So who says a thief of my caliber can't enjoy a quiet evening's entertainment? The ritzy theatre at the edge of the City is playing a favorite of mine, and I wouldn't mind a sitting in on an Act or two.

Of course, as luck would have it, 'business' kept me busy until well after the show was finished and the house was empty.

But, as mom would say, 'when life gives you lemons, steal the oranges, too.'

There's bound to be plenty of loose cash between the seats. Those stuffy nobles always lose a bit at the shows. I'll just sneak in, and pick up enough to pay for my next ticket in tomorrow night. Odds are, the money will all be in the auditorium, which is no doubt guarded, so I'll need to find some alternate way inside.

I've heard rumors that this particular theatre has a history and a rather... unsettling... reputation. It seems that it is built on an old burial ground. It seems like everything worth going for IS in this city. But that's not the end of it:

The back alleys have always had bedtime stories of the cults that have grown and fallen over the years. This theatre, I hear, is no different. One of my 'business partners' tells me that underneath this seemingly innocent stretch of town is a network of undergound rooms, the home of one of these cults, and a particularly violent and curious one at that. Still, I was told that there would probably be some kind of ancient 'magical' relics lying around just calling out for me to pocket, and I was promised a good price if I could bring back a few. Shouldn't be too hard.

I don't believe in magic, but I've always wondered why Theatres had to be built at the edge of the City...

--Thwark

"Grange" is my primary level contribution to the Thievery mod. It's very much a traditional thiefy kind of level in which you are to infiltrate a mansion in pursuit of your ill-gotten gains (whilst avoiding the guards), and then high-tailing it out of there. However, we have the advantage of being able to use the power of the Unreal Engine in order to create pilfering environments in far more detail than has been seen before.

For all of us building the maps for Thievery, it has been a bit more complex than stringing rooms full of loot together - a lot of careful thought is required. I'll explain about Grange in a bit more to help illustrate what I mean.

In order to help the players (who can be thieves or guards) find their way around, and keep tabs on the situation, Grange is set on multiple levels, so players can look out across the grounds of the house and see other parts of the level from different vantage points. It's not just a mansion, though........should you sneak in through the bath house, skulk through the vaults via the garden, or perhaps you should tiptoe through the kitchen and up into the house? Or should you just run up to the front door and knock? (Hint: No) Some ways may be quicker than others, but can you succesfully sneak past that guard house, and which shadows can you successfully hide in?

Should you wish to play against AI, it's also worth mentioning the brilliant AI system we have which has been written by our resident AI guru, Joel. This lets me assign all kinds of patrol routes to the guards, give them orders, specify how they should act towards the players, and control how alert they are with a whole range of parameters. The guards will even run and get help, set off configurable alarms and hunt the player with a variety of weaponry, again, all able to be configured by the level designer.

With all these aspects of gameplay to consider, it's quite a challenge to merge them all together with feedback from beta testers as something that looks good, plays well on the majority of PCs and provides a fun, balanced game for both teams.

I'm hoping we'll see some more great levels contributed by the community once the first external beta of the mod is released!

--Ulukai