Eurogamer Expo Sessions: Tim Willits presents RAGE
id's creative director talks new IP, ideas in the bath.
That is probably true. So yes .plan files existed before John, but he made them popular, so I give him credit for inventing blogging.
No. You know, getting the driving stuff done has been really difficult, and I have way more respect for driving guys and vehicle combat guys because that is tricky. For us, we are known for first-person shooters. I will always make first-person shooters. But if we can do other things to expand the gameplay, then that is where we can evolve and iterate and do new things.
With the new technology in RAGE we have something that looks unique, and we have all these elements that are very different. It's not one single element, it's how it's all packaged together that makes it a masterful experience.
Oh yes definitely. There are Easter eggs all over the place.
We even have some nods to our brothers up in Maryland [Bethesda Game Studios]. So you have to keep your eyes open for that stuff.
Oh no. The Gearbox guys are really great guys, I've known Randy for years, we see them at the bar and they see us at the bar, but we definitely keep the games separated from our normal conversations.
No, I think sometimes people may try, but we're all professionals. Those guys have a great track record and I think they'll do something very cool.
One person asked me why should he spend 60 dollars on the 360 version of RAGE if he can get the iPhone version of RAGE for cheaper. So it's very important for everybody to know that the iPhone version of RAGE is not a replacement! It's an additive experience.
One of the things I try to do with RAGE is make it more of a universe. The story is a larger story than just what the player encounters or experiences. In some of our past games there was a beginning and an end and you really felt that was it. With RAGE, you can expect to believe that events happened before you arrived and events will happen after you leave.
What we've done with the iPhone games is you don't actually play the same character - you can play someone who wasn't an Ark survivor, someone in the resistance, someone who's a traveller, etc. Because we try to make the world as rich as possible, that gives us the chance to do other people. So I encourage people to pick the iPhone game to get a sense of the RAGE universe and that will hold people over to the big launch of the main game next year.
So just because you paid a little for the iPhone game doesn't mean you can skip the real one!
Make it as awesome as possible. The technology, as you saw, is pretty much wrapped up. There's still performance and load-time stuff - we want to make it as solid as we can get it. We want to get the multiplayer as solid as possible. There's definitely a RAGE feel to that, and hopefully we'll be able to talk about that in short order, although not before Eurogamer, sorry...
So we want to put the finishing touches on the tech, we want to get more of the content of the gameplay - especially the second half of the story - and then we want to fine-tune the multiplayer to make it as enjoyable as possible. Because again, brand new IP, brand new game, we haven't put anything out for a while - we need to hit the nail on the head.
Tim Willits is creative director at id Software, despite what it said on Wikipedia before I edited it last week.