Editing Quake (video game) (section)

===Design===
''Quake'''s development was troubled, and the game went through several incarnations over the course of its development.

====''The Fight for Justice'' (1990-91)====
In the early 1990s, the staff at [[id Software]] had a private ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' game, which would go on to inspire a number of elements in their titles over the following years. With [[John Carmack]] as [[Dungeon Master|DM]], the campaign featured a group of adventurers named the Silver Shadow Band. The group were named for the silver dragon on which they flew, and each represented one of the core stats of the game. Among them was a powerful character named Quake, representing strength, who fought with a magic hammer capable of destroying buildings. Quake was accompanied by a floating magic artefact named the Hellgate Cube which attacked his foes with lightning bolts.<ref name="doomguy 198-213">{{Cite book |last=Romero |first=John |title=Doom Guy: Life in First Person |publisher=Abrams Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4197-5811-9 |location=New York |pages=198–213 |oclc=on1389830938}}</ref> [[John Romero]] described fighting alongside Quake as the most fun they had playing ''D&D''. The Silver Shadow Band did "contract work for Justice, an even more powerful group". The original campaign concluded in early 1992, after Romero's character made a deal with a demon, exchanging a book called the Demonomicron for a magic sword called the Daikatana, which resulted in a demonic invasion that wiped out the [[Material Plane]].<ref>{{harvnb|Romero|2023|pp=126–145}}</ref>

A preview included with id Software's first release, 1990's ''[[Commander Keen]]'', advertised a game entitled ''The Fight for Justice'' as a follow-up to the ''Commander Keen'' trilogy. It would feature a character named Quake, "the strongest, most dangerous person on the continent", armed with thunderbolts and a "Ring of Regeneration". Conceived as a [[Video Graphics Array|VGA]] full-color [[Side-scrolling game|side-scrolling]] [[role-playing video game]], ''The Fight for Justice'' was never released. The team briefly explored making the project in 1991 but abandoned the idea as the technology for it simply did not exist at the time. The project was only in development for about two weeks.<ref name="doomguy 198-213" />

====As a melee action game (1994-95)====
A return to the ''Quake'' concept was raised by John Romero in a meeting in late 1994, when discussing the next [[Game engine|engine]] and main project after the completion of ''[[Doom II]]''. Newer members of the team, including [[American McGee]] and [[Sandy Petersen]], had not been present for the original D&D campaign or game project, but were on board with the idea after it was explained to them, and the team was then in agreement about the broad direction of the title. In a December 1, 1994, post to an online bulletin board, John Romero wrote, "Okay, people. It seems that everyone is speculating on whether Quake is going to be a slow, RPG-style light-action game. Wrong! What does id do best and dominate at? Can you say "action"? I knew you could. Quake will be constant, hectic action throughout – probably more so than Doom".<ref>{{Cite journal |date=October 1995 |title=Quake Short Stories |journal=Maximum: The Video Game Magazine |publisher=[[Emap International Limited]] |issue=1 |page=135}}</ref>

The team entered into an R&D phase while Carmack was working on the engine. By 1995, the outline for the game included a medieval setting, hand-to-hand combat, thrown weapons, an area of effect attack with the hammer, and feeding souls to the Hellgate Cube.<ref name="doomguy 198-213" /> Some early information on ''Quake'' was released publicly, focusing on a [[Thor]]-like character who wields a giant hammer.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Longden |first=Willie Francis |date=June 1994 |title=This Horse Is A Norse |url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=119 |department=The Rumor Bag |magazine=Computer Gaming World |pages=178}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lombardi |first=Chris |date=July 1994 |title=To Hell and Back Again |url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1994&pub=2&id=120 |magazine=Computer Gaming World |pages=20–24}}</ref><ref name=Max6>{{Cite journal |last1=Jevons |first1=Daniel |last2=Leadbetter |first2=Richard |date=May 1996 |title=The Maximum id Inquisition Begins Here! |journal=Maximum: The Video Game Magazine |publisher=[[Emap International Limited]] |issue=6 |pages=96–97}}</ref> A close up of Quake holding his hammer was on the cover of ''[[PC Gamer]]'' for the October 1995 issue, and screenshots showed medieval environments and a dragon.<ref name=PCGamer/> Romero revealed in 2023 that the dragon model was never actually implemented, and had simply been placed in the sky for the screenshot. The plan was for the game to have more role-playing-style elements.<ref name="doomguy 214-235">{{harvnb|Romero|2023|pp=214–235}}</ref> An ''[[Aztec (video game)|Aztec]]'' style texture set was developed for the project, but the set was not used due to artistic opposition from American McGee, who preferred a more heavy metal themed look for his levels. This second texture set was used for the Vaults of Zin.<ref>{{harvnb|Romero|2023|pp=236–247}}</ref>

Before gameplay could be worked on in earnest, Carmack would need to build the game engine which was a significant undertaking, and took much longer than anticipated.<ref name="doomguy 198-213" /> Carmack was not only developing a fully 3D engine, but also a TCP/IP networking model. Carmack later said that he should have done two separate projects which developed those things- the networking model first, used for a game which was otherwise in the ''Doom II'' engine, and then the 3D overhaul for a second title.<ref name="doomguy 248-274">{{harvnb|Romero|2023|pp=248–274}}</ref> The [[Quake engine|''Quake'' engine]] popularized several major advances in the genre: polygonal models instead of [[prerendered]] [[sprite (computer graphics)|sprites]]; full 3D level design instead of a [[2.5D]] map; prerendered [[lightmap]]s; and allowing end users to partially program the game (in this case with [[QuakeC]]), which popularized fan-created [[Mod (computer gaming)|modifications (mods)]].

====As a first person shooter (1995-96)====
Working with a game engine that was still in development presented difficulties for the designers.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=October 1997 |title=The Great Escape |magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]] |publisher=[[Imagine Media]] |issue=34 |page=44}}</ref> Around fifty levels were developed during the R&D process, but engine changes meant that the team was frequently having to redo work. Much of this needed to be scrapped by the time the engine was completed in late 1995. The team was burned out from the process, and raised the idea of using the existing demo levels for a first person shooter, as it would be faster and less risky.<ref name=Max6/> Romero opposed the change, but relented. The creative differences would ultimately lead to his departure from the company after completing ''Quake''.<ref name="doomguy 248-274" /><ref name=nextgen>{{Cite magazine |date=June 1997 |title=Does John Romero Still Enjoy Shooting People? |url=https://archive.org/stream/NextGeneration30Jun1997/Next_Generation_30_Jun_1997#page/n9/mode/2up |magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]] |issue=30 |pages=9–12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=May 2, 1997 |title=An Audience with John Romero |url=https://archive.org/details/EDGE.N045.1997.05/page/n17/mode/2up |magazine=[[Edge (magazine)|Edge]] |issue=45 (May 1997) |pages=18–23 |quote=My original idea was to do something like ''Virtua Fighter'' in a 3D world, with full-contact fighting, but you'd also be able to run through a world, and do the same stuff you do in ''Quake'', only when you got into these melees, the camera would pull out into a third-person perspective. It would've been great, but nobody else had faith in trying it. The project was taking too long, and everybody just wanted to fall back on the safe thing – the formula.}}</ref>

''Quake'' was programmed by John Carmack, [[Michael Abrash]], and John Cash. The levels and scenarios were designed by [[American McGee]], [[Sandy Petersen]], John Romero, and [[Tim Willits]], and the graphics were designed by [[Adrian Carmack]], [[Kevin Cloud]] and Paul Steed. Cloud created the monster and player graphics using [[PowerAnimator|Alias]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 1996 |title=Earth-Quake! |journal=Maximum: The Video Game Magazine |publisher=[[Emap International Limited]] |issue=5 |pages=124–9}}</ref> Initially, the game was designed so that when the player ran out of ammunition, the player character would hit enemies with a [[gun-butt]].<ref name=Max6/> Shortly before release this was replaced with an [[axe]]. id Software released ''QTest'' on February 24, 1996, a technology demo limited to three multiplayer maps. There was no single-player support and some of the gameplay and graphics were unfinished or different from their final versions. ''QTest'' gave gamers their first peek into the filesystem and modifiability of the ''Quake'' engine, and many entity mods (that placed monsters in the otherwise empty multiplayer maps) and custom player skins began appearing online before the full game was even released.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Davison |first=Pete |date=August 2, 2013 |title=Blast from the Past III: Quaking in Fear |work=[[USgamer]] |url=https://www.usgamer.net/articles/blast-from-the-past-iii-quaking-in-fear |access-date=November 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130804120931/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/blast-from-the-past-iii-quaking-in-fear |archive-date=2013-08-04}}</ref>

Morale on the project was low, and developers were under [[Crunch (video games)|crunch]] from December 1995 through to release in June 1996. Romero has described the process as one of the hardest grinds of his career. He was the only member of the team to attend the office on launch day to upload the files.<ref name="doomguy 248-274" />