Thief Lead No Longer With Project

[sbp]

Not a positive sign for this to happen with the game so close to release.

http://www.avault.com/news/displaynews.asp?story=422004-144750Master thief Garrett may be getting a new partner in crime. The Adrenaline Vault has learned that Randy Smith is no longer the project lead of Thief: Deadly Shadows. Smith has been credited with contributions to Thief: The Dark Project and Thief II: The Metal Age going back when the series was developed at the now defunct Looking Glass Studios. He made the move to Texas-based Ion Storm Austin with other members of the team when Eidos purchased the rights to the franchise and shifted development to Warren Spector's studio. The third Thief title has been in production for more than three years and - according to online retailers Gamestop and EBGames - is currently slated for release on the PC and Xbox in May. Eidos was unable to return messages seeking comment before the publication of this report.Wonder if they are going to screw up Thief 3 ala Deus Ex 2.

Warren Spector's statement posted at Ion Storms forum mentions "some internal friction and unresolvable conflicts that led to Randy's departure." http://66.193.119.177/index.php?showtopic=209337

[Edge]

Hmm, strange that he'd quit now. Isn't the game coming out in a few months? Oh well, still looking forward to it.

[jAkUp]

I dunno.. I'm quite scared.. after the disaster of Dues... Please dont screw up thief.. please!!!

[NAZCA M12]

BTW, have you guys signed up the SDK petition? http://www.thiefpetition.com/index.html They have already screwed Thief III a la Deus Ex 2. After the enthusiastic welcome of IW by the majority of gamers, they are now trying to unscrew it. Unfortunately it's rather late. Which is why it makes it even more important now to get the SDK...

[jAkUp]

Man, I have some really good memories of Thief1 demo on my voodoo2... what a game.. Funny that most games today can't match the AI it had. :)

I'm just hoping this can bring back come good memories, and I much admit, I'm a little disappointed in the 3rd person mode... sure I can disable it, but usually games that have both seem a little "floaty" in 1st person mode. I wish they would design the game around it. Seems its just gonna be like Splinter Cell or something. Hopefully I'm wrong.

[Ninja Prime]

Probably because he saw what a peice of crap they had created and didnt want to get the same thing the guy that raped Deus Ex 2 did. Remember all the hate that guy got?

This sucks.

[NAZCA M12]

Yeah you're talking about Harvey Smith. But Harvey can't really be held responsible for what happened to IW. It was obviously the multi-platform path they chose to do with the game and the fact that they tried to pass that to the PC community as a great thing. In the end it ended up looking as a bad Xbox port. Not to mention that "gamers are gamers" as Spector said or the pressure they had from Eidos to release the game at X-mas.

I'll say two things about the dude who did the main coding on the previous games AI: 1) He's name's Tom, and 2) he works for Valve now. But i'll ask again: Have you guys signed the SDK petition? It's important because all the things that were cut from the game (apparently rope arrows, sword, water, mini-maps that only require aprox 64Mb's or RAM etc a la IW) can be turned around IF we get our hands on this.