Stealing The Show: Thief 4 Lecture At GDC

Quick, somebody sound the Thief 4 gong! Looks like we'll be getting a tiny glimpse of the still very much in-development title at GDC, which kicks off on the 28th of February.

What's happened is that the schedule for GDC 2011 has been posted, and among such sinister-sounding lectures as "Care and Feeding of Your Independent Game Studio" and "Practical Occlusion Culling on PS3" is a talk entitled "Stealing Sound: Generative Music in THIEF".

So, yes. If nothing else we're likely to hear something about Thief 4's music. As the description of the lecture points out, audio has always been at the heart of Thief, although I'm not entirely sure if music specifically is what Thief's been about. According to ex-Looking Glass staffers, the original Thief was created simply because the team felt audio was under-used in games, and so they made a game all about footsteps, distractions, and other mechanics which tied audio into the game itself.

That said, maybe in Thief 4 we'll be listening out for swells in the music to warn us that a guard's about to see us, and the organic soundtrack will therefore allow us to share in Garrett's thiefly sixth sense. Who knows? Thanks to Eurogamer for the tipoff.

On the subject of Thief 4, did you hear the full title is going to be "Thief 4: He Who Larcenies Last, Larcenies Longest"? It's true*. Also, have you all played Thief 3 yet? If not, the following fan-made video might will convince you. It takes you half way through The Cradle, one of the single best levels of the last decade.

* It's not true.