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Eurogamer Expo Sessions: Tim Willits presents RAGE

id's creative director talks new IP, ideas in the bath.

Eurogamer He just accidentally invents things. He probably accidentally invented Facebook in the bath once and never did anything with it.
Tim Willits

That is probably true. So yes .plan files existed before John, but he made them popular, so I give him credit for inventing blogging.

Eurogamer So I know you had the survival horror concept going for a while then moved into RAGE, but did you ever consider going in a wildly different direction like a platform adventure? Or a puzzle game?
Tim Willits

No. You know, getting the driving stuff done has been really difficult, and I have way more respect for driving guys and vehicle combat guys because that is tricky. For us, we are known for first-person shooters. I will always make first-person shooters. But if we can do other things to expand the gameplay, then that is where we can evolve and iterate and do new things.

With the new technology in RAGE we have something that looks unique, and we have all these elements that are very different. It's not one single element, it's how it's all packaged together that makes it a masterful experience.

Eurogamer Will there be any nods or winks to other id games like Doom and Quake?
Tim Willits

Oh yes definitely. There are Easter eggs all over the place.

Eurogamer You're the Easter bunny.
Tim Willits

We even have some nods to our brothers up in Maryland [Bethesda Game Studios]. So you have to keep your eyes open for that stuff.

Eurogamer Ooh. Speaking of your friends, Gearbox recently took over Duke Nukem Forever, and I know from my extensive research on Google Maps that they're like 30 miles up the road in Plano. Have you been invited round to see what it's like yet?
Tim Willits

Oh no. The Gearbox guys are really great guys, I've known Randy for years, we see them at the bar and they see us at the bar, but we definitely keep the games separated from our normal conversations.

Eurogamer So they don't get drunk and you tease information out of them.
Tim Willits

No, I think sometimes people may try, but we're all professionals. Those guys have a great track record and I think they'll do something very cool.

Eurogamer At QuakeCon - another fine gaming expo - technical genius John Carmack was showing off RAGE on iOS at 60fps. How's work going on that?
Tim Willits

One person asked me why should he spend 60 dollars on the 360 version of RAGE if he can get the iPhone version of RAGE for cheaper. So it's very important for everybody to know that the iPhone version of RAGE is not a replacement! It's an additive experience.

One of the things I try to do with RAGE is make it more of a universe. The story is a larger story than just what the player encounters or experiences. In some of our past games there was a beginning and an end and you really felt that was it. With RAGE, you can expect to believe that events happened before you arrived and events will happen after you leave.

What we've done with the iPhone games is you don't actually play the same character - you can play someone who wasn't an Ark survivor, someone in the resistance, someone who's a traveller, etc. Because we try to make the world as rich as possible, that gives us the chance to do other people. So I encourage people to pick the iPhone game to get a sense of the RAGE universe and that will hold people over to the big launch of the main game next year.

So just because you paid a little for the iPhone game doesn't mean you can skip the real one!

Eurogamer So you're launching next September. You've got a year left. What's left to do?
Tim Willits

Make it as awesome as possible. The technology, as you saw, is pretty much wrapped up. There's still performance and load-time stuff - we want to make it as solid as we can get it. We want to get the multiplayer as solid as possible. There's definitely a RAGE feel to that, and hopefully we'll be able to talk about that in short order, although not before Eurogamer, sorry...

Eurogamer Damn you.
Tim Willits

So we want to put the finishing touches on the tech, we want to get more of the content of the gameplay - especially the second half of the story - and then we want to fine-tune the multiplayer to make it as enjoyable as possible. Because again, brand new IP, brand new game, we haven't put anything out for a while - we need to hit the nail on the head.

Tim Willits is creative director at id Software, despite what it said on Wikipedia before I edited it last week.

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