Warren Spector has enjoyed a very long and prosperous career, working on games with such successful titles as Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Wing Commander, Ultima 6: The False Prophet, System Shock and Disney Epic Mickey
So, it’s fair that he is deciding to stop working on games.
In a LinkedIn post on Monday night, Spector dispels any question about the seriousness of his decision, looking back fondly on a nearly 45-year career that began in board games and grew with the natural shift to video games.
Warren Spector then reflects that he is excited to catch up on reading, write a few books, play some music, and is even open to teaching and consulting with those still in the industry, or just coming to it. He even writes his resignation in a voice speaking to those within the industry, or with dreams of being there.
The full post reads:
Let me cut right to the chase. I’m retiring from game development. At least I think so. I’ve been here before and changed my mind but this time I’m pretty sure I mean it.
I’ve had a great career. Wouldn’t change a thing even if I could. But the reasons to retire are simple: I’m a month away from my 44th year as a developer. I’ve had the chance to work on tabletop roleplaying games and boardgames. I’ve worked on more digital games than I can remember — 17 full games, I think, and 9 or so add-on packs. Gratifyingly, some of those games are still being played 15… 20… 30 years later. And most of them have been in a genre that has had influence beyond what I or anyone else expected. I’ve run teams as small as a dozen and as big as 800. I’ve worked for big companies and done startups. I like to think I’ve helped some insanely talented people along in their careers. (That last is the most important.)
With all that behind me and with age and health (my business) catching up with me I’m feeling like I’ve done what I set out to do. It’s time to write some books, do a lot of reading, do some lecturing, maybe do some consulting. (Feel free to get in touch about those last two.) Also there’s a keyboard here just waiting for me to get my piano chops back.
I definitely have mixed feelings about this. I mean there are three games in particular I’d still like to make. (One is very big… one is very small… and one I don’t know how to make which scares me.) But the game business has changed and it’s just not as much fun for me anymore. Plus there’s a new generation of developers coming up who deserve their time in the sun.
To all of you reading this I want you to remember that games are not a solved problem yet — there is, I hope, plenty of experimentation and innovation to come. And to all you young developers out there, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your job is to make people forget people like me ever existed.
Will I come back? Never say never. But I think it’s time to ride off into the sunset.
Now stop reading and make great games.
Warren Spector has been around video gaming basically since the start.
He helped to turn Dungeons & Dragons and other popular tabletop titles into the Ultima series, attracted the attention of John Romero, with whom he has shared a long friendship, and he even co-founded his own studio, OtherSide Entertainment.
