Sperry on 7/2/2020 at 17:59

---

I'd like to wish you good luck on your paper. Could you tell us what field you're majoring in? I'd also like to share my thoughts on why I create Thief levels in 2019.

Firstly, I suspect the nature of the Dark Engine's subtractive CSG contributes to create a very unique feeling within in-game environments. I've never felt as much satisfaction with any additive game engine (whether designing or playing). To me, the rendering of subtractive geometry in the Dark Engine provides a much more concrete and "tangible" feeling. Other keywords would include: solid, reliable, involving, impervious, cosy, homely... if that makes sense. Kind of like a burrow.

Specifically in my case, I currently prefer using DromEd 1.33 for my work. Understandably, I've been asked why I prefer to use DromEd 1.33 (T1) rather than DromEd 1.18 or 1.19 (T2) or whatever (this however is in my opinion a false debate given that all of these engines are technically passé). Granted, Thief 2 has an objectively better engine. But following this logic, one may argue: so does the latest instalment of Unreal or Doom.

But why Thief 1? Content-wise, I find TDP to be an overall much more polished game (despite using an inferior engine): everything from the engrossing narrative and character arcs that deploy themselves from one OM to the next (sometimes through the brilliant and meaningful cutscenes, cf. (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132423/beyond_pacing_games_arent_.php) the article referred to in Marzec's post), to the far-fetched variety of its AI fauna (spanning from gritty and mundane to holy and religious to mythological and dionysiac), to the fascinatingly uncanny environments and setting (medieval magical steampunk? isn't that an oxymoron?), to the peculiar speech of its characters -- accents (what accent is it exactly? Cambridgeshire? East Midlands?), idioms, dialects, expressions, etc. It's really it's own thing, as (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqNE0nQMZ64) Grimbeard recently put it, as there's nothing else quite like it. As such, it's a fictional universe which I find one can easily expand upon.

More specifically still, I so far exclusively create content for "Old Dark". Why? This choice is very personal, as PinkDot helped me realise: (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150276) I've recently justified this choice in another thread, and for the sake of scientific research I've included my answer below. Perhaps this could also account for why some still create for Thief today:



On a more general note: regarding pacing in gameplay as opposed to pacing in narrative, I find Wesołowski's article to be thought provoking indeed. I'd like to further suggest that: rather than comparing computer games to a cinematic experience, one can also find inspiration in music, inasmuch as a symphony, opera, or even a jazz piece is composed of sounds, harmonies, rhythms, melodies, light-motives, movements, etc. A multitude of streams of information running in parallel. Can Thief's emergent gameplay be seen as an opportunity for the user (player or designer) to interpret/improvise an ephemeral opus?

To me, DromEd is less about performance and more about experience and experimentation. But it's a complex question. And of course, there is some nostalgia.

Also, a "precious baby" isn't necessarily "fun". :joke:

bbb on 12/2/2020 at 00:25

---

Late in posting this.

There are three reasons why I build missions:

1. It is a great alternative to sitting in the family room with the family where there are nothing but foolish shows on TV.
2. This is an incredible community and the work authors put in to build missions is very much appreciated.
3. Building missions is fun and makes an analytical person like me feel creative.

Back to tryin got finish the TG mission I started to submit to the 20th anniversary contest. I am a really slow builder.

bbb

ps: Another reason is I love playing Thief and it is a way to give back to the community.

vfig on 31/5/2020 at 13:03

---

No doubt this reply comes much too late to be useful for FastGarrett, but my reasons:

I fell in love with Thief—its worldbuilding, its approach level design, its gameplay—from the moment I first saw it. And I still love it. I think the only other games that I've played that have had a similar breadth and depth of appeal for me are the STALKER series and the Pathologic series. I guess they all mix slow pacing and tension, and exploration, and storytelling in similar ways?.

Why do I make fan missions? Because I started playing fan missions pretty recently, and got hugely inspired by the creativity I found in there. And a little later, I heard about the upcoming TDP 20th anniversary contest here, and decided I should try making a mission, however small or crappy, for the contest. That inspiration and that goal was the initial force that got me picking up DromEd, but I quickly came to love the creative freedom that it offered.

Despite the many, many technical and graphical (and even scripting) limitations of the engine, it enables a designer to easily customise so much of how their mission works and plays. The object system (archetypes and concretes and metaprops and links) and Stim/Response are hugely empowering, and that the editor is the game makes for rapid iteration. And I think the structure of the game, as disjoint missions rather than a persistent world (like SS2) or faux-continuous world (like HL), implicitly encourages making smaller things, that are thereby more achievable.

Overall, Thief and DromEd makes a great platform for storytelling-and-gameplay, I guess.