Early design documents for Deus Ex (including its early precursors Shooter and Shooter: Majestic Revelations) provide information on the game's development history, as well as cut or prerelease content not present in the final game. Some of the content in later design documents were incorporated into the Deus Ex Bible.
The contents of only a few design documents are known to the general public in substantial form. A number of design documents were contributed by Warren Spector to the collections of the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin, but most of the collection has not been publicly released.
Design documents with known dates or content[]
| Document | Date | Known content |
|---|---|---|
| Shooter design document v.3 | October 21, 1997[1] | Page 1 |
| Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document v.5.3e | November 8, 1997[2] | Pages 1-2, 15-76, and 81 |
| Shooter: Majestic Revelations design document v.6.4 | February 17, 1998[3] | Excerpts |
| Deus Ex design document v.6.7 | March 5, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document (version unknown) | April 14, 1998[4] | Page 1 (cover page) |
| Deus Ex design document v.7.2 | April 17, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.7.5 | April 28, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.8.0 | May 15, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.8.6 | May 26, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.9.3 | July 13, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.9.9 | September 3, 1998[3] | Page 1 (cover page) |
| Deus Ex design document v.10.01 | October 7, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.10.08 | December 1, 1998[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.13.10 | December 2, 1999[3] | — |
| Deus Ex design document v.13.12 | December 14, 1999[5] | Pages 1-242 (full document) |
Gallery[]
First page of design document v.3 (Shooter)
Cover page of design document v.5.3e (Shooter: Majestic Revelations)
Cover page of design document v.9.9
Cover page of design document v.13.12
Design documents in a display case (Game Masters Exhibition, June 28, 2012 to October 28, 2012, Melbourne, Australia)
Closeup of two documents in the display case
April 14, 1998 design document (Game Masters Exhibition). The subtitle reads "The game formerly known as 'Shooter'" and "Roleplaying in a World of Secrets, Lies and Conspiracies".
Warren Spector's presentation at GDC 2017, showing an image of design document 13.12
References[]
- ↑ "Shooter Story 3" (document di_05027). Dolph Briscoe Center for American History of the University of Texas at Austin.
- ↑ See cover page of the released document. See also the description for page 81, "The Player Character" (document di_05514). Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 "A Guide to the Warren Spector Papers, 1965-2007" (archived on June 15, 2021). Briscoe Center for American History.
- ↑ This design document was on display at the Game Masters Exhibition, June-Oct 2012 at Melbourne, Australia.
- ↑ The date 12/14/1999 is displayed in the version of the file shown in Spector's presentation at GDC 2017 (see image). Note that the version of the file that was made public lists 1999 as the year, but does not display a specific date (note that the date shown on the cover and footer of the available .doc version is not the true date, because it is an auto-updating "today's date" field.).
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