For a while now I've been conducting interviews with ex-members of Looking Glass Studios. Looking Glass (1990-2000) was, of course, the developer of such influential (though not always recognized) games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. They basically wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, and I've been tracking them down in an effort to get them to share their memories -- the challenges, the regrets, the triumphs -- of how this process unfolded.
Podcast 1 features Austin Grossman, writer and designer on Ultima Underworld II and System Shock, as well as Andrew Grant, who worked with Austin on his (infamous) post-Looking Glass Dreamworks project Trespasser, and Sara Verrilli, Lead QA on System Shock. The discussion focuses mostly on where the "environmental narrative" conventions System Shock famously pioneered (which later influenced everything from Half-Life to Deus Ex to Bioshock) came from, and how they evolved and manifested even in Austin's post-Looking Glass work.
If you want to know why Bioshock would never have existed if you hadn't been able to throw fish at people in Ultima Underworld by all means do not miss this podcast.
Podcast 1 features Austin Grossman, writer and designer on Ultima Underworld II and System Shock, as well as Andrew Grant, who worked with Austin on his (infamous) post-Looking Glass Dreamworks project Trespasser, and Sara Verrilli, Lead QA on System Shock. The discussion focuses mostly on where the "environmental narrative" conventions System Shock famously pioneered (which later influenced everything from Half-Life to Deus Ex to Bioshock) came from, and how they evolved and manifested even in Austin's post-Looking Glass work.
If you want to know why Bioshock would never have existed if you hadn't been able to throw fish at people in Ultima Underworld by all means do not miss this podcast.
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This was really quite amazing. Austin Grossman's comments at the very end were really thought provoking, especially about the nature of what games do and the role of writing in them.
ReplyDeleteBecause of it, I'm playing System Shock for the first time!