Spector, Warren
Entry updated 13 May 2024. Tagged: Author, Game.
(1955- ) US Game designer who has worked on both pen and paper and digital games. His first published design was the Role Playing Game Toon (1984), an amusing homage to classic US cartoons, written with Greg Costikyan and developed by Steve Jackson Games. Spector went on to help design various Board Games and RPGs, of which the most notable was perhaps Tactical Studies Rules' Buck Rogers XXVC (1990). He then moved into the Videogame industry at the end of the 1980s, working for Richard Garriott's Origin Systems on such titles as Martian Dreams (1991) (see Worlds of Ultima). His most notable contribution to Videogame design to date has been to extend the scope of the First Person Shooter form by introducing elements drawn from Computer Role Playing Games. This development can be traced from games produced by Spector, including Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992) (see Computer Role Playing Games) and System Shock (1994), through his own designs for Deus Ex (2000) and Deus Ex: Invisible War (2003), to the Steampunk and Sorcery Thief: Deadly Shadows (2004 Ion Storm, Win, XBox). After Deadly Shadows, Spector designed Epic Mickey (2010 Junction Point Studios, Wii), a platform game (see Videogames) in which the titular Mouse travels to a ruined fantasyland inhabited by the twisted remnants of long-forgotten Disney characters. Among current Videogame designers, Spector is one of those most conversant with written sf; his influences include Steampunk (Martian Dreams), Cyberpunk (System Shock) and post-Cyberpunk (Deus Ex). [NT]
Warren Spector
born October 1955
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