Welcome to the FM Author Spotlight, a series of interviews that provides an exclusive peek into the world of fan mission creators. In this episode, we are talking to Intruder, a veteran author who has been working in DromEd since 2005. His most recent mission, The Stone of Alarus, is a very enjoyable map that combines classic Hammerite and Bonehoard themes.
Aemanyl: Please introduce yourself and tell us how you discovered the Thief games.
Intruder: My name is Steffen. My (back then) 14-year old self discovered Thief in late November 2000. I remember it was a Friday afternoon and I was a bit bored, so I browsed the CD accompanying a PC gaming magazine and stumbled upon the Thief 2 demo (or "Dark Project 2" as the German version was called). Just out of boredom I fired up this demo and got frustrated pretty quickly because I never played any first person "shooter" game before and died rather often (...and loading a quicksave took several minutes on my machine back then). However, there was something about this game's atmosphere that got me hooked immediately. I then spent the entire weekend navigating the roofs of Dayport and with Christmas just around the corner I knew what I wanted to have as a Christmas gift :-).
Aemanyl: Do you have a favourite genre, style, or theme of fan missions?
Intruder: I usually prefer missions where the handcuffs are off, i.e. those that encourage exploration and feature multiple ways in and out so to speak. Hence, I’m not a big fan of the typical mansion heists.
I’m quite happy that we as a community have been indulged with so many great city and rooftop missions! This is also why I enjoy OMs such as The Haunted Cathedral, The Lost City, or Life of the Party so much. I know that you’ve asked for FMs and not OMs, but Life of the Party really has been groundbreaking for me because it was the first time that just getting to your objective was even more fun than the actual mission itself.
Aemanyl: Can you walk us through your typical workflow when creating fan missions? Where do you typically begin, and how do you approach the different stages of development?
Intruder: I assume that I begin like most authors by creating a rough mental model of what the mission should be like (i.e. a rooftop mission with focus on exploration or a bank heist that is focused on a specific building). The second step usually revolves around creating sketches of key areas or important buildings of the mission. For example, when working on Return to the Lost City I drew sketches of most areas I wanted to add to the mission (e.g. the ancient workshop/shipyard, several distinct residential areas, etc.) before doing any brushwork in Dromed. When this is done, I start working on one of those areas in Dromed by creating and texturing the brushes, adding initial sounds, furniture etc. until it is getting close to how I’ve envisioned it beforehand.
At this point in time I already spent a lot of time actually “playing” the mission (well, walking around and staring at stuff might be a better way to put it) just to see if it “feels right”. I then move on to the next area/building and develop the rest of the mission in a more organic manner. In my earlier missions, I stuck to a more layered approach of first creating all the brush-work, then adding objects, then the sound, then the AIs, and finally the readables and objectives. However, I’ve skipped that in favour of developing an area as far as possible before moving on to the next one.
Aemanyl: What would be your proudest DromEd achievement?
Intruder: Well, there are actually two. The first would be A Night’s Profit, a rather tiny FM by the usual standards but nevertheless an important step when viewed in hindsight. This was my first mission with proper Thief-like lighting (especially when compared to Keeper Investigations where a lot of areas were just too dark). Likewise, it has been my first “reloaded” mission where I took the core concept of an FM (Shipping and Receiving in this case) and implemented it in a completely new manner, thereby providing a new experience while bringing back tons of OM-memories.
The second one would be Return to the Lost City for its many interconnected pathways and exploratory gameplay. I also like how the integration of the bits and pieces of Break From Cragscleft Prison (i.e. the mines) blended into the Lost City theme.
Aemanyl: What are your main sources of inspiration for your projects?
Intruder: This has definitely changed over the last ten years. It used to be “everything” I was watching, reading or playing besides Thief. Nowadays it is the OMs of the first two Thief games. Maybe it’s just a bad case of “everything was better in the old days”, but I really enjoy recreating and re-interpreting the OMs. To me, they remain a rich and apparently never-ending source of inspiration. Which reminds me that I would still love to build something based on Into the Pagan Sanctuary or The Sunken Citadel, the only two TDS OMs that I enjoyed thoroughly and still have fond memories of.
Aemanyl: Would you ever like to collaborate with a specific fan mission author that you haven’t had the pleasure of working with yet? Alternatively, are there any creators whose style is similar to your vision of design?
Intruder: It’s really hard to name someone specific. I’ve worked together with so many talented and helpful people since my first FM in 2008. It’s just a great community, even after all those years!
Aemanyl: Are you currently working on any new levels?
Intruder: Unfortunately not, but as mentioned above, I’m still pondering the idea of “re-loading” one of those TDM OMs...
Aemanyl: What are some of your other interests, pastimes, or hobbies that you enjoy in your free time?
Intruder: This hasn’t really changed since the initial interview by Athalle back in 2014. It’s still astronomy, hiking, and reading for the most part. However, this list has been extended by “building tree houses” and “building Lego stuff” with my son who now “occupies” most of my free time 🙂.
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Thank you for reading! We hope that you've enjoyed this insightful interview with Intruder. Every Friday you can look forward to a fresh interview with fan mission authors, featuring both the rising stars and the seasoned veterans of our beloved community.
Stay tuned and see you in the next issue of FM Author Spotlight series!
Thief: The Black Parade took out first place of 2023 Mod of the Year Awards from ModDB.
Congrats to Feuillade Industries!
And thanks to everyone who voted :)
One of the rare mods able to bring a ton of nostaglia back, over 25 years on from the series original release.
You can now rate (but not download) original missions from
Thief: The Dark Project
Thief Gold
Thief II: The Metal Age
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Go here and cast your votes!
Reply to a thread, or click the envelope (✉) icon to be notified about every new post in given thread.
On May 25, 2023 Skacky and Yandros have published on TTLG the new Thief: Deadly Shadows 20th Anniversary Contest.
You have exactly one year to build a mission for Thief 1, 2, Deadly Shadows or The Dark Mod in the style of Deadly Shadows.
Intertheft by Nomadman, got 493 total score and 8.22 average score.
House of the Architect by TheDataElemental, got 464 total score and 7.73 average score.
Congrats!
Go to results
Go to missions
The idea of this contest is quoted below:
Create a new mission, inspired by one of the original missions created by Looking Glass, hopefully using the benefits of New Dark to your advantage.
We introduce a new fan mission series browser!
With the new page you can easily browse through two kinds of FM series:
- Contests
- other Series - which are mostly story-related campaigns
When browsing series, you have access to most of the functions that you already know from fan mission browser. You can filter-out series that were released during specific timespan or limit to games that are of your interest.
By default, series and contests are ordered from newest to oldest. If you want, you can order them by rating, popularity or alphabetically. In rating option, series are ordered by average across all missions inside each list!
Don't forget that you can also make your own collections. While series and contests are a sort of official lists of missions, collections provide you a way of cataloging missions as you like.
Christmas "Connections" Contest 2021 results are now available on The Dark Mod Forums:
1) Winner: Wellingtoncrab "Iris" 97.08%
2) Bikerdude, Amadeus, Dragofer "Written in Stone" 95.28%
3) Kingsal "Hazard Pay" 95.06%
4) thebigh "Down and Out on Newford Road" 81.01%
5) Jedi_Wannabe "Paying the Bills 0: Moving Day" 77.64%
Congratulations to all contestants!
Read more on The Dark Mod Forums
Browse and download all fan missions here
Christmas "Connections" Contest missions are now available.
Go here for a list of all 5 missions.
The theme of the contest is "connections", which means that the mission must somehow relate to the story or characters of another existing TDM mission.
In addition, the organizer defined a list of "dev build bonuses" that are adding reward points to the voting average.
To help promote the 2.10 beta process and encourage more testing, additional points will be added for using features from the latest TDM versions.
A non-contest speedbuild competition was announced on TTLG. The competition will start at Sunday, August 1st and will last for 14 days.
This will not be a contest per se, as in there won’t be any voting or a declared winner, but instead will just be a friendly competition with your Dromed cohorts, and a chance to see what you can accomplish in a short period of time.
I'm a collector, Mr Garrett.
Konrad
On 25th of May 2021 we hear from Mike Chrzanowski who reminds us that 21 years ago this day was a sad day for Looking Glass Studios as the company was closed on May 24, 2000, due to lack of funding.
Mike worked on Thief Gold, Thief II, and the unreleased Thief II Gold. He finished the Mage Tower level in TG and built Shipping and Receiving, and Blackmail levels in T2. As he wrote on TTLG forums, throughout his time at Looking Glass he took many pictures. He decided to share them for this occasion.
I have some great pics from picnics and parties. There are also a few screenshots from an unfinished T2G level. I even found my design document.
Alcazar won the One Million Units Contest!
One million applauses!
The mission won with score 26.84 / 30
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The tally is as follows:
(FM, authors, score)
1. Alcazar, Schlock & Squadafroin, 26.84.
2. The Turning of the Leaves, nicked, 26.34.
3. A Midsummer Night's Heist, skacky, 25.29.
4. The Cinder Notes, DrK, 25.21.
5. Recipe for Turmoil, Psych0sis, 22.82
6. The Perdurance, Skejven, 22.14.
7. Sabotage at Eastport, Intruder, 21.84.
8. Sinister Night, Terra, 16.36.
9. Nightwalk, Pookaball, 16.19.
Browse missions ordered by score in our list here and check the TTLG thread.
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Around the time of publishing of the contest results, a new Inside At Last podcast episode arrived!
In this episode, Brethren himself joins the guys to give a review over all contest entries.
Inside At Last is the "one and only" Thief related podcast.
Check the episode post on TTLG here.
...
As always... Thank you for all your missions!
Konrad
Four new missions have been released today:
The Cinder Notes by Anonymous, Thief 2
Nightwalk by Pookaball, Thief Gold
Recipe for Turmoil by Anonymous, Thief Gold
Sabotage in Eastport by Intruder, Thief 2
For completeness, here is again the first batch released January 1st:
Alcazar by Schlock (with much help from Squadfroinx), Thief Gold
A Midsummer Night`s Heist by Rotten Burrick of a Master, Thief 2
The Perdurance by Skejven, Thief 2
Sinister Night by Terra, Thief 2
The Turning of the Leaves by nicked, Thief 2
Check original TTLG post here.
You can browse all 9 contest missions on Thief Guild here.
The contest announced on October 1st is now (partially) started. Brethren released the first batch of authors that managed to get missions done on time:
Alcazar by Schlock (with much help from Squadfroinx), Thief Gold
A Midsummer Night`s Heist by Rotten Burrick of a Master, Thief 2
The Perdurance by Skejven, Thief 2
Sinister Night by Terra, Thief 2
The Turning of the Leaves by nicked, Thief 2
The contest is inspired by the old Komag contest, which required smaller FMs created in a 2-3 month time period.
It is possible that 3 more missions will be released in the coming week.
Check original TTLG post here.
Browse the contest mission list here.
Taffy New Year!
Konrad
A new fan mission contest has been announced. Organised on TTLG by Brethren, the contest will allow to use any kind of resource, but will limit mission 3D space to one million in-game units. In effect, this will be a contest of rather small, but hopefully detailed and diverse missions.
Brethren gave some examples of good quality missions that do not exceed the size of one million units (we added links, so that you can check them while the current contest is running):
For inspiration, you might want to take a look at some of the standout missions from previous contests. All of the missions listed below will fit into the space allowed for this contest, most with plenty of room to spare.
Into The Maelstrom by Morrgan/Vigil
The Tower by Lady Rowena
Temple of the Tides by Nameless Voice
The Hightowne Museum by Spitter
The Relic by Timon
Ashes and Dust by Random Taffer
The Affairs of Wizards by Nameless Voice
Old Comrades, Old Debts by Bukary
Deceptive Perception by William The Taffer
The Burrick’s Head Inn by Yandros
Keyhunt by Eshaktaar
The Night Shift by Ottoj55
AntiMatter_16 (AM16) released another bugfixing patch, this time for TDP. The author claims he "spent over a thousand hours fixing and improving the missions".
AM16 carefully played all TDP original missions and applied both visual and game mechanics fixes. These include:
I did not keep a changelog, as it would be tens of thousands of items long, and would have just substantially slowed down progress.
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