The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 193

I I wv Games www.smh.com.auicongames.html 7 7 VI '1-75 1 I i I fcfc iA I .0) 1 1 1 4 4 I Of Hi Yco TCq 3 Stuart Clarke meets the design and art dynamos behind Quake 2. ORE than 800 people crammed into Sydney University's Wentworth building last week to witness the next evolution in first-person-perspective This meant that even though millions of people around the world were playing Quake, it didn't shake the sales records. "John Carmack really, really believes in sharing information, allowing people to modify and change his work and he gives all of himself and his code to the fans," says Willits. Adds Steed: "Carmack really is like your Renaissance philanthropist the guy wants to be everything to everybody. We've got to stop him from giving everything away because we don't all have our Ferraris yet, you know what I mean?" Carmack offered one of his new Ferraris as a prize in a Quake "deathmatch" challenge at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo and lost Willits and Steed are doing OK, though.

They both drive Porsche 911s. Doom and Quake both caused mild wowser 65 Quake 2 has nothing to do with satanic images, although we have still got a dirty, industrialised malevolent look. 59 A date with Quake: Hundreds gathered at Sydney Uni to see the unveiling of Quake 2. "I mean, Quake and the Internet community that's grown around Quake is the closest thing you've got to virtual reality right now. That's what it's all about you're in cyberspace when you play Quake.

We're taking it further with the gestures in Quake 2 where you can taunt people, flip 'em off, point to places, wave. My favourite is the salute because I was in the military for five years, so saluting somebody is saying 'good job'. Quake 2 is the end of the series, and apart from a couple of mission packs, that's the last you'll see of id's work with that particular environment. The next project is Trinity. Willits says it's still in John Carmack's head.

Steed says Carmack's "basically talking about realism. He wants virtual reality and if anyone can deliver it, he can. How many people are out there competing with QuakeT' The truth is, while few games can match the mastery of Quake, the market is becoming crowded as more companies see the potential for profits. Steed believes that the market "is going to explode and then collapse under its own weight. I've worked for several big games companies and I know how bad it is.

The problem is that all these companies have very talented people in them, but when you take the corporate stance and crank out as much shite as you can and then just hope through attrition that you make money on it, you're going to really delude the consumer base. The cool thing, though, is that consumers are getting smarter and smaller every year." And what of Microsoft's push into the games industry? Willits: 'Too big for its own good. It's like the government making games." Steed: "I think it should stay the hell out It doesn't have a clue. The best thing it can do is just to support the games with hardware and software The fact that the mega corporations such as Microsoft are getting into games does mean that the medium is getting mainstream. Respect for games as an art form with as much validity as film or the novel cannot be too far away.

"The gamer night (at Sydney Uni) illustrated that people are meeting each other through computers," says Steed. "Like I said, Quake is virtual reality. The more games that get people to communicate that get the suits in the office logging in to a server, loosening up their ties, playing and having a good time is going to make it happen. They're going toet caught or they're going to corne out of the closet: 'OK, I'm a Quake When these suits and execs get out there and admit it's fun and it's a legitimate form of entertainment, then games will get the respect they deserve." arcade experience," Steed says. "When I approached them originally for the cinematics, they thought it was going to be this long-winded, boring opus where you have to watch talking heads tell the story.

But I think the same way they do very minimalist. I also think cinematics has to be a part of today's games because, more than anything, it's icing on the cake. It really is a big 'thank you' to the fans to take the time to put something like that in there. "Originally, they id's owners said no, don't mention it again because it's not good for your career. I basically just ignored them, though, and did it at home in my spare time.

When I showed them, they liked it because I integrated the cinematics with the game, in that the scenes you see in the cinematics will be the same thing you're seeing out the windows in the levels in the game. It's a very useful thing, and in the end, it turned out to be a really collaborative effort. Everyone's happy with it now." "Everyone" means John Carmack, who at 27 is still called the boy wonder of computer games. He's the genius who programmed the games engines behind Doom and Quake. The solid, true 3-D environment created in Quake is yet to be equalled by competitors, and Quake 2 pushes it further in many areas, with advanced light sourcing and larger, more complex environments.

"John Carmack basically is id and we're just the satellites that revolve around him," says Steed. "If you look at the owners who are left now John, Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud they've always been the heart of id they're really inspirational to us because we like to work hard and we take a lot of pride in what we do. We see them alongside us for long hours doing top-notch stuff. Id now has a maturity that's amazing. We're running on all cylinders.

We're at our peak and it seems like we can only get better." Id Software as a mature company will be fascinating to observe, as it made waves for being adventurous, almost to the point of anarchy. Doom successfully pioneered the shareware marketing revolution, code and level editors for Quake and Doom were freely released on the Internet and Quake wasn't copy protected, meaning that you could install one copy of the game onto as many PCs as you liked (illegal, but a gift for cash-strapped gamers). gaming. The Texas-based company id Software (that's id, as in lid) had long been at the forefront of the genre with such games as Doom and Quake. Now the long-awaited Quake 2 was finally with us.

Two of the 13-person id team, lead level designer Tim Will its and artist Paul Steed, made the trek to Australia to spread the word on the latest and they say greatest id game. After being "locked away" for a year on Quake 2, they were glad to be out in the Sydney sun, looking at girls and talking about their new baby. Willits is your cliche E9 computer programmer glasses, mild facial hair and a pleasant, quiedy spoken manner. Steed looks more like one of those guys in the Pepsi Max ads long-haired, tanned and attractive in a loud American way. Willits began his relationship with id Software almost as soon as he finished playing Doom.

The beauty of id Software is that the company releases all the code of its games for fans to play around with. Willits was just one of thousands of Doom fans to post homemade Doom 2 levels on the Internet His design skills came to the -attention of id, and after some contract work for the Doom 2 Master Levels and Ultimate Doom, he joined the id team in the middle of the programming for Quake 1. After Quake 1 was released, id underwent some "house cleaning" (i.e. several programmers left, including high-profile level designer John Romero) and Willits found himself in charge of the design team for Quake 2. Steed is a relative newcomer to id, but not to computer games, as he's worked as a computer artist at various games publishers, including Westwood Studios (responsible for Command Conquer).

He was recruited to the Quake 2 team, and was responsible for the character models and animations. He also designed the opening and closing cinematics, which appear for the first time in an id game. Steed had to fight for their inclusion. "The owners are very conscious about the identity of an id game. Id games are about fun, they're not about being passive; it's a very high-quality reactions, not for their over-the-top violence, but for the dark, satanic images that filled many of the levels.

Pentagrams on the floor, severed heads on stakes, crucified images of Jesus on the wall and, in Doom 2, a descent into the depths of hell itself. Quake 2 takes place in a whole new "universe" a sci-fi military combat adventure. "It has nothing to do with satanic images," says Steed, "although we've still got a dirty, industrialised malevolent look. "One of the things we tried to do with Quake 2, and we'll put more in eventually, is gestures and methods of communicating. We watched team play and the secret little things they do like jump up three times and turn around, that means something.

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