Warren Spector, a game developer in Austin, wears one of his favorite t-shirts, from a breakfast club of friends who have been meeting for 15 years. Credit: Ralph Barrera / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Game developer Warren Spector, the influential designer of games such as "Deus Ex," "Epic Mickey" and "System Shock" is leaving academia to head up development of "System Shock 3" for Boston-based OtherSide Entertainment, according to multiple reports.
OtherSide previously announced “System Shock 3” as well as “Underworld Ascendant,” both based on beloved PC-gaming franchises Spector originated at Austin’s Origin Studios. Spector will leave his post as director of the University of Texas Denius-Sams Gaming Academy at the end of the current semester to work with OtherSide.
It's unclear if that means Spector will relocate to Boston. He's long been a fixture in Austin's gaming scene, even refusing to move to California when he was working for Disney on two "Epic Mickey" video games as head of Junction Point Studios.
This is the second year Spector has served as director at the UT Gaming Academy. Last year, the group of hand-picked students created a game called "The Calm Before." He was hired in 2013 to launch the Academy and was making $93,000 as of mid-2015, according to the Texas Tribune Government Salary Database.
"System Shock 3" was teased back in December by OtherSide, which had already raised more than $860,000 for its "Ultima Ascendant" project on Kickstarter.
A message to Spector and to the University of Texas was not yet answered as of this posting. We’ll update with more information as we have it.
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