|
 |
chiQ - CEO
of id software. Big job title with a big little company. Do you ever feel
the need to pinch yourself?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I love what I do and can't really imagine doing something
I like more at this point, but it's still work and long hours. There are
challenges to face and obstacles to overcome and those keep you on your
toes without any need for pinching.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - Well
I would, you lucky blighter.
|
| |
|
|
Todd - ;-)
|
|
|
chiQ - Obviously
there was Todd before there was id. How did you come to be at id, and
what was your background on joining the team?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - My professional background is in public accounting, where
I spent 5 years as a tax consultant with Arthur Andersen, which is one
of the world's largest public accounting firms. Id was one of my clients
that I had worked with for a couple of years and offered me the position
of CEO when it opened up.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - Wow!
That must have involved a real change in approach to professional life.
I mean suits, short back and sides, corporate concrete, etc. wouldn't
really be such big elements in your life now, yet you've come from exactly
that. Would you ever want to go back to that, and if not what else would
you like to try on as a job, say you lived in an ideal world and could
just try whatever you liked?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I really like what I'm doing right now so I can't say that
there's something I would rather realistically do. You know, other than
the always popular, but completely ridiculous, rock star, sports star
or "King of My Own Country" jobs ;-)
I guess I could return to professional accounting if I wanted to or if
at some point things didn't work out at id. It's definitely a different
world than at id, but it's much more similar than people might imagine.
Being CEO means that all of the business aspects of the company have to
be managed or directed by me and obviously the financial aspect is single
most important part of my job. So I still do a fair amount of accounting-type
work. But I like working in the software entertainment industry better
than working in public accounting and am happy staying right where I am
for as long as I can.
|
|
|
chiQ - You're
a family man, but you obviously have passions and pastimes that are all
you. What do you do for shits and giggles outside of family and work?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - It might be a bit misleading to call me a "family man"
since I don't have any children. My girlfriend and I have a few acres of
land at our house where we have a few horses. So a fair bit of my "non-id"
time is spent with the horses and being a hobby-farmer (I even have a REAL
tractor!). I'm also a bit of a wine enthusiast and I love almost all of
the professional sports that are popular in America (NBA, NHL, NFL, Baseball
- and luckily Dallas has it's own team in each category). And of course
I'm a big fan of video games, especially ours. I'll play a game or two of
Wolf multiplayer pretty much every night for fun and just to monitor the
game a little. |
| |
|
|
chiQ - For
some reason I thought you had kids. Sorry about that :)
A wine enthusiast huh? What's you favourite? Have
you sampled
NZ's wares? If not WHY NOT?!
[post interview]
- The man has a tractor! Who would have thought it?!
|
| |
|
|
Todd - My favorite wines are Bordeaux reds and California Cabernets.
I'm sure I've had a NZ wine or two, but I'd have to admit that I've had
many more from Australia as far as my exposure to antipodean wines goes. |
| |
|
|
chiQ [post interview]
- Well and good. Australia produces some great wines. NOT NZ wines, but
still great :)
|
|
|
chiQ - You're
a gamer under that big CEO hat right? Which id game is your favourite?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - If I had to pick an all-time favorite, I think I would
have to choose Wolf 3D because it was the first id game I ever played
and was the first game that just absolutely and totally enthralled me.
I mean I had played my share of PacMan and Tempest and Defender and Gauntlet
and Missile Command and on and on and on, but Wolf 3D just blew me totally
away. My current favorite is Return to Castle Wolfenstein (not just id
game, but any video game bar none) if you base it on what you play the
most.
|
|
|
chiQ - You're
not part of the development team obviously, but I'm guessing you have
crunchtimes as they do. What do your crunches consist of?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I do what I can to help with development when I can be
useful. Everyone at id play tests games and that's super important when
you're in crunch mode. So when we're in development crunch mode, it really
involves everyone at the company. Other things on the business side can
come under time pressure and those have to be dealt with as they arise.
Generally, however, everyone here stays busy and works long hours.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ [post interview]
- Oh gee wow, it must really suck having to put in the hours playing games.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - Obviously
everyone would get fairly uptight at some stages, and this must have an
effect on the guys. Do you think the strains created under crunch cause
problems with team relationships?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - Crunch time can definitely strain relationships and there
have been more than one or two blowouts at id over the years. Working
20+ hour days will wear down your nerves quicker than you think, especially
when you're under the type of pressure than can come from the inevitable
lofty expectations associated with id games. Ultimately though, if you
make it through an entire game development cycle as a team, you have that
battle-tested camaraderie that ultimately results in everyone being better
friends and makes a better team.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ [post interview]
- I can vouch for the long hours straining nerves!
|
|
|
chiQ - Return
to Castle Wolfenstein, a Grey Matter/NERVE/id product based on the Quake
3 Arena engine, has recently hit stores. Are you pleased with the reception
so far?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I'm super-pleased. People love the single player game and
it's quickly become one of the most popular online games second only to
the ever-venerable Half-Life. I think RTCW will unseat CounterStrike as
the most-played online action game in the not-too-distant future.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - I have
Wolf now, but can't play due to injury. I must say it's very frustrating.
Which gameplay mode do you prefer in Wolf? Do you play on Xian's servers
(readers: see Xian's .plan for more on this), or pubs, or on the id internal
network?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I play on Xian's servers pretty regularly, but not always.
We don't play as many big internal games at id as when we were testing
the multiplayer game last year, so I mainly play with our customers on
the Internet.
|
|
|
chiQ - The
partnership with these other game houses has obviously been very successful,
and Quake 4 is going to be developed under similar circumstances as far
as I can tell. Do you think this is going to become more common with id
as time goes by?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - As long as it works, we'll continue to do it. We intend
to remain a single-product team, only developing one game internally at
a time. So where it makes sense to work with other developers than we
know can work with us on our terms to create AAA quality titles (like
Gray Matter and Raven), then it makes good business sense for us to do
that and keeps our fans and customers happy, too.
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - In asking
for users to come up with questions for you I've fielded a lot of bitching
about the rehash nature of id's designs - the generations of existing
franchises in all the Quakes, Dooms, and now another wolfenstein are pet
peeves with some users (doesn't bother me - I'm just after gibs myself).
Will id treat this cooperation with other houses as a possible way to
vary its product?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - We don't have any plans to start making RTS or racing games.
We created the FPS genre and it's the type of games that we like best
and I believe are the most immersive gaming experiences to be had. No
other type of game causes players to have so much empathy with the character
they are playing in the game that they will try to dodge rockets or bullets
with their head while they sit in a chair playing the game. Those are
the types of games we're passionate about creating and those types of
games are what we do better than any other company in the world.
But broadening your horizons isn't necessarily a bad thing, and we are
working with Nerve (the team that developed RTCW Multiplayer for us) on
an all new game franchise that will be a co-operative focused multiplayer
game. Of course our primary project is DOOM, and you would have to be
crazy not to be looking forward to that if you're an action game fan.
|
|
|
chiQ - Q3 Team
Arena, the addon pack I'm such a fan of, which was released just over
a year ago, hasn't been received so warmly. There is an avid, but small
community based around TA, but on the whole it hasn't done terribly well.
In fact the package got criticised quite brutally. How did this affect
morale at id?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - We think Team Arena is hella fun to play. It's hard to
beat the terrain CTF maps. Many people who have criticized it didn't ever
play it so I don't put much stock in that. Now it's basically part of
the Quake III title (with the Quake III Gold edition which combines the
games).
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - Yeah,
I couldn't agree more. I love TA myself. It's the only game I actually
relinquish my low ping for and play overseas - NZ doesn't have TA servers
that I can find :(
|
|
|
chiQ - DOOM
is the current id child as everyone well knows. Anyone who knows anything
about is also knows that you guys don't give out release dates. I have
to ask though, do you have any kind of ETA on the new DOOM, be it every
so tentative or broad?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - When it's done! ;-)
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - You
know I almost filled that answer in myself without asking you, but it
simply had to be asked for form's sake :)
|
|
|
chiQ - The
id tenet has always been 'community or bust', and you've got communities
based around modifications, 3rd party game art, addons, etc. The id guys,
not the least you, have always kept a finger on the pulse of those communities
where time allows. Will this continue with DOOM, touted as being a singleplayer
experience in the main?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - The specific decisions about all of that haven't been made
at this point, but I don't foresee us doing anything differently with
DOOM.
|
|
|
Mirage - Will
Doom 3 or Quake 4 be better for multiplayer [1v1 and team] deathmatch?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - Both games are being designed as single-player experiences
first. The multiplayer component will be added later and it's unfortunately
too early to address any specific features either game will or won't have.
|
|
|
Unclown - From
your perspective, is there an equal gender-mix in the industry, and if
not, why do you think that is?
|
| |
|
|
chiQ - I could
answer the first half of this myself, but hey, it's a question close to
my heart so I'm shunting this one through anyway :)
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I haven't ever looked at any studies or statistics, but
based on my personal experience, the game development industry (not necessarily
publishing, btw.) is overwhelmingly male. I still think that most people
working in the game development business are former (and sometimes current)
game addicts and that's primarily a male thing. Women play lots of games
and more and more are playing every day, but the truly hardcore game fan
is still very much male dominated in my experience.
|
| |
|
|
Unclown
- When are you going to have your head in a game?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I try to keep my head on my shoulders where it belongs,
and out of the clouds or our games ;-)
|
|
|
Ezekiel 25:17
- Ask him if he ever thought about ever doing a graphics (and ofter candy
type stuff) upgrade of Quake1 ... because as I see it, it must be one
of the fastest and most action packed games out there (even though its
a few years old now). Including all its little exploits (like speed jumping)
etc.
|
| |
|
|
Todd - To be successful, we really have to focus on the future
and our upcoming games. Now that the Quake (and now even Quake II) source
code has been released under the GPL, it's up to the community to do any
graphics updating. We will spend our resources doing our best to make
DOOM the best game ever.
|
|
|
Vanquish -
with counter strike being so popular these days, are you going to keep
the fast style action of q1/q2/q3, or move to the slower passed style
of cs?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - There's room for both. Wolf multiplayer is definitely slower
paced than Quake III, but both are obviously popular. We haven't made
any of those decisions for games like DOOM or Quake 4.
|
|
|
Master Villain
- Does he have a lot of creative input, or is it more "I think this
theme/gun/character needs tweaking to be more popular". If he does
have big creative input, what was he been responsible for and whats his
favourite thing he did.
|
| |
|
|
Todd - That's not my role in the company. I have input into the
creative process, just like everyone at id, but it's not my primary responsibility
and there are other more creative people working here who do that type
of thing much better than I do.
|
| |
|
|
Master Villain
- [the people who made Undying] collaborated with Clive Barker, who gave
them lots of plot, theme and character stuff. Is there any author he thinks
could add to a game in the same way for ID?
|
| |
|
|
Todd - Generally, reports of collaboration with famous authors
or movie directors are way overblown in terms of what they add to the
game design process. What they really add is marketing cache more than
anything else and that's why their name is used on the box cover. I don't
know much about Undying specifically, but I find it hard to believe that
Clive Barker took enough time with the technology and tools to really
understand what the limits of the technology were and how to work within
those limits to present a story. Barker may be a great writer, but that
doesn't make him a great game designer. My guess is that the credit for
the majority of the plot, theme and characters and how they are portrayed
in the game and are presented to the player rests with the development
team. I don't doubt that Clive Barker may have been a good resource to
consult on a few things, but ultimately it's up to the developer to be
able to put everything in and pull off an entertaining experience.
|
|
|
chiQ - I was
asked also to ask you if you've ever had any desire to get into the devlopment
side yourself by quite a few people...
|
| |
|
|
Todd - I see myself as being in the development side already.
As far as doing programming, art or game design primarily, that's not
my skill set and I doubt I would like that very much. I can honestly say
that I can't draw worth a damn and I gave up programming a L-O-N-G time
ago. I like working with our business partners and managing those relationships
and I enjoy discussing our games with the press and our fans. I do my
best to do my job as well as I can and I leave the programming, art and
game design or our programmers, artists and game designers.
|
|
|
chiQ - Can
I have a job at id please? :P (worth a shot aye guys?)
|
| |
|
|
Todd - Erm...well...ask Carmack and see what he says! ;-)
|
|
| Discuss
this interview. |
|
|
