Thank you all for such positive feedback on this video, it means a lot. This has been my passion project for at least a couple years, and it feels good to finally get it out. The majority of my content will still be let's plays, but I am planning to do more videos of this type in the future as well. I will also definitely get a better microphone before that happens. :)

I'm NightMaker on TTLG and I rarely post on there, I'm a bit shy, I guess :) I just want to say thank you for this video, and the love for Thief I feel from it and in the community still today, it's heartwarming, and moving. Thief reminds me all of those looong afternoons playing all of originals and fan missions I loved, it reminds me of the lightheartedness of those days, when my mom was still alive, and I could pause the game and hug her. Thank you, from my heart.

"Thief 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time." Me too! (Deus Ex is #3) It really warms my heart to see all the love this series still gets after 20+ years. I have played the first 2 at least 10 times each and EVERY FM at least once. Some of the best memories of my life involve playing these games and FM's. I wish Gold and The Metal Age would get the Half Life: Black Mesa treatment.

Gotta keep the legacy of the Thief franchise alive, we may not see a new Thief game for a very very very long time. So, the creation of new fan missions from hard core Thief fans is what keeps the series going forward for the foreseeable future.

There have been many great thief retrospectives over the years. But almost all of them ignore the FM side of thief. It's about time someone gives the FM the respect they deserve. Without them thief would not be as alive as it is today.

I love Thief and I played a bunch of fan missions back in the day. I remember one of my favourites being Ominous Bequest.

This game, its style, sound design, just everything was and still is a gem to this day. Through the modding community we've been blessed with countless new content and experiences. Back in 2000, I discovered the Thief II demo on a game magazine CD-ROM. It wouldn't take long until I had the first game on my computer. It became a massive influence to me, as an artist and person. I think, up to this day, Thief is a "hiddem gem" with the potential to still become something so much bigger in the future. And yes, we all know how easily such endeavors can end up being screwed. I mean, just look at the setting! Dark fantasy, steampunk, undead, fanatics and dark humor. The atmosphere is one of a kind. Almost strange, no fan movies were made about Thief. With nowadays technological possibilities like UnrealEngine 5.3, Blender etc. why not? Until then, I keep playing and enjoying the taffers.

2023 and i'm still playing these fan missions. Really appreciate you making these videos.

I also found out about Thief in the middle of the 2010s. Thief Deadly Shadows was the first one I played and I was astonished... it was the best thing I have ever played, thought then. Then I installed Thief Gold and Thief 2 and everything changed. I have over a thousand FMs downloaded and I still play almost every day. These games are the best thing that could happen to the gaming industry in my opinion. Nothing could be compared to ghosting through a whole campaign and see 0 damage caused and 0 bodies found at the end of each mission. And you can always found hidden gems among the FMs that you never heard of. For example, due to this video I found out about So Long Hammers. Immediately downloaded it :). So a big thanks to you Marble Man for making this video and the others!!!

Seeing Seventh Crystal gave me a huge blast of nostalgia, was actually trying to figure out "that old snow FM I played in the early 2000s" was for a while. My dad and I played FMs way back in the day and I've been trying to remember some of those old ones we played.

Nice essay style video. I’m quietly optimistic that the scene will stay alive for some time yet. Thief offers something that modern gaming can’t and hopefully that will continue to attract new people into the community.

Then there are those of us who do not even play the game, but enjoy watching these playthroughs of Thief games. The atmosphere, the challenge, all of it is entertaining.

I started playing Theif 1 and 2 back in 2010 and now with the mods, I don't have to stop! The original games are so much fun and the mods are just fantastic! So happy to see that there are many others out there who love the game as much as I do.

This was magnificently done, marbleman! As someone who's been there almost since the beginning, it was quite nostalgic. Your love and interest for the game and fan missions really shine through, and it is motivating for new and experienced players alike. I also like how the information is vast, but not overwhelming. You capture the important events and FMs, which not only gives new players a place to start, but also gives them a level of understanding for those older missions that might not outright compare to newer classics. Great job! 😃

never played thief, now I really want to.

I really cannot thank you enough for this video. As someone who grew up on consoles, I shifted to PC gaming only after I started the university in 2011. Since I missed the Nineties I only recovered some games of that period by playing in random order the classics. Only by chance I discovered Thief, after knowing it was one of the major inspirations for Arkane's Dishonored. It instantly became my favorite game. Since I was not very familiar with modding and fan content I would never have thought that non-professional users could create such high quality missions. Indeed, again by sheer luck I found out the Dark Mod when searching for similar games, when I was trying to forget the abomination of 2014 which carries the name of Thief. After the Dark Mod, I finally started playing also the fan missions of the original games. For someone like me, who started playing them so late and only a few of them selected on general recommendation, the most familiar names are Skaky, Melan or the late Lady Rowena. Undoubtedly they are among the ones who created the most refined, polished and expansive missions and they deserve all the credit they get. But still, they stand on the shoulder of giants and the contribution of earlier missions and user should not be forgotten. I did not know that Looking Glass distributed DromEd only with the Gold version of Thief, after witnessing Trimfect's efforts. I played Purah's Calendra series but missing the context I did not know it had such an impact on the scene. Thank you, thank you very much sir for this brief but informative digression. For many members of the TTLG community this could seem just a pleasant nostalgia trip, but for me this is the chronicle of how you carried on a legacy.

Wonderful retrospective, thanks marbleman!

Great retrospective. :)

Man, not enough love is out there in this kind of format for TFMs. It's really quite beautiful and inspiring if you think about it. This long a legacy. I was introduced to thief the same way, and only recently I started to dabble with FM. I hope one day i'll do one of my own as the community is really inspiring. I found out a good amount of starting places for that, thanks to you bruv. I've been enjoying your videos lately, so thanks for that also.

Excellent overview, thank you for your time and effort (and for PUFFY.wav). The video is done professionally just like on bigger gaming channels and yet it has a cozy feeling of a small community. I have been familiar with Thief since at least 2003 or so and I think this is the only game that I will never stop playing, mainly thanks to wonderful fan missions. Well done.

I only recently began to try out FMs and it's incredible how great most of those missions are. I've now played 27 for TG and am already excited for T2 FMs. While TTDP is my favorite game of all time I somehow never played FMs or T2 before, but better late than never. Thanks to everyone making those and to the developers that made DromED public, I've never had so much fun with custom made content for a game before. :)

It's been about 10 years since I last been to TTLG and downloaded a FM. I played over 100 of them. I am tempted to get back and play some that I have missed since. Although I get the feeling it will take a bunch of work to get Thief II reinstalled, and Darkloader (or whatever its called nowadays) and all the other patches and tweaks to get everything working. But I am just amazed the FM community seems to still be going strong. Thief is going on a quarter of century now.

Wonderful retro, thank you for all the love you've poured into my favorite games. I am a passionate developer and whilst I haven't yet had a chance to work in the FM scene I am always considering ways to revitalize Thief. It's exciting and reassuring to see so many people who also feel that the original Thief games have something no other game has (especially those who didn't grow up with it, nostalgia can be a wonderful but deceptive thing). With people like you and all the wonderful community members around I have faith we can continue to give Thief the love it deserves and hopefully with more passion, effort and creativity we can bring it to an even wider range of gamers in future. I wish you all the best and can't wait to see what you and the rest of the Thief/TTLG community have in store for us :)

Thief 2 is my favorite game of all time. Haven't played a FM since --- last night....

Just found this video, fantastic! Well done, very thoughtful, nice walk down memory lane. (Komag)

Reminds me of Morrowind Modding Showcases. Every month, teams of modders will compete to make the best possible content within an arbitrary time constraint. The best of these will be showcased and discussed on video. These kinds of contests are really important for engagement. I hope there are more to come for fan missions.

Excellent video. Thief Forever!

I had -no- idea how big this rabbit hole was. I knew about T2X & the dark mod, and that was it. Thanks!

Only just stumbled across your channel after finally ticking Thief 1 and 2 off my childhood backlog (Thief 1 scared me too much to finish back in the day) - was looking for some FMs to check out in preparation for The Black Parade and your channel was a wonderful source of inspiration. Just wanted to thank you for helping people that are out of the loop - like myself - ease their way into these games. Whatever you‘re up to these days, I hope you‘re having a great time!

I think the low limits of the orginal Dark Engine made it much easier for people to see themselves making something that compared well to the original missions, and those of other authors. The low poly limit, and the instability that came with complex geometry, probably saved us a lot of time since it wasn't possible to create, and lose time on, extreme levels of detail. The editor is also very simple to use, with the world being constructed with simple 3D primitives (not sure about other editors). Along with notepad for writing custom books/scrolls etc, and a zip editor for final packaging, no other tools were needed to make a fully functional level with a good story. Customizing is nice though, and it also helps that the resources use very common formats. Book texts are plain text, textures could be .gif or .pcx, tga, and sounds are .wav files. The original resources are stored in renamed zip files making them easy to access and modify. The NewDark patch inceases texture size limits and added more formats, but still these are all suported my most other software. The way the sound files are controlled is also handled with plain text files. The old resource limits, e.g. 256x256 texture size limit, also kept the bar within easy reach of a lot of people, just like the poly limit. It also helps that a lot of interesting scripted events can be set up in the editor, without the user having to write any code. The editor also has a built-in game mode which makes it easy to quickly test things or check that the gameplay is working etc. Other editors may require the user to run the game separately (just guessing, not used many others). I think the above things encouraged authors to focus on story and gameplay, while still leaving eough for customizing things. The NewDark patch has indeed encouraged us to spend more time on grand things, so it's important to keep asking ourselves "does this make the FM better?".

You know this is a great video when a lot of the big names in Thief have commented on it. I've never recognized so many names before in a comment section lol. Fantastic work, Marble Man.

Great video! Got into the Thief games in 2016, and started playing fan missions summer 2021. Played a few dozens missions and it's staggering how many more missions there are for me to play still. The community is amazing

Lovely video. I've been an on and off Thief player since mid-2017 and I recently came across your channel which has led me to reinstall the first two games. I'm glad to hear that a new mission editor is in the works and I hope for the best, as my attempts at Dromed have usually been brief and ended in frustration.

Played thief at the start of this year, and has instantly shot up to be one of my favourite games

Thanks for this trip down memory lane! I was among the people who contributed to T2X back in the day; I made a few textures, especially walls and windows. I also made a few for The Dark Mod, but I'm not sure if they ever actually made it into the mod. I think I went by the handle "John P" back then. I made a few high res textures for Thief DS as well (and DX:IW). Two "texture packs", with installers and everything. Those were the days! :)

this is an incredible video, thank you so much for making it. more people really need to know about these -- theres so many incredible fan missions.

Man, I had no idea Thief2X existed. I never played any FMs, sadly, but will rectify that in the near future. Also had no idea Thief's Den was the first TDM mission. I deeply love all these games. Including TDS, despite its flaws.

The Dark Mod (TDM) is so unfairly overlooked. I really recommend every Thief player to try it out. When it was released it could not be so, but now it is in some ways better then Thief (aside from the obvious graphical improvements, that is). For instance, mantling is way better, more consistent and easier.

Great video, While I'm not skilled in the least with game creating. I would love to give a try at creating my own Thief Fan Mission, whenever I get a new computer that is. Been watching a lot of the (mentioned missions) on KZfaq, and I love the mostly the lore and designs these mission have. Also nice to hear that the community is still going strong.

Exelent video, this game and its comunity shows how far can you go if you love something.

I've been playing Thief since the year 2000, and fan missions for just over 10 years as well, and only today did I learn that the editor was almost not released. :o

An informative look back at our beloved Thief FMs and why they're still around after almost 25 yrs, mainly thanks to a wonderful global community that has made it all happen.

TTLG was the first forum on the internet I ever joined, back in 2001. How time flies.

An excellent video, the FM community is a gem and you do well to give it some light

Great vídeos! In my opinion, my favorites missions are The Seventh Crystal, Dracula's Serie and (rip) COSAS

Excellent video! I haven't played FM's for a long while but your effort here has enthused me to jump back in. 👍

I spent so much time playing the first 3 thief games and fan missions. I would love for someone to release the original levels in VR, even if the graphics stay exactly the same.

Awesome video, well done. I'm so glad the community urged Looking Glass to release the Editor! Glorious. :D I've made a small Thief 2 mission called "Lady Lomat's Flute" if you want to play it. (Originally released in 2001, and re-vamped in 2013.) I really enjoyed making it, and learned a ton about game dev from the process! Long live The Dark Project! :)

I definitely grew up with these games. Extremely iconic. It was one of the first games I ever played that was in true 3D. I have played doom and that was the extent of my 3D game experience.

Great video - thank you! I grew up with thief as well and I'm still playing it. The originals and the FMs... And I love this community so much. And I hope it never dies!

Thief reminds me of my teenage years when used to live back in my country. Miss the time, but I never give up on thief, now I just write missions but not good with dromed. Thanks for video and good luck in future

thanks for this video. i wasn't aware of FMs trends and how it changed over time, that's really interesting perspective. also big thanks for tips on titles to install.

Over the past decade I've grown more and more passionate about the Thief games, but never checked out the modding scene. Thank you for this video, and it gives me the motivation I need to give some a shot!

I'm starting to get into the insanely creative and wonderful world of Thief fan missions thanks to this channel, the release of The Black Parade, and the Thief Guild website. I love that The Black Parade leans so heavily into the tense horror atmosphere that many missions in The Dark Project were known for. Genuinely one of the best releases I've played in 2023 and I know I'll be revisiting it again and again over the years. A genuine modern classic that is fully deserving of the Thief name. Would love to see a video on your personal favourite Thief fan missions as of 2023. Thanks for the great content!

You dont know how long i have been waiting for a video like this. Thank you so much.

Great video. Even as someone who has tried to get into FMs and has failed repeatedly, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Loved the video. You pointed me to several fan made maps I've never heard of, and I now look forward to trying them out! Thank you.

Nice video! Melan's and skacky's missions mean the world to me.

ive played every single one of these FM’s, as a kid with my dad and then as an adult with my younger siblings. it is our favorite alongside 1&2. thank u for a walk down memory lane

Nice job taffer. You mentioned a new mic in the future. From what I heard in the narration in the vid I'd first try a little equalization on the file: a small cut in the range of 200hz and a small boost around 2500hz. That will take out a bit of the low frequency mud and add a bit of sheen higher up that will bring out the intelligibility of the voice.

Dark mod mission Iris is one of the best city missions I have ever played.

this i the best Feedback i have ever seen about this Game! Thanks a lot!

Great, this was very well made and got me back to playing Thief 2, which I haven't played in years! Thanks for making this.

found your channel through this video and i ended up binge watching some other stuff as well. really nice content man keep it up!

Thanks for renewing my desire to play Thief FM'S

I mean it's only for years to the 30th anniversary - I'm confidant ThiefFMs will still be made then, and also that we will see another couple of great missions. I mean "the black parade" just came out and it's a fantastic 10 (?) mission campaign. And anyway, the FMs will still be played for years to come. I keep coming back and replaying many FMs every couple of years - when the Thief itch needs to be scratched. There are not many games that are played and modded like this, for that long.And I find it simply amazing. I heard about the criticism of calendra's legacy. And while everyone is of course entitled to their likes and dislikes, that criticism oftentimes comes across almost as objective truth - which I find silly. Yes, CL is very old for FM, but criticizing that it doesn't age well, is like ctiticizing and old person that he got old. And again: that is "only" your opinion, not fact. Same with the critics of T2x, especially considering that the plot of T2 wasn't that special either - or T1's for that matter, since according to the TTLG forums, apparently everyone and their dogs saw through the plot from the start. So I don't know what they expected,exactly. And what is wrong with Zaya as MC? I would very much like to see if these critics dislike the MC of The Black Parade as much ...

Such great games.... They define my childhood.... Most nostalgic games ever for me!

Thief 2: The Metal Age was not only one of the greatest, if not the greatest, games of all time, it was pure art. I love it to this day.

Excellent video - and you touched on all my favourite FMs

Nicely done video, my compliments!

Kali Malone would make absolutely amazing music and atmospheric soundscapes for Thief games... nice call

Thank you for covering these. Keep up the good work taffer.

I first started playing Thief 1-3 about 7 years ago and Thief 1 and 2 have found a firm spot in my top 10 games ever. That being said, I have yet to really dive into fan missions yet but I definitely will soon. Seeing what they're capable of in this video and how high-quality these missions can be makes me all the more eager to play them. Just knowing that there's hundreds of these levels available based on some of the best games ever made is just an incredible fact on its own.

Someone pointed out I have well over a literal day of time in the Dark Mod in video walkthrough format alone and I can safely say I've never felt as spotted by a video.

I love thief games, 1-2 being the best ones!

The Seven Shades of Mercury by the Hammerite Imperium team will always be a very special FM to me. I was heartbroken to find out about the rest of the cancelled missions. It was such a wonderful and beautiful mission that left an impression on me. If anyone has any recommendations of FMs similar to it, please let me know.

Great video! I'm in the process of recording and releasing my humble gameplays of Thief Gold in my small yt channel (I'm actually translating the game text to Portuguese for possible Brazilian fans of the Thief series), and knowing more about FM has definitely caught my interest in checking out more of the material made by the community. Thanks for your video! ;-)

I played thief when it was a demo! I was 11 and thought you HAD to kill every guard because until then that's what you did😅. Thank you for this video the fans missions has reopened my love for this game

I absolutely loved Thief 1 and 2, but on modern PCs I moved on to The Dark Mod. I tried playing Thief 1/2 on a modern PC, including tons of patches and texture packs and mods to make it work better, but it was never smooth sailing. I found a lot more development progress on TDM. I kinda want to go back and try Thief 1/2 again, I didn't actually get all the way through the campaigns, I was about 20 levels into one of the games when I switched computers and lost my saves, and didn't feel like starting over.

Im planning on doing a series where i play every single fan mission, so i havent actually played any yet, but man i want to I messed around in dromed to the point where i have a tiny mission thats not very good, but i think it had some cool ideas, havent really released it

Didn't know fuck all about thief or the modding scene before this, well done mate. An auspicious debut for your first crack at a video essay.

Great recap - long live Thief!

Miss playing these fan made missions. Need to dust off the old windows xp machine and start playing again.

Thank you for making this vid. Really enjoyable summary, even if I don't necessarily agree with all your points :> Also, mad respect for all FM makers and contributors out there who still chose to devote their time and skills to keep the game alive. I had my own little contribution in 2007, which if I remember correctly was the record year in terms of new FM released.

I still play the fan missions..... my only and best game ever ❤

Excellent video.

Thief continues to be THE stealth game, at least for me

The dark mod is amazing. Still actively being enhanced.

Great video, marblix! I injoyed

Ah yes. Great choice of missions for both showing examples and recommendations. Melan's vertical and absolutely huge missions, Gathering at the Inn, Death's Cold Embrace, Volta and the Stone - these ones I played more than once. Too bad you didn't show Yandros' Waterfront Racket - a whole focken noire movie quest made in Thief, a real wonder in terms of assets and overall design. But still, like I said, great choice. Also, where are you from with an accent like that?

Really high quality video. thanks :)

I also found Thief back in mid 2010. What a coincidence. haha I love this kind of video as well, teaching people the retrospective of the fan missions. I'll look forward to any similar video formats like this from you in the future, if you so decide to make. One off-topic question: What mic are you using to record your voice?

Wonder how I could run The Dark Mod and some of the Thief fan missions on a Steam Deck?

Great video! Long live Thief FMs.

You just got yourself a new follower, good video :) Have you played the new fan campaign, Black Parade, yet?

Wish the Thief games get their own movie adaptation, just as Mario and Sonic did.

Excellent video

Really informative, thank you.

Not sure why this popped up on my feed, but I'm glad I did! I also came late to the Thief party, but they've become some of my favorite games. I haven't delved much into fan missions though. I played T2X back in the day, but that's about it. For someone wanting to delve more into this, where would you recommend I start?

They spent over 1 year just working with the AI, that pretty much sums it up why this game is so great.