GameSpy: Since it's been a while since we've talked about it, why don't we start with the basics: what is Quake IV?
Rick Johnson: Quake IV is primarily a single-player focused game which will be continued on a near storyline from Quake II. That's not to say that we won't have multiplayer, but our primary focus is currently the single-player experience.
GameSpy: At the time Quake IV was first announced, id was still developing the DOOM 3 technology and Raven was already booked solid working on three separate games. When were you actually able to begin development on the game?
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Rick Johnson: Most of it would have got started a little more than a year ago.
GameSpy: So in that year-plus, how has the team been adjusting to working with the new DOOM technology?
Rick Johnson: Probably the most difficult hurdles have been for the art side of the creation, because the engine requires us to create high-poly models for every single texture that goes into the game. That just adds another level of stuff we have to do to get the game out.
GameSpy: How would you compare how the team is structured for working on a DOOM engine game compared to something different, such as Soldier of Fortune II or Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy?
Rick Johnson: It's definitely grown larger in size. I think we have around 26 members on the team. The number of programmers and designers has stayed the same; it's mainly the number artists that have increased. There are high-poly modelers, animators, and regular texture artists, and we have a person that's just doing the GUIs inside the game, the interactive menus that you come across in the levels.
GameSpy: Are the GUI's going to be implemented similar to what's being done for the interactive GUI system in DOOM 3?
Rick Johnson: Yep, it's a similar concept.
GameSpy: How is your arrangement with id as far as the usual back-and-forth, getting information and learning how to use the engine?
Rick Johnson: It's been very good. It's a much deeper involvement compared to the past, mostly because we're doing a licensed title for them. We have daily contact with Tim [Willits] for the most part. The programmers talk to [Jim] Dose and [Robert] Duffy directly for most questions, and [John] Carmack every once in a while. They fly up every once in a while to help us out and give us some tricks and tips. It's great, and provides a lot of great insight and direction on what we should be doing for Quake IV.
GameSpy: Besides the obvious art hurdles, have there been any other really big challenges to overcome? Is there anything that you feel you've finally made a breakthrough with?
Rick Johnson: From the perspective of the artists and designers, the engine pathways and design tools and compile tools have all remained stable, but the code is still under constant revision and change from id Software, so trying to deal with that with a programming staff is always a new challenge. I've never been on a project where we've had an engine in development for this long while we've been concurrently developing the game. So that's been an ongoing challenge.
GameSpy: Since we're here at QuakeCon, it's worth asking: how much development has gone into the multiplayer aspect of Quake IV so far?
Rick Johnson: We have a general direction in which we're going to take multiplayer and the feature sets we're going to offer. We've been waiting for the technology to get to the point where we can take it and look at it and see what it does, and play with it and go from there to fine tune our adjustments and make decisions on the paths, etc. Like most people at QuakeCon, this is our first chance to see DOOM 3's multiplayer as well, so we'll probably be playing it back in the office in the next few weeks and getting some further ideas from there.
GameSpy: So was this your first time to go hands-on with the multiplayer?
Rick Johnson: We've had previous builds where they've had multiplayer functional and we've played around with it, but this is our first chance to see multiplayer in a more complete state, I should say, with a well-designed level and a lot more of the fundamentals completed.
Why are you happy to see them going back to single player???
The only reason Quake became famous in the first place was for multiplayer. I haven't heard anyone just DYING to find out what happens next in the Quake storyline!!!
It's friggin QUAKE. Nobody gives a crap about single player.
I think most games like these need to focus on single player first. Then if its a great game, it can easily morph into a great multiplayer game. Doing it vice versa is problematic.
I'm much more interested in single player FPS games than multiplayer, so I'm excited to hear that they are going back to it, rather than the mulitplayer focused only games.
I'd rather see more co-op play done, especially online.
It'd be nice to be able to play co-op with a friend who doesn't have to physically be at your house.
I read the new info about Halo 2 and I can't quite make out what they're talking about doing for the Live stuff, but I also read the article at about 3am.
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Originally posted by FilmHobbit That's an RPG though, I mean single player is all you have there really unless you want to play MMORPG's which as a whole suck.
Doesn't Dungeon Siege have multiplay? I'm not sure, but I think so.
I agree with multiplayer being important though. I've only played through StarCraft and Broodwar about twice, but there is tons on replayability through the "Use Map Settings" mode.
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