The original developer of Thief, Randy Smith, goes into great detail about his dream project and the reasons he chose not to pursue it.
Randy Smith, the developer of the original Thief trilogy, recently set the record straight explaining exactly what kind of game he would make given the chance, and why he hadn’t yet. Smith’s Looking His Glass His tenure at the studio led to the creation of the Thief franchise, which is often cited as one of his key inspirations for modern immersive sims like Dishonored and his titles.
Thief is now far from the peak of its cultural relevance after a failed attempt to revive the series in 2014, but the franchise’s legacy certainly lives on. Even minus all of Arkane Studios’ production and various standalone projects like Gloomwood, Thief was one of his first titles to introduce stealth, making it a staple in many modern video games.
Randy Smith recently spoke in-depth about what Thief means to him and how one of the best stealth games of all time came to be in an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun. The most intriguing tidbit, should Smith ever regain ownership of the IP, mentioned a potential future Thief instalment.
On that subject, he stated that the game’s main characters would be a motley crew of thieves that worked under the direction of an enigmatic boss, who was indicated to be Garrett, the main character of the original games. Smith acknowledged that he is not very interested in seeing that happen and would like to allow other developers the chance to try something comparable.
Smith revealed that he is a huge fan of Dishonored, the groundbreaking popular video game from Arkane Studios, which may not come as a complete surprise. In the interview, he said, “I’m playing Thief.” “This is what other people encounter. They are correct; it is excellent.” Smith argued that because he was a part of the original trilogy and hence was unable to see Thief objectively, he was unable to view it from the same perspective as fans.
The most recent information on Thief is that the CEO of Eidos Montreal announced in 2017 that Thief 5 would not be produced. Given Smith’s apparent lack of interest in reviving the franchise, it seems improbable that nothing would have happened in the interim, and it is nearly clear that nothing will happen with the IP for a long time to come.
Randy Smith collaborated with Ken Levine, who went on to have a similar level of influence in the gaming business, back when Looking Glass was at its peak. Indeed, the developer of Bioshock recently unveiled Judas, a brand-new first-person shooter that is nearly certain to reinvent the immersive sim genre’s history on its own.
