with Tim Willits
Written by Jeff Buckland, 8/6/2008
QuakeCon this year might not have had a whole lot new to offer for gamers to get their hands on, but the promise of plenty of new stuff is right around the corner. id Software has more projects in the works at the same time than they've ever had, and they're all looking great. I got the chance to sit down with id co-founder Tim Willits about their latest developments and the happenings at this year's QuakeCon in Dallas, Texas.
Jeff:I saw Wolfenstein on Wednesday, and a lot of people have been worried about id software moving over to consoles, and worried that it's going to be more focused on console than PC; that PC is going to become the afterthought that will just get thrown in later. But I noticed with Wolfenstein that Raven's doing all 3 platforms at the same time and it seems to be an equal focus. Is that something id is trying to do as well?
Tim:Yes. For Rage, one of the advantages that we have for the id Tech 5 stuff is that John (Carmack) right from the beginning when he started working on the technology, he started from the ground up with all 3 platforms in mind. Like on other games and with id Tech 4 stuff, we did the PC first and had to shove it onto the other consoles and it was very difficult. John can speak more technically about this, but each platform has multi-processors; the renderers are different but not that different. And because he started from scratch this made it much easier for him and for us. So for us as a developer we can take the same models, textures, and levels, and we don't have to reduce on PS3, we don't have to take characters out on the 360, and it's given us a great advantage because historically, you work on one game, finish it, then spend millions trying to get it working on the other consoles. So that's one of the pillars of id Tech 5 stuff.
But each system will play to its strengths and as we get closer to shipping the big thing you'll notice between the 3 systems is the multiplayer, how they handle, the tracking, the friends, and then we'll make some adjustments to the PC version just because with the keyboard and mouse you have a bit more accuracy. But really, we're trying to do it all at the same and trying to make a fun game for all of the platforms. That's something new for us but so far we've been successful.
Some diehard PC gamers say that if you make a game for consoles and PC at the same time, you're going to make a game that's not that great for consoles and not that great for PC either. But I think there are a couple of developers that have proved otherwise.
Yeah, like Call of Duty 4, and BioShock...
Post-patch BioShock.
Yeah, but we all make PC mistakes. But there are teams that have been doing it.
So with Rage, it sounds like you guys are pretty far along.
Last year, when we announced the game at QuakeCon, we were still in some of the prototype stages and were trying to figure out the balance. Right now we're firing on all cylinders, we are through the prototype stages and we have answered a lot of the gameplay questions and issues that we were facing. It's important to say that Rage is a first person action game, but it's no longer just run-and-gun. You have exploration, some adventure elements, some racing elements, some vehicle combat elements, but those are there to enhance the first person experience.
Whereas the vehicle, we want to make that an extension of your first-person avatar. When you jump into it you're not going from DOOM 3 to Ridge Racer. We want to try and make the world as seamless as possible, and that's some of the prototyping that we've been working on last year. So it is important to know it is a first-person game. I think sometimes people see the vehicles and get confused and that's my job this QuakeCon...
... to make sure that people know that if they loved Quake and DOOM, they are still going to love Rage because there will be a lot of action...
Yes. And we are good at that moment-to-moment microcosm of action. You're fighting and you're running and gunning, and that is the foundation. But we've kind of opened up the play area and we're really going for more diversity. We have unique texturing that has really given us the ability to make areas that look really different and new, and we're also trying to diversify the gameplay experience too so you're not doing the same thing.
I saw the new trailer last night, and it looked like it was really moving at a good frame rate and it looked like lots of high-quality art. Some might say that reminds them of the Killzone 2 trailer from the PS3 from a few years ago at E3 where they said it was in-game and it really wasn't.
John (Carmack) talked about it last night, I think. You know how John is. He's the most honest developer in the whole world. He'll openly admit when we make mistakes. But yeah, he talked about it last night.
[Editor's note: I was trying to get Tim to talk about it too, but for the record, yes, the trailer was put together from real-time gameplay footage.]
Thing is, we have really good artists. Kenneth Scott is our art director. We hire some really damn good artists, and I think that really is it. Talent, talent, talent. We stress about the way things look and we spend a lot of time trying to make it look as beautiful as we can.
I wanna switch over to Quake Live for a minute, and talk about the latest with that.
So if you go to the BYOC [at QuakeCon], you can sign up and play.
That was another question I had - what are people playing this year. Last year you guys released the Enemy Territory Quake Wars demo as a surprise for all of QuakeCon to play. So Quake Live is available for all at QuakeCon to jump into this year?
Yep, and we have a Quake Live tournament, and also have an Enemy Territory tournament. I was [at the BYOC] last night, and there were a whole lot of Quake Live servers. When you go in, you can play and see how you rank and see how you stack up against the rest of the BYOC.
Nice.
Some of the pro players are going for that top rank, to show off to their friends, and everyone can see it.
