Randy Smith Interview: Through the Looking Glass and Beyond May 29,2006 - We were privileged to have a talk with Randy Smith, a figurehead in the Thief series, and a veritable source of sound game design. The ever-interesting game developer, game designer and game-dabbler was kind enough to answer our questions and provide some insight into what went on behind the scenes during production of the three stealth classics.

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Amped IGO: So Randy, tell us about your past. What were you doing before entering the gaming business?

Randy Smith: I went to college for computer science and then did a year of grad school. Grad school was less hands-on than I was hoping, so I left. I spent a summer doing a boring web application programming job, during which time I looked into every conceivable video game job I thought I might be able to get.

IGO: Naturally, we're interested in how the game designer that is Randy Smith was born. How did your position on Looking Glass come about, and what was your role on the critically acclaimed Thief 1?

RS: To continue, the job I wanted most in the games industry was a design position on what at that time was called The Dark Project. There was little public data, but Looking Glass had a very evocative teaser website for the project, and System Shock was my all time favorite game. On a list of a hundred potential jobs, I wanted that job so badly that it made me tense. I searched and found the phone number of the project director, Greg LoPicollo, and gave him an unsolicited call where I sold myself to him in 15 seconds before he could hang up on me. I said I’d drive myself down to Cambridge for the interview. Weeks later, after two self-funded interviews and a couple homework assignments with their 3D editor, they offered me a hybrid design/programming job, essentially building levels and scripted behaviors.

It turned out my marginal programming skills weren't as valuable as my design abilities, so with lots of coaching and instruction from the legendary Looking Glass guys, I shifted off of programming entirely and became a full time level builder and designer. I contributed to many of the Thief 1 levels, owned a few of them, and created gameplay behaviors for even more of them.

To date, it was the best project of my life, although maybe first projects are always like that. I learned a ton, I connected with an awesome team, and I believe the shared magic of that group led to the success that was Thief: The Dark Project.

IGO: Regarding the original Thief, were you pleased with the end result?

RS: Absolutely. Terri Brosius, fellow thief designer/writer, and myself were just discussing the other day about how Thief probably would have been one of those life-changing games if we had had the luxury of experiencing it as players. I feel lucky and proud that I had the opportunity to contribute to something of that magnitude, and it did change my life, but in a different way.

IGO: Anyone who has followed the trials and tribulations of the series will know that the games have sold below par. Do you think this is down to the public's inability to swallow a title that shuns convention, or is was it poor marketing on Eidos' part, for instance?

RS: The first Thief actually did entirely well. It wasn't a run away success, but it certainly experienced respectable sales, especially for a dated-looking, edgy, unconventional game that was going head to head with Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu, etc. in the same financial quarter. It was great to see people digging on a new concept! I tend to believe that the first Thief demonstrates that the following Thief games could also have done well in the market, but various mistakes were made. I attribute those mostly to the development situation, frankly, though of course it's hard to separate whether I’m just being overly critical of something I was involved with. Basically,
I think the first Thief did a better job reaching out to new players and had a more evocative chemistry than the subsequent ones.

IGO: Tell us about the sequel, Metal Age then. Did you reprise the same role on the sequel as in the original game, or was a new job presented to you?

RS: I was a designer / level-builder again on metal age, but I was one of just a few designers who also worked on Thief 1, so I had a much more senior role. More working with Tim Stellmach, the lead designer, on game systems design, for example. I also took a lead role on the story, working closely with Emil Pagliarulo, Dan Thron, and Terri Brosius to do our best with that.

IGO: Again, how did the game turn out in your mind?

RS: In Metal Age we tried hard to address the missed opportunities we perceived from having worked on the Dark Project. We wanted to focus on our game's unique qualities - stealth over combat, essentially. Dark Project had a few levels that didn't afford great stealth gameplay, and we wanted to fix that. I think that was a good call. I think there were some bad calls as well. For one, we didn't follow up by making sure the stealth would be emotionally satisfying despite not being cut by combat and exploration as much as was present in thief 1. Also, we (mostly me, frankly) drove the story in a bottom-up direction: mission designs that we had to wrap a story around, in response to thief 1 which was mostly top-down: story that led to mission designs. The right approach, I know now, is a little of both until they meet happily in the middle. Overall, the game felt more focused, but also tenser to its detriment, and a little less magical in consistency and mood.

IGO: Being someone in the industry, is it the case that many game ideas slip out the window due to a lack of funding and time?

RS: If I had my way, over half of the games in development would get canceled and replaced with something that is more fresh and innovative and emotional and less of a rehash of the same ideas. I can't believe how many people are still interested in power fantasies about guys with guns or driving fast cars or jumping around on platforms. Interactive media seems like such a powerful platform for exploring ideas about the human experience, and the games industry winds up focusing on the equivalent of a Charles Bronson vigilante flick over and over and over... it totally makes me sad.

So, to answer your question, I know lots of people that have great ideas that aren't clearly within the marketing domain we see repeatedly, and that's a huge barrier to getting an exploratory project started. And generally speaking the most competent teams, developers, and publishers are going after the sure thing, meaning tired power fantasies, and the innovative stuff is left to people with a less proven track record. Sometimes it goes well, but a lot of the time it sinks, and that's a sad thing to see happen to a cool game idea that might have changed the world.

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