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chiQ - As far
as I can tell you're the id team member who contributes the most to the
game editing community. You put in time on Q3W, moderating and helping
users, actively fostering the pastime not only there, but also in the
form of the Polycount map objects competition as well. You make a point
of encouraging newbie editors, as you did me when I mailed you, and seem
very ready to advise others in any aspect that you can. Do you think that
it's the customizability of id's games that has lent them their longevity
and is this why you're so active in promoting and supporting game editing?
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PaulJ - That's really two questions and the answers aren't entirely
related. Customizability in FPS games is good and fun, but it doesn't
ensure success or longevity. Id's own games have had that, but it hasn't
always been true of games, even successful games, using our engines. Half
Life is the other real success story and that's been mostly due to a couple
very successful mods (Team Fortress Classic and Counterstrike). Even though
some of the engine license games have more tools and built in features,
there hasn't been the degree of user support for them.
Why did I get involved? I see a need and where I can, I follow up on
it. In a way, that's how my career began a long time ago - following up
on a need I saw that wasn't being met in the Dungeons & Dragon hobby.
At id, I realized that I didn't understand how shaders worked (and I suspected
that others in the company didn't either). Brian Hook's documentation
assumed the user knew a lot more about obscure things like blend functions
than I think we really did at the time. So I volunteered to write a shader
manual. Half a year later, I was assigned to write the editor manual (after
we had shipped). That was about the same time that the forums on quake
3 world were getting going. Not everyone at id was comfortable with constant
public interface or with writing a lot, or with being patient with newbie
users and having a public profile at the same time (I'm still not sure
whether I'm comfortable with the latter). But working on the forums and
the manual worked together quite nicely. A lot of the questions I answered
ended up becoming parts of the manual.
Throughout my career, I've made a point of helping others involved in
what I do. I think that, as a craftsman, it's important to give back to
the craft. I know that what I've done over the years as an artist, designer
and even a manager has opened doors for a lot of people into places they
never expected to go.
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chiQ - What
games do you play most often, and are you a fan of any particular Q3 mod
or TC?
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PaulJ - Play games? I put a lot of time into Diablo 2 before things
got intense near the end of Team Arena. Actually, I have a "thing" for
video pinball (in lieu of getting access to the real thing). I don't play
much in the way of mods.
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chiQ - You're
a talented artist outside of your map-making, having an extensive history
of published 2d art, and have made a recent foray into the 3D aspects
of game art. We're going to be able to see your Flayer PM head in the
upcoming EP Team Arena 3, which should turn some heads when used with
the female body models :P - do you think the emphasis of your role at
id will change as you develop your 3D skills?
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PaulJ - The tasks involved in map-making in the future are likely
to involve a greater dependence on content, surfaces and decoration that
can't easily be built by brushes and simple patch meshes. Learning 3D modeling
tools is a part of developing my job skills. We have ultra-talented artists
here who can make cool models in their sleep. I'll be hard put to keep up
with them as anything other than a map designer. |
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chiQ - Obviously
you don't make all the Q3 maps that id publishes since you're part of
a team. To what extent does each map-designer at id do a complete map,
or does everyone contribute to each map?
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PaulJ - The typical design path is for a single designer to create
the layout and map geometry for a game map, and then do a first pass at
texture selection and decoration. Everyone on the dev team and even the
biz guys has input into what they like and don't like about the maps.
Their feedback goes into correcting problems and improving play. With
Q3A and Team Arena, we passed our completed maps off to either Kevin Cloud
or Kenneth Scott to bring up the visual quality of the maps. They created
new textures, models and special effects ... and in some cases restyled
portions of the architecture to give the map an overall "look". The map
then went back to the designer for full implementation of the artist's
style treatment. If a map needed significant redevelopment, it would sometimes
go another designer. Other than that, the designers tried to stay out
of each other's maps except to do minor fixes (usually when the originating
designer was unavailable).
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chiQ - id has
recently released a demo for TA3. We're hoping we'll be seeing the full
release before Christmas so people can buy it for us :P - which aspect
of this expansion pack do you find the most exciting as a step forwards
in either a game play sense or for game editors?
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PaulJ - The user interface represents one of the most significant
changes ever to the way id makes games. Mod makers will have access to
the scripts used to create that interface. Near the end of the development
cycle, one of our newer staff members created modifications to the compiler
that allow us to make extremely large maps featuring a relatively economical
way of handling terrain in Q3A engine games. I know players are going
to have fun in these maps, and I think mapmakers may have as much fun
making them.
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chiQ - What
challenges do you think TA3 will present mapmakers with that VQ3 doesn't?
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PaulJ - The terrain style options allow designers to think of
levels as more than boxes and connections betweens boxes. The team style
maps requires the map maker to think of how a map will be played in several
different game modes - without the opportunity to drastically change the
map between modes. We discovered that other than a few minor changes,
even changing entities between modes wasn't a good idea.
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chiQ - Will
id release any further maps for VQ3 or TA3 after TA3 is published?
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PaulJ - Officially, the dev team will be moving on to Doom development.
There are company plans in the works to release PC compatible versions
of the DreamCast Q3A maps some time soon (but only those that are conversions
of id's original maps). I don't know of any official plans regarding new
Q3A or Q3:TA maps for id. Anything coming from id designers in the near
future is likely to be personal projects.
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chiQ - There
is a school of thought that says id produces tech for others to base their
games on, and that Q3 in particular was not released so much for it's
gamplay as an engine to be marketed. I personally am hooked on Q3 and
have found I like the engine as it's been implemented in Raven's Elite
Force, so I consider this a good use of id's resources. What do you think?
Should id concentrate more on putting out plot-based releases such as
the Q engine-based Half-Life from Valve, or is the concentration on the
development of good game engines a priority you support?
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PaulJ - I would argue that school of thought isn't turning out
very good graduates. A game engine developed in a vacuum, without being
made in conjunction with a game, is not a product that I would want to
be on either side of in a licensing deal. With both Q3A and Quake 3: Team
Arena, we wanted to make a fastpaced action combat game with an arcade
feel to it. We think we succeeded. Our previous game, Quake 2 was different
because it had different goals, and I expect the next game to be different
too.
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chiQ - Who
comes up with the easter eggs we take delight in finding in id games?
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PaulJ - Usually originates with a designer, sometimes with an
artist. I worked with some other people here to put the little "surprise"
that appears in the depths of City3 in Quake2 and with Adrian Carmack
to put the secret hidden in the first Quake 2 secret level. I put one
in a Q3A map and either created, or arranged to be created, a number of
other ones, mostly in my own Q3:TA maps.
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chiQ - Which
player model, map, and gameplay mode from id releases do you most enjoy?
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PaulJ - Mynx in Q3A is my favorite player model. Map ... in Q3A
I've had the most fun on Q3DM17. Before that, I liked running around in
my old Q2 mega-map, City64. Gameplay mode? I think I like One Flag CTf.
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| You can discuss this interview here. |
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