darkness posts

There is a not-insignificant portion of humans on this planet who love controversy. They love to argue, love to take the contrary position, love to complain. Frequently found on game forums, this breed enjoys nothing more than to explain to anyone who will bother to read them how the latest iteration of their beloved franchise has destroyed the game, and how much better version x was compared with version y.

Sometimes there is even a kernel of truth to their ire, as in games like World of Warcraft, where the developers are constantly updating the game with bug fixes and game balance patches. The word "nerf" is typically heard, and stories of the good old days abound. Functional changes I understand. But occasionally a different sort of complaint is heard, and it's this type of whingeing that puzzles me. How seriously can I take arguments that revolve around a game's graphics?

During a chat with Shacknews during QuakeCon this week, id Software's co-founder John Carmack revealed that id had actually been working on a major new game called Darkness. The title, which would have been considered a survival horror game, sounds a lot like the TV movie Lost with players fighting off creatures on an island after a plane crash.

However id decided to stop work on Darkness after 18 months on production to move onto their current original game Rage. Why? Carmack stated that they felt that the game was repeating aspects of their last major game Doom III that they didn't want to repeat, namely the dark enviroments and "contrived nature of monsters hiding in closets". The generally poor sales of survival horror games also factored into the decision.

This isn't the first time id has stopped production on a game to move onto another title. After Quake III Arena was completed they started working on a game called Quest which would have been a fantasy multiplayer oriented team title. After about six months of development they cancelled the project to work on Doom III.