Looking Glass Studio Games

[evilcommiedictator]

#3264

Without just copying and pasting Wikipedia content, I had the question posed to me in if there was any relationship between System Shock and Bioshock. Bioshock obviously being hugely inspired by SS, but I wasn’t sure and believed so, but given the convoluted history of SS games and their rights, actually checking the information is “kind of”.

Looking Glass studios, started by Paul Neurath and Ned Lerner, who developed some games with very similar themes and action:

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
 
Ultima Underworld II: The Labyrinth of Worlds
 
Our titular game, System Shock
 
Thief: The Dark Project (and later) Thief Gold
 
System Shock 2 (co-developed)
 
Thief 2: The Metal Age

Paul Neurath eventually got the rights to Ultima Underworld and started a team called “OtherSide Entertainment” (as the other side of the looking glass) and made the poorly received Underworld Ascendant, and planed to do System Shock 3 afterwards, however, the publisher withdrew from the project.

System Shock 2 was co-developed by a company led by a person who you might recognize, Ken Levine, after working on Thief co developed System Shock 2, and the company was Irrational Games, responsible for Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite (not Bioshock 2), which is your admittedly tenuous link to Bioshock

[evilcommiedictator]

#3267

“But Evil”, you say, “Surely your missing out on the best RPG shooter of the time, I love Deus Ex. That’s not connected to this, right?”

Well, you’d be wrong. Historians will remind you that Ion Storm was founded by people including John Romero, however, their Austin office was responsible for Deus Ex, and that office was headed by a gentleman called Warren Spector, who was working at Origin and produced tons of games, including Ultima Underworld I and II as well as System Shock. After being asked to setup Ion Storm Austin, Looking Glass Studios was in the process of dissolving and many of the team were asked to come along and work on…….Deus Ex.
As Studio Director, he oversaw development of Deus Ex Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows.
Fast forwarding, he is now working with Otherside Entertainment and helped with Underworld Ascendant and is currently helping with System Shock 3

[evilcommiedictator]

#3268

“That’s quite interesting Evil” you say, musing over this “Quite a lot of these cool games with great story and environment all seem to be developed by people who’ve worked together on Ultima Underworld and System Shock. But there’s one group of games that also come to mind. Modern games developed by Arkane, including Dishonored and Prey. Surely they have no connection?”

A small grin appears on my face.

Arkane Studios was founded in 1999 by someone called Raphaël Colantonio, and had worked in Origin Systems’ QA and Localization team for titles including System Shock. After differences with the company, he started up Arkane, with the goal of making a sequel to Ultima Underworld II. Not being able to secure the rights, and the game ended up being Arx Fatalis. The next notable game for this he worked on was helping with the design, animation and art for BioShock 2 after joining 2K Marin.

He had a friendship with Harvey Smith, the QA lead for System Shock at Origin. They worked together and developed Dishonored, Dishonored 2, and a game touted as a spiritual successor to System Shock, Prey.