The 10th and final part of the interview series with members of Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), the company that wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

The guest of our final installment is Paul Neurath, co-founder and creative director of Looking Glass from the day it opened to the day it closed a decade later. In this nearly two hour interview I speak with Paul about the breadth of the company's history, including how it came into existence, what made it focus on innovation the way it did, and why they eventually (and suddenly) closed.

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CLOSING COMMENT: We may do some encore podcasts in the future should the right people (the mythical Doug Church for example) become available, but for now this is it. Ten interviews, over 10 hours. An admittedly incomplete but hopefully illuminating oral history of one of the most important game developers ever. Hope you found it useful.

Part 9 of a continuing series, where I interview members of the now-defunct but highly influential Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), which wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

This week is Terri Brosius and Dan Thron. Dan was an artist/animator on Terra Nova, System Shock 2, and all three Thief games, doing much to solidify the look and feel of the Thief universe. Terri was a voice-actor in both System Shock (as SHODAN) and Thief (as Victoria) as well as a writer/designer for Thief, doing much to shape the overall story arc of the franchise.

I talk with Terri and Dan about how they got into the industry, what influenced them in their contributions to the Thief franchise in particular, and what they consider good storytelling/world building in video games (and why it seems to be so scarce).

If you ever wanted to know who to thank for Thief's infamous eyeball-plucking scene check it out!

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To subscribe to the RSS Feed, enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/LGSpodcast in to your podcast client or RSS reader of choice. http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2012/01/looking_glass_studios_intervie_6.php http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2012/01/looking_glass_studios_intervie_6.php Audio Interviews Looking Glass Studios Podcast Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:26:52 -0500 Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

Part 5 of a continuing series, where I interview members of the now-defunct but highly influential Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), which wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

In this episode I talk with Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games and mastermind of the Bioshock series, who got his start as a writer/designer at Looking Glass. Ken was one of the main creative forces in the early days of Thief, helping to shape its eventual story, world, and core mechanics. I talk with him about his memories of working at the studio, his writing and creative process, and how his experience at Looking Glass relates to his later work at Irrational Games.

If you ever wanted to know what film noir has to do with Thief or whether the Master Builder really exists, check it out!

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To subscribe to the RSS Feed, enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/LGSpodcast in to your podcast client or RSS reader of choice. http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/06/looking_glass_studios_intervie_4.php http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/06/looking_glass_studios_intervie_4.php Audio Looking Glass Studios Podcast Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:34:22 -0500 Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

Part 4 of a continuing series, where I interview members of the now-defunct but highly influential Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), which wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

In this episode I talk with Thief level designer extraordinare Randy Smith. Randy created some of the most memorable levels in the Thief series, often bringing the more horror-inspired elements (zombies, ghosts, mysteries) of the Thief universe to the fore. We talk about his approach to level design and how it developed and evolved in the creative environment of Looking Glass before seguing into some of his post-Looking Glass work, including his role as project lead on Ion Storm's Thief sequel (Deadly Shadows) and his indie company Tiger Style, makers of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.

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To subscribe to the RSS Feed, enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/LGSpodcast in to your podcast client or RSS reader of choice. http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/06/looking_glass_studios_intervie_3.php http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/06/looking_glass_studios_intervie_3.php Audio Looking Glass Studios Podcast Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:06:22 -0500 Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

Part 3 of a continuing series, where I interview members of the now-defunct but highly influential Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), which wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

In this episode I talk with Tim Stellmach and Laura Baldwin. Tim was lead designer on Thief and Thief II, as well as a designer on Underworld II, System Shock, and Terra Nova. Laura was a designer/writer on Thief. She also worked in System Shock 2.

Again we are joined on this podcast by Sara Verrilli, QA on System Shock and designer on Thief and Thief 2.

The discussion mostly covers Thief, though there is some discussion of other projects. If you want to find out where lingo like "taffer" comes from, or what it means, be sure to check it out!

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To subscribe to the RSS Feed, enter http://feeds.feedburner.com/LGSpodcast in to your podcast client or RSS reader of choice. http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/05/looking_glass_studios_intervie_2.php http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/2011/05/looking_glass_studios_intervie_2.php Audio Looking Glass Studios Podcast Fri, 06 May 2011 19:06:29 -0500 Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab

Part 2 of a continuing series, where I interview members of the now-defunct but highly influential Looking Glass Studios (1990-2000), which wrote the book on 3D first-person narrative game design throughout the 90s, in such games as Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief.

In this episode I talk with Dan Schmidt, who was with the company from its very early days (back when it was called Blue Sky Productions). A programmer by vocation, but filling a variety of roles from project management to design to music composition, Dan helped set the tone for the company's subsequent creative output in early projects like Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II.

The podcast covers these projects, as well as Dan's work on Terra Nova, the ambitious squad-based robot sim, and his work in the early stages of Thief before moving on to work at Harmonix Music Systems in its early, pre-Guitar Hero days.

If you want to know what NHL '92 has to do with both Ultima Underworld and Rock Band (and who doesn't?) give it a listen.

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GAMBIT is proud to present the Looking Glass Studios Interview Series, an audio podcast series in which we chat with various people who worked for the legendary developer (famous for groundbreaking franchises like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief) before it tragically closed its doors in 2000.

Up first: Austin Grossman. Grossman is a writer, game designer, and novelist who worked at Looking Glass in its early years. In this podcast he discusses his work on Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds and System Shock, the latter of which was highly influential in laying the foundations for modern environmental narrative design. Grossman also discusses his post-Looking Glass work, on such projects as Jurassic Park: Tresspasser and Deus Ex, and the tricky challenge of being a writer in today's commercial games industry.

Joining Austin on the podcast are two other Looking Glass alums: Andrew Grant, who also worked with Austin on Trespasser (for Dreamworks Interactive), and Sara Verrilli, who worked on System Shock. Andrew and Sara currently work for GAMBIT, and reminisce with Austin on how they grappled with the experimental nature of these games.

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See a transcript here.