Warren Spector Interview

Following the recent announcement that Warren Spector, who you probably know as the director on Deus Ex, is currently headlining a new project over at Otherside Entertainment, we get this extensive VentureBeat interview with the man that touches on a number of interesting topics.

These include Otherside’s failed attempt at developing System Shock 3, Spector’s mysterious new project that may or may not have something to do with whales, his design philosophies, and his refreshingly dismissive attitude towards NFTs.

Here’s a couple of sample questions to get you started:

GamesBeat: How long have you been actively working on it now?

Spector: I went through a pretty long phase of just developing this one or that one. I guess it’s been not quite a year. But again, remember, that was me sitting alone. It almost doesn’t count. Paul and I take this seriously. When it comes to creating something new, you want to do something special. Making games is–I call it “grindingly hard.” If you’re not at least trying to do something great–you’re going to fail most of the time, and I get that. But if you’re not trying, it’s soul-crushing. There’s no point.

I’m a relentless advocate for a particular kind of game, for immersive simulations. I’m going to do that for the rest of my life, or at least the rest of my career. If I can’t do that I guess I’ll stop making games. But in many ways it’s what I’ve been thinking about for quite a while as the next step in immersive sims. If we pull it off, people are not going to be ready for what’s going to hit them.

GamesBeat: Is it consistent with some of the themes you’ve advocated for before, like emergent gameplay over scripted storytelling?

Spector: Oh, absolutely. I have no interest–at my studios, you’re not allowed to say the word “puzzle.” We don’t make puzzles. As soon as you say the words “the player must” or “the player has to” I stop listening. It turns into blah-blah-blah. Games have always been about players showing how clever and creative they are. We remind ourselves constantly that they’re as smart as we are, and in many ways smarter. The bottom line is, we’re the only medium in human history that’s been able to engage players as partners in storytelling. That’s what I’m going to do as long as people will keep paying me to do it.