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Interview with Graeme Devine of id software
But
from this relatively unhappy position, you're then hired as a designer
at perhaps the most famous game company on the planet. How did this come
about? And do you think it surprised people in the industry? I've
known John for a long time, and we're both very technology orientated
(I feel compelled to point out that he's just a little bit better in 3D
than me, but I can kick his ass in FMV).
id wanted a designer, and it seemed like a good time.
It was either that or start another company, but starting again
at that point was not something I had the energy to do, and frankly, working
with the best of the best on some kick-ass titles was pretty appealing,
especially if I was going to be designing some of them. Now
you're at id, and you're working as a coordinator, friendly company spokesperson,
and designer. Do you think id was lacking this in the past, and if so,
do you think it negatively impacted their previous titles in that that
they didn’t have the kind of coordination you now provide? And, on the
other hand, what do you think you can bring to id that will really make
them better as a company? I
bring the scapegoat position to id. Quake 3 Arena fails, and zip, all fingers
point to me. I don't know, I think id is like a cross between Dr. Who
and a rock band, in that it's constantly changing. Only three people at id have been here since the beginning, and I
think they've matured a lot since the company started. It's always hard to define or defend a managerial/design
position, because basically, there are 14 points of view in the company.
I'm just the lightning rod who happens to walk around muttering
loudest. I don't know.
Is id better since I arrived? Who
the heck knows? It had better be, or else my ass is grass.
FPS
is still very tech heavy. We're
basically the rocket launcher plus the current greatest technology. I think for the first time in Q3A
we've got technology to the point where there are very few constraints
on the designers and artists (no 200 polys in view, 256 colors max, software
rendering, or the like), and we can use this for more than just the indoor
warfare we have right now. We've also followed a very fixed path in world
construction using the BSP tree throughout the last 5 id products, and
that has led to an industry wide acceptance of BSP as the correct way
to represent a world. This in turn
has influenced game design to make very rigid and confined worlds (something
BSP is very good at), and we need to loosen that up. Quake III:Arena is due out pretty
soon now. What does it offer that other similar multi-player titles don't?
And are you or the guys at id amused or even annoyed at the amount of
similar tournament-type titles due out at a similar time?
I think the brand new engine is not only great at rendering the players
view, but the networking code also allows the player to enjoy an unparalleled
game experience. We're the only
ones out there with an open public test that's allowed us to tweak and
correct the network code to get it right on the Internet.
While small scale testing does fix some of the problems, there
is nothing like a million people bashing on a test all over the world
24/7. Right now there are four games of Q3Test
starting every second, playing on around 1200 servers. This is just the test, a tiny window into the
product and what it offers. From
that the customer benefits greatly and we all win with a better, cleaner,
product. What
are your favorite five games of all time, on any platform, and why? Darn. I don't know. Dungeon Keeper series because
I love being evil and I think the game design is awesome. Mario games because I love the worlds. Warcraft II because I own (as in rule)
that game. Adventure, because text
still rules (otherwise the books would go away). Darn - there's more than five I love, so I'll stop there with those
four. |
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