Warren Spector Joins OtherSide Entertainment

While Warren Spector was already helping the folks at OtherSide Entertainment with the development of Underworld Ascendant as a creative advisor, he’s now decided to leave his academic position at the University of Texas and join the studio full-time, according to a GamesIndustry report. Spector will be working on both Underworld Ascendant and the upcoming System Shock 3.

I’ll quote Spector’s statement from the article:

“I’ve loved working with students as Director of the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy in the University of Texas’ Moody College of Communication,” Spector said. “But when the opportunity to have a bigger role in bringing Underworld Ascendant to life, as well as playing in the System Shock universe once again, helping to bring these games to a 21st century audience, I just couldn’t say no. Working on System Shock was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career and it’s hard to describe how much I’m looking forward to sharing with players what SHODAN has been up to since the last game was released.”

While he decided to move away from the genre in his late career, Spector should be very familiar with the kind of experiences OtherSide Entertainment wants to craft, having worked on titles such as Deus Ex, System Shock, and Ultima Underworld II. Hopefully the fact that he decided to come back to the genre and game development altogether means that the OtherSide Entertainment team is cooking up something very special. Time will tell, I suppose.