Interview Looking back at Looking Glass

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Tags: Austin Grossman; Bethesda Softworks; Dishonored; Emil Pagliarulo; Harvey Smith; Looking Glass Studios; Tom Leonard; Ultima Underworld

Do you miss Looking Glass Studios? Who doesn't. Wrap yourself in the warmth of nostalgia with this panel talk from QuakeCon 2012:

Moderated by Harvey Smith (currently working on Dishonored with Arkane Studios), questions regarding Looking Glass and game design (and more!) are asked former Looking Glass Studios employees Austin Grossman (novelist), Emil Pagliarulo (senior designer and writer at Bethesda) and Tom Leonard (Valve).

One of the few development studios that actually deserved to be call innovative, and were the masters of level design. I doubt any game will ever top Thief 1-2 in that.

Will watch this after work, but it's too bad they didn't have any of LG's best for this vid, I don't give a flying fuck about what that fat hack Emil has to say.

Emil doesn't say much. He mentions that Bethesda has great tools for dialogue writing, but that they cut back on it because it would take away from the "visual storytelling".
It's mostly Harvey talking and he's a total bro.

Ah, Looking Glass !! Some of my absolute favorite games ever made!!!! When playing the Thief, Underworld, & System Shock games I could not help but be so excited for the future of PC gaming... then the came and my beloved studio passed away ...

Just recently finished replaying the original System Shock and still find it one of the most engrossing and enjoyable games ever made. The level design is unparallelled with it's scattered clues and inter-connectivity between levels to stop one of the best antagonist ever created, SHODAN. It truly was an astonishing achievement and is just as enjoyable today as it was when I played it back in the early 90s. Besides my favorite cRPGs from the late 80s and early 90s (ultima, Wiz, MM, etc.) no other games have come close to the enjoyment I got out of the Looking Glass games. I've replayed all of them many, many times and still get sucked in and play till the end.

I haven't played too many, but I believe that fan missions topped LG's level for the Thief serie. That said, good level design appear to be turning into a lost art. My guess is that few games nowadays need such a type of level design with the type of gameplay they offer, and multiplatform development probably doesn't help either — remember how Deadly Shadows had loading points in the middle of the levels?

These guys are awkward and ugly, but I would still buy them all a beer

Are we seeing the beginning of the rehabilitation of Harvey Smith's reputation on the Codex?

Bro, I would give all those guys a sloppy beej out of respect for Thief.

I wasn't aware he had a reputation. Does skyway going on and on about how Harvey Smith is the shittiest developer of all time count as a reputation? I guess MCA is a shitty dev by that token as well.

You know, Invisible War, Blacksite: Area 51...

The best gaming studio ever, together with Sir-Tech.

Well, at least it's a little encouraging to hear that there are some people at Bethesda that want to make dialouge a little more complex.

Doesn't really change that he is a bad writer and responsible for Fallout 3's writing. Did he write too at Looking Glass or was he primarly a designer?

Emil is a fat piece of shit who only made it as a developer because of his connections. He used to write shitty articles at Adrenaline Vault which was and is also owned by ZeniMax. His transition into game development was a little bit too smooth and sudden. Seriously, what's his personal contribution to the design at Looking Glass? Does he have a personal claim to anything of note at Looking Glass?

Likewise with Pete Hines, he used to be an editor at Adrenaline Vault. I imagine there must be at least a few other guys who went from writing cock sucking articles at AVault or elsehwere into being a developer at one of ZeniMax's subsidies.

I think Emil designed some levels for Thief 2.

I only played T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, and I thought it was worse than the original game.

Life Of The Party and Precious Cargo

He deserves major props for these.

My favorite level/quest/mission of any game.

He should go back to level design then. He's terrible as a Lead Writer.

Is there a mod or something that changes the lighting of Life of the Party to night like it was in the demo? I thought the darker version of it was more atmospheric than the lazy cloudy afternoon one which was present in the final release.

I honestly don't have much of an opinion on anyone in this talk.

Dishonored looks good though

Coudn't bring myself to finish Thief 2 after the Lost City Level! Thief 1 is just better and has so many memorable levels( Fuck the pussys that dislike the horror themes).

Huh? If you remember Thief levels as well as you claim, then you should remember, that Lost City first appeared in TDP. Or do you mean you didn't like what the mechanists did to the place in Thief II?

Both Levels are Ok! Its that i just prefer more levels from Thief 1-Lord Bafford mansion,Cragsleft Prison,Bonehoard,Ambush,Thiefs guild, The Sword, Mage tower, song of the cavern, undercover, return to the cathedral,Escape(creepy) and Maw of Chaos .

I didn't find Thief 2 levels more memorable, aside from Life of The Party

Also, In After Wich is better and why

You'd be surprised. I had to google him to make sure it was the same guy from Fallout 3.