warren-spector posts

After a slow week things are picking up on the news front. We wonder what will be revealed tomorrow?

• Steam owners can now pre-order the PC version of the Crysis 2 Limited Edition.
• Garry's Mod now supports the character models of Half-Life 1. Cool stuff.
• A new beta update for Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II Retribution has been released.
• Warren Spector, who helped create the original System Shock and the Deus Ex games, is writing a monthly Duck Tales comic book. This is not a joke.
• A live action fan video has been released that combines a zombie outbreak with, of all things, Minecraft.
• Listen to Duke Nukem do what he does best; one liners.

While Eidos Montreal is working hard on Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we could have had a spiritual successor to the first two games in the sci-fi RPG series from the man behind those classic games Warren Spector. In a new chat with the Develop web site Spector admits that he pitched such a game to the higher ups at Disney Interactive.

However he figured beforehand that the Disney execs wouldn't go for his game idea and he says, " ... I was right. The guys started texting in the middle of the meeting. I was convinced they were not interested." Instead Disney pitched an idea to Spector that eventually became his next game, the upcoming Wii exclusive Epic Mickey. However that sci-fi game idea might still happen in some form. Spector says, "Disney now owns the IP to it. So who knows – I certainly have ideas of how they would work in a Disney context."

The keynote speaker for PAX Prime 2010 (that's the one in Seattle for those of you keeping score at home) has now been announced via a "tweet" from the official PAX Twitter page. It will be handled by none other than Warren Spector who has a huge list of memorable PC games he's been in charge of (Ultima Underworld, System Shock, Deus Ex and more). Of course he's now working at Junction Point Studios for Epic Mickey for the Wii but perhaps he will use this keynote speech to announce his return to PC gaming . . . right Warren?

By the way, this year's PAX Prime, to be held in Seattle on September 3-5, will be a little different in that the main stage for the keynote and other events at the show will actually be off-site from PAX's home base, the Washington State Trade and Convention Center. According to a post on the PAX message boards, the big theater events will be held at the Benaroya Hall which is about a five minute walk from the convention center. The upside to this is that this will free up space to expand PAX's exhibit hall. Oh, and if you want to go to PAX this year you had better hustle as tickets for the show are going fast . . .

The man who helped to create the first person shooter genre is now being honored for his many accomplishments by his peers. id Software co-founder John Carmack will be given the annual Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards. The award will be given out in San Fransisco during the Game Developers Conference on March 11.

Carmack co-founded id Software back in 1991 and his graphics engine technology was the basis behind the launch of the first person shooter genre with id's games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. He's also been a highly influential person in the development of PC graphics technology, particularly the hardware 3D acceleration trend that began in the late 1990s. Carmack is working on id's latest graphics engine, id tech 5, that will be used in id's two upcoming games; Rage and the next Doom game.

In related news, it was announced that the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will see Junction Point Studios founder Warren Spector as its host.

Warren Spector, despite the fact that he has (temporarily we hope) left the PC game space to work on some Wii game called Epic Mick-something-or-other, is still in love with the Deus Ex game franchise. How much? So much that, according to a new Variety article, he tried to buy the rights to the series from its current owners Eidos. Unfortunately for us, he failed.

Spector clearly wants to work on the franchise saying, "There were and still are 'Deus Ex' stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me." Eidos' Montreal studios are currently working on Deus Ex 3 but they have been extremely quiet for the most part on their progress since the game was announced two years ago.

For the past few weeks we have been learning more about Epic Mickey, the upcoming Wii exclusive RPG that's being developer at Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios. Yet the man behind the Thief and Deus Ex series said that the game actually started out a a PC game (alongside the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles).

So what happened? According to a chat with Spector at the Official Nintendo Magazine he didn't want to make a Wii port that wouldn't be as good as the other versions. He would also like to concentrate on one platform. The solution turned out to be simple. Just make the game for the Wii and the Wii only. Still, it will be great when and if Spector decides to return to PC game making. One can only hope.

We've all heard comments from game industry reps saying how "cheap" PC and video games are compared to other entertainment media. However the fact is that no matter how many hours you may spend with a game you still have to deal with higher prices up front compared to renting or buying a DVD or downloading music.

Legendary game developer Warren Spector (currently head of Junction Point Studios) says it's time that the game industry take a good hard look at the pricing of their products. Gamesindustry.biz reports that Spector, speaking at GDC last week, stated, "We've been a niche medium that over-charges for its product and therefore generates a lot of revenue which makes us a little bigger than Hollywood, which is crazy."

Spector says the industry should go after the impulse entertainment market for its prices. He says in the article, "If I've got a 20 dollar bill in my pocket I can go buy a book, go to a movie, but I can't buy a game. I can buy a CD, I can do so much even now, but you cannot buy a game." To be fair you can in fact buy some games for $20 out of the box or wait until their prices go down months or even years after release. However it's clear that Spector's comments go after the vast majority of retail game products that are priced at $40, $50 and $60 (even more if you talk about collector's editions).

We have been waiting for a long, long time to find out some real details on the first game from Junction Point Studios. The Austin based company was founded by Warren Spector way back in 2004 but has yet to produce one game. In 2006 the company was bought, unexpectedly, by Disney Interactive.

Now Gamasutra is reporting that they have seen concept artwork that they believe may be from Junction Point's first game which they say is code-named "Epic Mickey". One such image has a scene where "machines wearing the faces of the Seven Dwarfs deposit old-fashioned renditions of Disney characters onto the beach with mechanical hands." All of this info tracks with earlier statements by Spector himself who on his own blog predicted some of his Deus Ex and Thief fans might not care about his next title. At the time he stated, "I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them".

Forbes's newest look at games takes a gander at the whole "hardcore vs casual" games debate, arguing that while hardcore gamers spend more per person the rise of the casual gamer may become more important to the games industry. The article contains some quotes from legendary game designer Warren Spector who has been working in near secrecy for the past few years at Austin based Junction Point Studios.

The dev studio was bought over a year ago by Disney Interactive and while the Forbes article doesn't reveal details, Spector seems to believe their first game under their new owners could make fans of his previous titles like System Shock, Deus Ex and Thief upset. Spector states, "I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them. I don't believe I'm compromising on my gameplay ideals at all. [But] any artist who doesn't want his or her work in front of the largest audience possible is nuts."

It was a huge shock when it was announced at E3 last year that Junction Point Studios, the Austin, Texas based game development studios formed by legendary designer Warren Spector, was purchased by Disney Interactive. Since then there's been little word on what Spector and Junction Point have been working on for Disney but in a new post on his personal blog site Spector reveals a tiny bit more about the project.

According to Spector, "My team and I have been working hard on our own and (get ready for the cool factor to go way up) in collaboration with folks from Disney Feature Animation and Pixar. If I say anymore, I'll get in trouble, so let's just leave it at that." Hmmm . . . that would suggest that Junction Point might be working on an adaptation of an upcoming Pixar film. Or something based on a previous Pixar movie. Or something totally original. Hmmm . . come to thing of it we don't really know much more than we did already. Oh well. Spector also talks about his current Facebook obsession and playing Guitar Hero: On Tour.

[Via Joystiq]