Games of the 90s, Id Software and Thief

I grew up playing games in the 1990's. I was introduced thanks to my father who was really into computers and used to work for Dell. I've played Doom and Quake, as well as Wolfenstein 3d and other classics like Blake Stone and Shadow Warrior. Id, the creator's of Doom and Quake, just recently released an interesting infographic on the history of their company, seen on the gaming website GameFront here. The great thing about Doom was that it ushered in the age of modding. Players could build their own levels and content for doom and release them in packages called "wads." However, the game I cherish the most from the 1990's is Thief: The Dark Project. Having played it, as well as it's re-released expanded edition Thief: Gold, I loved the story, the atmosphere, the level of immersion the game gave you through AI conversations and books that you'd find in you travels of each mission. What really made it stand apart from other games of the 90's in my opinion was it's focus on compelling story and immersion not quite seen anywhere else. Sure there was Metal Gear Solid (which I like as well), but Thief has actually been credited with making the stealth genre what it is today. If there was no Thief, there would be no Splinter Cells or Hitmans most likely.

Hello World!

Ah yes, a phrase probably known best by its use as a beginner's test when writing code, something that many who have taken programming courses in school would recognize. How fitting then, that as I write this first post the title is "hello world!" While the beginning of this post makes this seem like a blog about programming, it is not. This blog is about video games, a form of entertainment that is similar in some respects to programming software. Video games are full of interesting things, and what makes them compelling is the gameplay and story. Gameplay really comes first, as this is an interactive medium, which is the main reason why it is so appealing. You don't simply watch things happen, you interact with the world you are being immersed in. I've always found building things particularly interesting for some reason. As a teen, I started tinkering with the same level design tool (DromEd) that the makers of the game Thief: The Dark Project used. I loved being able to see how the designer's put the levels together as well as make my own modifications and then share them online with the thief community, a group of Thief fans whom I discovered through the website Through the Looking Glass, an internet forum dedicated to Looking Glass Studio's video games, particularly the Thief series. (You can still visit it here, and the forums themselves, seen here.) There's something great about being able to modify your favorite game to create new experiences, and I think it helps one to better understand what it's like to create games. I've studied video games in college, and one thing I can tell you is that they are not "easy" to make. I'll be posting about video game related things on this blog and I hope you will follow along. Thanks for reading!