The Making Of Deus Ex

[AgentSmithereens]

http://www.next-gen.biz/magazine/the-making-of-deus-ex

A very interesting article, particularly the stuff about the White House.

I was watching a tester play through a mission on the PS2 version, more than a year after we shipped on the PC and he did something I’d never seen anyone do before. I just about died. I thought by that point I’d seen everything, but there he was, in mission one, trying something new to deal with a game problem – and it worked. That was awesome.

What does everyone think this could've been? Possibly climbing up the Statue of Liberty with boxes or something?

[gamer0004]

Killing Mr. President? Throwing crates at Mr. President? Hacking Mr. President's computer? Destroying Mr. President's chair while he's still sitting in it?

[AgentSmithereens]

In mission one?

[gamer0004]

Ah, I thought this was a reference to the White House part. My mistake.

Perhaps this is related to those lines of dialog referring to the escape of Leo Gold?

[Morti]

I wonder if that post comes from a renewed interest in Deus Ex after TNM. This is why I'd like a time machine, be great to go back in time and kill Jonas then seeing if this article gets posted or not. Obviously then I'd have to go back again and kill myself before I kill Jonas but then things get complicated. This is why we can't have nice things.

[chris the cynic]

I member of the design team (though, note well, one who wasn't on the team yet when the White House mission was being worked on) told me that he thought the White House mission had something to do with a clone of the president.

[Xesum]

I wonder if that post comes from a renewed interest in Deus Ex after TNM. This is why I'd like a time machine, be great to go back in time and kill Jonas then seeing if this article gets posted or not. Obviously then I'd have to go back again and kill myself before I kill Jonas but then things get complicated. This is why we can't have nice things.

Ah but then due to Quantum Mechanics, I'd have to go back in time to prevent you from Killing Jonas in the first place, but then of course DDL gets sent back intime as some sort of Police officer dude and then he has to try and kill Jonas's Son, who I end up saving again, but then Kee517 gets involved and saves John Waever-Connor and then you go back in time to try and kill me, but a future version of yourself then goes back in time to kill you but then I have to kill him to stop you from being killed which allows me to be killed so I don't go back in time and kill you, but then DDL goes back in time to kill Morti and FINISHES IT, but because the natural flow of the Space Time Continuum Reality's walls collide with Deus Ex's Reality, and then we all go "Hu!" when we jump but then this explodes the system of life and the cells of the human body, so of course we have to send Jaedar back in time to kill Jonas before he fucks up the Space Time Continuum but of course he fucks it up then because of breaking the natural time travel rules of killing someone, but then Morti goes back in time to cut everyone's arms and legs off so they don't kill anyone, but then Chris the Cynic goes back in time to stop him from doing that by cutting Morti's limbs off, but then of course I go back in time to stop him from doing that, but subsequently I father myself along the way and then create a really bad Back to the Future movie, so then the 4th one makes everyone dislike the series, so then Rex has to go back in time to stop Morti from Killing Jonas in the first place if I don't exist.

Then Rick Astley releases a good song in 1987 that is really popular, only to have it made popular again 20 years later by some bizarre internet phenomenon, then Cookie Monster gets involved by destroying the Twin Towers, but to stop this from happening I have to go back in time to stop the Muslim Religion from being formed, but DDL wants to stop me because I will kill an insect, which will prevent Jonas from existing, but then in the 4D mess we have all got ourselves into, Kee517 then brings along Kee516 and Kee515, then an Army of Kee***'s fix everything somehow, and then we all eat cake, but then Trestkon (Who doesn't like cake because an Insect got killed 50000 years ago) goes back in time to stop cake from being invented, so instead we are all enjoying People.

[chris the cynic]

First off where has all of this crazy come from?

Second, killing Jonas is brutish and unnecessary. Simply travel back in time to before TNM was started, and then navigate forward to one of the possible futures in which TNM was not started/finished and see if this article still exists.

[Xesum]

First off where has all of this crazy come from?

Second, killing Jonas is brutish and unnecessary. Simply travel back in time to before TNM was started, and then navigate forward to one of the possible futures in which TNM was not started/finished and see if this article still exists.

But what if you accidently break something, you will always break something, so unless you're in the 7th dimension, you are bound to fuck up somewhere along the way.

Learn2Quantum.

[chris the cynic]

If you break something then first fix it to the best of your ability. (To do otherwise would be rude.) Then travel back to before you changed things. Since this is before you changed things the world you came from will still be one of the possible futures for the world in which you find yourself. Travel forward to that future. You will now find yourself exactly where you started, nothing will have changed except yourself and a timeline you are not in.

[Xesum]

If you break something then first fix it to the best of your ability. (To do otherwise would be rude.) Then travel back to before you changed things. Since this is before you changed things the world you came from will still be one of the possible futures for the world in which you find yourself. Travel forward to that future. You will now find yourself exactly where you started, nothing will have changed except yourself and a timeline you are not in.

And thus the problem is fixed.

[Jonas]

AI was one of the major challenges. It’s not just a world of enemies and allies; some of the units change alliance based on the player’s actions. This complicates things drastically. I long to make a game where everyone hates you.

Quoted for Truth.

[justanotherfan]

What's with everyone wanting to kill Jonas all the time? Just because Jonas is Danish and the Llamas are an allegory for Islam doesn't make it acceptable.

“We redid much of the plot mid-way through development" reminds me of the TNM postmortem article discussion.

I found the bit on the disagreements during development interesting. Deus Ex developers apparently argued passionately and angrily. Management always teaches that a unified team creates the best product by all working toward a single goal. You don't want internal politics and strife. It slows progress and lowers the quality of the end product. The reverse seemed to happen to Deus Ex. It's like a bunch of differing opinions led to more ideal compromises. I'm sure the passion of the developers for the product is the main factor, but DX crosses a lot of categories that need compromises to be compatible.

Oh, the second line of this post is a joke. AFAIK it's not an parody for a specific religion. Don't kill Jonas. Death to King Krapchew!

[chris the cynic]

It depends on how you define unified. A team that marches in lockstep and never disagree can be useful for certain things, but a team that brings a variety of different points of view to the table (and is both willing and able to defend those points of view) is going to produce a better rounded product.

Also, I'd say that the Deus Ex dev team probably had a unified (if ill defined) goal: to make the best game they could.

[Jaedar]

Also, I'd say that the Deus Ex dev team probably had a unified (if ill defined) goal: to make the best game they could.

And based on their later products, I'd say they succeeded