This is United Fortress. Click here for CompTF2C.

FotM #2: Q4F developers Jeremy Raymond and Jared Cone

Some of the Q4F maps. Bases (first two images) recreated by bolle, originally by Midori who was also part of Q4F development; The Rock, unreleased, recreated by 3j (Jared), originally “rock2” by Sgt.Thundercock; Engineer Battle, unreleased, a new map started by nib and continued by photeknix (Jeremy). Source: Q4F.net News

G:
I’ve always thought of that era of TF as a period defined by abundance—healthy player populations, the continued relevance of the major 90s releases, and an explosion of creativity. ETF, Q4F, AGR (AttackersGoRed) and other CustomTF forks, FF, and even TF2 were all developed or released within roughly the same two-year span between 2005 and 2007. In my view, the fact that your project ultimately “fizzled out,” as you put it, doesn’t fully contradict that broader picture.
That said, the reality that a mod showcased at QuakeCon 2006* ceased development within the same year is striking.

(*See the linked Q4F.net forum thread for a mention of ETF’s original lead developer LavaGod and a reply from its current developer Ensiform in the context of QC ’06. See the video below in this article for the showcase itself.)

Q4. Since this may be the first interview you’ve given since development ended, I felt this was a question that had to be asked: How did the project come to an end? How complete do you think it was at that point, and how did the community react? And on a more personal note, how did you feel about it?

Jeremy:
I’d say it was a series of unfortunate events. I’ve never really gone into detail why we released it unfinished, so let’s shed some light on that. And just to be clear, I blame no one and have no ill will about any of these past events I’m going to talk about. I believe it ultimately came down to poor timing and competition that created a lack of interest in the project overall. And, at least for myself, this was my first experience in game development, before I became a professional, working with and managing a group of other developers. I was learning along the way and trying my best to make something I was passionate about in the process. I consider myself lucky and I’m thankful for every experience I’ve had along the way in this awesome game development career I’ve enjoyed. Every high and low is an experience I continue to learn from and it makes me stronger as a developer and as a person.

The main issue was the poor reception of Quake 4’s multiplayer and the buggy mess it arrived in. We struggled with a lot of issues during development because of bugs with Q4 itself. Not to mention how demanding the game was for its time. Between the hardware demands, the bugs, and the mediocre response from players, Q4 failed to garner the attention previous Quake games did. But we stayed optimistic and hoped things would turn around with patches. That would also give us time to work on the mod. Sadly, it was too little, too late for Quake 4. Although I enjoyed the game myself, it lost the public’s interest, and never recovered.

And then there was the reveal of Team Fortress 2 a month before our QuakeCon presentation. While that made all of us TF fans excited, it really took the wind out of our development sails. But Jared and I remained determined, we kept our heads up and pushed on as we continued to lose other members of the dev team to the void. We wanted to release ASAP, before TF2, and hopefully to the excitement of other TF players waiting for TF2’s release.

I was also hoping the QuakeCon ’06 presentation would help bring back some interest. I thought we would present the game on the main stage with a small group of players to help get people excited for Q4F and bring back renewed interest in Quake 4. Maybe even have a small 4v4 LAN setup for players to cycle through and enjoy their time with while at QuakeCon.

But that’s not what happened.

We were given a small room far away from the main stage and from convention traffic, so no one really knew we were there. No one was passing by to check out what that cool new Q4 mod being played was. Instead, you had to know we were even there, what time we were presenting, and find this small secluded conference room on the other side of the Hilton Anatole [Dallas, TX], which is absolutely massive. When I arrived to see there was no setup for us, where it was located, and how small it was, I was devastated. But I continued on and made due with what they gave us in hopes that we’d still attract some attention.

Jeremy Raymond presenting an alpha built of Q4F in QuakeCon ’06 in Dallas, TX. Source: Jeremy’s YouTube channel

And then Enemy Territory: Quake Wars showed up, playable to the public for the first time. I was so excited to find out the Splash Damage team was there and with a playable build of ETQW. If you weren’t aware, Splash Damage was the original Q3F development team, a success story that turned a small TF mod team into a studio of professional developers. I spent the rest of my time there hanging out with them and playing ETQW. Richard Jolly, Founder and Art Director at the time, now CEO, was so nice and invited me to hang out and go to lunch with them. These guys were an inspiration and got to do exactly what I aspired to do. What started as a disappointing day quickly turned around.

Then I got a call from a friend who was attending The Guildhall at SMU about 30 minutes away from QuakeCon that wanted me to come hang out while I was in town and to check out The Guildhall. So I did just that and got even more excited about the future. I knew had to attend this school. It was another group of like minded people training to become game developers. They even had studio pits and full team setups to prepare you for what it would be like working as a team to make games professionally. So I went back home excited and with a renewed sense of purpose. I quickly applied, was accepted, and began classes the next semester, only about 4 months after QuakeCon. I tried my best to keep Q4F going with Jared, but the writing was on the wall, and I became too busy with my studies to keep working on it. I believe Jared realized the same and we decided to go ahead and release what we had instead of just letting it get lost to time.

So, in the end, there were many factors that led to it being released unfinished. Ultimately, it was my responsibility as I started the project and I left it unfinished to focus on school and my career.

But I’m still impressed with how much we were able to get done with what little we had, even in the unfinished state its in, its still a fully playable Team Fortress mod.

Most importantly, it would have never seen the light of day if it wasn’t for Jared. If it wasn’t for his programming wizardry and dedication, it would have been nothing but a few Q4 MP maps and some hopes and dreams. What success we did have was all thanks to him! Thanks Jared!

Video showcasing Q4F Sentry Gun built and upgraded by Engineer; then attacking it with Soldier, Demoman, Scout and Sniper. Source is Jared’s YouTube channel, where full class showcase videos of Pyro, Scout, Sniper, Scout can also be found.
Soldier and Demoman showcase video download links are still available at BattlefieldQ4F.com, in the article dated 05.05.06.

Jared:
Thanks for the kind words Jeremy! It’s crazy going back and trying to reconstruct this timeline from memory and public info. Maybe it was a period of abundance, but in my memory it felt like a period of fracturing and decline. As you pointed out, various TF mods were in different stages of development then, spread across multiple games/engines, all competing for player time and attention along with a slew of other multiplayer games being released. Combined with the relatively unenthusiastic reception of Quake 4, we struggled to find anyone to help with the mod and even struggled to find playtesters. A couple of months after QuakeCon I started working at Psyonix while still attending university. A lack of community and a lack of free time ultimately led us to stop working on Q4F. We chose to release its assets and source in case they were ever useful to anyone.

When we stopped working on Q4F I think it was mostly feature-complete. Most classes, their weapons, grenades, abilities, and the CTF game mode were complete. There were also a lot of other features that I probably should not have spent so much time on, such as level-scripting for custom game modes, custom team colors, custom per-map location names for text chat, and an entirely new main menu UI. I don’t think we ever had a playtest last longer than 20 minutes or so before the server would crash, definitely due to my inexperience as a programmer. In retrospect I should have allocated more effort towards stability, but that wouldn’t have changed the outcome given the lack of player interest.

The lead up to the decision to stop working on the mod was a gradual process spanning several months. I don’t recall being too upset about deciding to pull the plug. It had been a blast to work on, it made me decide I wanted to be a game programmer, and it landed me a dream job that I stayed with for over 16 years. I think it also led to Jeremy’s school and career so it ended up being hugely positive for both of us.

G:
Thank you both very much for the elaborate answers. They do provide a level of insight that is difficult to gain from the public information available online today. Please consider my earlier remarks about that era as speculative observations—or perhaps wishful thinking—rather than firmly held opinions, as I did not participate in it myself.

I heard that some of the original Fortress Forever developers also got into industry right after the release, and that that is the reason why they didn’t stay involved with FF for much longer. I don’t know the personal stories of the TF2 modders (like EMINOMA *  or PF2 Team); but you guys might be among the last Fortress modders who turned their modding experience into a professional career.
Q5. Over the nearly 20 years since then, what projects have you worked on that stand out as particularly exciting for you, and what roles did you have on those teams? Could we also hear, in your own words, what you’re currently working on and how it’s coming along?

Jared:
The project I’m most proud of is Rocket League, an online competitive physics game about rocket cars playing soccer. I was the lead programmer from initial prototype to release and then as a live service game. I left Psyonix in 2023 to co-found Off By One Games with two former Psyonix coworkers. After shelving a couple of projects we’re finally nearing the release of our first game Trash Day, an online cooperative raccoon adventure game. So far the demo has been well-received, now we just have to finish the whole rest of the game. 🙂

Jeremy:
I’ve had the opportunity to work on many awesome projects over the last 20 years, including The Elder Scrolls, Halo, and Killing Floor franchises. But the one that stands out for me as my proudest moment was working on the unique game mode for Halo 5 called Warzone. It was a large-scale PvPvE mode where two teams of 12 fought it out on the largest multiplayer maps built for Halo, fighting each other as well as AI and bosses around the map to score points. One of the maps I designed, Raid on Apex 7, was inspired by the Silent Cartographer single player mission from Halo: CE [Combat Evolved], the one where you land on the beach of an island and fight your way into the Forerunner structure. Mega Bloks also did a build out for the level, which we used to announce it and used as a showpiece at conventions. It now sits as a centerpiece at the Halo museum. 

Sadly, a few months ago, after a fantastic 7 years at Tripwire Interactive, I was affected by studio layoffs. The industry is in a rough and volatile state right now and I feel for all my fellow devs also being affected by layoffs. It really sucks. Currently, I’m working on a few different indie projects, but nothing to announce yet. But I do still have a few unreleased maps that are planned to come out with future Killing Floor 3 updates.

But even in hard times, I feel lucky I’ve gotten to live my dream job, and I’m thankful for all the awesome games I’ve had the opportunity to help create. I don’t see myself doing anything else and am looking forward to the next adventure!

G:
Do you guys have any final remarks, thoughts, shoutouts, or any wishes for the future of TF? Also, what’s your favorite class?

Jeremy:
I wish the best for TF and all mod devs out there wanting to make their own version of such a great game. I hope Valve does a TF3 some day. You can also think of most of the class based hero shooters as an evolution of TF, they wouldn’t be the same if TF hadn’t taken the first steps. Although I’ll always prefer TF myself.

Although I still love making competitive maps, I’m not much of a competitive player anymore, my loss of reaction time and skill has faded with age and I prefer not to get frustrated, so I mostly play PvE and cooperative based games nowadays. But I do occasionally find myself jumping back into the one CustomTF QWTF server with bots [ Pulseczar’s “CustomTF For The People”] from time to time.

In public games, I found myself playing Sniper and Soldier the most, but Engineer was my main class in league play, so I’d lean toward that being my fav.

Jared:
Oof, tough to pick a favorite class. For pub play I really enjoyed Sniper at a 350ms ping, there’s just something incredibly satisfying about releasing the mouse button several meters in front of a Scout and waiting to see if they run into the bullet and explode. For clan play I usually favored Demoman, patiently locking down a defensive position.

G: I thank you both for this fantastic collaboration. I am hoping to see you in TF mods and Discord servers in the future.

Pages: 1 2

Reactions

A cookie will be set in your browser upon reacting.