Warren Spector
$200, 300 million games, I'm a little scared about that; there aren't a lot of companies that have the resources or the courage to spend that much.
I have never been assigned a game, I have never made a game I didn't want to make. I've never done anything just to make somebody some money.
Every game has to teach you how to walk, run, talk, use.
For most developers, that kind of situation - a player figuring out how to do something that the designer didn't intend - to most developers, that's a bug. For me, that's a celebration.
I would love to take 'Ultimata Underworld' and literally update the graphics.
I remember on Deus Ex there was one programmer - Alex Durand, a guy who still works for us - he decided he was going to get through the game without ever using a weapon. I would never think to do that. And that's fine.
The basic idea for what became 'Epic Mickey' began at the Disney Think Tank.
Ideas are nothing. They're irrelevant. If you think your idea is so important, you're doomed. The reality is if you don't like one idea, I've got 299 more. If I tell you my idea, and you can execute better against that idea than I can - great; I get to play a terrific game.
The reality, for me at least, is that the finest recreation of a paper game, played on computer, pales in comparison with the actual, face-to-face experience.
Games are not about being told things. If you want to tell people things, write a book or make a movie. Games are dialogues - and dialogue requires both parties to take the floor once in a whileCollection: Party
Good stories are constructed, not found.Collection: Stories
Ultimately, all I wanted was for players to feel like they were in the real world. I wanted them to be able to apply real world common sense to the problems confronting them, and I thought recreating real world locations would encourage that kind of thinking. There's also just a real power, a real thrill, when you fire up a game and see a place you've been or want to go, and then get to do all the stuff you WANT to do there but know you'll get arrested if you try! If that isn't the stuff of fantasy - far more than exploring some goofy dwarven mine or alien spaceship - I don't know what is!Collection: Real
Creating a really believable world is just insanely hardCollection: Creating
Half-Life is the finest implementation of a game on rails anybody has ever doneCollection: Games
I'm sad but excited for the future.Collection: Excited
I remember having some problems with [the Deus Ex theme] when I first heard it and I was trying to figure out how to tell [Alex Brandon] I wanted changes. But then I noticed that I couldn't get it out of my mind. I was whistling or humming it to myself all the time. So I just kept my mouth shut and let it be. I think it's a highly addictive tuneCollection: Thinking
As the story unfolded, the cast of characters changed to match it.Collection: Character
I'm sure a lot of the hardcore folks are going to be up in arms and I'm really looking forward to getting into that discussion with them. I don't believe I'm compromising on my gameplay ideals at all. [But] any artist who doesn't want his or her work in front of the largest audience possible is nuts.Collection: Believe