"I hope every one of you gets to work on something that’s still relevant 17 years after you make it, and has a life beyond you."
Those are the words longtime game designer Warren Spector chose to close out his Deus Ex postmortem talk at GDC earlier this month. It's a nice sentiment to end on, sure, but it also raises an interesting question: what is it about certain games that give them life beyond their creators?
Opened in '96, Ion Storm Austin made its debut with Deus Ex in 2000 -- and by 2005 it was defunct. But the game itself proved an enduring success, spawning a franchise and influencing a generation of game developers. Why?
Find out by tuning into the Gamasutra Twitch channel today at 12 PM Pacific (3 PM Eastern) as we reinstall the original Deus Ex and rummage through its many nooks, crannies, and conveniently-placed crates in search of game design gems.
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