Warren Spector
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Warren Spector is a respected game designer, having worked to merge elements of RPGs and first-person shooters. He is married to fantasy writer Caroline Spector and lives in Austin, Texas.
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[edit] Education
Warren Spector earned his BS at Northwestern University and MA in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas in Austin.
[edit] Career
Before entering the computer game industry Warren Spector worked for Steve Jackson Games producing role-playing games. Notably, he developed Toon with colleague and high-school buddy Greg Costikyan. Soon thereafter, he went to work for TSR, Inc., where he spent some time in their R&D department, helping launch among other things, Spelljammer.
Subsequently he worked with Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios, on games including Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, and Thief. Later he founded Ion Storm Inc.'s Austin branch, which went on to develop the widely-acclaimed games Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows before being closed by owners Eidos Interactive in February 2005.
In 2004, Spector left Ion to "pursue personal interests outside the company". In 2005, it was announced that he had established a new studio Junction Point Studios, where he is working on an unspecified game to be built with Valve's Source engine and released through Valve's Steam digital distribution system. A job advertisement for the studio called for artists for a game that has "classic Hollywood cartoons" featuring "cartoon mice, cats and wabbits"; possibly an implementation of his tabletop RPG Toon.
Warren Spector's favorite games are The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Tetris.
[edit] Cameo Appearances
Warren Spector appears in many of the games which he helped design. In Savage Empire and Martian Dreams he appears as the scientist Johann Schliemann Spector, alias Zipactriotl. In Serpent Isle he appears as the corrupt treasurer Spektor. In the first Ultima Underworld title, he appears as "an upset specter named Warren". In Deus Ex, the face of the character Ford Schick was modelled after him; in addition "iamwarren" is one of the games cheats.
[edit] Video Games worked on
- Wing Commander (1990), ORIGIN Systems
- Wing Commander: The Secret Missions (1990), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990), ORIGIN Systems
- Bad Blood (1990), ORIGIN Systems
- Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (1991), ORIGIN Systems
- Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2 - Crusade (1991), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993), ORIGIN Systems
- Wing Commander: Privateer - Righteous Fire (1993), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima VII, Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993), ORIGIN Systems
- Ultima VII, Part Two: The Silver Seed (1993), Electronic Arts
- Wings of Glory (1993), Electronic Arts
- System Shock (1994), Looking Glass Technologies
- CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (1995), ORIGIN Systems
- Crusader: No Remorse (1995), ORIGIN Systems
- Thief: The Dark Project (1999), Looking Glass Studios
- Deus Ex (2000), Ion Storm Austin
- Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003), Ion Storm Austin
- Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004), Ion Storm Austin
Spector is usually credited as a producer, except for Deus Ex on which he is also credited as project director.
[edit] Role-Playing Games Worked On
- Toon (role-playing game) - Developer, (1984), Steve Jackson Games
- Uncanny X-Men Boxed Set - Editor, (1990), TSR, Inc.
[edit] External links
- Warren Spector at MobyGames
- Warren Spector at the Internet Movie Database
- RPGDot: "Ad Personam: Warren Spector, Ion Storm" (2003)
- Spector is interviewed on a variety of game industry related topics
- Spector on Grand Theft Auto and video game violence
- Interview with Warren Spector about Ultima VII: Serpents Isle
- Interview at DPerry.com
- Interview at EuroGamer
