NowGamer speaks to Tim Willits, creative director at id Software

Few names resonate more with first-person shooter fans than id Software. After all, games like Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake are synonymous with the classic run-and-gun genre they made famous. With Rage, id is expanding its take on the shooter, creating a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic open world, combining FPS action, light RPG storytelling and racing combat. We sat down with Tim Willits, creative director at id Software, to ask just how the legendary studio plans to deliver what could be its most ambitious game yet…

Rage is the first new IP from id since Quake in 1996. Why develop Rage before another iteration of Doom or Quake?

id Software has a number of great properties like Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein, and it has many more games left in them. But after completing Doom 3 and Quake 4 we knew we wanted to do something different to really blow past any expectations people might have for a new game from us. By creating a new franchise we are allowing ourselves the freedom to explore every possible gameplay option. Rage at its core is a first-person shooter, but we’ve added so much more to the game – such as vehicle racing, vehicle combat, a rich story and more colourful characters. Rage really will be something special when it is released and I’m sure our die-hard fans will love it as much as people who’ve never played an id Software game before.

What can you tell us about the world of Rage and your story?

The story of Rage is set in a post-apocalyptic world many years after an asteroid destroys most of the Earth. You play a survivor buried in a life-supporting pod called an ‘Ark’. These Arks are part of a government-sponsored program called the ‘Eden Project’, established before the impact as a way of continuing mankind’s existence. The Ark that you are buried in is damaged and you are the only survivor to emerge. After leaving the Ark you discover a world very different from the one that existed before the impact; a dangerous world covered in what is now called the wasteland. You soon discover that the wasteland is filled with bandits, mutants and other dangerous creatures, but there are also people that can help you, settlers that are living and working in the wasteland.

How will Rage’s tight FPS focus marry with its vast open-world concept?

We describe our world as open but directed, and that really does a good job summing up our design goals. From the outset we wanted the Rage world to be extremely diverse and unique, and we’ve pushed the Rage fiction to the limits to allow for those goals. The gameplay will offer many options and meaningful choices, but we don’t want the player to ever feel lost or confused. You may be heading to town and notice something interesting off in the distance. Your main goal is to get to the town, but we allow you to explore. Being an action-focused game, we want you to know where you need to go and where you are in the story, but you’re always free to explore.

How did you approach the combat racing side of Rage?

Because combat manoeuvres are so important in Rage we really had to take a different approach to the driving physics. What we’ve created is a vehicle feel that works well for fans of racing games and is approachable to fans of first-person shooters. I believe we’ve created vehicle challenges that will work well for everyone.

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