured.)
Our conversation touches on many topics, including the new game he worked on, Underworld Ascendant (on sale on Steam right now), his upcoming game System Shock 3, developing in Unity, his skepticism with VR, and much more. Here's highpoints of our near-hour long conversation annotated by timecode:
- 45 seconds: Warren on getting OtherSide Entertainment out of startup mode and launching Underworld Ascendant as its first game. (Which was the #1 game on Steam on launch day!)
- 1:27: Warren reflects on a series of articles he wrote in 2006 for Escapist (“Gaming in the Margins”) predicting that indie games, not AAA, would be the future of games, and how that came to pass through platforms like Steam and Unity, and the growth of education programs for game developers.
- 4:30: Warren talks about the relationship between Underworld Ascendant and the groundbreaking PC game Ultima Underworld, which he produced in 1992, and discusses the influence of that game on the simulation genre in general.
- 8:02: Warren discusses the Underworld Ascendant characters which were imported into Sinespace to join Warren on the show, and the role they play in his game.
- 9:40: Warren discusses emergent problem-solving in UA. “I tell my team the word ‘puzzle’ is not allowed in this studio… We create challenges, we create problems, then we give the player tools to solve those problems and overcome those challenges.”
- 12:05: Russ and Warren talk about how high-end graphics in AAA games are becoming a limit on development — and how Otherside is dealing with this challenge, including the highly stylized look of UA which is inspired by miniatures gaming.
- 15:20: Warren and Will from his team discuss the advantages of creating immersive worlds in Unity.
- 18:04: Warren discusses the development cycle of UA.
- 19:10: What’s next for Warren after such a long and storied career, most recently after the end of his stint at Junction Point and Disney, and the founding of OtherSide Entertainment. Russ and Wagner ask what brings him back? And will he get back to creating more Deus Ex games?
- 22:26: Warren talks about Otherside’s development of System Shock 3, how the studio got the license to make the sequel, and what we can expect from the game.
- 25:00: Why Warren is skeptical about VR, which he predicted three years ago had deep “cultural and social problems”. Warren then goes on to talk about VR hype, its future and uses, his own experiences working on VR games back in the 90s — and worrying about your wife coming up from behind you with a baseball bat when you’re in virtual reality.
Much more notes below!
- 31:33: Adam asks Warren about whether he’s interested in developing mobile/tablet games — and the kinds of games he personally plays on mobile and tablet. And also, what his favorite game platform right now is.
- 33:40: Audience member “Binary Split” asks Warren if there’s a limit to the fundamental scope to immersive sims. Warren talks about that and replayability of immersive sims like Deus Ex — and meeting a hardcore JC Denton cosplaying fan who played Deux Ex an incredible number of times.
- 35:50: Audience member “Julie in 3D” asks about the role of procedural generation in immersive sims and rogue-likes, versus the curated environments that Spector favors.
- 37:11: Audience member “Rogue Gastel” asks about the best way of optimizing frame rate performance in Unity; Warren’s engineer Will offers some tips.
- 38:40: Audience member “Binary Split” asks Warren what has changed from the 90s when Warren was working on multiple games at Origin at the same time, and can he go back to that? Warren talks about his approach then, versus the AAA approach favored by jhis colleagues at Origin, Richard Garriott and Chris Roberts.
- 42:02: Digvijay on the Sinespace team asks Warren’s opinion about downloadable content — and whether DLC is coming to UA.
- 43:40: Michelle on the Sinespace team asks Warren to share basic advice for people who want to get started in games — and break into the industry. Warren mentions that when hiring people, he looks for people with wide interests *outside* of games: “Don’t neglect the humanities… The quickest way to *not* get a job with me is to say, ‘I play games all the time, that’s what I do!’ Everybody loves games, but if all you do is play games and you don’t read, and you don’t play sports, and you don’t go to movies, and you don’t listen to music… all you’re going to bring to the table is old ideas. So have a life, you know?”
- 45:50: Russ has closing words of thanks to the Sinespace team and how it reflects The Escapist’s editorial goals going forward.
Disclosure: Sinespace is a sponsoring partner to New World Notes.
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