Opinión iD sobre Quakecon 2005. Más un extra

- WorthPlaying: Tim, you were playing Quake 4 on a pre-build of the Xbox 360 at E3. Tell me, what has changed in the 360 version of Quake 4 since then?

Tim Willits: Well, we had the beta kits for Microsoft at that time, but they still promised us about a 30 percent speed improvement. There is a new SDK coming this month, and I believe they are sending us some new CPUs. We don’t have those just yet. So, it’s still running a little slow, but we’re in the process of getting a 30 percent speed improvement. It should really help boost performance. It’s coming along nicely; we haven’t had to anything drastic yet. We’re still trying to nail down the particulars for multiplayer. With PCs, you have dedicated servers that can hold a LOT more clients. With the 360, you only have “listen” (non-dedicated) servers, and they work in-line with the X-Box Live system. That’s the coolest work for us right now. And then there’s the fine tuning like auto-assist aim, and making things on screen a little brighter. Since your average television makes things a bit darker than a PC monitor, we have to brighten all game assets.

- WorthPlaying: Tim, you mentioned in a conference at E3 that “games are getting shorter, but the audience is not responding negatively to this.” Tell us, does this mean that Quake 4 will be a shorter experience than Quake 2?

Tim Willits: Quake 2 was pretty big, as I made most of the maps. It was a hard project. Quake 4 is more complex, you can do more in every level. There is more stuff to search around for. So, getting thru the maps will take much longer. Quake 4 is shorter than Doom 3, and I feel Doom 3 was a little too long. This is why the X-Box version is shorter than the PC version. We trimmed it up a bit, and it actually turned out to be a better game. So Quake 4 is probably the same length as Quake 2, but the levels are more difficult now.

- WorthPlaying: The industry is putting heavy consideration into episodic content. A great many feel that this is the wave of the future. As fan of id games since Day 1, I feel you guys helped to PIONEER episodic content. “Knee Deep in the Dead” was the shareware episode, which lead gamers to purchase the subsequent two episodes (and later Doom 2). Do you see yourselves going in this direction and returning to episodic content (ala Doom 1 and Doom 2)?

Tim Willits: Well, regarding that: John Carmack originally came up with the idea for three episodes for Doom. I know that he wanted to make the shareware episode and then two more of the sharewares, that’s probably how it happened. That’s the cool thing about episodic content and other downloadable media. You know how Ritual is using Steam? It has worked very well for them. This is why outlets such as iTunes is great as well. If you have artists or game developers that aren’t id Software, they’re not Valve, they’re not Epic, and they need to get the attention of publishers and stores to carry their products. It’s very difficult for them to get past all that, because they’re a small team or a new team. They really need to come with an alternative means for distribution to reach the fans. If you could make a small section of your game and sell it, it will pay for the next development cycle. So financially it makes sense, especially for the smaller teams that don’t have a publisher deal. It also allows them to change the game as they go. Like if there’s something that people really like, or they really didn’t like, they can modify it. Where if you make the whole game, spend 10 million dollars and then you find out that people really wanted a flashlight on the gun or something. It helps you react more to the fans. It allows you to have a cheaper way of distributing your game. It removes a lot of the publisher and retailers that you may not ever have access to since they don’t know who you are. And it allows you to have a bit of a revenue stream. But it is risky though.

Tim Willits.