The Making of Thief

The excellent Rock, Paper, Shotgun plays host to a behind-the-scenes piece into how Thief: Deadly Shadows was made. The interview, between Kieron Gillen and designer Jordan Thomas, features some very memorable quotes, and touches on the rough road that Looking Glass studios had to travel in order to get the game out the door. Thomas is also not shy about the success of the game from a design perspective, if not in other regards: "If you want to look at a good example - and the Ubi guys will admit this freely - the Splinter Cell series owes a lot to Looking Glass and Ion Storm games ... That's a great example of what you can do if you take that same sort of design philosophy, at its core, and apply it to a much better positioned franchise with a more mass-market core fantasy."

Comments

still have it, still play it

[mugnyte]

  When someone not interesting in FPS games is around and I have a machine up, I fire up Thief and let them wander around a bit. It's still a great way to introduce someone to the concept of creating a sense of place within a game. Darkness, large screen and powerful box helps deliver a good immersion. The fan missions are interesting, but after the 3rd in the series, the setting becomes a bit tiresome.

Thief and thievery

[MrCopilot]

We had a bit of nostalgia around here last night and went through a Thievery Install fest. Rediscovering (And Discovery for the young one) of the joys of sneaking around in the dark brought us much joy. Think I'll fire it up again right now.

http://www.thieveryut.com/ Runs great in wine. Total Conversion for Original Unreal Tournament, Give it a go if you haven't already. Thief multiplayer using UT = awesome.

Awesome, awesome game

[WidescreenFreak]

This game is one of the best PC games of its kind that was ever released. Splinter Cell, which is awesome in its own right, doesn't come close to the atmosphere and environment of the Thief series, especially Thief 2. And I defy anyone who loves these games to play the Sanitarium level of Thief 3 and not be freaked out. I wish that a Thief 4 would be in the works. :( Until then, I guess Assassin's Creed is the closest successor, although it's not quite the same thing.

Oh, speaking of Thief 2, I highly recommend the T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age fan-made expansion pack. It's the best Thief mod out there in my opinion. YMMV, of course.

Praise, Karras! :)