Interview with Tim Willits, Creative Director and co-owner of id software

id software need no introduction. Being at the Gamescom I had the opportunity to get an early look and play their all new game "Rage"  in assosciation with Bethesda which also exhibited some major new titles such as the Eldar Scrolls V and Prey 2. So this was clearly a good opportunity to get some insight into their view of my topic. I have to admit, level design has always been a strange thing in Bethesda’s games, because they literally create worlds with many cities that you can revisit, and that are very non-linear: meaning the player can wonder around relatively freely in comparison to other first person games. In Bethesda's worlds there are many specific micro environments that revolve around specific missions… (Like in caves and castles). I have always been a fan of the aesthetic quality of their level designs but never truly of the actual geometric makeup, because I often found that it didn’t carry so much suspense and was generally generic in terms of gameplay quality. Just like in architecture, a game needs to follow a sense of function, in games this is aimed to achieve fun. Now, id have basically invented the genre of first person shooters starting with Wolfenstein and releasing very popular titles such as the Quake Series and the Doom series. I found that their level design is not only historically significant and highly influential but usually very playful and straightforward. So getting an early look, playing this not-yet-released hybrid company game and speaking to somebody who specializes in level design from the dawn of first person shooters was a real treat. If you google Tim Willits, you will find him all over the internet, and find that he worked on basically every Quake game, Ultimate Doom, and Doom 3.

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So what to you is the difference between architecture in reality and architecture in games?

So to me students of architecture, what I found, focus on the functionality and how practical a space is which doesn’t necessarily work well in game design. But, students of architecture can focus on making composition pieces, facades; they can construct the framework of a level. Then once that framework is established than you can put on your level design hat and focus on the gameplay space, because things in games aren’t necessarily realistic but their much more fun…

They are made for gameplay rather than function…

Yes, you know like architecture books that I have and that the designers have at work, we use those to copy styles, to get ideas, that sets the framework but you don’t want to get too hung up on realistic architectural design because then your game space will not be as fun as it can be…

I would just like to add, I was looking at a blog online and part of the reason people really loved fallout 3, was because some of the spaces people encountered re-interpreted the way they perceived those spaces, like a pile of junk could be a home to vicious raiders. That was quiet interesting, I mean; I don’t know if you wanna…


Em, yes, um…


It’s the whole idea of reinterpretation, also some of the buildings, you know.. in Washington, some of the reason players, especially in the US, I would say more so, than Europe liked it, was because they could recognize many of those buildings


Yes, and they liked to explore them and see what happens


It was like completely re-interpreted! It was like a new way of re-exploring those environments…


So again, I would as an architectural student, again, would always keep that level designer hat on, when developing your space


Right


Yes


So what do you think is the main kind of attribute of a level designer, what is the main thing level designers focus on…


Fun.


Fun?


Fun, that is the key, trust me, you know I’ve made, a lot of levels, all the way from Quake 1, and you know: good flow, good design. Maps either have like a theme, maps either have like a visual setting or maps have some kind of a gameplay mechanism.


Okay…


You know, figure out what you want to do, figure out what you want to accomplish in the map, build to that and then use your architectural studies too make it look pretty, because if you can make it look pretty and you get people’s attention they will “accept” where they are and the experience will be more rewarding for them.


And last question, what do you think the role of the NPC’s are in the environment?


Oh they help create setting, story, they drive the action they make you feel like there are other things in the world, make you feel like a part of a larger story, that you are a key character in this larger story, you know that you are not just the “lone gunman…”