By this time, however, the limitations of the "Doom" engine were becoming evident to modders. They'd find liberation in id's "Quake" (1996). The new franchise not only added a surreal, medieval edge to the FPS genre but also gave gamers a new sense of perspective.

"'Quake' was like breathing air for the first time," says independent developer Rich Carlson, "albeit the air of a dark, musty, demon-infested crypt ... The ability to build a level, or a model, in a truly three-dimensional way was very liberating." Trouble was, id's level editor for "Quake" wasn't immediately available online. And when it was released, it required a powerful (and costly) computer to use.

As with "Doom," fans leaped in to create their own level editors -- software tools that allowed anyone to create additional play sequences for a game. Many were developed, but it was Worldcraft, created in 1996 by Ben Morris -- then a 19-year-old from Victoria, British Columbia -- that would grow to dominate much of the mod scene.

Morris had made the Doom Construction Kit (DCK) years earlier and wanted to repeat the success of that mod/level editor. It would also be his own break into the industry -- even though, he says, "I didn't imagine that outcome when I started the project. My main intent was to repeat DCK's success, both financially and in terms of its popularity in the gaming community." (He wasn't even all that interested in using the editor he'd created to make his own levels.)

For Morris, making Worldcraft was an end in itself. But it enabled mod makers to get ever more inventive with their own projects, going way beyond building new levels for the original game. Total conversions became so innovative, their origins in "Quake" were almost unrecognizable. (In Iikka Keranen's "Air Quake," for example, you fly around the world like a human missile.)

Some modders even began to introduce marketing, PR, and branding into their projects. David "Zoid" Kirsch created a "Quake" multiplayer mod called "ThreeWave Capture the Flag."

"After I noticed my small mod was taking off, I immediately composed a sort of press release and mailed it to the major 'Quake' news sites at the time."

It was enough to gain him the attention of John Carmack and secure a gig with his company. "Id's hiring process was rather strange," Kirsch says. "Honestly, there wasn't really an interview per se for getting my job. The majority of meetings were over the Internet. I only met John in person a couple of times."

To many, the period that began with the release of "Doom" and that ended shortly after the first "Quake" was the apex of mod development. "It was a boom time," says Carlson. "Even in the infancy of whatever 3D action games are destined to become, there was an amazing amount of activity and creativity going on."

"I loved every part of that group, which was pretty small those days," says Morris. "I even enjoyed the dumb jokes and infighting, which there was a lot of, but the feedback from my users was the defining aspect of that experience. Software is an art, and receiving criticisms and salutations for my work was both gratifying and inspirational."

For developers and modders, a viable alternative to the "Quake" engine began taking shape in the mid-'90s. Programming for "Unreal" (1998) was Tim Sweeney, who had founded his Epic Games on the success of "ZZT," an early freeware ASCII text-based game that spawned one of the first mod communities. Many in "Unreal's" team were recruited from the "Doom" and "Quake" modding cooperatives, with some staffers first working on their elements remotely from as far away as Finland. Code-wise, Sweeney developed the level editor right on top of the game's 3-D engine so that they were integrated. It helped make the editor customizable in a way that previous utilities had not been. Another innovation was what Sweeney called UnrealScript, which enabled modders to easily redefine AI and other game elements.

"I'd wager somewhere around 5 to 10 percent of players have tinkered with the [editing] tools," says Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer for "Unreal." "While that doesn't sound like a lot, bear in mind that UT ["Unreal Tournament" (1999), a multiplayer spin-off] sold over 2 million copies. I'd estimate that nearly half of all 'UT' players have downloaded and played mods or levels for the game."

But as Sweeney and Bleszinski worked to complete "Unreal" with their team, the innovators at id had not been complacent. As with "Quake," Carmack and his id team made sure "Quake II" (1997) was coded from the very start to support fan mods.

Among those fans was Robert Duffy, a Texas programmer in his mid-thirties. Already the director of technology for an L.A.-based data analysis firm, he had little interest in breaking into the game industry. But he was interested in creating a mod for id's latest game with his brother Pat. The tools to do that were available: Carmack had made a version of his QuakeEd level editor for Windows.

But when he first tried out id's editor, says Duffy, "I was amazed they had produced a commercial game with it; it was a mess. I spent a few weeks tidying up the user interface and making it run on normal consumer-level machines, and put it up on the Net." It was strictly a utility to build a mod with his brother (which was later abandoned, anyway.)

He didn't even ask users to make voluntary freeware-style payments to download it. "My wife thought I was nuts spending so much time on something and giving it away," he says. "In lieu of any donations or registration, I asked people to give money to the abused-children's charity of their choice."

All this fan-driven inventiveness did not go unnoticed in the wider game industry. "I was always impressed by the community that formed around 'Quake II' in particular," says "The Sims" creator, Will Wright. "At some point the mod authors not only made new stuff for the game but also new tools for content  [It's] a great example of how the hardcore fans can totally surprise you with their creativity, given the chance." And it would inspire Wright, a few years later, to make modding a key feature in "The Sims."

Neither did the fan activity go unnoticed by "Quake's" main creator. "The summer after 'Quake II' shipped," says Robert Duffy, "John Carmack got in touch with me and asked if I'd like to do [an editor] for 'Quake III,' their new title." Duffy joined id, and QERadiant would not only be used to help create "Quake III," but also hits like the aforementioned "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" (2001) and "Medal of Honor" (2002), among many others.

So, it was "not originally intended as a calling card," says Duffy, speaking about his utility, which began as a casual project he gave away, "but it worked out nicely."

Recent Stories