Nightdive brought back original Thief artist Daniel Thron to redo the remaster's cutscenes

Nightdive Studios is remastering Thief: The Dark Project with one of the original Looking Glass artists on board — Daniel Thron is back to help rebuild the game's distinctive cutscenes for the remaster. The news came out of a new episode of Nightdive's Deep Dive podcast.

Producer Daniel Grayshon confirmed Thron's involvement on the podcast, describing the goal as making the cutscenes look "the same, but 4K — so much better" with smoother animation. Thron was one of three primary artists credited on the original 1998 Thief alongside Robb Waters and lead artist Mark Lizotte. He directed, animated, and produced art for the cutscenes, and also voiced several characters in the game. Grayshon was bullish on the results: "I don't think anybody would be unhappy with what we're doing." The original cutscenes ran as low as 320x240 at 15 fps — Thief itself ran at 480p — so there's plenty of room to improve without losing the look.

Thief's cutscenes have a very specific 2D-animated style that's unlike almost anything else from that era, and they've been locked at those ancient resolutions since 1998. Nightdive already proved it can handle this kind of work — its System Shock 2 remaster rebuilt that game's pre-rendered cutscenes faithfully, and retired Nightdive VP Larry Kuperman confirmed that was done without AI upscaling. The studio has a solid track record with the Dark Engine and Looking Glass' visual identity, so Thron's involvement feels like a genuine bonus rather than a rescue operation. Beyond the cutscenes, Thief also has its iconic mission briefings narrated by Stephen Russell as Garrett — illustrated parchment motion graphics that could also benefit from the same treatment.

Thief: The Dark Project Remastered currently has a release window of "this winter," with no more specific date announced yet. Fans are hoping that means December rather than slipping into early 2025.