An Interview with Warren Spector

If you’ve been anywhere near a PC in the last twenty years, chances are you’ll know of Warren Spector: the creative mind behind the legendary Deus Ex.

But it’s not just Ion Storm’s epic that Spector is known for. With a career that includes working with Origin, Looking Glass and Disney, few people can be said to have had the impact on gaming that he has.

In this interview, I got the chance to speak with him about his time in the industry, where he thinks its future lies and his hopes of one day designing a musical game.


Your time in the industry started with games journalism. How did that come about for you?

I've been a film buff since I was a kid. I never outgrew cartoons and live-action films: I just love movies.

I know everybody watches movies and TV but I became a serious student of film when I was about fifteen and started making my own movies, which no one will ever see because they were horrible. I was not a filmmaker – but I knew I wanted to write. I never particularly wanted to direct: I wanted to be a screenwriter and to be a film critic… but I knew I needed to hone my writing skills, so I was a Journalism major in college for the first two years I was there and shifted majors when I was a junior to radio, TV and film because I felt like I had learned what I had wanted to learn out of journalism.

So, anyway, years go by and I got into gaming. I started in tabletop gaming as an assistant editor at Steve Jackson Games where, among other things, I was the editor of Space Gamer and Fantasy Gamer Magazine – but I'd been writing film reviews for newspapers constantly and more serious critical pieces that I'd present at conferences and stuff since I was eighteen.

To read the full interview check out the link below.