Kawaiik - Quake 1 redesign project

Foreword

I always thought it would be fun to have the Quake 1 monsters fight each other with more cohesion. I made a mod once where the monsters scanned for members of another faction and attacked them. It was great fun to watch even if it didn't work very well. This project aims to elaborate on how Quake 1 would look if the monsters were divided into factions and those factions were expanded with more designs.

Updates

I've been drawing stuff from Quake since it came out. This page was created in 2007 when I got the idea to use a cute 'chibi' style (hence the project name 'Kawaiik').

• 2010: Feb, 28 - Mar, 01: Finally learned a 3D program, Blender 2.5. Made a rough model. Clarified armor section a bit.
• 2010: Feb, 26: Doom guy! Also Mi-Go and new Stroggos.
• 2010: Feb, 25: Updated the 'techies' image, wrote about the 'Old Guys' and wildlife.
• 2010: Feb, 24: Updated the page with new, even more 'chibi' designs. Also wrote a bunch of text and removed some.
• 2007: I drew the first images for this project. Some might still be seen here. I made the page too.
• 2001: I learned some Quake C, and made a mod where the monsters intermittently scanned for each monsters of another faction, and engaged each other in combat under certain conditions.

Index

• Top
• Updates
• This index
• Fluff base
• Demons
• Humans
• Techies
• Knights
• Old Guys
• Wildlife
• Weapons
• Armor
• Gameplay
• Graphics
• Modeling
• Qtest

Fluff base

While I'm basing my story on the qualities of the Quake 1 universe, I'll still include ingredients from Doom and Quake 2. I'll also be using ingredients from the Lovecraft mythology. Perhaps there's some kind of convergence on certain designs in the id software universes.

It might be possible to design a setting where there's a somewhat consistent timeline which incorporates all of the games and the Lovecraft mythology, but it would feel like a forced mess, and take tons of research.

To what degree I should explain stuff, I don't know. I feel that in order for something to keep its enigma, it must be a little fuzzy. It's better to suggest things with hints than to plainly explain all relationships. Still, for the sake of having some sort of underlying structure, I have to explain things plainly in this design doc so I know what to base my hints on.

I think I should replace sci-fi language with... fuzzy words, e.g.

vs.

Factions

Demons

In ancient times a terrible being gathered some of the most the most dangerous creatures of the many realms. Enhanced with a Demonic Aura and other powers, these creatures now form the bulk of the terrible being's ever growing forces.

I think that the strength of the Shalrath and Shambler design in Quake 1 in particular is that they are cool + odd. Just cool doesn't do much for me. A designer can be awesome at drawing cool stuff, but if the odd bit isn't in there, the design isn't memorable. It doesn't mean that everything needs to be odd, but I think for Cthulhu style monsters (Quake borrowed ideas from there), odd is good.

Inspired by the Slime Knight from DQ, I thought it would be fun with a Shoggoth rider.

I came up with some Cthulhu-style name ideas just to put me in the mood. and then proceeded to draw a few boss designs, although I have some designs even further below that might be better applicants.

• Shub-ii (A ssssissterrr?)
• Sho'gothoa- (Shoggoth meets Ghatanothoa)
• Spawn of Sho'gothoa
• Haal-Shtzeth
• Chozqhiquah's seven citadels of ivory
• The quondam plains
• Mount Xet
• Mount Yeeb
• The thousand lakes of Xe'thzin
• The lost ruins of Ammonoth
• The Everwood and the tree of Yg'Sothothaan
• Caverns of Ll'Yith
• Mistlands of the Minothrel
• Rhaleth
• Guardian of Chthon
• Shrine of Chthon
• The unseen (Quake)

Here I wanted to try and do some more exotic monsters, in terms of game mechanics.

• Mörkerklump: A lump of darkness. It regenerates and grows more powerful in the shadows, and takes damage in the light. In its powerful form, it can shoot harmful spheres of darkness which can easily engulf a person (it might also affect the lightmap). The creature moves with an eerie glide. Inspired by Morran from Mumin, and silhouettes of people walking at night.
• Noclip creature (Polyp?): An entity which can move through walls. When inside of a wall, all it sees is groups of fuzzy light spheres, which the noclip creature is attracted to and must consume. These spheres of lights are actually living things, such as you.

A Gug, Moonbeast and Shoggoth from Lovecraft's Cthulhu universe. These are more homages than careful interpretations.

The Mi-Go might have some kind of non-corporeal wings which pops out from the things on the back.

The Cultists are normally harmless in combat, but they 'feed' the demons with worship and rituals.

I'm trying to explore various ideas here. I still haven't settled on a Succubus / Deamonette. I might approach it from the... cultist gets demonic mutation angle. I'm trying to avoid doing regular demons (humanoid bodies with horns and hooves) for the more otherworldly types of demons though.

Some interpretations of unused enemies in QTest (an early test release of Quake 1).

Humans

The goal of this story is to:

• Set a mood of exploration of ancient stuff.
• Show that the slipgates have been used for a long time.
• Show that the otherworldly walls are hard enough to withstand explosives.
• Provide regular low tech humans as a scale for the awesomeness of the Quake creatures. The idea is that even something like a regular knight is really powerful (magically so) compared to a modern soldier.
• Show off the faction concept.
• Use the Lovecraft era for that feel.

Engineered

Why do these look like humans? Perhaps the realm of Quake is a gathering point for many parallel universes. Perhaps humans visited the Quake realm at some point in ancient history, and found an ancient defensive computer which used the humans as a source of inspiration for new designs. A link to ancient times can be suggested by making the base of the computer a sort of pyramid, temple or ziggurat.

The engineered rely on advanced technology and biological enhancements. Their superhuman stamina, force fields and big fine guns makes them a potent force. They were scratch built by the MULTIVAC (a large enigmatic computer) as a form of self defence against the Demons, Knights and other hazards.

Boring side views here. I need to redo the proportions of the humans too.

I often called my engineered human designs RELF or ELF, as in (Reverse) Engineered Life Form, but I'm not sure if I should re-use that term again. Regardless, these guys are a mix of the Quake and Doom characters. I might try to explain why they have all gathered, when I can think of something which works. The Doomguy's helmet looks a little off. Oh, the Ogres go here too. If the Imperial Guard (40K) can have them, so can these guys.

Stroggos

The Human invaders, while initially great in numbers, pose no real threat to the current inhabitants of the Quake realm. However, they stumble upon MULTIVAC's odd sister (a quirky computer). The computer quickly turns a sizable amount of humans into a new race of powerful Stroggos-like cyborgs. I might tone down the horror a bit, and focus more on cybernetic augmentation and skeletal shapes.

Since they have the Revenant from Doom, maybe they also should have a stroggified cacodemon.

Knights

The knights come for the realm of magic. Protective charms and Fire Ball spells aid them on their quests.

Antecedents, primogenitors, elders, ancients, precursors, progenitors.

I might combine the Great Race of Yith and the Elder Things into one race, which I'm gonna call Old Guys until I've settled on a name. The Old Guys lived many thousands of years ago, and were very powerful - almost godlike.

For reasons initially unknown to the player, the Old Guys abandoned vast cities long ago. The current factions have based their technology/magic/demonology on artifacts left behind by the Old Guys. This is why there's some degree of compatibility between the factions.

I like the idea of the enemies being more competent and playable. If the game is too difficult with competent enemies, the player could have a handicap, such as 'character shields'. While this breaks fourth wall, I'd rather see that than making the enemies into incompetent fools in-character so to speak.

Actually character shields might not break fourth wall. Quake has an occult Lovecraftian undertone, and the Great Race of Yith were capable of transferring their soul in time and space to new bodies. Early in the game, the Old Guys could grab a soul (the player), look all fuzzy and make a cryptic speech in a fatherly voice. They then 'power up' the player's soul, giving it the ability to enter new bodies (extra lives). The power could also give the player a handicap (sufficiently advanced technology in indistinguishable from magic). The Old Guys do this to settle some issue, regarding the skirmishes on the planet and their own fate. It clearly involves getting the player to go places, grab stuff and shoot things.

Wildlife and horrors

Not belonging to any faction, these untamable horrors now inhabit the vast abandoned cities of the Old Guys. (Shoggoths and Polyps?). Those who dare to venture too deep into the cities hunting for artifacts, are likely to fall prey to something nasty.

Game design

Weapons (of the Engineered)

Being able to carry many weapons and quickly switch between them provides some variation. Other games took it further, giving the weapons alternative fire modes. In PainKiller the alt fire modes are pretty diverse. A favorite of mine the the Pulse Rifle in Unreal Tournament, which allows you to combine the two fire modes (pop the bubble thing).

That said, I don't really like being able to carry around everything with one guy. I like to be able to approach a game from different angles, so ending up with a complete set of weapons every time works against that a bit. This doesn't mean that I like 'classes' though, such as heavies magically being unable to hold a sniper rifle because it belongs to light guy. I can accept that light guy can't pick up a heavy mortar.

I could see myself liking a system where you can only carry a certain number (or weight) of stuff. This means that you'd have to pick a few weapons which compliment each other. Perhaps the concept of alt fire could be represented in being able to fire any of the weapons quickly (dual wielding + two mouse buttons?). So, if you carry a Grenade Launcher and a Nail Gun, you have an M16 with an auxiliary grenade launcher, of sorts.

It's hard to tell from these small images, but I tried to include some light baroque decor here and there, and runes. I'm not sure about throwing Jugend in there... some elements of it might fit. The Quake weapons should feel a bit like they were crafted by some Cthulhoid in ancient times. I quite liked what Pain Killer did in terms of weapon design.

I redesigned the Nailgun and Super Nailgun, but tried to keep the general color feel. I made the muzzle triangular to work with a triangular nail, and it allowed me to bring the design of the 'snail' closer to that of the 'nail'. Also, in my mod I made the snail into a gatlin shotgun, so I wanted to take that route here as well. The snail doesn't use the a standard gatlin principle. It fires through one barrel until it's heated red, then rotates to next.

Serious Sam has a big cannon, and I thought that the primitive feel of a cannon would fit into Quake, if toned down a bit, and rune'd up.

Also, I don't like 'hitscan' (infinite speed) weapons. I feel that they degrade the game to whack-a-mole. In traditional RPGs you often get to roll a saving throw when attacked, so you feel like you're participating. Similarly, in an FPS, I like being able to get a chance to dodge. If I fail, I'm less frustrated than I would be if I just die the second I pop up my head. I also like the gameplay of predicting lead a lot more than just aiming where the stuff is.

Armor

Armor pickups could show on the player model, but that creates problems where every type of creature needs an armour which fit. Normally in Quake, armor symbols are abstractions. I could explain this abstraction.

My Engineered troops have force fields, and the Knights and Demons could have their magical equivalents. So, instead of solid physical armors, all factions could use some kind of artifacts which they use to power their shields. The engineered could use a HUD which draws a holographic armor symbol over the artifact where it lies. The Knights have some kind of magical equivalent, etc. A Demon might see some kind of pentagram or rune symbol where the knights see a shield symbol.

Gameplay

In a campaign mode, each faction could have a set of maps (territories) which they populate. You'd pick one of the factions, and play the maps of the other factions to win the game. There could also be defensive maps (set in the territory of your own faction), and lone-soldier infiltration/adventure maps.

I'm a bit torn between predictable enemies with pain frames and inability to hit strafers, and more competitive bot-like enemies. When modded the Enforcer to fire rockets at me, I didn't get very far into the game. This was because the map reloaded of course. Had it been a DM or CTF map, what matters is how many you take with you before you die.

So, I can see a few different map variants:

• Adventure - Few enemies, complete an objective, like reaching a destination and killing a boss. Die and go back in time.
• War zone - Lots of enemies. Attack or defend. Exhaust the resources of the other faction. Die and respawn as someone else.

Graphical engine and map design

Textures needs to be in context with the shape they're on, and the adjacent textures. For example, a floor and wall can user borders which 'bridge' the two surfaces, creating a feeling of... belonging. Quake 1 didn't do this very well, so if you play it in high resolution and 3D acceleration, the textures can look sloppily applied. It's less of a problem in lowrez software render, perhaps because our imagination makes things work.

Also, edge highlights can help to soften corners. Quake did that a little with the biege borders on the thinner walking platforms for example. Nowadays we might do real bevels to soften 90 degree corners, but it's surprising how much a good texture can do.

Modeling

Having failed too many times at learning a 3D modeling program, I finally grabbed the bull by the horns. I downloaded Blender 2.5 alpha 1 and... at first I didn't understand anything as usual. 2 hours in, still a cube. Where is the stuff that do stuff? Lost in menus and strange names.

Then, suddenly, I learned a few keyboard shortcuts, and that's really the key since you don't want to break work flow by getting lost in a maze of menus and mystery icons.

Afaik, Q1 used around 300 tris for humanoid models. Q2 was... a few hundred more. Mine is over 700, although 400 as quads which make modeling with 'edge loops' convenient. Another thing of convenience is the texture (very sloppy atm.) which is just a front and back projection. There's some stretch here and there on the sides, but optimizing the geometry could do away with some of it, and I could perhaps cut out the part under the chin and so.

Many of the Quake models have a plain front + back texture. Aside from the obvious drawbacks, but there are some wins too: It's very easy for the texture artist to understand what he's doing (although nowadays you can paint directly in the 3D program of course). The textures look nice on their own (many of the q1 textures are little pixel art masterpieces). You can remodel the whole thing and the texture can easily be made to fit as long as the general silhouette and shapes match.

Anyways, I could perhaps save time and use the same model for many characters, and just slap on some armour bits as separate objects to make new characters (dressup doll style), the texture map has plenty of space over for little shoulder pads and stuff. I've rigged it using a generic human armature that came with the program, and took care to add triangles (rather than quads) at the fold of the joints to help with deformation... but I probably didn't do a very good job since it's my first model and rig. Vertex groups are tricky to get to work with the mirror modifier.

DrPetter (sfxr/sculptris) wrote an UV map translation thing for me. It might come in handy when I have a rough texture and need to redo the UV map without having to repaint the thing from scratch... also, I can use my front orthos as initial textures. The texture and UV map here is a sloppy test.

QTest

What's QTest?

I found something called QTest1 which was an early test release of Quake. It only had multiplayer DM, but there were some unused, untextured and partly animated monsters hidden in the PAK files. Here's the prototype Shalrath which I textured. Since we already have a Shalrath now, I took it in a different direction in terms of color and detailing. This is a painting which I just downscaled. No pixel optimization yet. It looks alright in QME though.