Designer Behind 'Thief' Doug Church Joins Valve

[Hectic Glenn]

Very exciting news indeed which has now been confirmed by Doug Lombardi. At Looking Glass Studios, Doug Church helped conceive System Shock and the Thief series with involvement also in Deus Ex and Tomb Raider: Legend.[br]The news was leaked earlier today in a tweet from Irrational Games community manager Chris Remo.[br]Official confirmation was received later by Game Informer who contacted Doug Lombardi for comment who said, "On the record: It's true.". As Valve continue to expand their wealth of talent does too, exciting times ahead. Source - Game informer .

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Hmm, my thread on the games section seemed to off mysteriously disappeared off into the ether

Do you reckon he'll be in charge of a development team, who work underneath someone?

 

[kupocake]

So long as they remember to "Salt the Fries", I'm sure it'll be fine.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Hmm, my thread on the games section seemed to off mysteriously disappeared off into the ether

Do you reckon he'll be in charge of a development team, who work underneath someone?

Sorry The time signatures were literally identical and I thought I would save the confusion later on.

The ideas he could bring may be great for directing existing projects but then he could also be bringing a new project which is in need of Valve refinement. All outcomes seem positive to me.

 

[Evo]

/me is excited

 

[morgs]

Never played Thief but I've heard lots of good things about it so this is good news.

 

[Ennui]

Cool. Thief, System Shock and Deus Ex is one hell of a resume. Interested to see how they'll put his talent to use.

 

[Uriel]

 

[StarBob]

The Thief series is one of my all time favorites so I am happy. Thief needs another game. Assassin's creed didn't copy enough to make it as awesome.

 

[Avoidist]

I think they stated there's about 20 employees at Valve that could easily start up their own game studios. Now they have Doug Church too. I'm expecting good things, Valve!

 

[Krynn72]

Looking Glass Studios was a great developer, I remember being particularly sad when I learned they closed way back in the day. I think it was one of the very first companies in the industry I knew by name. Looks like a ton of the developers went on and worked on some incredible games afterwards too, so the talent clearly didn't diminish. Glad to see Valve picking up some of it, their work environment will really let him shine, I think.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Its green?

 

[Asknoone]

Doug Church. Awesome.

 

[Paulaner]

Bring back Warren Spector and Richard Garriott, too. Thanx.

 

[Yorick]

This is great news. I'm really curious what he is going to be working on.

 

[Matorbogl]

This is great news. I'm really curious what he is going to be working on.

Team Fortress 2 hats.

 

[Yorick]

Having actually bothered to read the article, it looks like he's working on DOTA 2. Which I could not give two ****s about.

 

[Avoidist]

Having actually bothered to read the article, it looks like he's working on DOTA 2. Which I could not give two ****s about.

Sad news if true, but I honestly can't see how this inference was made from the gameinformer article. If there's another article I'd genuinely like to see it.

 

[Yorick]

Sad news if true, but I honestly can't see how this inference was made from the gameinformer article. If there's another article I'd genuinely like to see it.

It was actually an interference from the RockPaperShotgun article.

Presumably, Portal 2 and Half-Life episode 3 are too far along to need him, and DOTA 2 is the only other thing confirmed in development.

 

[Avoidist]

I see. Confirmed I think is the key word here, I can't see why he wouldn't be working on an as-of-yet unannounced project; or simply looking through the many, many project ideas Valve have and seeing if any are worth fruition. The article itself makes a point of saying how strange it would be for him to be working with the DOTA 2 team, and reach that conclusion because they have nothing else to go on. I'll admit it's possible, but I too would find it very strange.

 

[Yorick]

I see. Confirmed I think is the key word here, I can't see why he wouldn't be working on an as-of-yet unannounced project; or simply looking through the many, many project ideas Valve have and seeing if any are worth fruition. The article itself makes a point of saying how strange it would be for him to be working with the DOTA 2 team, and reach that conclusion because they have nothing else to go on. I'll admit it's possible, but I too would find it very strange.

It certainly could be the case that he's doing something unannounced, but I don't know why people think it would be strange for him to be working on DOTA 2. It's not like he can't do it because it's fantasy. I mean, System Shock and Deus Ex are both more cyberpunk, but Thief and Ultima both have some fantasy elements. It's a different gameplay, I suppose, but I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility.

That said, I would absolutely love to see a Valve / Doug Church approach to something in the same vein as System Shock / Deus Ex.

 

[tschumann]

Can't say I've played any of the games he's worked on, but it sounds like he's a real asset.

 

[robotman5]

Interesting...