id Software looking to shorten dev cycles, stop building new engines for every game
id Tech 1: Doom(1993), Doom 2 (1994)
id Tech 2: Quake (1996), Quake 2 (1997)
id Tech 3: Quake 3 Arena (1999)
id Tech 4: Doom 3 (2004)
id Tech 5: Rage (2011)
Notice a trend? With the exception of the earliest id shooters, which evolved very quickly, id has been in the business of developing one game per technology platform for the last eleven years. Sure, they licensed that technology to other developers to create other id titles like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory to Quake 4 but when strictly talking about the work being done internally at id, technology and game development have gone hand in hand. But id's Todd Hollenshead knows that has to change.
"We need to get to shorter cycles," Hollenshead told VG247. "And I think part of that is that we can't be doing a revolutionary technology with every game we develop." To that end, the studio's upcoming Doom 4 will use – you guessed it – id tech 5! "We have to go to a bit more of an iterative technology approach," he admitted, adding, "I think it's a completely doable thing, but I don't think it just happens without putting some effort into it."
Luckily, with Bethesda's deep pockets backing the studio now, id is able to work on two games in parallel, without risking everything. "The capital required to put both those games in production – the means and size to do them at a triple-A level – would have been a literal "bet the company" sort of thing," Hollenshead explained. So, after Rage ships does that mean id can finally get to work on that Commander Keen reboot we've been waiting for all these years?
