So, let's see. What have we been up to?

Well, the programming effort has long since switched from planning to implementing. In addition to the usual engine enhancements and tool modifications, we've made a ton of progress on interface, player movement, and AI. That's right, Thief 3 already features guards who patrol, see and hear, search for you when they detect you, and say "must have been rats" afterwards. Paul, the AI guy, is clearly wasting no time. Furthermore, you can be Garrett in the game already; you can sneak him around, hide in shadows, and even shoot arrows. It's not quite right yet, of course, but since we have so much of a headstart, we'll be able to tune it to within an inch of its life before ship, which is great.

Three missions are currently close to the end of their first development pass. These missions are a testament to the value of our R&D efforts, since they look spectacular. They have just the right Thief vibe, but rendering-technology-wise, they look many years ahead. This is due in part to our level-building workflow, which pairs artists and designers together to handle aesthetics and gameplay, respectively. Once these three missions wrap up, we're starting the next four.

Story writing and mission planning have come a long way. We know the game's story, and we have a list of missions to go along with it. We won't reveal any of this stuff just yet, but some later releases may contain low-key spoilers, the kind you'd find on the back of the box. I know there are some hardcore types out there who prefer to go into a game knowing nothing about the story, so be warned.

You may have seen our press release about the Unreal engine. We're very psyched to be working with it, since Unreal's renderer is a crucial ingredient to the polished quality of the mission development we've done so far. Starting with Unreal has saved us countless programmer-months which we get to spend implementing Thief gameplay instead. The Dark Engine, which was used to create Thief and Thief 2, was also a wonderful piece of technology, but its renderer was far too dated to be used again. Unreal isn't perfect for us right out of the box, but we're making all the changes it takes to make Thief 3 a great game. One thing to keep in mind is that engines are all tools, and they can often be used fairly interchangeably, especially when you have the luxury of making lots of modifications, which we do. The real value of a game engine is in how efficient of a tool it is, and Unreal is a superb tool, especially for creating missions.

To wrap it up, Thief 3 is going really well. The team is full of very talented developers and is still growing. Pre-production went great, development is on-track, code is being written, missions are being built. It's still very early in the process, but you can see the new Thief game starting to emerge, which is totally cool. This office is a great place to be, and collaborating with and watching the Deus Ex 2 guys in action is pretty exciting, too. Stay tuned, and we'll give you more updates in the future!