Developer interviews and commentary (DX and DXIW)

This page includes a collection of developer interviews and commentary pertaining to Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War. Developers represented on this page were affiliated with Ion Storm, the studio that developed the games.

Developers

The following developers appear in five or more entries on this page:

• Warren Spector – Producer and Project Director (Deus Ex), Studio Director (Deus Ex: Invisible War)
• Harvey Smith – Lead Designer (Deus Ex), Project Director (Deus Ex: Invisible War)
• Robert "Bob" White – Designer (Deus Ex)
• Chris Norden – Lead Programmer and Assistant Director (Deus Ex)
• Sheldon Pacotti – Script Writer (Deus Ex), Lead Writer (Deus Ex: Invisible War)
• Steve Powers – Designer (Deus Ex), Senior Designer (Deus Ex Invisible War)
• Ricardo Bare – Designer (Deus Ex), Lead Designer (Deus Ex: Invisible War)
• Alexander Brandon – Music and voices (Deus Ex)

1998 — 2000 (Deus Ex pre-release)

Entries marked with an asterisk (*) are dated by an interviews index page on DeusEx Machina. Entries marked with two asterisks (**) are dated by an interviews index page on Planet Deus Ex.

Warren Spector interviews

• W. Spector and M. Bagur (Jul 1998). "Warren Spector and Michelle Bagur Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-11.
• W. Spector (c. May 1999). "Deus Ex Warren Spector" (archived). Stormtroopers (interview). Archived 1999-08-28.
• W. Spector (c. May 1999). "LDespot's Interview with Warren Spector at E3" (archived). GamerzEdge (interview). Archived 1999-10-05.
• W. Spector (Jul 1999*). "Warren Spector Interview: Talking with the Man who hates crates" (archived). Unreal Universe (interview). Archived 1999-10-11.
• W. Spector (Jul 1999*). "GameSpot's Ten Questions with Warren Spector" (archived). Archived 2001-06-09.
• W. Spector (Oct 28, 1999). "Deus Ex Interview" (archived). IGN (interview). Archived 2001-03-03.
• W. Spector (c. 1998-1999). "The Warren Commission: ION Austin Gives Form to Designer’s Vision" (archived). Ion Storm (interview). Archived 2001-11-23.
• W. Spector (Feb 2000*). "Deus Ex Q&A; with Warren Spector, New Screenshots" (archived). GA-RPG (interview). Archived 2000-06-18.
• W. Spector (Feb 2000*). "Deus Ex Week: Warren Spector Interview" (archived). Daily Radar (interview). Archived 2000-04-15. Part of a series of articles titled "Deus Ex Week." Spector's interview also extends through the sections "Nano-abilities" and "Unreal Engine, Deus Ex 2, and Groupies".
• W. Spector (Feb 4, 2000). "Deus Ex Interview - Warren Spector Tells All" (archived). GameSpot UK (interview). Archived 2000-04-19.
• W. Spector (Apr 19, 2000). "Deus Ex Interview" (archived). IGN. Archived 2015-01-31.
• W. Spector (Jun 8, 2000). "Deus Ex: Interview with Warren Spector". EIP Gaming (interview). Also archived 2021-09-16. Originally hosted on DeusExGaming in thee parts: "Questions 1-10", "Questions 11-20", "Question 21-29" (archived). Also published on deus-ex.org on Jun 29, 2000.

Harvey Smith interviews

• H. Smith and S. Powers (c. 1998). "WarZone Feature: Deus EX" (archived). WarZone (interview). Archived 1999-08-08.
• H. Smith (Mar 1999**). "Interviews: Harvey 'Witchboy' Smith" (archived). Deus Ex Incarnate (interview). Archived 2011-04-18. The interview was also published on Planet Deus Ex.
• H. Smith (Apr 1999*). "GameGirlz Features - Q&A With Harvey Smith" (archived). GameGirlz (interview). Archived 1999-05-08.
• H. Smith (c. May 1999). Harvey Smith interview (archived). 3d.unlimited (interview). Archived 1999-08-20.
• H. Smith (Jun 1999*). "Deus Ex Interview - PC Paradox" (archived). PC Paradox (interview). Archived 1999-10-10.
• H. Smith (Jul 1999*). "Interview" (archived). DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-04-18. Another version of the interview (archived 2000-08-18), with the same content is dated Nov 15, 1999.
• H. Smith (Oct 8, 1999). "Deus Ex Developer Update" (archived). 3D Unlimited. Archived 2000-08-17.
• H. Smith et al. (Jan 27, 2000. "Interviews: Deus Ex Chat Jan 27, '00" (archived). Deus Ex Incarnate (chat transcript). Archived 2000-10-11. Also published on Planet Deus Ex.
• H. Smith (Mar 2000*). "Interview with a Witchboy" (archived). Unreal Universe (interview). Archived 2000-04-07.
• H. Smith et al. (Jun 9, 2000). "Developer Q&A" (archived). DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-12-08. Other interviewees: Bob White, Steve Powers, Ricardo Bare, and Monte Martinez.
• H. Smith (Jun 12, 2022). "Harvey 'Witchboy' Smith Interview - Part I". DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-08-16.
• H. Smith (Jun 14, 2022). "Harvey 'Witchboy' Smith Interview - Part II". DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-08-15.

Bob White interviews

• B. White et al. (Aug 25, 1998). "Deus Ex Design Team Interview" (archived). Vault Networks (interview). Archived 1998-12-06. Other interviewees: Harvey Smith, Dan Rubenfield, Marshall Andrews, and Steve Powers.
• B. White (May 1999*). "Apache chats with Deus Ex co-creator Bob White" (archived). Unreal Universe (interview). Archived 1999-10-13.
• B. White (Jun 1999*). "Deus Ex - Bob White" (archived). U-Games (interview). Archived 1999-11-19.
• B. White (Feb 2000*). "With Deus Ex designer Bob White" (archived). Unreal Universe (interview). Archived 2000-04-10.
• B. White (May 5, 2000). "Bob White Interview" (archived). DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-12-08.

Interviews - other developers

• C. Norden (May 1999). Interview at E3 1999 (partially archived). Reposted on The Cutting Room Floor (video interview).
• C. Norden (Jul 1999*). "Interviews: Chris "Assassin" Norden" (archived). Deus Ex Incarnate (interview). Archived 2000-04-18. The interview was also published on Planet Deus Ex.
• C. Norden (Jul 1999). "Chris Norden - Deus Ex" (archived). U-Games (interview). Archived 2000-01-06.
• C. Norden (Mar 2000*). "Interview with Chris Norden" (archived). Unreal Universe (interview). Archived 2000-04-18.

Other developer interviews

• T. Elliot Cannon (Jul 1998). "T. Elliot "Myscha" Cannon Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-11.
• Michelle Bagur (Jul 1998). "Michelle Bagur Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-11-18.
• Albert Yarusso (Dec 1998). "Interviews: Albert 'Alchemy' Yarusso" (archived). Deus Ex Incarnate (interview). Archived 1999-02-20. The interview was also published on Planet Deus Ex.
• Scott Martin (Jan 2000*). "Interviews: Scott "Starkiller" Martin" (archived). Deus Ex Incarnate (interview). Archived 2001-07-19. The interview was also published was posted on Planet Deus Ex.
• Mark Adams (Apr 2000**). "Mark Adams Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-11.
• Alexander Brandon (Apr 2000**). "Alexander Brandon Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-11.
• Chad Warren (Apr 2000**). "Chad 'MISMonkey' Warren Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-11.
• Clay Hoffman (May 9, 2022). "Clay Hoffman Interview" (archived). DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-06-21.
• Scott Martin (Jun 18, 2000). "Scott Martin Interview" (archived). DXNation (interview). Archived 2000-08-15.

Articles/videos based on developer commentary

Developers involved are displayed in bold, followed by the article's full citation which begins with the name of the article's author.

• W. Spector and H. Smith • U-Games (c. May 1999) "Preview: Deus Ex" (archived). U-Games. Archived 1999-12-04.
• W. Spector • "preRelease Deus Ex (1999) preview." SDX9000's channel on YouTube (video).
• W. Spector • "Deus Ex preview". Retro VHS Gaming Videos' channel on YouTube (video).
• W. Spector • Ameer Ajani (May 3, 2000), "GameSpot Preview: Deus Ex" (archived). GameSpot. Archived 2000-08-16.
• W. Spector • John Keefer (c. May 2000), "Behind the scenes on Deus Ex" (archived). GameSpy. Archived 2000-05-12.

2000 — 2001 (Deus Ex post-release)

Warren Spector interviews

• W. Spector (c. Dec 2000). "Warren Spector Speaks: An official statement about Deus Ex 2 from the man himself" (archived) GameSpy (developer's statement). Archived 2000-12-05.
• W. Spector (Dec 11, 2000). "Redherring.com Chat". GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-05-11.
• W. Spector (Jun 2001**). "Warren Spector Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-07-12.

Harvey Smith interviews

• H. Smith and S. Martin (Aug 29. 2000). "Harvey Smith & Scott Martin (Deus Ex SDK)" (archived). IGN Vault (interview). Archived 2000-10-18.
• H. Smith (Dec 2000*). "Interview with Harvey Smith, aka Witchboy". DeusEx Machina (interview). Archived 2001-02-03.
• H. Smith (Feb 2001**). "Harvey Smith, a.k.a. witchboy, Interview" (archived). GameSpy - Planet Deus Ex (interview). Archived 2001-06-08.
• H. Smith et al. (Feb 2001*). "Behind the Scenes Look in the Making of Deus Ex" (archived). DeusEx Machina (interview). Archived 2001-04-09. Other interviewees: Steve Powers, Chris Todd, Sheldon Pacotti, and Ricardo Bare.
• H. Smith (Mar 2, 2001). "An Interview with... Harvey Smith" (archived). DPerry.com (interview). Archived 2001-03-05.

Sheldon Pacotti interviews

• S. Pacotti (Jun 28, 2000). "Interview with Sheldon Pacotti" (archived). Gamepen (interview). Archived 2002-10-16.
• S. Pacotti (c. 2000). "Deus Ex Scriptwriter Sheldon Pacotti" (archived). Speedy3D (interview). Archived 2000-08-19.
• S. Pacotti (c. 2000-01). "An interview with the main writer of Deus Ex 1" (archived). Deus Ex Machina (interview). Archived 2001-08-13.
• S. Pacotti (2001). "Deus Ex Radio Interview". www.newlifeinteractive.com (audio interview).

Interviews - other developers

• Alexander Brandon (Jan 2001*). "Interview with Alex Brandon". DeusExMachina (interview). Archived 2001-02-02.
• Jay Anthony Franke (Jun 6, 2001). "Interview with JC Denton". IGN (interview).

Developer articles/presentations

• H. Smith (c. 2000). "Harvey Smith on Deus Ex Editor". mK YouTube channel (video).
• W. Spector (November 2000). "Postmortem: Ion Storm's Deus Ex". Game Developer. UBM TechWeb: 50–58. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. This article was later published in 2003 as "Ion Storm's Deus Ex" (book chapter) in Postmortems From Game Developers (ed. Austin Grossman), published 2003-01-16.
• W. Spector (December 6, 2000), "Postmortem: Ion Storm's Deus Ex" (archived). Gamasutra. Archived 2001-01-28.

2003 — 2004 (Deus Ex: Invisible War pre-release and post-release)

Warren Spector interviews

• W. Spector (Feb 11, 2003). "Warren Spector on Deus Ex: Invisible War" (archived). GameSpy (interview). Archived 2003-04-01.
• W. Spector (Sep 9, 2003). "Warren Spector on Deus Ex: Invisible War" (archived). GameSpy (interview). Archived 2003-09-19.
• W. Spector (c. Dec 2003), "Warren Spector talks Deus Ex: Invisible War" (archived). Eurogamer.net (interview). Archived 2003-12-02.
• W. Spector (Feb. 4, 2004), "Deus Ex: Invisible War Interview with Warren Spector at Computer and Video Games". IGN (interview).

Harvey Smith interviews

• H. Smith (Feb 18, 2003). "DX: Visible Interview". IGN (interview). Archived 2012-10-13.
• H. Smith (Sep 17, 2003). "Interview with Harvey Smith". GamePro (interview). Archived 2004-03-15.
• H. Smith (Sep 18, 2003). "Harvey Smith on Deus Ex: Invisible War" (archived). GameSpy (interview). Archived 2003-09-20.
• H. Smith (c. Dec 2003). "Secrets Revealed? Not quite, but you can catch a glimpse into the covert world of Deus Ex: Invisible War" (archived). GameZone Online (interview). Archived 2003-12-03.
• H. Smith (Apr 5, 2004). "Harvey Smith leaves Ion Storm". GameSpy (interview).
• H. Smith (Apr 6, 2004). "Harvey Smith Interview" (archived). IGN (interview). Archived 2004-04-27.

Interviews - other developers

• H. Smith and R. Bare (Feb 13, 2003). "Smith and Bare: Building an Invisible War" (archived). GameSpy (interview). Archived 2003-02-21.
• S. Pacotti (Oct 7, 2003). "Deus Ex: Invisible War - exclusive interview!" (archived). Computer and Video Games (interview). Archived 2008-04-22.
• Ion Storm developers (Nov 17, 2003). "Deus Ex: Invisible War Interview, Part 1" (archived). IGN: RPG Vault (interview). Archived 2003-12-02. All interviewees: Harvey Smith, Warren Spector, Matt Baer, Ricardo Bare, Sheldon Pacotti, Sarah Paetsch, and Steve Powers.
• Ion Storm developers (Nov 24, 2003). "Deus Ex: Invisible War Interview, Part 2" (archived). IGN: RPG Vault (interview). Archived 2003-11-26. All interviewees: Sheldon Pacotti, Kent Hudson, Sarah Paetsch, Ricardo Bare, Steve Powers and Matt Baer.
• Ion Storm developers (Dec 1, 2003). "Deus Ex: Invisible War Interview, Part 3" (archived). IGN: RPG Vault (interview). Archived 2003-12-02. All interviewees: Kent Hudson, Ricardo Bare, Warren Spector, Matt Baer, Jared Carr.

Developer articles

• C. Carollo and W. Spector (Dec 4, 2003), "Invisible War Diaries: Warren speaks about consoles vs. PC and Chris Carollo wraps up the development process". IGN.

2007 — Present

Warren Spector interviews

• W. Spector (Dec 17, 2007). "Warren Spector on Disney and Deus Ex 3". Eurogamer (interview). Interviewed by Kieron GIllen.
• W. Spector (Feb 13, 2008). "RPS Exclusive: Warren Spector Interview". Rock Paper Shotgun (interview). Also archived on 2008-10-02.
• W. Spector (Nov 13, 2013). "Interview: Spector On Fears, Legacies and Returning To PC". Rock Paper Shotgun (interview). Interviewed by Adam Smith.
• W. Spector, C. Norden, and S. Pacotti (Jun 26, 2015). "DX15: The Legacy of Deus Ex". IGN (video interview).
• W. Spector, C. Norden, and S. Pacotti (Jul 9, 2015). "Deus Ex: Remembering Invisible War - DX15 Part 2 - IGN Exclusive". IGN (video interview).
• W. Spector (Apr 30, 2015). "Hi, I am Warren Spector, a game developer from Origin, Ion Storm and Junction Point. I worked on Deus Ex and Disney Epic Mickey and a lot of other games. AMA!" (Reddit AMA), reddit.
• W. Spector (Jan 19, 2016). "Academy Gaming Hour w/ Warren Spector (Deus Ex)". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences YouTube channel (video interview).
• W. Spector (Jul 10, 2017). "What's 'Most Important' to Warren Spector About Deus Ex — IGN Unfiltered". IGN (video interview). Also posted on YouTube.
• W. Spector (Jun 30, 2019). "Interview with Warren Spector on System Shock 3, Deus Ex Trilogy, Mickey Mouse, and Immersive Sims". WCCFTech (interview). Archived 2019-07-01.
• W. Spector (Dec 16, 2021). "How Deus Ex Blended Genres To Change Shooters Forever | War Stories". Ars Technica (video interview).
• W. Spector et al. (May 9, 2024). "'90s PC gaming veterans roundtable". PC Gamer YouTube channel (audio discussion). Also available on Spotify and summarized in a PC Gamer article. Also reported by Wes Fenlon (May 9, 2024), "24 years later, Warren Spector offers more details about Deus Ex's cut 'Denver airport conspiracy' mission that was 'so crazy no one would believe it'", PC Gamer. Discussion includes developers of other series.
• W. Spector (Jul 11, 2025). "WWC25 - Fireside Chat with Warren Spector & John Romero". WeAreDevelopers Worldwide Congress 2025 (video interview).

Interviews - other developers

• H. Smith (Jul 20, 2007). "Deus Ex - the ending that never was" (archived). Computer and Video Games (interview). Archived 2008-04-22.
• Alexander Brandon (Nov 2007). "Interview with Alexander Brandon (November 2007)" (archived). Square Enix Music. Archived 2010-04-24.
• S. Pacotti (Aug 22, 2011). "Deus Ex: Looking Back at the Future: The writer of the first Deus Ex games looks forward to Human Revolution". Eurogamer (interview). Interviewed by Wesley Yin-Poole.
• Jay Anthony Franke (Oct-Nov 2014). "PAX AUS 2014 – I am JC Denton: A Conversation With Jay Anthony Franke". The Unofficial Convention Archives (video interview files collection).
• Alexander Brandon (Aug 20, 2016). "Interview w/Alexander Brandon on Deus Ex - July 27, 2016". Nightdive Studios YouTube channel (video interview).
• H. Smith (Jan 5, 2018). "Deus Ex to Dishonored with Harvey Smith". Noclip - Video Game Documentaries YouTube channel (video interview)
• Alexander Brandon (Jun 13, 2018). "Alexander Brandon Interview - The Unmute Button". Weird Video Games YouTube Channel (video interview).
• C. Norden (Oct 23, 2018). "Classic Tools Retrospective: The tools that built Deus Ex, with Chris Norden". Game Developer (interview). Interviewed by David Lightbown.
• Ion Storm developers (Jun 22, 2020). "Deus Ex at 20: The oral history of a pivotal PC game". Rock Paper Shotgun (interview). Interviewees: Steve Powers, John Romero, Ian Livingstone, Sheldon Pacotti, Austin Grossman, Harvey Smith, Robin Todd, Todd Porter.

Developer articles and presentations

• H. Smith and W. Spector (Mar 21, 2008). "Warren Spector lecture 03 - Harvey Smith" (part of Warren Spector's Master Class at the Univ. of Texas). gamedevthings YouTube channel (video).
• W. Spector, C. Norden, and S. Pacotti (Jul 16, 2015). "Let's Play Deus Ex with Warren Spector, Sheldon Pacotti and Chris Norden". Deus Ex channel on YouTube.
• W. Spector (Feb-Mar 2017), "Classic Game Postmortem: 'Deus Ex'". GDCVault (video recording). 2017 Game Developers Conference, Feb 27, 2017 – Mar 3, 2017.
• W. Spector (Sep 26, 2023). "40 years and I'm still here." Game Developer.

Articles based on commentary

Developers involved are displayed in bold, followed by the article's full citation which begins with the article's author name.

• Chris Todd and Steve Powers • "Developer E-mails" (archived). TheosEk. Archived 2011-01-17.
• S. Pacotti • Richard Wordsworth (Aug 5, 2014). "How Deus Ex Predicted the Future". Kotaku. Republished April 14, 2017.
• W. Spector • Alex Calvin (Nov 16, 2017). "The God Project: Warren Spector on the making of Deus Ex". PC Games Insider.
• Scott Martin • John Loeffler (Jun 23, 2020). "Deus Ex 20th Anniversary: Programmer Scott Martin talks about working on the PC gaming masterpiece". Techradar.
• W. Spector • Evan Wilson (Jul 13, 2020). "Warren Spector on Deus Ex, 20 years on". Rock Paper Shotgun.
• W. Spector • Rick Lane (Jan 14, 2021). "The History of Ion Storm". PCGamer.
• W. Spector • Riley MacLeod (Mar 15, 2021). "Warren Spector Thinks Deus Ex Is Too Real For 2021". Kotaku.
• H. Smith • Rick Lane (Sep 21, 2022). "Harvey Smith is in uncharted territory". NME.
• S. Powers • Samuel Horti (Jun 23, 2025). "How One Deus Ex Designer Created The Game's Best Level". GameSpot.

Other commentary sources

The following sources are covered by their own, separate articles, but contain developer commentary.

• Deus Ex Bible – Includes developer interviews with Harvey Smith, Sheldon Pacotti, and Warren Spector
• Deus Ex Design Document
• The Art of Deus Ex Universe – Includes a foreword by Warren Spector

See also

• Developer interviews and commentary