How Warren Spector got back to making his latest game

It was a shock to the system in 2020 when OtherSide Entertainment, the video game studio founded by industry visionaries Paul Neurath and Warren Spector, laid off employees and stopped working on System Shock 3.

That game had a big base of fans who were eager for the latest installment in the series, but the project came to an end. But Spector and Neurath bounced back from that, and last week they announced that Spector is working on a new game and the studio had hired Jeff Goodsill as a new general manager.

I caught up with Spector — the developer behind games like System Shock, Deus Ex, and Epic Mickey — to talk about his latest views on the craft of game development. He said only that he is working on an immersive simulation based on a completely new intellectual property developed by OtherSide.

Spector isn’t saying much about that game yet, but he said he was excited to be involved in a new project at the independent game studio. Based in Concord, Mass., with staff in Austin, Texas and throughout the United States, OtherSide builds immersive experiences in which the player has the power to affect the world and narrative through gameplay choices. The studio is hiring for a variety of roles across the United States.

Spector talked about the revival that has come to games with the influx of new venture capital in the industry, his dedication to emergent gameplay, working during the pandemic, how young people can make their way in gaming, and his views on the metaverse and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).