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Spector Working On Steam Title

Posted by Zonk on from the letting-off-some-fresh-hot-thinking dept.

Gamasutra reports that well-known designer Warren Spector is planning a game for the Steam distribution channel. From the article: "According to information now available on the official Junction Point Studios website, Deus Ex creator Warren Spector's new firm is 'currently working with Valve on a new game using the Source Engine to be delivered via Steam'. Junction Point was founded in early 2005 by Spector, whose work in the past includes Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Thief, and Deus Ex, and who had been without an announced project since the Austin-based Ion Storm's closure at the beginning of the year."

30 comments

  1. SS3 by wickedj · · Score: 1

    It would be awesome if the title was System Shock 3 via Source engine. One can only hope...

    1. Re:SS3 by krist0 · · Score: 1

      Mate, seeing as how we are the only two to comment on this story, I guess we are the only ones that actually care :)

      I would like to see Spector do another game like Deus Ex. Like, but not the same. Get that creative mind flowin...

      --
      all you are, is all you are, i'm so sorry for you.
    2. Re:SS3 by StupidKatz · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Those titles were pure gold - landmark titles that everyone who claims to be a gamer should enjoy. ... however, there is no way I'll be running such an intrusive, overbearing piece of baggage software such as STEAM on any system I own. The stated "benefits", such as automatic patching, are actually a detriment to my administrative philosophy.

      Here's hoping they make a STEAM-less version...

    3. Re:SS3 by HiVizDiver · · Score: 1

      Well, you can add me to that list, so I guess there's three of us... :)

    4. Re:SS3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      however, there is no way I'll be running such an intrusive, overbearing piece of baggage software such as STEAM on any system I own..

      Quit repeating the shame old bullshit which is based on nothing besides earlier problems with Steam.

    5. Re:SS3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eh, fuck off. It's too intrusive, and it's a stupid idea from start to finish.

    6. Re:SS3 by illumina+us · · Score: 1

      A Deus Ex like game but a game not like Deus Ex: Invisible War please. I couldn't stand that game.

      --
      -illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
    7. Re:SS3 by StupidKatz · · Score: 1

      based on nothing besides earlier problems with Steam.

      So, they've fixed that bit about having to connect to STEAM's servers to play a singleplayer game?

      No?

      Mm.

  2. Warren...Warren... Now where have I heard that... by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    ...name?

    When I hear Warren, I think Warren Harding and Warren Beatty before I think Warren Spector and Deus Ex

    By the way, his entry on Wikipedia is still marked as a stub. Someone care to flesh it out? That might help matters.

  3. It's quiet round here.... by geoffybiggins · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ....all too quiet.

    I would have thought this post would be crusing along considering the recent discussion/complaints about how shit the gaming industry has become.

    Innovative titles anyone? Warren has done a great job to date, so what's going on? Have you all stopped caring all of a sudden?

  4. Evil Avatar discussions by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    We've been having a rather lengthy discussion over at Evil Avatar about this for a few days now.

    Of interest is the game's use of Source, using Steam for distribution, and the use of "cartoon-like" graphics. The latter has a few people worried, though who knows what it means.

    1. Re:Evil Avatar discussions by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      Have a look at the site for the sequel to Sin, Sin Episodes: Why would one have to worry about cartoon-like graphics (with the Source engine)? It seems they pulled it off ok.

      Also, Ultimate Spiderman had the cartooney-cellshaded look very right.

  5. Deus Ex Kicked Arse! by TheZorch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I still have a copy of the original Unreal Engine version of Deus Ex and its still a great game. It was a refreshing change from the same old cookie-cutter "run & shoot and shoot some more" types of FPS. The sequel, well, I've tried the demo and its really nice I still haven't gotten a full version of that yet.

    As for the Source Engine. As an owner of a copy of Half-Life 2 I have to say its an awesome graphics engine. I've been a fan of Unreal Engine series for a long time and haven't seen any other game that could surpass what Epic has been able to do, but the Souce Engine easily beats it. There are some scenes in HL2 that look absolutely photorealistic. I'd say Warren's use of the Engine is a good idea.

    As for Steam, its a good idea/bad idea sort of thing depending on your point of view. For dialup useres its a pain downloading huge full game installs and updates. Took 30 minutes to update HL2 when I bought it. DSL, cable, and high-speed WiFi users won't have that much of a problem since their downloads will go faster. Hopefully, the game will be sold in CD in stores as well as on Steam so low-bandwidth users without credit cards can get the game.

    --
    Michael "TheZorch" Haney
    thezorch@gmail.com
    http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
    1. Re:Deus Ex Kicked Arse! by Kazzahdrane · · Score: 1

      Am I the only person who really doesn't like Deus Ex much? I bought it on budget a couple of years back after having it hyped up by some friends and I wasn't that impressed. The graphics actually didn't look too bad and the story seemed quite interesting but I felt the game didn't know what it wanted to be. I never finished it though I think I got slightly further than halfway through. Of course, the game has legions of fans, and I like a lot of Warren Spector's other games so it's quite probable that I was just very late for the party and expected a lot more after the years of hearing how great it was.

    2. Re:Deus Ex Kicked Arse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, Deus Ex was one of the best games of all time. Unfortunately they followed it up with "Deus Ex: Invisible War" which was one of the worst games of all time. Maybe Mr. Spector could play like "Highlander", and pretend that DX2 never existed, and make a proper followup game.

    3. Re:Deus Ex Kicked Arse! by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Can't say I liked it either but that was because I didn't expect it to be a stealth game. Even at normal difficulty it's impossible to do anything but sneak. Well, at least for the first mission, which was the last one I played. The training mission was already more than enough stealth for my tastes so the first real mission really overstayed its welcome and there's no way I'll put up with even more of that painful gameplay. I avoid stealth games where possible but that game didn't say anything about being a stealth game on the back of the box.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    4. Re:Deus Ex Kicked Arse! by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      As for the Source Engine. As an owner of a copy of Half-Life 2 I have to say its an awesome graphics engine. I've been a fan of Unreal Engine series for a long time and haven't seen any other game that could surpass what Epic has been able to do, but the Souce Engine easily beats it. There are some scenes in HL2 that look absolutely photorealistic. I'd say Warren's use of the Engine is a good idea.

      Have you seen the next gen engine of Unreal though ? (Have a look here for some nice videos displaying total awesomeness... visually ;)

  6. Hopefully it will be good this time. by The+Ilia · · Score: 1

    Warren Spector's games have been hit or miss. I did like Deus Ex, it is one of my favorite games of all time. On the other hand, the sequel Invisible War was largely disappointing. There were good ones, like the Thief series, which was gold as far as I'm concerned, and System Shock was good too. Hopefully this new game will be a positive experience, like Deus Ex and the System Shock and Thief series', and not a disappointment.

    --
    All of the brightest boys, To play with the biggest toys - More than they bargained for...
  7. Ditto. by antdude · · Score: 1

    I agree, but the game has to be good and not crap. Doesn't Electronic Arts have the rights to this game?

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  8. Re:Warren...Warren... Now where have I heard that. by Kazzahdrane · · Score: 1

    Which would be why he was called "Warren Spector" and not just "Warren".

  9. I just can say... great! by Gollum2001 · · Score: 1

    The man behind 'System Shock', 'Thief' and 'Deus Ex' needed badly a new project out of the Eidos umbrella. Let's hope they don't destroy the Source engine the way they did with the Unreal engine in Thief III and Deus Ex II (well, at least Thief III was rather good).

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former" - Albert Einstein.
  10. Good for the game, bad for using Steam by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

    Steam was a good delivery system for HL2, despite having its first day jitters, but as a general eCommerce tool, it leaves little to be desired for.

    After buying HL2 last year, I decided to buy another game through Steam, Ragdoll Kung-fu, the experience left me never wanting to buy from them again.

    I preordered the game and on the day of release a message told me my credit card could not be authenticated. Thinking I might have just mis-typed my address or phone number or credit card number I went to reorder the game and found out I couldn't get it for the discounted pre-release price. I mean, ordering a pre-release is like reserving a copy, if your credit card failed to authenticate, you should be given a chance to rectify the situation and still get the discounted price.

    It was only $2 off, so no big deal, the real problem is that when I ensured I entere correct credit card information, they said that my credit card could not be used with my account because it has been "used too many times"??!! I mean, I only used to twice, once to get HL2 and a failed attempt to get the new game. The message was cryptic and wrong.

    Contacting customer support I found out they really didn't want to do anything, they told me I should use a different credit card and try again. Get real, I am not going to apply for a new credit card to buy a $14.95 shareware game from Steam. Steam implements some rediculous anti-fraud scheme, if they don't want your money, I refuse to give them any.

    Valve should stick with developing games because they can't develop an eCommerce solution to save their lives.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
    1. Re:Good for the game, bad for using Steam by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      On the other hand, you had me: Buying the game, over Steam, with a creditcard, without any problems.

      On the day of release I happily played it and to this day still think it's worth its 15 bucks.

    2. Re:Good for the game, bad for using Steam by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 1

      Apparently a lot of the awfully strict (and downright annoying) rules regarding credit cards are as a result of banks and credit card companies - it seems that if Valve aren't extremely careful, even a small amount of fraud could cost silly amounts of money. The existing rules and regulations just don't appear to be geared up to online-only digital distribution - perhaps this is partly why nobody's really tried it on a large scale before...

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
  11. I don't like this trend by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

    I don't like it. Sure, the goal of cutting the publishers from the picture is admirable but Steam is a rather bad implementation of the concept (which, going by the history of the tech market, will be why it'll become the leading format and encumber future generations). Especially the online-only idea is a big problem. Sure, I have online. I had online in my student home, too. Problem was that online didn't leave Steam through. So during that entire time my copy of Half-Life 2 was completely worthless. I'd have been really angry had I bought it while living there since authentication is something that usually works over HTTP or email.

    There are other problems like that enforcing latest patch stuff that prevents you from reverting to an earlier version if the newer one causes issues (let's say a crash bug related to youer specific videocard or something) and the plain fact that the warezers still get the game in a better version. Or the requirement of a credit card or involving a trustunworthy company like Pay (Up,) Pal.

    Overall I'd hate it if this trend becomes more prevalent and soon half of the worthwhile games are only available through Steam.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    1. Re:I don't like this trend by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      Dude, stop throwing up the same old shit:

      As soon as you get your game through Steam, you can backup it on any media (CD,DVD): It then creates an auto-installer which will install the game which can be played offline WITHOUT going online.

    2. Re:I don't like this trend by dupont54 · · Score: 1

      Are you really sure about that?
      If you take your backup DVD and install it on a computer which has never seen Steam or the Internet, are you sure it will work?
      I seriously doubt it, it would be absolutly meaningless from a copy protection perspective.
      I bet that if you do that, the system would still want to "activate" online your new install... The backup is useful only if you do not want to re-download some contents, but for nothing more.
      You've got to realise that on Steam you do not buy "games", but you merely pay fees to access some contents on an online service. And this access for both technical and legalese reasons is far much more volatile than even a classic EULA.

  12. Wrong link by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1

    Er, got the link screwed up: http://www.unrealtechnology.com/

  13. Wow by __david__ · · Score: 1

    Warren Spector + Source Engine?

    I'm feeling giddy!

    --
    There. Now go play some cool javascript games!
  14. The answer is TOON by VikingBrad · · Score: 1
    TOON is a cartoon role-playing game designed by Greg Costikyan and developed by Warren Spector. Had many fun sessions playing this a long time ago now.
    This would be well suited to a MMORPG, no one dies and it is designed to be fun.
    Here is more on the paper n pencil version

    http://www.sjgames.com/toon/

    Cheers
    VikingBrad