Warren Spector
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Warren Evan Spector | |
 Warren Spector in 1999
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| Born | 1955 |
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| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Spouse | Caroline L. Spector |
Warren Spector is a veteran computer game designer. He is known for having worked to merge elements of role-playing games and first-person shooters. He currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, fantasy writer Caroline Spector.
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[edit] Education
Spector earned his BS in Communications at Northwestern University and MA in Radio-TV-Film at the University of Texas in Austin.
[edit] Career
Before entering the computer game industry, Spector worked for Steve Jackson Games producing role-playing games. Most 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. He is also credited with working on Top Secret/S.I.
Subsequently he worked with Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios. He worked on games including Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, and worked briefly on Dark Camelot, which later became Thief: The Dark Project. Later he founded Ion Storm Inc.'s Austin branch, which went on to develop Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Thief: Deadly Shadows before being closed by owners Eidos Interactive in February 2005.[1]
In 2004, Spector left Ion Storm to "pursue personal interests outside the company".[2] In 2005, it was announced that he had established a new studio Junction Point Studios[3], 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.[4] A job advertisement for the studio called for artists for a game that has "classic Hollywood cartoons" featuring "cartoon mice, cats and wabbits". On July 13, 2007, it was announced that Disney Interactive had acquired Junction Point Studios.[5]
According to his blog,[6] Spector's top twelve favorite video games are as follows: (alphabetically)
- Diablo
- Guitar Hero
- Half-Life
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (changed to M.U.L.E. in his post-GDC2k8 blog post)
- Suikoden
- Super Mario 64
- Tetris
- Ultima IV
- Warcraft II
- Ico
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
[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 System Shock he voices one of the log files. In Deus Ex, the face of the character Ford Schick was modelled after him; in addition, "iamwarren" is one of the game's cheats (it causes electronic devices in the player's vicinity to malfunction spectacularly, a joke by the development team).
[edit] Credits
[edit] Video games
- 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
- Toon (role-playing game) - Developer, (1984), Steve Jackson Games
- Uncanny X-Men Boxed Set - Editor, (1990), TSR, Inc.
[edit] Novels
- Double Agent: Royal Pain/The Hollow Earth Affair by Richard Merwin/Warren Spector ISBN 0-88038-551-0
[edit] References
- ^ Tor Thorsen. Ion Storm closes its doors. GameSpot. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
- ^ Tor Thorsen. Warren Spector exits Eidos. GameSpot. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.
- ^ Curt Feldman & Tor Thorsen. Warren Spector resurfaces at Junction Point. GameSpot. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
- ^ Simon Carless. Spector's Junction Point Working On Steam-Distributed Title. Gamasutra. Gamasutra. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
- ^ Martin, Matt. "Disney swoops for Spector's Junction Point Studios", GamesIndustry.biz, GamesIndustry.biz, 2007-07-13. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
- ^ Spector, Warren (2007-09). Warren Spector's blog. Retrieved on 2007-11-07.
[edit] External links
- Junction Point Studios developer blog (usually Warren Spector, but sometimes other team members)
- Junction Point Studios, Inc. official website
- 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
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