Spector prepping two IPs

At last week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Warren Spector gave a presentation titled "The Future of Storytelling in Next-Generation Game Development." During the course of his session, the famed designer expressed concern that the technical demands of making games for next-generation consoles might distract developers from their storytelling obligation.

Some in attendance at Spector's session found it odd that a developer whose last projects were released in 2003 (Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows) was giving a lecture on next-gen development in 2007. As it turns out, that's because he has not one but two projects in the works at Junction Point Studios, the indie shop he founded in 2005 after leaving Ion Storm.

"We're up to 24 people now, and we've got two IPs that we've worked on, and we've got several months of work into each of them," Spector told Eurogamer at GDC last week. "One of them we're working in collaboration with a fellow you would have heard of out of Hollywood, and one of them is based on a gameworld that I created about 15 years ago with my wife." Spector's wife, Caroline, has written several fantasy novels, including one set in the Shadowrun universe.

Spector did not name the Hollywood personality nor give any other major details about either game other than shooting down rumors that Vivendi Games was involved. However, despite his cautionary words at GDC, he did hint that the projects would be on the latest batch of gaming machines. When asked why he had waited so long to begin work on his next games, Spector told Eurogamer, "I've been waiting for the technology to catch up with the ideas."