CELEBRATING THREE DECADES OF PC GAMINGNIGHTDIVE STUDIOS
Warren Spector and Paul Neurath, who were key members of the original System Shock team, sit down with Larry Kuperman and Stephen Kick of Nightdive Studios, key parts of the System Shock remake, to discuss the groundbreaking sci-fi immersive sim series.
What is your history in the gaming industry and System Shock as a series?
Warren Spector: I started in tabletop games, and moved onto computer games, and then console videogames. [Regarding System Shock], I was working on a title I called Alien Commander, which I wanted to make as an internal project, and head up both creatively and in production. But Doug Church [System Shock lead programmer] was hanging out in my office one day, and we were both talking about how sick we were of fantasy games, and dungeons, and rescuing princesses, and heroes that were built like the Mighty Thor. He and Paul were working – I didn’t know – on another similar project. They were sick of that as well, as I understand it. Doug came to me with an idea that ultimately became System Shock. I just sort of sat there with my pitiful, little, two-page Alien Commander proposal, with art I had done, which you never want to see.
I listened to what he had to say, and went, “Yeah, that’s better”. And so was born. I produced it. We could talk more about my specific role, but I represented it
