Arch Fenster on 12/11/2024 at 02:01
Rich Carlson here. Btw, I worked with the Thief 2 team as a level designer. Sat right next to Emil (who is very much famous today!) and across the aisle from Iikka.
I built the levels for "Framed" and "Eavesdropping" and tidied up other levels too. Note though that everyone helped each other out with levels. There was a lot to do as you can imagine!
Anyway I thought I'd stop in here and see what's happening. I'm glad to see things are still busy--and that there's a whole new gang!
I'll be poking around here and there. I'm going to read some of these interesting posts for sure. (I loved the Underworld games most especially but also Thief:TDP and Terra Nova.)
Oh, after LGS, Iikka and I started a microscopic indie game dev group ("(
http://digital-eel.com) Digital Eel") in Seattle. We never were a "company" but maybe that was part of the secret of lasting 20 years.
So--sound off if you want to and let me know who you are, and what you when, and how you why, so I can get to know yaz. ;)
Meanwhile I thought I'd post some links for you all to goof around with.
We put a bunch of our games into the public domain. You can get them all free and DRM-free here:
(
https://rich.itch.io/strangeadventures) Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
Explore the galaxy...in 20 minutes or less!Linux, macOS & Windows
SAIS was the first space roguelite!
(
https://rich.itch.io/brainpipe-a-plunge-to-unhumanity) Brainpipe: A Plunge to Unhumanity
A Zen-inducing arcade trip that will blow your mind!Windows, macOS
Brainpipe was named game of the year by a magic mushroom site.
It was described by "Play This Thing" as "like having sex with Yog-Sothoth".
(
http://www.digital-eel.com/files/organism_v11_full.zip) Dr. Blob's Organism
Blast feisty one-celled organisms before they escape!Dr. Blob got two IGF awards wow!
(Safe Windows direct download - zip)
(
https://rich.itch.io/data-jammers-fastforward) Data Jammers: FastForward
'Tron' meets 'Hot Wheels' in a retro wireframe world!Windows, macOS
Not a great seller unfortunately but trust me it's weirdly cool.
(
http://www.digital-eel.com/files/blox_setup.zip) Big Box of Blox
A rule-breaking match three-game with jokers, bombs, frogs, fireballs, slot machines, boulders and more!
(Safe Windows direct download - zip)
The sequels to Strange Adventures -
Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space and
Infinite Space III: Sea of Stars - are still on Steam, itch, GOG and Humble for like $5.
Lastly (for now), I put together a collection of music and music-like medleys/suites from most of our PC games called
The Weird Musical World of Digital Eel.
You'll find it (
https://richcarlson.bandcamp.com/album/the-weird-musical-world-of-digital-eel) streaming on Bandcamp and (
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8v7ZDxE26jeaMZxe9tAGmgXCvzoNPn7l&feature=shared) playlisted on YouTube.
- Arch ;)
demagogue on 12/11/2024 at 03:57
Hey, welcome!
While you're posting, I'm sure this has already been answered here before, and I should know it already, but do you remember the story about the dancing zombies easter egg in Framed? (If you throw a scouting orb over the fenced wall at the start of the mission, you'll see 2 zombies dancing.) Was that just a fun thing thrown in because why not? I imagine there's not much more to it, but is there any story to it? Edit: Like who did it, or whose idea was it? What were the dancing animations for anyway? And how did the devs think about that out-of-game space? Stuff like that...
If you want my own little story, I got Dromed off the Thief2 CD and started building my own levels for I think a year before I even knew about TTLG and that other people were doing it too. (I was teaching English on a small Japanese island and didn't have my own personal internet access at the time.) And as soon as I found this site and the FM scene, of course I knew immediately I had found my people. But what I really liked about that CD release was that someone on the team had actually written a manifesto (or maybe the manifesto was on the LGS site, I can't recall now; but the Dromed tutorial was a kind of manifesto in itself iirc), and that manifesto and the whole thinking around level building for Thief made a massive impression on me at the time. What games released today come with manifestos, much less ones that the fans take up and extend with their own levels building on the tradition? Also, for that matter, I never really thought of the LGS devs as people separate from us (like for normal game company devs); from about the start I thought of all of us, the devs and dromeding fans as in this thing together. Those are some of the many things that made LGS & its people very special for those of us that have stuck around here.
PigLick on 12/11/2024 at 08:49
Hello! My youngest daughter has just completed her first run of Thief 1 + 2 so Framed and Eavesdropping are very much current for us.
DuatDweller on 13/11/2024 at 07:08
The atmosphere of Thief I is unbeatable, but Thief 2, threw me into the constant paranoia of being shot to death by robots at every corner. I never could get to beat the final level.
:erm:
Oh hell I'm out of water arrows...
Arch Fenster on 14/11/2024 at 08:27
Great post, dema. The dancing zombies was just that, an Easter Egg just for laughs and to use the orb. Everybody had a great sense of humor and we wanted to put lots of different stuff in. But you have to be careful about it because you can easily sort of diminish the setting and mood and like--you know sort of break the 4th wall. Something like that.
Level making IS fun and it does sound like the right crowd to hang with. I went through the same thing with Quake. A who group of folks who were nuts about it.
It's great because everybody shared what they were doing so everybody won.
And no we're aren't separate. We're, or we were, right there with you and the others.
Arch Fenster on 14/11/2024 at 08:28
Great PigL! What fun.
Arch Fenster on 14/11/2024 at 08:29
Necro --right on!
Arch Fenster on 14/11/2024 at 08:32
DuatD yeah it's tough! I might have changed a couple things but no--those guys did a neat job there. The atmosphere--yeah. I fell in love with it when I played Thief as well, before I worked there. I worked at Ion Storm and we did a test of the game and I liked it right away. And then I played it when it was finished and when, at the beginning--the intro--the music comes in like, I dunno, like the music in Pi or something, wow!
