Up until now, Deus Ex and System Shock creator Warren Spector has been somewhat quiet. The world knew that, having left Ion Storm, he'd set up Junction Point Studios and that a Source-powered and Steam-distributed game would be forthcoming - perhaps, as Net hype would have it, dealing with animated issues such as 'cartoon mice, cats and wabbits'. But now, accompanied here by his crazy dog Maggie, the man himself has spoken out exclusively to our comrades in arms over at PC Zone...
What was it that spurred you on to start up your own development studio? There are all sorts of reasons to do a start-up - all of them more or less rooted in insanity! Mostly, it was the fact that I'd been working for publishers for so long and wanted to try living and dying by my own mistakes, rather than having to deal with mistakes others imposed on me. I make more than enough of my own mistakes, I assure you! Also, I'd gotten so into publisher-level stuff that I wasn't able to be as involved as I wanted to be in, oh, you know, the games... I wanted to be part of something smaller, tighter, more team- and project-focused, less business-focused. Although, I was clearly smoking something when I thought a start-up would allow me to be less business-focused! I'm still knee-deep in non-game stuff, sadly!
Where did the name Junction Point come from? Back when I was running Looking Glass's Austin office and exec-producing its role-playing stuff overall, I worked with a bunch of guys on an MMORPG called Junction Point. We never got funding for it (more's the pity - it'd still be pretty state-of-the-art), but I always loved the name. Frankly, I like it even better as a company name than a game name - it seems to say so many things that are cool and important. You know, a junction point is a place where a lot of different things come together and from which you can go in a lot of different directions. I like to think the games I've worked on bring together a variety of genres and, I hope, allow players to choose their own paths. So the name kind of fits.
Is getting a new game studio up and running as hard as people say? What are the main challenges you've come across? Oh, man, the last year and a half to two years have been a rollercoaster ride! You're constantly on the edge of running out of money. You get a deal, you lose a deal, you bite and scratch and get another deal. Then you have to build up a management and tools infrastructure from scratch, build a culture from nothing - even starting with half a dozen people, you're building a team basically from scratch. Plus, you don't have a tech base, there's no PR department to help get your messages out, no business office or HR department or anything. It's been the most amazing ride I've been on in years. You go from the highest high to the lowest low... Every day. How cool is that?
How did the whole Steam release come about? Why are you pursuing digital distribution rather than the more traditional route? I'm a big believer in online distribution being a big part of our future. Valve's the leading exponent of that idea right now, so it seemed like a pretty good fit. Plus, Gabe Newell and I have talked for years about finding a way to work together on something. The timing and technology on this was right, so it was an easy call to make - for me, anyway - I won't speak for Valve! I'm just thrilled to be able to test the waters of online distribution.
Can you tell us anything about what you're working on? Nope. I've gone down the hype and hyperbole road and didn't much like it! This time, we'll talk about stuff when we actually have stuff to talk about!
Do you think gaming is in dire need of more cartoon mice, cats and wabbits? I think life is in dire need of more cartoon mice, cats and wabbits. (Having said that, people should be careful not to draw conclusions about what we're working on from minimal data...) Somewhere along the line I guess I got a reputation for making serious games, but I've always been a cartoon fanatic. I wrote my Masters thesis on cartoons, worked on two paper role-playing games that recreated the cartoon experience, and have tried forever to get some publisher to back a cartoony game. Some day...
What games are you currently excited about? What do you make of what you've seen of BioShock? All I've seen of Bioshock is a feature in the June 2006 issue of PC ZONE and a bunch of post-E3 coverage. I didn't get to see it, live, at the show. Darn you, Ken Levine! After all we've been through together... What I've seen looks awesome. The art direction is especially nice, and I have a lot of confidence that Irrational will continue making the kind of games I like to make and play. Other stuff I'm excited about? Well, damn, Assassin's Creed looks awesome. Definitely a must-play for me. Valve's episodic stuff is clearly going in a great direction. Mass Effect and Mercenaries 2 from BioWare/Pandemic look sweet, and each in its own way is up my alley, design-wise. If I could jam those two games together into one 'you got chocolate in my peanut butter' experience it might be my ultimate game! And there's a new Zelda game coming for the DS - doesn't get much better than that.
With the situation currently as it is, do you think that the Deus Ex universe will ever be revisited? I wish I knew, but you'd have to ask someone at Eidos about that. I'd love to go back there, myself. There are plenty more games to set and stories to tell in that universe. I miss the Dentons a lot... Hey, Eidos, wanna sell the IP?
please god Eidos sell him the Ip , Just finished playing project snowblind and even with it as just a waterdowned version of Deus ex invisible war (lol itself a watered down version of one of the greatest games ever) i quite enjoyed it .Ion Storm have created a universe both believable and interesting , i for one want to keep exploring it
What I'd really want is for him to pretend Invisible War doesn't exist and make a true sequel to the original, primarily for the PC (Sticking to what they know.) but with a console port (Cos my PC's s**t. )
I wouldn't say no to DX3 though, the problem with IW was that they clearly had no idea what a console game was like, it's decent enough in it's own right but compared to the first one it's a joke.
I only played Deus Ex a few months before IW came out so hadn't really paid much attention to news about it when it was finally released, played it expecting to be like the first one and the Universal Ammo was probably the biggest shock.
I so badly want Warren Spector to do another Deus Ex, if he can get his hands on it, I would be happy, but if he can't that would be an utter shame. You know i hope one of his projects are a spiritual successor to Deus Ex, like Bio Shock is to System Shock.
Thinking about the last couple of years of PC gaming I can count on one hand the times I have said 'Yes, at last, someone with sense!' This is one of those times. But it's not enough. The patient (PC gaming) is dying and only one doctor turning up 2 or 3 times a year with a sensible diagnosis is not going to keep the patient alive.
Great, another person who thinks PC gaming is dying. PC gaming is not dying nor will it die any time soon.
I'll be more than happy to be wrong and have to buy you a beer nest year DarthMorbus. (By the way, you have a dark, ominous username for someone with what seems an optimistic nature!)
I was a bit surprised when I played IW, cheeky sods nicked my name! Right now you probably think I’m just a nutter but hold on a minute & read on… At first I thought it was just some wierd coincidence, until I noticed that a certain Dave Rose was one of the producers on it. Guess who I worked with at Sony/Psygnosis in Liverpool? That’s right, the very same Dave Rose… Think I’m lying? Check the credits on WipeOut (Original PlayStation version), the programmers were Dave Rose, Rob Smith, Stu Socket & Jason Denton. Or check out the team pictures & info in the PlayStation pre-launch issue of Edge. Now try and tell me that's a coincidence!
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