Doug Church of Thief and System Shock fame, now works for Valve

[DEATH_eVADER]

Doug Church of System Shock and Thief fame, moves to Valve
There has been developments over at Gameinformer

Doug Church, who helped create the System Shock and Thief series, has officially been confirmed by Valve, that he is now an employee

@Originally Posted by gameinformer

You may not have heard of Doug Church, but rest assured that he’s had a major impact on our industry. At Looking Glass Studios, he helped create the System Shock and Thief (pictured) series. Later, he was involved with games such as Deus Ex and Tomb Raider: Legend. And now it looks like he may be joining up with triple-A developer Valve Software.

[Update] We received an official confirmation via an email from Valve’s Doug Lombardi. It was short and to the point: “On the record: It’s true.” This certainly seems to be good news for both Church and Valve.

So what do you reckon, will he be responsible for a new IP, or improving Gordon Freeman’s ability to shift his suit into stealth mode? A new IP would be awesome, but I still remember back a few years ago when members of staff said they would be interested in making an RPG in the Half-Life Universe, or even revisit the Prospero IP. Doug could be the key to that.

For those not in the know Here’s a list of the games he has helped developed

[Dead_Phil]

…I really doubt he’s helping in the making of Ep.3, at most he’ll work on npc’s and other aspects of future valve games like L4D series or Portal

[gibbelin]

Excellent! Any ex-Looking Glass employee is a good fit for Valve. That was the smartest, most interesting game studio of all time. I still play their games and they still feel ahead of their time.

[OrderOfDagon]

Now all they need is Ken Levine of System Shock 2 and Bioshock and they will be the greatest gaming company of all time.

[gibbelin]

Ken Levine’s MO probably wouldn’t mesh with what Valve does, unfortunately. Levine is definitely super talented, but he’s also notoriously controlling and demanding. Valve is all about collaboration and no one is the “boss” on a given project.

Both ways work fine, but they don’t work together. Same reason Warren Spector probably shouldn’t work at Valve.

[OrderOfDagon]

@gibbelin

Ken Levine’s MO probably wouldn’t mesh with what Valve does, unfortunately. Levine is definitely super talented, but he’s also notoriously controlling and demanding. Valve is all about collaboration and no one is the “boss” on a given project.

Both ways work fine, but they don’t work together. Same reason Warren Spector probably shouldn’t work at Valve.

Haha, true. But knowing this I wasn’t one hundred percent serious when saying what I did. Plus, Levine is hard at work on Bioshock Infinite…

[Dias]

Marc Laidlaw must be thrilled. If I remember right, Thief is one of his all-time favorite games.

[gibbelin]

He is indeed. (to Ken Levine working on BSI)

Now here’s some speculation for you. Gabe Newell recently said he’d love to see someone remake Ultima Underworld (I think it was in the Steamcast interview, but it might have been something else). What if Valve somehow bought the long-in-legal-hell rights and tapped Doug Church to spearhead the reboot?

Of course that’s probably not what’s happening, but just the thought makes me jizz rainbows.