Carmack Interview

by Maarten Goldstein, Sep 09, 2004 7:13am PDT

Related Topics – Interview, id software, Games: PC, John Carmack

The latest CNN Game Over column has been posted, this time offering an article format interview with id Software programmer John Carmack. Topics include fatherhood, his work with Armadillo Aerospace and of course game engine programming. One of the things mentioned by Carmack is that he would really like to see id's next game finished within two years, instead of the four years it took to complete DOOM 3.

Lately, though, he's found his interest in rocket ships surpassing his interest in coding video games. He's definitely on board for one more title, but Carmack's future as a video game programmer is growing increasingly hazy. "I wouldn't hazard to look too far ahead," he said. "I'm definitely going to see through this round of rendering work. I wouldn't make any promises beyond that."

Read all the News

« Previous Story
Full Spectrum Warrior PC Gold

Next Story »
PlanetSide Update Plans

Comments

17 Threads | 95 Comments

#21

Refresh Thread

By: red2lucas x Show Full Post

Reply

John Carmack = Dr. Zefram Cochrane

I just got this funny feeling reading that interview that Carmack will end up someone pretty substantial in the history of Earth....maybe, maybe not, we'll see. One day our Children will say, "hey did you know that guy used to program games..." "NO WAY, that guy?"

Sep 09, 2004 9:44am PDT

toggle
John Carmack = Dr. Zefram Cochrane I just got this funny feeling reading that interview that Carmack w... : red2lucas
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 6 replies.
- Carmack for president of mars 2010! : not work safe
- toggle
  I've been thinking that for a long time... It's only a matter of time before he does something significa... : myLeftTesticleofFury
  - toggle
    make his tin can fly w/o crashing? : Klebold
    - toggle
      I'm leaning more towards his engine design skills being the thing that pushes him over the edge. Maybe t... : myLeftTesticleofFury
      
      Metaverse? Like this snowcrash rumours after Quake3? Now THAT would be something seriously revolutionnary... : pillzer

#7

Refresh Thread

By: abubu x Show Full Post

Reply

"Visually," Carmack teases, "it's going to be a pretty good step above what we've shown in 'Doom'."

Good lord. o.O

Sep 09, 2004 7:55am PDT

toggle
"Visually," Carmack teases, "it's going to be a pretty good step above what we've shown in 'Doom'." Go... : abubu
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- toggle
  Rooms-above-rooms? <dribbles> : Dave Johnston
  - toggle
    And slanted floors! : grasshoppah
    - flowers, grass and fluffy bunnies! : radula

#91

Refresh Thread

By: zen2k x Show Full Post

Reply

It will be a sad, sad day when teh Carmack is no longer working on new game engines!

The King is dead! Long live the King!

Sep 09, 2004 5:18pm PDT

toggle
It will be a sad, sad day when teh Carmack is no longer working on new game engines! The King is dea... : zen2k
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
- toggle
  king is not yet dead. idiot : jdwango
  - many apologies ..sorry my zealousness for carmack made me snap. : jdwango

#12

Refresh Thread

By: NewTypez x Show Full Post

Reply

It upset me when the art team never get any kind of recognition. ;(

Sep 09, 2004 8:40am PDT

toggle
It upset me when the art team never get any kind of recognition. ;( : NewTypez
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 13 replies.
- toggle
  Because they're responsible for the embarrassment that is the skeleton guy with shoulder-mounted rocket l... : Leonard Ghostal
  - The revenant? You realize he was in Doom 2 right? He looked pretty cool to me. : mr wolf
  - Why exactly is the revenant embarassing? : Turd Ferguson
  - how is the revenant embarrasing? i thought they did a fine job of tuning him up for the new game. sound... : [gooie b]
  - Finally noticed that it has a transparent skin. I thought it was nothing but bones. : Wombat Woo
  - I liked the revenant. : myLeftTesticleofFury
  - laff @ u : johnny rotten
- I thought they did a suprisingly good job considering that they had to have the rest of the team threaten... : Kryn
- toggle
  I think id has the best art team in the industry. And the best artist in the industry in Kenneth Scott. : jet-poop
  - toggle
    Kenneth Scott is friggin amazing and definitely one of the best in the industry. Not only is his texture... : johnny rotten
    - He is. Way back after the presentation at the MacWorld (wow, wasn't that in 2000?) I had some urge to ema... : pillzer
  - It's between id and blizzard for art, IMO... : myLeftTesticleofFury

#27

Refresh Thread

By: dangerdoggie x Show Full Post

Reply

Hopefully the genetics will be strong with this one, in 16 or 17 years John Jr. will take up where daddy left off, imagine how different computing will be by then.

Sep 09, 2004 10:22am PDT

toggle
Hopefully the genetics will be strong with this one, in 16 or 17 years John Jr. will take up where daddy ... : dangerdoggie
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.

#11

Refresh Thread

By: veggie x Show Full Post

Reply

i wonder if id will disband once he leaves.

Sep 09, 2004 8:39am PDT

toggle
i wonder if id will disband once he leaves. : veggie
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 28 replies.

#81

Refresh Thread

By: greatajax x Show Full Post

Reply

I used to go to Evilavatar for my gaming news and to post. But take a look at Evil's commentary on his news posting of this piece: "After DOOM 3, perhaps the best thing that could happen to the first person shooter genre is the retirement of John Carmack."

How retarded. I'm going to start hanging here now.

Sep 09, 2004 3:16pm PDT

toggle
I used to go to Evilavatar for my gaming news and to post. But take a look at Evil's commentary on his ne... : greatajax
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
- welcome to the fold, brother. please read the posting guidelines :) http://www.shacknews.com/msgboard/... : edgewise

#8

Refresh Thread

By: ezanga x Show Full Post

Reply

Yes Carmack makes great engines, but frankly others have made better games with them than he (or his team) has. There are no shortages of great gaming engines available (Unreal), or in development (Source and whatever FEAR is using from Monolith). I don't think anyone can understate Carmack's contributions to the field, but if his heart isn't in it, then he should move on. There are way too many people who remain passionate about make AND playing games, I for one feel confident that we really won't miss him. And, perhaps more importantly, Carmack will return to games at some point and we can all marvel at the wonder of what he can create 5-10 years from now when he makes his return.

Sep 09, 2004 8:17am PDT

toggle
Yes Carmack makes great engines, but frankly others have made better games with them than he (or his team... : ezanga
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
- toggle
  Unlikely, as he said himself in a couple years from now as the hardware progress rendering engines will r... : pillzer
  - He would leave at the peek of his glory, and that may be the Right Thing to do. :) : pillzer
  - ya I remember that. That's good for the industry then as each game house should be able to have competiti... : armybob
- Valve's "Source engine" is largely based on Quake's engine. So you only listed two engines, and one is n... : Dog-From-Duckhunt

#9

Refresh Thread

By: ErneX x Show Full Post

Reply

Carmack's next engine will be ROCKET FUEL'ED

Sep 09, 2004 8:32am PDT

toggle
Carmack's next engine will be ROCKET FUEL'ED : ErneX
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
- X-Prize 2006, from id software : grimiv
- toggle
  HAHAHAHAHAHAH i hate getting this joke : dopefish
  - toggle
    ...just in case this isn't the joke i thought it was, here goes nothing http://www.empoweredproducts.c... : dopefish
    - hehehe , that's a good one. : brutal

#76

Refresh Thread

By: Fred Garvin x Show Full Post

Reply

Even if you love something sometimes you need a break from it.

Sep 09, 2004 2:15pm PDT

Even if you love something sometimes you need a break from it. : Fred Garvin

#6

Refresh Thread

By: pillzer x Show Full Post

Reply

To somehow use his own words "Failures, especially catastrophic ones, allow industries to approach things from a different angle". If/when he retires, though it could hardly be described as a failure, could it be a good thing for the industry and push some companies/individuals more?.. That'll be interesting to see.
Not sure what that'd mean for id though..

Sep 09, 2004 7:53am PDT

toggle
To somehow use his own words "Failures, especially catastrophic ones, allow industries to approach things... : pillzer
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- toggle
  i suspect it will mean they can all drive their ferraris and porches into the sunsetand go to sleep on th... : goyf
  - Nah, more like they'd keep the name and then run it into the ground until it became a joke. Look what ... : ZeBFFd00d
- Romero will return to drive the company into the ground lead them to glory! : scot_seese

#70

Refresh Thread

By: scot_seese x Show Full Post

Reply

:-( PARENTHOOD'd

Isn't that just the way it goes? Give a year, and his big challenges will be spending a Saturday at Pier 1 and USA Baby with the wife without killing himself. Time to trade the Ferrari in for the minivan!

After another one he'll only be 10% smarter than you and I ;-)

Read:
http://www.hoosiergazette.com/News/Sept2004/news001.htm

Sep 09, 2004 1:23pm PDT

:-( PARENTHOOD'd Isn't that just the way it goes? Give a year, and his big challenges will be spen : scot_seese

#54

Refresh Thread

By: ZeBFFd00d x Show Full Post

Reply

Slightly offtopic: Anyone know what happened with Trent leaving Doom 3? He said something about not getting along with some people on the team, but it was all very vague :\

Sep 09, 2004 11:16am PDT

toggle
Slightly offtopic: Anyone know what happened with Trent leaving Doom 3? He said something about not gett... : ZeBFFd00d
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- toggle
  Wasn't anything to do with id, it was a dispute with his management. He is since, suing his ex-manager... : blackhawk
  - toggle
    Yeah, he had to pull out of the project to spend his time in a bitter court room battle with his former m... : evildanish
    - ok - that blurry type shit going on there is really annoying. : virus

#51

Refresh Thread

By: tornprince x Show Full Post

Reply

"The last video game he played and truly enjoyed was id's 1999 release 'Quake III'."

Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who didn't like Doom 3.

Sep 09, 2004 11:10am PDT

toggle
"The last video game he played and truly enjoyed was id's 1999 release 'Quake III'." Well I'm glad to ... : tornprince
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
- toggle
  out of context'd : blackhawk
  - Exactly. He said on Slashdot that he thinks DOOM III is the best game they've ever done: http://slashdot.... : LeapingFool

#1

Refresh Thread

By: Topaz x Show Full Post

Reply

I like working on things that are going to have an impact one way or the other

Even if that impact is me having to change my underwear far to often? DOOM'D

Didn't know there's a baby Carmack to carry on the flame. Woot!

Sep 09, 2004 7:21am PDT

toggle
I like working on things that are going to have an impact one way or the other Even if that impact is : Topaz
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- toggle
  Has anyone seen the image of the baby in the mars picture when Doom 3 is first loaded up? Well, it looks ... : slip42o
  - toggle
    Ya, it's an ultrasound picture isn't it? : Phreakin
    - Yup, that's what it looks like.. : slip42o

#4

Refresh Thread

By: GodFather x Show Full Post

Reply

Hes probably totally burnt out. Hes been non-stop for 15 years at least?? He wont stop completely but I bet hes gonna want to take some time off. I wouldnt worry bout it. Its in his blood, he'll be back if he does take an extended break..

Sep 09, 2004 7:33am PDT

toggle
Hes probably totally burnt out. Hes been non-stop for 15 years at least?? He wont stop completely but I b... : GodFather
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- it would be indeed a sad day for gaming if he did quit >:( : cap n KRUNCH
- toggle
  you're saying people can't be in the workforce for more than 15 years? : BulletPro
  - no Im not saying that, but if your as wealthy as he is and have the opportunity to pursue other things be... : GodFather

#2

Refresh Thread

By: zipr x Show Full Post

Reply

He has to make more games -- I just upgraded my computer!

Sep 09, 2004 7:21am PDT

toggle
He has to make more games -- I just upgraded my computer! : zipr
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
- I hear you man : ErneX
- Don't worry - there will be plenty of games made with the DOOM III tech. Your newly upgraded computer wil : LeapingFool
- IAWTP ! : Priest77

red	r{...}r	italics	/[...]/
green	g{...}g	bold	b[...]b
blue	b{...}b	quote	q[...]q
yellow	y{...}y	sample	s[...]s
limegreen	l[...]l	underline	_[...]_
orange	n[...]n	strike	-[...]-
multisync	p[...]p	spoiler	o[...]o
olive	e[...]e	code	/{{...}}/