This interview was conducted by Jim Ahara.
Tell us a bit about yourself (like how old you are, where you live, what you do in the 'real' world :)
I'm a 50 year old meglomaniac - I run a large arms manufacturing plant
in darkest Peru (that's *human* arms, BTW... OK, so I'm not :) I'm 30
years old (though I look 18 :) and I live just outside the city of
Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England, famous for football,
Newcastle Brown Ale and (in the past) shipbuilding and mining. I'm
Communications and Development Manager for Ad Infinitum, a graphic
design consultancy for some pretty big worldwide clients. That means I
get to spend lots of other people's money on computer related stuff :)
What editing experience did you have before Quake? Did you produce any
levels for Doom, Doom II, Heretic or even Duke Nukem? (Matt admits to
producing Duke Nukem levels and interview ends abruptly :)
Hahahaha.... I *did* look at the Build editor for Duke Nu... (it's no
good - I can't bring myself to say it :) for about... oh, 5 minutes! My
journey into editing started last year. I use Macintosh systems at work
(have done for 10 years) and decided to get a PC for home use only in
April, purely for having fun with, learning the operating system, etc.
The first thing I did was buy Ultimate Doom, get a ISP account and start
playing. I read a magazine article about editing and thought it sounded
really cool - a great combination of creativity, maths, architecture and
something that looked like you had to put a lot into to get anything
decent out (I've played guitar for 15 years and that is the same
principle). I got hold of WadAuthor, an editor for Doom by John
Williston, and dived in. At that point I didn't even know how to change
directories on a PC in DOS (uurrgghh!). I built a Doom 1 level called
EvilTwin and it got well received on the .net. I also have to say that I
got a helluva lot of help from Bill McClendon's (Crash) Unofficial Wad
Designer's Handbook. The rest is history :)
How much time do you spend on map editing and running your "SPQ" web page each week?
God, I have to be careful here, both for the sake of my marriage and my
career, hahahaha. I would say that I spend about 15-20 hours a week
editing if I am in the middle of a project (I can only really edit at
weekends, but when I do, I tend to go a bit stupid :) and about 5 hours
a week on Matt's Place. This has changed in the past couple of weeks as
my SPQ page has started to take off - Matt's Place will come down soon
and my site will be totally Single Player Quake based and have a
graphics overhall, as I don't have a lot of server space.
Quake was steeped in hype before its release. Did it live up to your
expectations? Was it what you expected?
God, ABSOLUTELY!!! I was lucky in that when I started getting heavily
into the PC, the Quake hype was just starting to build. I got hold of
QTest (which I even tried to run in SoftWindows on a Mac - didn't work!)
and a program (QHack by Jim Lowell, I later found out!) that hacked the monster code and
as soon as I played it I *knew* it was going to be awesome! My big Doom
frustration was that I was always trying to work out how to turn my 3D
ideas into 2D - now I don't have to! I got the shareware version the day
it came out (stayed up all night to download it at about 2k every 5
minutes :) and as soon as I saw The Slipgate Complex I was hooked. A
cool e-mail pal of mine Kris Garrison sent me a copy of registered Quake
direct from id the day it came out in the States. I couldn't bear to
wait an extra 2 months until it came out in the UK. I must admit that my
main motivation for liking Quake was that I wanted to edit levels for it
immediately.
What editor do you use and why?
Well, originally I used Thred. It was the first nice Windows 95 editor I
saw so I went for it. I befriended Jim Lowell who gave me a stack of
help with Thred (that sounds pretty mercenary - it wasn't like that :)
and used it totally for EvilWorld 1, my first level. Jim gave me loads
of encouragement. To be honest, I got sick of seeing the features in
WorldCraft get better and better while Thred stayed stagnant with no
updates, so when it came to starting my next level, I holed up in a
cabin in the hills for a fortnight (heh!) and learned WorldCraft after
being badgered by Crash for months to try it :) Glad I did. I love
almost everything about it - I have to be careful as I tend to start
sounding like a salesman for Ben Morris :) Its texture manipulation is
magnificent as is its entity control. I love being able to copy, paste,
rotate, scale and skew groups of brushes - the whole interface is
excellent - a very professional package. Oh, and it's very fast - Thred
ground to a halt on me at the end of EvilWorld.
What features do you think would improve it?
That's a hard one... I'd love a textured preview showing lights,
multiple camera views, better error checking, vertex manipulation would
be cool and the carving could be improved somewhat (I often get broken
up textures where I've carved that take a while to patch up). Oh, and an
online video tutorial by John Romero :)
What do you think are the ingredients to make a great Single Player
level?
Again, a difficult question :) I believe that the art of making a great
SP level takes a lot more skill than deathmatch levels (flame city,
Arizona :). It's probably easier for me to say what I think makes a bad
SP level. I love great architecture but I don't like to see things in
levels that don't fit the Quake atmosphere and theme, such as words made
from brushes (unless it's really well done), vehicles that don't move,
etc. I *hate* to see monsters out of context - enforcers in Medieval
levels, knights in Military bases - that turns me right off. I did it in
EvilWorld and it was a big mistake. I hate glaring texture errors - the
editors are so good now that there is very little excuse for that sort
of error. Oh, and I hate monster overkill - a level isn't enjoyable if
you have to use God mode to get through it. So, to answer your question
(heh!), I would say great architecture, a great theme that carries
through the level (see Critters), balanced gameplay on a number of skill
levels and no errors! (You didn't ask me but I'll tell you! - the worst
error I have seen in a user map is a military base door, the
interlocking one, sliced straight down the centre... oh how I laughed
hahahahahaha....).
Do you see level editing as a hobby or is it something you'd like to get
involved with more seriously?
I'd love to get involved with it more seriously but I think there are
far better level designers than me who would be first in the queue :)
I'm lucky that I get to use a lot of *very* powerful computers and
software at work and I'd like to get more into 3D modelling of entities,
etc, but it all comes down to time in the end. I wish I was 10 years
younger and I would definitely pursue a career in the gaming industry.
The amount of talented and creative people doing wonderful things with
the Quake engine because they *love* it, not for profit, never ceases to
amaze and delight me :) It was great to see Steve Polge getting work for
Epic after doing the Reaper Bot - he thoroughly deserved it.
What is your fave. id map for Quake?
That's easy - The Slipgate Complex. It was the first 'real' level I saw
and remains my favourite. It sets the mood of the game perfectly and I
love the way that every area is interconnected.
And (as you asked us), your favourite user created map?
Oh, shit :) Don't I get to be impartial here? :D I don't really have one
favourite (heh - what a cop out :) and I like different maps for
different reasons. I love Torture by Gyro - it has a great 'comic book'
feel, The Downward Spiral is awesome, Critters I love because it takes
the Quake 'look' into a slightly different dimension and those jump
lifts are so cool :) Steve's Village of Dread is thematically perfect.
If I had to pick one though, it would be... (drum roll :) The Guardhouse
by Andrew Smith - that's the most immersive and beautifully built level I've played and the
most underrated. It's not the most complex map, but I love it - plays
great with Reapers too! (Since this interview was done, I would also like to mention The Gib Factory by Scope - awesome!).
How do you come up with ideas for your levels? Do you plan or sketch
them in advance?
Yea, I do actually. I tend to have a pretty good idea worked out in my
head about what I want to do in a level before I start - this is due to
*very* expensive narcotics... that was a JOKE, by the way :D I sketch
out the first couple of rooms to a pretty detailed standard and then
start working on them. After that I just tend to design as I go along.
Actually, The Underworld started as a learning level for WorldCraft - it
was never intended to be a 'proper' level - it just sort of turned into
one :) I haven't gone as far as buying books on architecture yet! I also
got a few ideas for traps n' stuff from places like QuakeLab and The
WorldCraft Faq, although I don't like the idea of using other people's
prefabricated architecture - I couldn't do that!
Who is your favourite level designer from id?
I would have to say John Romero. He may be lazy, but his levels are so
cool :) I'd also like to mention Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud because
their art is amazing stuff and all the glory goes to the level designers
- the artists don't get half the credit they deserve.
Favourite monster?
Enforcer, no doubt about it. I love the noise he/it makes and the way he
shouts "freeze" (or whatever it is) when he sees you. He is a bit easy to
kill though...
Least favourite monster?
Definitely the Tar Baby - waste of space - as somebody else said, hard
to kill without damaging yourself and impossible in large packs.
Why the preference for Single Player Quake over Deathmatch style levels?
Don't know really - Single Play levels just seem like more of a complete
package to me. Don't get me wrong - I love to play deathmatch - but DM
levels are a totally different design concept. They need to run fast and
be a compact kill zone. A Single Play level has to allow for
exploration, tell a story to a certain extent and have that puzzle
element that destroys deathmatch play. Plus the placing and quantity of
monsters is a pretty exact science and can dramatically improve or ruin
a SP level.
Have you had a good response to the levels you've produced so far?
Well, with EvilWorld I was pretty new to the scene and I didn't really
know anybody. I just hurled my level onto cdrom.com and hoped for the
best. The response was OK, about 30 mails, but I knew the level was
flawed. It got a good rating on Only The Best (who doesn't :) but it
slowed down pretty bad because of all the big open areas.
With The Underworld, I was pretty excited about it when it was finished.
I thought it was pretty cool but I didn't know how others would react.
We (Crash, Jim Ahara and Myself) spent a lot of time trying to iron out
all the flaws prior to release, enhance it for deathmatch and get the
speed of some of the rooms up (you would not believe how slow the water
room and the lab ran before I deleted about 100 brushes :) I released it
last Saturday (I'm writing this 7 days later) and the response has been
phenomenal! I've already had over 100 mails about the level and all I can
say is THANKS so much :) As a lot of the others have said, this is why
we do it - not for the ego thing, but to try and come up with cool
levels that others will enjoy and for our own pleasure. It's especially
pleasing to get mails from other level designers who I really respect
and from people who have seen just about every aspect of the Quake scene
- I got a really cool mail from Joost Schuur and one from one of the Unreal level designers.
What advice would you give to people wanting to build their own Quake
levels?
Go for it! It's hugely enjoyable and satisfying. It's not difficult to
come up with a playable level but it *is* difficult to come up with
something really great. There are so many editing resources on the .net,
such as QuakeLab, The Quake Map Specs, The WorldCraft faq, etc that you
really can't go wrong. Pick an editor that suits you, not that everybody
else uses, and build lots of little test levels. Play as many user
levels as you can and learn from both the good and bad. Be prepared to
sacrifice *tons* of free time and get *tons* of trouble from your loved
ones :) You only get out what you put in (said the actress to the bishop
:) ! Don't release anything until you are happy with it and it has been
thoroughly beta tested. Don't release levels that haven't been vis'ed to
-level 4. Don't drive drunk. Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs
Worthington...
And finally, if my experiences are anything to go by, the people out
there in Quake editing land who build levels are some of the nicest
people I've met (even though I wouldn't know them from Adam if I passed
them in the street :) If you ask, they will normally help willingly. And although I wouldn't recommend hassling them for no good reason,
I've also had help from John Carmack and Mike Abrash at id.
Just remember that unfortunately we all have a life outside of Quake
too, except those two lucky ba......!
What would you hope to see in Quake II?
Like many people, a return to the 'space marine' theme. An improved
engine to allow for more brushes and less slowdown (I'm a brush junkie
:). Rotating brushes, dynamic lighting and shadowing, translucent water,
no lava and the ability to alter the perspective you view the player
from (like the chasecam patch but NOT like Duke Nu... :) But I must say
that id have once again done an awesome job on Quake and I'm sure
whatever they give us will once again blow every other software house
out of the water. (Unreal - screenshots look nice but WHERE ARE YOU?).
And finally Matt, why is it nobody else in the UK can understand a word
you Geordies say? :o) (only kidding Matt)
Whey, waddaya mean, kidda? There's nowt wrang with wor taalking. It's
aal yees who taalk daft :)
Thank you for your time Matt!
And for yours, Jim - I enjoyed it :)
Interview © Matt Sefton and Jim Ahara, 1997.