Thick as Thieves - multiplayer stealth game set in a low fantasy early 20th century metropolis from Warren Spector's OtherSide Entertainment

[Sacibengala]

Is this the 1.0 version name of the U:A? They took their time, didn't they?

 

[Eli_Havelock]

December 19th marks the halfway point of the USPTO response window before the Thick As Thieves trademark is automagically abandoned from no response. This would be a good thing to secure if any publisher involvement is going to be seriously considered, mainly for question of future IP rights. Because these guys make that have to be needlessly more complicated than usual. And people wonder why they couldn't deliver an authentic UU sequel in all but name only, as per the UA KS. Well gosh, turns out they didn't have those IP rights after all.

There seems to be a connection...

Edit:
Yuga Labs - current owner of Otherside Entertainment's trademark - are having their own fun right now. Their CEO's signature (Nicole Muniz) is on the transfer yet strangely the trademark stil has the same corporate street address as OSE's other filings, in Lincoln. Yuga Labs is in Florida. Just altogether a lovely mess.

 

[Eli_Havelock]

Update: Even though it took a second try, congrats on these absolute professionals on finally getting to the publication for opposition stage for a trademark they still might actually own.

Yes, their own company's "Otherside Entertainment" is still assigned to Yuga Labs for their NFT thing.

 

[agris]

they don't have time for petty concerns such as owning their brand and studio name

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-stellmach-68583547/

Lead Designer
OtherSide Entertainment Jun 2014 - Jun 2023 · 9 yrs 1 mo

Sad!

(also weird that it overlaps with being "Retired")

 

[PapaPetro]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-stellmach-68583547/

Lead Designer
OtherSide Entertainment Jun 2014 - Jun 2023 · 9 yrs 1 mo

Sad!

(also weird that it overlaps with being "Retired")

What's the real story here Tron?

 

[Morgoth]

Warren Spector says the next logical step for immersive sims is multiplayer​

The Deus Ex director is still taking inspiration from tabletop with Otherside Entertainment's Thick as Thieves.


Bryant Francis, Senior Editor
April 16, 2024

At a Glance​

• The immersive sim genre is beloved for how it lets players explore open-ended solutions to problems.
• Creative Director Warren Spector and OtherSide Entertainment are making a multiplayer immersive sim called Thick as Thieves.
• Spector says long-running tabletop roleplaying campaigns were an inspiration for this "thief versus thief" multiplayer game.

Famed creative director Warren Spector still wants to break new game design ground in the world of immersive sims. He and his colleagues at Otherside Entertainment are finally revealing details about the post-System Shock 3 games they've been working on, backed by funding from Aonic Group and its new publishing arm Megabit.

The first is Thick as Thieves, a "thief versus thief" or "TvT" immersive simulator where players compete to steal treasure in open environments. Players sneak or brawl their way through a fantasy world as they would in...well, Thief: The Dark Project (directed by OtherSide vice president of product Greg LoPiccolo). They find the loot, they get the loot, they bring the loot back to their base—but all the while, another player is lurking around the same back alleys and crawlspaces, trying to get the treasure for themselves.

Developers familiar with immersive sim development (or who are just fans of the Deus Ex, Thief, and Dishonored games) might be knocked off guard by the multiplayer angle. Can the complexities of the famously open-ended immersive sim genre work in an online environment?


The answer to that question isn't just "yes," according to creative director Warren Spector. In a conversation at the 2024 Game Developers conference, he explained that it's "the next logical step" for the genre.

Why? According to him, it has to do with player-authored stories, inspiration from the world of tabletop roleplaying games, and exploring new means of online interaction in a 3D space.

Tabletop roleplaying games still inspire Warren Spector​

In 2017 Spector told a room full of GDC attendees that the origins of Ion Storm's Deus Ex began with a Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying campaign. He said he was "a little embarrassed" to admit this at the time, but with D&D roaring into greater popularity than ever in 2024, he looks to have been ahead of the curve in understanding how its open gameplay would resonate with players in other mediums.

Seven years ago he said his mission in life has been to "recreate that feeling" he had around the table, and with Thick as Thieves, he's finally tackling the multiplayer element that gives every tabletop campaign that breath of life.


Spector said there are two elements that make party-driven storytelling such a joy for players. First, there's the group of people telling a story together—the game master may set the stage and stand in for NPCs and enemies, but it's players who decide together how to interact with those characters (speaking from personal experience. The number of players who will try to smooch a final boss instead of slay them is really really high).

The next element is the length of the campaign. Tabletop role-playing campaigns can last as long as a single session or go on for weeks, months, or even years. Immersive sims, Koster said, can absolutely capture that energy.

"The next area of innovation is to take immersive sims into the live ops world. For most people, it's just a business model. For us, it's a creative choice." He expressed amazement at the fact that the creative and business sides of this idea came together in a way that "wouldn't have been possible a few years ago."

LoPiccolo said the studio is also experimenting with what he calls "behavioral immersive simulation." The classic design logic of immersive sims focuses on the interaction of physical objects in the game world. "What we're pursuing here is a little bit more social," he said, describing how NPCs in the game will be scripted to respond to a wide range of interactions. "There's guards you can bribe, or fences you can get information from. A lot of the gameplay is about collecting information and using it to your advantage in this social world where there are a lot of NPCs and a lot of information flying around."


This thinking also applies to the player-versus-player end of the game as well. "We'd like to give players agency to approach other humans in different ways," he said. He explained that players aren't necessarily "opposed" to each other. They have space to avoid each other, they can stalk each other, knock them out, and take their things—but they can also cooperate in the moment and choose to betray or not betray them later.

"Part of the simulation is the human interactions in the world," he said. "We're experimenting with tools to let [players] communicate in simple ways back and forth."

"It's really a simulation that we drop a set of thieves into."

Live service? In my immersive sim?​

It has not been a great year for live service games. The juggernauts of the genre are as strong as ever but when publishers like Electronic Arts are laying off developers on games as profitable as Apex Legends, you get the sense that there's something in the water. To see Spector excited about the space in such hard times was surprising. So we asked him how the studio plans to execute such an ambitious business model.

"I'm the creative guy, I don't think about that," he replied with a deadpan tone.

Thankfully Otherside CEO Paul Nerath was sitting to his left, and jumped in to bolster Spector's explanation of creating an ever-evolving campaign. "We're starting to lay out plans where the game might ship with a couple of [explorable] neighborhoods at launch, but then we could add more neighborhoods so there would be more areas of the city to explore," he said, adding that given enough time, Otherside might explore adding whole new cities with neighborhoods of their own to the game.

He also said they're exploring adding more thief characters to the game so players can explore new playstyles and game mechanics. Each playable thief also has their own storyline in the game world, giving the team more narrative elements to mix and match in the neighborhoods.


Nerath seemed aware that there's been growing discontent from players on the pricing of live service games, and said Otherside wants to provide "real value" to players who keep investing in Thick as Thieves. "It's not about trying to extract more dollars from monetizing this...we want to engage players over months and years."

He said once players have a sense that there's a steady stream of content coming, with new neighborhoods, thieves, or tools arriving every three months, they'll start looking forward to such updates and how the game can evolve and expand.

"If you're offering value—and a bunch of that is free content—I think you can really make something people want to stick with."

Spector and his colleagues at Otherside are often celebrated for breaking new ground in game design—and according to him, Thick as Thieves isn't the only game they want to keep innovating with. "There are two games [mentioned] on our website," he said, with a brief glance toward his PR handlers.

One of those games is Thick as Thieves. But the other? "All I will tell you is they're taking very different approaches to an immersive sim," he said. He said what he and his colleagues at Otherside want to do is show that the genre is "much broader and more varied" than the classic "sneak or fight" dynamic the genre has evolved into.

"We're taking different approaches to the concept and Thick as Thieves is the first one out the gate with those new ideas."

Game Developer and Game Developers Conference are sibling organizations under Informa Tech.

Multiplayer..... immersive sim....

 

[Wunderbar]

So he's just ripping off Thievery UT now.

 

[Butter]

What if the next logical step is to make good games, you know like those immersive sims that aren't made by Otherside Entertainment?

 

[udm]

So he's just ripping off Thievery UT now.

I don't know man, ripping off implies they'll actually push out a finished product. The only thing these assholes are pushing is their luck.

 

[ADL]

 

[Morgoth]

OMG.

 

[Harthwain]

I can already see a few red flags:

1) It's supposed to be a co-op game, but "it's every thief for themselves"? On top of the trailer looking more like PvPvE? This could easily turn bad.

2) The Pixar graphics alone isn't inherently be bad, but combined with the way the "characters" (more like classes, I think) are presented reminds me a lot of this "masterpiece":

Spoiler

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3341000/view/512944432186655025

Announcing Thick As Thieves
Explore a PvPvE multiplayer stealth game set in a 1910s metropolis filled with magic & intrigue.

Hello from the team at Otherside Entertainment!

We’re so excited to unveil Thick As Thieves, our multiplayer stealth-action game inspired by immersive classics like Thief and Deus Ex. Our studio founders Warren Spector and Paul Neurath established the genre with these games, where you could be a cunning thief, sneaking through the shadows and visiting living worlds. But, we always wanted to explore those worlds together. So we began Thick as begins with this captivating idea of “Thief vs. Thief” where you’re stealing from rich lords, but also against each other in high-stakes, high tension stealth duels.

You’ll take the role of a master thief, going on perilous missions to steal wealth, earn prestige, and escape with your ill-gotten loot. As a member of the Thieves Guild, each night you’ll step out into the city with a mission, a plan, and a selection of tools at your disposal. Your hunting ground is the city of Ordene – a bustling metropolis at the dawn of the 20th century. Industry is booming in the new age, magic can twist the world around it, and society is restless with everyone looking out for themselves. Danger and opportunity are around every corner, with treasure ready for the taking.

Wealthy lords fill their homes with priceless treasure – it’s time steal from the rich and give to yourself. You’ll meet many unsavory characters from corrupt nobles to mysterious vagrants who might not be fully human. Guards patrol the streets and the halls of the rich and powerful, waiting to put down any thief in their way. Security requires you plan your theft carefully – a guard can be knocked out, but an electric trap or enchanted eye never sleeps. Search for clues, find weak points, listen carefully for patrols and look for keys to be pickpocketed. Information is vital if you hope to grab loot unscathed.

We want you to be able to live out your thief fantasy, with a variety of different equipment and ways to play in Thick As Thieves. You can race across the rooftops going from house to house or you can sneak through the underbelly of the city. Maybe you want to play as an unseen shadow, undetected by the local guards? Or maybe you want to smash and grab, looting as you go. As you complete missions earning cash and prestige, you’ll grow your skills and career gaining access to gear and abilities to further tailor your gameplay. With new challenges each mission, pay careful attention to the tools you bring – you’ll need more than just your cunning.

But what makes Thick As Thieves truly special is you’re not the only one in the shadows – other thieves prowl the city, each with their own skills, tactics and motivations. The Thieves Guild doesn’t mind if you fight one another, so long as someone brings home the coveted treasure. This is what makes the game absolutely thrilling, the most intense version of Hide and Seek you’ve ever played. While you’re lurking through the dimly lit corridors of mansions evading guards and disarming traps, other thieves may be right around the corner waiting in ambush. Or perhaps you’re the clever scoundrel, letting them do all the hard work before you club them and steal their treasure.

If you’re able to outwit your rivals and evade the guards, then all that precious loot is yours. Fill your pockets to the brim with all the jewels and trinkets before you escape. But even if you’re knocked out or just come home with a coin or two, there’s always another heist to be had.

Show them you’re the greatest thief in town.

So, Edinburgh became "Ordene"?

 

[Butter]

It's like Thief! Except you're punished for taking your time. And half the guards are going to be blackjacked before you even get to them.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The artstyle is garbage, but the gameplay concept is interesting

1) It's supposed to be a co-op game, but "it's every thief for themselves"?

it could be that the game has both seprate "competitive" and "cooperative" modes?

 

[duskvile]

Can you play single player campaign offline?

 

[Roguey]

Thief for zoomers, I'm out.

 

[zaze]

Finally a spiritual successor for THIAF

 

[Harthwain]

The artstyle is garbage, but the gameplay concept is interesting

1) It's supposed to be a co-op game, but "it's every thief for themselves"?

it could be that the game has both seprate "competitive" and "cooperative" modes?

The game is pretty much confirmed to have PvPvE:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3341000/view/512944432186655025

Announcing Thick As Thieves
Explore a PvPvE multiplayer stealth game set in a 1910s metropolis filled with magic & intrigue.

[...]

you’re stealing from rich lords, but also against each other in high-stakes, high tension stealth duels.

[...]

The Thieves Guild doesn’t mind if you fight one another, so long as someone brings home the coveted treasure.

[...]

If you’re able to outwit your rivals

[...]

Nothing of this sounds like PvE to me. I doubt they'll spend resources on two separate modes, but maybe I will be proven wrong.

 

[ADL]

It's like Thief! Except you're punished for taking your time.

This actually excites me. Stealth games should have a constant stay on your toes anxiety to it and the multiplayer aspect of the game removes save scumming as a potential element. No singleplayer game has ever provided that feeling no matter how good their AI is. That's why I always preferred Splinter Cell: Spies v Mercs to something like Thief. You can master Thief and figure out guard patterns and behaviors but other players are unpredictable.

Hopefully this has good AI so the PvE aspect of PvEvP adds extra challenge and you can use those guards to fuck over other players.

 

[Gostak]

4 players only.
So far, not intrigued.

Thievery UT for me instead, yup.

 

[JarlFrank]

>co-op game

I'd genuinely rather play Underworld Ass than this thing. Who thought this was a good idea?

 

[duskvile]

Maybe they'll make single player offline campaign, this only what interest me.

 

[Gostak]

Co-Op? It's not from what I got.
I would not think AI will be fun enough for offline.
Also, hardly a story coming for that.