LOOKING
GLASS
STUDIOS

The Making of
THIEF II
THE METAL AGE
Behind the Scenes at
Looking Glass Studios

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
	I think you can think about the new things we're doing in Thief II alooong--sorta--twooo major areas.  One, is I think we're having a--w-we're gonna end up with a lot tighter design, based on our experiences with Thief I.

(The trapezoidal box for Thief: The Dark Project is shown displayed atop a TV in a video room.)

	Um.  The uh-second thing that is gonna be new about Thief II is we're--we're gonna improve the technology of the engine some.

Tim Stellmach, Lead Designer:
	New power-ups, new creatures, a l--a--a larger number of--of things that really affect the gameplay.

(Gameplay footage from the 10th mission, "Life of the Party," on the rooftop of Sir Cullen's Keep near the beam with the three banners that overhang Baron's Way.  A guard is heard shouting, "Come out and fight me!" while the player jumps around.)

Eric Brosius, Lead Audio Designer:
	Hopefully we'll be able to expand a little bit.  Although we don't want to change the nature of sound in Thief.  We don't wanna have, like, disco tracks in the background.

(Continued gameplay footage from "Life of the Party," still on the rooftop of Sir Cullen's near the banners.  Benny is heard shouting, "Get back here, you...coward!" while the other guard is whispering, "He was just there--")

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
	Uh, we've put together a really great team for-a--for Thief II.  We've got some of the original team back.
(Footage of each person mentioned below is shown.)
	W--The Lead Designer, Tim S-St-Stellmach, was the Lead Designer on Thief.  Uh, Randy Smith was also--who's a Senior Designer on Thief II, was also one of the designers on Thief.  We've also got Sara Verrilli, who is a long-time Looking Glass person who was a designer on Thief.  We've added a bunch of new folks, too.  Uh, we've got Emil Pagliarulo who was the--uh--Editor--Editor-in-Chief at Adrenaline Vault.  Um.  A person we've worked with a--a whole lot, um, who's done a lot of voice-acting for us, in fact.  She's a really talented designer, too:  Terri Brosius.  Another new designer is Mike Chrzanowski, who's a long time game-player, an' he's come up with some really fresh, exciting, new ideas.  Uuum, Rich Carlson--"Zdim," to the uh--to the uh--Quake community out there.  Um, another really talented designer Rich brought along with him, from Ion Storm, is Iikka [Keranen].  Um, Iikka's working on some really exciting levels and his work's really turning out terrific.  We've also got a designer away from Reality Bites, who, um, he'd worked on Dark Vengeance, in the past:  Rafael [Jabulani] Brown.  And we've got a little bit of extra assistance from Mike [Michael Thomas] Ryan, who worked on the original Thief and who's also a designer on System Shock 2.
(The box for System Shock 2 is displayed, sitting upright on table.)
Tim Stellmach, Lead Designer:
	One big difference between Thief and a lot of action games, is that... it's got... a lot of story to it.  U-uh-h, th--an experience that tells the story, but that doesn't take away from the action.  At no given time are we pulling you out of the game.  You get some information in your briefing and some information in cutscenes.  You hear--some of it, like, overheard in conversations that we stage.  All told, I think I counted up--one day--like...seven or eight, like, individual little ways that we--that we...send out little tiny packets of story at you.

(Gameplay footage from "Life of the Party," inside the apartment where the two bumbling thieves are breaking in.  The player is at the top of the stairs taking a thief down while the guard down below is saying, "--you!  Gotta stop jumpin' at nothing.")

	The... game-concept in Thief was developed in stages.  We--sh'actually started off with a completely different game:  Dark Camelot [Dark Camel, Dark Engine, Camel, Dromedary, DromEd], where it was this sort-of Arthurian setting, but Mordred was the herooo, King Arthur was this, you know, corrupt despot... and... there was this sort-of like swashbuckling... like, fight of the underdog against the Opressor.

Randy Smith, Level Designer:
	Um.  One of the biggest challenges in working with Thief II's fiction is trying to get all the mission designs well integrated into the plot.  Uh.  When I worked on the Thief plot, um, it was plot first and then missions came outta that.  And this... case, we--uh--tried to think of really good missions first.  And then, there's a little bit of retro-fitting work in terms of getting the plot to work well around... the missions.

Tim Stellmach, Lead Designer:
	All the time that you're... finding out the story in Thief, you're also playing the game.  It's integrated in.

Terri Brosius, Level Designer:
	I'm working on... a level... called..."Song of the Caverns."  And I really can't say too much more about it, because it's... secret.

Sara Verrilli, Level Designer:
	I guess one of things that I enjoy most about designing Thief levels and working on Thief... is trying to find multiple ways... for a player to solve... any given problem.

(Continued gameplay footage from "Life of the Party," inside the apartment.  The player is down the stairs, running to the window he/she presumably came in, while the guard is asking, "Who's noising about, then?"  The player exits and makes a lot of noise on the fire-escape, prompting Benny to say, "I'll f[ind you]--!")

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist:
	There are three main artists.  Um.  There is me, who's Lead Artist.

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
(A voice-over beginning with close-up footage of Mark followed by footage showing several photographs spread over a desk of architectural design studies.)

	Uhh, Mark's... such a... fanatic, when he took his vacation, he went to Europe this year, and took a... camera along with him and took thousands of pictures.

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist:
	Then 'er's Daniel Thron, who is working on the cutscenes.

(Clip of the famous cutscene wherein Garrett receives his compensation for delivering the blind Sentient to Constantine.  Viktoria's clearly heard saying, "Manfool.")

	Doing a... recurring role for Thief II and Thief I.  And he's having Jen Hrobota [Jennifer Hrobota Lesser], to help him.

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
(A voice-over, beginning with close-up footage of Jen Hrobota, followed by footage showing her working on a frame of the Intro movie to Thief II: the bronze face of a Mechanist cherub built-into a spiderbot.)

	She's doing... both 3D modeling aand, uum, some artwork, uum, in support of Dan's work on the cutscenes.

Jennifer Hrobota Lesser, 3D / Cutscene Artist:
	It's a lot more int'resting to do artwork for cutscenes where you really have a feeling for the... character.

(Clip of the cutscene wherein Garrett meets Constantine.  The shrunken-head on the mantle is grunting while Constantine speaks: "I am a collector, Mr. Garrett.  But there are some... items... that are not available for purchase.  They must be acquired using other means.")

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist:
	Matt[hew] Gilpin, right now, is working...on--he's the only artist--on Thief Gold.

Matt Gilpin, Artist:
	Probably the best--best thing for Thief is it--it really... gives a--a mood.  Like a--a--a feeling.... You have a very good sense of a--environment.

(More gameplay footage from "Life of the Party," inside the apartment.  Out of sequence.  The player has recently come in the window and decides to run past the guard up the stairs.  The guard says, "Oh well...," in Benny's voice then, "Hey!")

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist:
(Voice-over while we are shown close-up footage of Karen Wolff.)

	Karen Wolff... is helping on... the briefings.

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
(A voice-over, during Karen Wolff's close-up, followed by footage showing her working, followed by footage of an upright Flight III Unlimited box, displayed on a desk.)

	Karen is very talented.  And she worked on Flight III.

Steve Pearsall, Project Leader:
	For a Programming Team, on Thief II... Uum, we've got, um, Pat McElhatton, who's been a long-time Looking Glass person.  He's worked a--on a lot of a our, sorta, sound technology.  We've also got Bill Farquhar, who's actually done a lot of the... special effects for our flight simulator line.  A new hire... uh... Alex Duran... he's doing a lot of the--uuh--sort-of, basic technology--uuh--m'with the installer and the build system.
	A game system is a lot more than... just... a renderer.

(Intercutting between Steve Pearsall and gameplay footage from "Life of the Party" with the player sneaking around on a guarded rooftop between the upper stories of buildings, there are candles on a ledge near the guard.  I've been at this location but I can't recall where it is.)

	It's the real sum of all the... components in... the engine:  The A.I. system, the object system, the renderer, the sound.  Um.  And that's one of the things that makes the Thief engine so outstanding, is--uum--the sum-total of all of those parts... really takes the engine beyond what most other engines can do.

Lulu Lamer, Lead Playtester:
	Most people think that... playtesting is ffun, and they get to play videogames all day.

(Footage of Jesse King, Playtester, at work.)

	And... in that... they're right. [sarcastic] And it's... really fun, and you get to play videogames all day.  But... [seriously] a playtester really also... has to be... 

(Continued footage of Jesse King playtesting Thief II.)

	...really meticulous, and... [sigh] do tedious work that gets to be no fun at all.

Jesse King:
	I can read the Wheel of Fate...uuh....
Interviewer or Cameraman (Daniel Thron):
	Ah, okay.
Jesse King:
	Uuh...  Will Thief Gold ship... on... Tsk...  [Shakes his head, throws his hands up.]  
Voice in the background:
	Monday.
Jesse King:
	Monday.
(Reaches over and spins a clear plastic disc--like the ones that come with bulk CD-R's to protect them during shipping--which is mounted on a metal pin and has blue spokes and nine symbols drawn near the outer edge of it.)
Voice in the background:
(Camera pulls in to show where the Wheel of Fate has stopped.)
	Please no please no.
Jesse King:
	It's a heart!  So, uh....
Interviewer or Cameraman (Daniel Thron):
	Ooooo!  That's goood.
Jesse King:
	Things're...things're lookin' good, I must say.

Lulu Lamer, Lead Playtester:
	Playtesting allows people that don't have any idea how the game works... to... give their feedback, w--and... you know, say, "I don't understand this.  You guys have been working on this way too long.  You--you know the plot, and the story, and... and... it makes sense to you 'cause you made it up [laughs], but it doesn't make sense to us [laughing].

Eric Brosius, Lead Audio Designer:
	The Audio Department is three people.  It's myself... uum... uuh...

(Footage of each team member shown as they are named.)

	...a guy named Kemal [Amarasingham], an' a guy named Ramin [Djawadi].  It's nice to have them aboard.  They--everyon--we pretty much, everyone splits duties an' does everything.
	Thief is a... very interesting, sound-wise, because it's one of the first games that... really... ha--uses sound as a central part of the gameplay.

(Extended re-use of the clip of gameplay from "Life of the Party," in the apartment.  The player runs past the guard, up the steps.  "Hey!  What was that noise?"  The player runs to a closed door, and opens it.  "Is that you?"  Player selects a broadhead arrow, and starts aiming.  "Gotta stop jumpin' at n--."  The following is extended and re-used, too:)

	Um, you work hard on the sound and it's nice ta... to have a game that... really shows it off.  Innn Thief II, we'll hopefully be able to expand a little bit.  Although we don't want to change the nature of sound in Thief.  We don't wanna have, like, disco tracks in the background... uum...because it's not appropriate, but... hopefully we'll be able to do some more involved things.

Tim Stellmach, Lead Designer:
	So, after Thief II, obviously there's talk about Thief Threeee, there's--there's--there's talk about... um... other sorts of games.  Like, Looking Glass, of course, is also famous aside from action/adventure games, for... uh... fantasy/role-playing gaames... and, a-you know, Thief... would be... a really natural fit for that.  You know, some games have the kind of--of, like really... hit-potential, where you start seeing a-the action-figure, or the comic-book.  At Looking Glass... we have some--some tremendous art talent, that, you know, some great sculptors, great artists, guys who've done comic-book before.  Um... An' I'd like Thief to be the kind of game where you can... go down to your local comic-book store and pick up the Garrett and Viktoria action-figures.  That'd be great.

Eric Brosius, Lead Audio Designer:
	Someone asked me what I do, and I's like, "Well we... we make little... explosion sounds, and we write little... stupid songs for computer games, and we get paid for it."  Well... people go, "Jeez, how do I get that job?"

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist:
	Working at Looking Glass... [Laughs] is like working at a college dorm.

Randy Smith, Level Designer:
	You c'n work... anyy hours you want, as long as it's 18-a-day.  So, you know....

Jennifer Hrobota Lesser, 3D / Cutscene Artist:
	[Laughing] Working at Looking Glass is... a little bit like... being stuck... on a long... busride... with 50 of your brothers.

Sara Verrilli, Level Designer:
	I haven't actually worked at anyy-where else in corporate America, except when I was temping as a secretary.  It's very different [Laughs].

CREDITS:
daniel thron
camera operator / executive transvestite

fred galpern
producer / director / editor / evil herbivore

featuring
(in order of appearance)
rob $ caminos as garrett
steve pearsall	project leader
tim stellmach	lead designer
eric brosius	audio designer
randy smith	level designer
sara verrilli	level designer
emil pagliarulo	level designer
terri brosius	level designer
mike chrzanowski	level designer
rich carlson	level designer
iikka keranen	level designer
rafael brown	level designer
mike ryan	level designer
mark lizotte	lead artist
daniel thron	cutscene artist / fiction consultant
jennifer hrobota lesser	3d / cutscene artist
matt gilpin	artist / agent 7
karen wolff	briefings artist
pat mcelhatton	programmer
bill farquhar	programmer
alex duran	programmer
lulu lamer	lead playtester
jesse king	wheel of fate guru
kemal amarasingham	audio designer / dirty_wh***
ramin djawadi	audio designer / the Q

special thanks to the management,
marketing department and financing department
of looking glass studios.
thanks to the flight III, flight combat,
system shock 2 development teams,
irrational games and eidos.