John Carmack speaks at QuakeCon
On Id's next game, his retirement plans, and what he might do with the DOOM engine.
John Carmack, a man who needs no introduction, has given a frank and revealing interview at this year's QuakeCon, commenting on his plans for the future, Id Software's next project and the way his company operates.
"Inside id there is a group that really, really does not want to do another sequel," he says. "Our next game is not going to be a DOOM, Quake, or Wolfenstein sequel, it's going to be something new and that is a foregone conclusion." However, he seems happier than not that Quake IV is happening elsewhere. "It was a foregone conclusion that Raven would get the Doom engine early, the only question was what they were going to work on."
Asked if, as a triple-A, single-game company, Id can work on any smaller ideas, Carmack reckons "it would be kind of neat if we took the DOOM renderer, and we had a team take previous games - don't touch the game, just revamp it graphically. Just take Quake II, and just use the DOOM engine to make brand new graphic models and everything. But don't spend time messing with the gameplay because we know that is pretty good. Just release it as Quake II Remix with brand new graphics technology and sell it at a middle-level price instead of a boutique price." Activision must be sobbing with joy.
In customary style, the veteran developer counters a question about whether he plans to retire by confirming that he plans instead to develop "at least one more rendering engine". "DOOM is going to be in use for a long time, but just this year, hardware has surpassed a really significant point with the floating point pixel formats and generalized dependent texture reads. These are things that demand that a new engine is written."
To see what else John had to say, head over to GameSpy.