Greetings fellow thieves. I was one of the lucky people who managed to sneak into E3 disguised as a buyer. I went to the Eidos booth, and found the Thief 2 display. It was pretty basic - four computers, running an interactive Thief 2 demo. I would be lying if I didn't say I was a little disappointed. The demo was the Lost City level from the original Thief with the new 16-bit textures, colored lighting, and models.

Let me first say that the guards look MUCH less angular than before. I talked to Steve Pearsall, who was there at the booth fixing problems and answering questions. He confirmed that the new Thief models use 600 or so polys, as opposed to the 300 of the original Thief. They look MUCH better. I also asked him about "monster" levels, and he confirmed that most people didn't like the 'adventure' levels of the original Thief and that they were going to be cut. This is a real shame IMO, because it wasn't the adventure levels that people had problems with, it was that the zombies were so slooooow. Oh well. I didn't want to discuss game design theory with Mr. Pearsall, he looked busy.

The colored lighting looks pretty good. For those that remember, the Lost City had plenty of lava in it, and it was neat to see the lava pools fill the room with a ruddy red glow. The torches also threw more orange/yellowish light, which looked very nice.

Overall I wasn't impressed with the demo, BUT (and I have to stress this) I don't think it was indicative of the final product in any way. It was obviously a quickly thrown-together deal so that the staff could showcase the new engine. It didn't really show anything new, but it did do a good job of showing the improvements to the environment of Thief. Speaking of environments, I forgot to ask if they were going to include volumetric fog in Thief 2. Doh! I really hope they do.

Glad you asked. Here's the rough equivalent of the Thief 1 "The Band" web page info, before anybody stops me.

You might remember a while ago we brought Emil Pagliarulo on as a designer. We couldn't say at the time that it was for Thief 2.

In addition, I'd like to welcome Terri Brosius, Rafael Brown, Rich Carlson, Mike Chrzanowski, and Iikka Keranen to the Thief design team(s). Terri (aka Viktoria) has done contract voice acting and screenplay writing work for us before. Rich and Iikka are Thief fans from ION Storm (we think we'll even have desks for you Monday, guys). Mike brings an impressive wealth of game knowledge from the retail sales business. Rafael comes from Reality Bytes, where he was part of the Dark Vengeance team.

Mike, Rich, and Iikka are joining Emil, Randy, and me on the Thief 2 design team, while Rafael and Terri join Sara Verrilli on Thief Gold. Sara's taken a promotion to Lead Designer on Thief Gold so I dont have to do it (not that I could). Thanks, Sara, and congratulations again.

Mark Lizotte, Lead Artist for Thief 1, is still on the program, as are Dan Thron (movie and particle system artist), Jen Hrabota (sorry for forgetting your new hyphenated name, Jen) and the Looking Glass A/V all-stars.

You'll note an absence of programmers from that list. It's not like we don't need any, but we're still in the initial design and prototyping stages and have a good editor to work with. Our programming team will be determined more exactly as we get to that stage of the project.

Our Project Director for the Thief line is Steve Pearsall, current star of E3 and former department manager of Quality Assurance and Customer Service. Take a virtual bow, Steve.

I have updated my links page, screen shots, and downloads section. This time I didn't take anything from your site! :)

I think it is time now to reveal the URL where the results of the survey can be found. Not that it was already finished, or that all pages would be there. But the main results (Means and STD of the maps), and the stuff about the people who joined the survey, are already there.

Results of the Survey

I am still working on the other stuff, and with my incredible slowness (because of the lack of the html-editor I was used to use) it will take a while until it is completed. If there should be horrible typos that make it impossible to understand what I mean, you can email them to me. But not too many, please. I am rightnow more busy to create the next odd pages than to care about typos in the existing ones.

The Hammers will not be entirely absent; they're too important in the Thief world for that.

There will also be some "monsters," but they'll be used somewhat differently, and there's no call in our current version of the plot for undead (but that's by no means final).

Q: What are the three new levels?
A: What, you want I should spoil all the surprise? They are all intended to be core gameplay levels: human guards, sneaking, etc. One will be a thieves' guild, and one a mage tower; I don't want to give away the third.

Q: Are updates of Bonehoard and Lost City being considered?... planned?
A: They are being considered, but only as time and schedules allow. Please don't tell people we intend to do anything with them; we'd like to, but we're a small team on a tight schedule, and we have as our first priority making the new levels as spiffy as possible.

Q: Are any other general enhancements planned?
A: In general, no. Maybe some special effects, some tightening of gameplay in a few spots, but no programming improvements are planned.

Q: What is planned for Thief owners?... a downloadable patch?.. rebate?
A: I can in no way say anything about that. We're still debating that with each other, and with EIDOS: in the end, it'll be EIDOS's call. Thief Gold is intended to grab 'new purchasers' more than old. I think we're hoping to do something like a rebate, but, like I said... *disclaimers aplenty.*

Q: What is the planned release date?
A: It's a software product. We're aiming to ship for Christmas, hopefully early in the season.

Q: How much new voice/artwork will there be?
A: A reasonable amount, although concentrated in the new missions.

Q: Do you check the Thief forms for suggestions?
A: The wishlist is hit every other week or so. Unfortunately, we'll probably not get most of them, especially if they are looking for programming changes or drastic level reworkings.

I'm relieved to have the muzzle off the team. I hope the team is as forthcoming as possible without angering the publicists or revealing details of the games that might spoil your experiences.

I can't answer all of those questions, but...

Thief 2 is well along. We started sketching it out right after Thief shipped, and full development began not long after the patch was done.

The design team is fully staffed, and have spent the past few months developing some truly excellent mission designs. The attention to detail and the extent of critical peer review has been admirable.

Level construction has begun, and we're right on schedule.

If one phrase would be used to describe what I feel the goal of Thief 2 is, it's "sustained quality." We're not trying to rush this game to market or cram it full of irrelevant features. It has a focused game design, a selection of carefully chosen technology improvements, and a schedule that permits careful mission construction and an unabbreviated playtest period.

I'm biased, but I really feel the combination of the Thief design team with several new arrivals and the time budgeted to really polish the game will make Thief 2 a far superior gameplay experience to Thief. While it doesn't break as much new ground as Thief, Thief 2 promises to be much more consistently enjoyable across all the missions.

Yo Nightfall, I managed to take a quick run through E3, and I saw the Thief 2 display! It looked awesome! It looked like a place sorta like the Lost City, but the graphics were much nicer (the red glow of the lava was sweet!). It looked like whoever was playing it was dealing with these mages looking people. Unfortunately I couldn't get a closer look - I had to run!

Facts:

• Eidos is the publisher.
• The subtite is "The Metal Age".
• You will play Garrett, in the same city.
• Enemies will more thoroughly investigate changes in the environment, possibly even re-lighting extinguished torches and so forth.
• It will be using the Dark Engine.
• There will be renderer enhancements, including 16-bit texturing, colored lighting and variable translucency.
• It will be available in spring 2000.
• Thief 2 will concentrate more on the stealth and thieving elements of the game, removing most of the monsters and more typical action elements.
• A corrupt sheriff will play a large role.
• It will be divided into three acts, similar to Thief 1: act one following Garrett's thieving, act two his investigation, and act three his attempt to put a stop to the larger plan he uncovers.
• Sixteen missions are planned.
• Each difficulty level will require you to complete the entire mission.
• There will be a cooperative multiplayer mode that will function like another difficulty level, with co-op specific goals and objectives. There will be no competitive multiplayer.
• Thief 3 will have a new engine.

• Something about Viktoria?
• The Story continues a few years later with the 'dark forces' being angry about the failure of the Trickster?
• The poly count is much higher?
• Release in Feb '00?

The announcement that a sequel to Looking Glass' Thief: The Dark Project came as a pleasant surprise. The second Thief game will only feature moderate technical improvement, but Thief project director Steve Pearsall made it clear that the gameplay will focus on the better aspects of the original.

According to Pearsall, Looking Glass is taking criticisms of the original to heart. Thief 2 will concentrate more onthe stealth and thieving elements of the game, removing most of the monsters and more typical action elements that many felt were of lesser quality. You will once again play the cynical Garrett. This time out, Garrett's thieving is being complicated by the work of a corrupt sheriff with sinister motives. Pearsall likens the story to a three act play with act one following Garrett's thieving, act two his investigation, and act three his attempt to put a stop to the larger plan he uncovers. Sixteen missions are planned.

Thief 2 will include some significant artificial intelligence tweaks. Enemies will more thoroughly investigate changes in the environment, possibly even re-lighting extinguished torches and so forth.

The difficulty levels will be tweaked as well. Each difficulty level will require you to complete the entire mission (as opposed to the original, where the easiest difficulty would always end at an earlier point than higher levels). The game will also feature a cooperative multiplayer mode that will function like another difficulty level, with co-op specific goals and objectives. There will be no competitive multiplayer.

Technically, Thief 2 will move to 16 bit color and include colored lighting. But the real technical advances will not happen until the third Thief game, the engine for which is reportedly already in the works.