Warren Spector Interview, Part One

GamesIndustry.biz has published the first portion of a new interview with Junction Point Studios' Warren Spector, quizzing the developer about his departure from Ion Storm, the influence Deus Ex has had on the video game industry, and more.
Q: How is life after Deus Ex? How have things moved on from that point?

A: Well, you know, you're only as good as your last game. I think I got a little too far from the games, for one thing. I really became enamored with being a part of Eidos. I mean, the folks there at the highest levels of executive management actually listened to me for a while, which was a new experience for me.

It was a company I really thought I could help move to the next level. I got so distracted with publisher level stuff that I kind of lost sight of the games. I had very, very talented people there, and I kind of feel as though I didn't mentor them as well as I could have and should have. If I had to do it differently I'd probably pay less attention to the publisher side of stuff and more attention to the games.

But we took a lot of chances in Deadly Shadows and Invisible War, and we did a lot of really, really risky things. And I think too many. Not enough of them paid off. The overall result was games that I'm still proud of, and games that I still enjoy playing and I'm proud to have been involved in the development of, but I don't think they lived up to expectations.