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Paul Steed Interview
John Callaham writes: "In his first interview since leaving id, Paul Steed sat down with Stomped to talk about what he is currently doing, his future plans, his thoughts on id and Doom 3, and other topics."
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I still remember when I first saw a grue. I nearly died!
Hear! Hear! I am sick and tired of deathmatch/capture-the-flag/team* shoot'em up games. Back in '96 when Quake came out, it was really neat being able to play on the Internet with dozens of other people at any time of the day you felt like it. Even disregarding the stupid problems caused by lag and the discrepancies between the network connections of all the players, I still had a blast, even on the days when I spent a lot of time running into lava! ('cause of the lag...) Just running around, interracting with and talking to people from around the world was a whole new dimension that I had never experienced before (except on a much smaller scale with DOOM modem games and a couple nearby friends). And now it's four years later, and the games are still pretty much the same... run around, get keys/weapons/ammo/healt and shoot... It seems like the designers are stuck into a rut or something. Before Quake came out there was an FAQ circulating around (it's probably still on ftp.cdrom.com, under the filename quaketalk.txt or something) that described a completely different game than what was actually released by id software. At that time the designers talked about how the servers would be interconnected so taht a player that jumped into a slipgate might end up reconnecting to another server somewhere. It was also said that if a player stood near the edge of a map and looked beyond, he might glimpse some of the action on a nearby server. Now *that* is the kind of stuff that today's designers should start looking into IMO. With the computing power we have available to us today, and all the high-speed DSL/cablemodem connections, something similar to the Multiverse (from Snow Crash) should be possible. Also, it's time to start working on better human/computer interfaces in games, because I'm sure there's already a lot of people with fucked-up hands already, and those numbers are going to keep rising...
The sad things though, is that he seems to repeat Romero's biggest error: overlook technology to only focus on art/design.
If that was Romero's error, then Valve made the same error with Half-Life (i.e. they used a prebuilt engine and focused on design). The days of using technology to carry a game are over.
John Romero's mistake was more that he chose a project too grand in scope to be completed in a reasonable amount of time. This is a common error in the game business; it looked worse in his case because of all the publicity.
But what he says about game design coming from the heart is dead-on correct.
A friend of mine is putting up a site for game developers, and I've been writing some articles for it, not as a developer, but as a gamer. I also have a strong technical background, though, so I can be somewhat knowledgeable about the buisness end of what I'm talking about.
Enough horn-blowing, the point is, a game has to have certain major components, including a good storyline - And this is the point I want to "me too" from the interview itself. Steed cares about the experience, he obviously believes in making the kind of games he wants to play, and that's one of the three key ingredients. The other two are having good people working with you, because these days you just can't do it all yourself, and to just stick with the project. If you don't let yourself get ground down, and you're talented and you have integrity to your vision, you can put together a good game.
Another important thing to recognize is that he doesn't have to do the most technically sweet game out there to make a good game. All this talk about how he's just an artist is moot, because that doesn't have anything at all to do with your vision. If he's smart, he'll get some good people on board who know how to run a buisness, some really amazing graphics programmers, an artithmatic junkie who's really into the math of physics, and so on, and they'll put together a winning game.
The important thing to remember here is that we should give as much of our support as possible to gamers who are making games. When the games are designed by a formula, by people who don't play the kinds of games they make, the games have no soul. The soul of a game is what keeps you coming back for more. Your personal preference does decide what kind of game you play, but to actually make you feel guilty about warezing it so you traipse into the funcoland and shell out the forty bucks, the game has to have a heart.
Don't worry about ego. The world is full of people who know what they're capable of, and proud. Just worry about what'll happen if, like another certain company spawned from id, they manage to shoot themselves in their respective feet.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Recent events have caused me to seriously doubt the immediate future of gaming. The focus on quality has dropped dramatically. Making pretty looking deathmatches is the only thing that seems to matter anymore. Not that I haven't spent hours playing Capture the Flag or Domination in UT, but it seems as if multiplayer action is the only thing that matters.
When a story actually enters the picture it appears to be something cooked up in about 5 minutes and added to the game over a span of a single lunch hour.
ID is the worst offendor when it comes to this. I do not doubt Carmack's technical skills, it is simply that the man has limited ability when it comes to creating a coherant story, or even a new concept.
The seed planted with DOOM has been rehashed countless times over the past 6 years and I see the return to it almost as an admission of failure by the ID team. Instead of sitting on their well served laurels and thinking it over, they simply jump into the next project which is invariably a repeat of several others. In doing so, they take away from their achievements and look like one trick ponies / engine whores.
It is nice that this game will actually have a story (abeit old and tired),be mostly a single player affair and have great graphics. However I question the merits of the continued drive towards technical innovation while leaving the plot and real creativity behind.
- Commander Keen 1 to 3 (Invasion of the Vorticons)
- Commander Keen 4 to 6 (Goodbye Galaxy)
- Quake 1 to 3
- Doom 1, 2, Ultimate and Final... and soon 3...
When is "Wolfenstein 3D 3" due?By the way, I don't consider Doom as their only revolutionary game.
Keen (Episodes 4 to 6) is my ID's all time favorite.
It had a huge playability and was also full of innovations: Secret levels, multi-2D engine, and lots of facilities like game saving, etc. It ran perfectly on 286 computers and I whish its source code were given to the Open Source community.
Concerning its playability, I remember the first time I played the "Satan's dark delight" in Quake.
jumping on flying lifts really made me dream of a Keen 3D one day. This one would be a hit for sure... And ID would stop being associated to Bloody/Black/Frightening software.
But we'll have to cope with Doom 3 before we can expect to smile at the Dope Fish once again.
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Trolling using another account since 2005.
Oh yeah, that's quake. WTF? Tribes is the closest thing to that, what is this crap about putting a severed head in a bag though? :)
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I am the dot in slashdot.org
First off, Duke Nukem 3D was made by 3D Realms. Check your sources before you start your crazy ranting.
Secondly if you really think that /. readers don't play these games you are very wrong as is evident by previous articles like Quake 3 to be sold Retail for Linux. There is an interest in this. Try running a search for Quake on /. and you'll come up with a ton of results. If you really have a problem with violent games, maybe you should speak out against the /. readers since we tend to like Quake 3 and other id releases.
Also you refered to Quake players as Windoze kiddies who just want to run around and shoot stuff. Try reading the article above. WOW it's not just for "Windoze." Maybe you should just stop trying to be so god damn 31337 and voice YOUR opinion rather than trying to portray your post as the feelings of the entire "Linux community."
I love Quake 3 and the attention that this game has earned in the gamming community is almost unmatched. More money is awarded to "CyberAtheletes" like Wombat (Mark Larsen) CPL player of the year from 1999 than ever before. I am pleased to see this much attention being directed to gamming. It makes companies write better games, and gives player more to enjoy.
Dissenter
Dissenter
"There is no knowledge that is not power."
Rader