Thief Interview Continued

11 May 2009 at 18:38:01 by Tim McDonald

You've been paying attention, we hear, to a lot of the fan threads about what people would want from a fourth Thief game. Are you trying to make the Thief game that everybody wants or do you have your own ideas?

Well, again, we're glad that we've learned so much from when we launched the Deus Ex stuff. The communities of these two projects are so vocal, so protective of what they want, and one thing is for sure – they're very active! (Laughs) We're keeping our ear very close to the ground. As you may have noticed, we now have a forum up and running for Thief 4, and I said to my guys “I really want to have a forum at the very early stages,” because I want people to have a medium with which they can express their wishes, their expectations, and what they would like and not like to happen with the next Thief. Obviously we've started work, but it's always very important for the developers to be close to the community. We're listening to these people because they are very hardcore fans, and we want to bring the Thief 4 franchise to a new level, so the challenges are huge!

Are you worried at all about the fan backlash?

We're always expecting that. When you have such hardcore fans, they're protective, and they're very vocal. We understand all that, and we expect them to continue in that vein, so our mandate is to bring this game to a new level, and it's a challenge to reassure the old fans, but we want to introduce this classic franchise to new fans, so that's going to be our challenge. We won't be able to please 100% of the fanbase, but we're going to do our best to have the least compromise possible.

You've finished working on the initial concept at the moment, so looking back at the last Thief game, as that was awhile ago --

Exactly. May 2004, I think.

Right. So how easy do you think it's going to be for new players to get into this fourth game?

A classic game remains a classic. As a comparison, a good movie - even if it's made twenty years ago - remains a good movie. 2001, let's say, or Blade Runner. These films were made decades ago, but they're still very well-made and of a very high quality. Our main goal is that the essence and the spirit of these two franchises are as good now as ever before. Now we need to bring them to the highest level of technology, the highest level of design - the characters are very important, the story is important; we recognise all that, and a good game remains a good game if it's made accordingly.

Gameplay, of course, is also important to making a good game. How's that shaping up?

Unfortunately we won't be able to reveal too much of that for now. This will be maybe available in the next wave of communication.

You can't even hint at just a little bit?

Unfortunately! (Laughs)

How about the plot, then? The same city?

The setting, the character, the story, the features – anything related to the actual content of the game, we cannot discuss for now. What I can say is that people are going to be very happily surprised and impressed. I think that we've put our finger on a number of things. Innovation and originality will be important, and I think it's going to serve this great franchise very well. Even though it's a franchise that we last saw five years ago, we're going to bring a fresh look and a fresh approach. We're always respecting the history and the spirit of the game, but innovation will definitely be quite interesting.

Is it fair to say that Thief 4 is going to pay attention to the spirit of the previous Thief games, but perhaps not the mechanics so much, then?

(Pause) We'll see about that! (Laughs) Sorry, Tim. I wouldn't say it in those words, but the moment that we have more information, we'll relay it over.

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