An Interview with ijed

• Search for ijed's Singleplayer maps at Quaddicted.

Could you briefly introduce yourself (age, location…) and tell us since when you are active in the Q1 community?

Louis Manning, 26, Chile, South America - active in the Q1 community maybe three years.

How did you get involved in the community?

All those classic map packs. On the Pc I remember the first time I played Q1 at a friends house - the first FPS I owned was HL1, but Q1 left an indelible impression. Later I bought Q2 and found it too slow, but still tried mapping for it for a long time. Eventually I got a copy of Q1 and started playing through all the great custom maps and packs before I finally started putting stuff together. Most of the early stuff was either cack or lost, but there's a few scraps that I've rebuilt from the ideas I had back then.

What Q1 contributions are you best-known for? Which of your works is your personal favorite?

A few smaller maps, and the Quoth pack Warp Spasm. My favourite project is always the one I'm currently working on, my least favourite is the one most recently finished.

What was your initial motivation to work for Quake?

It's a very honest SP game - most modern games have piles of stuff to learn or mess around with. They have their place, but the immediacy of Quake is the hook. Playing a great map sucks you in, you only know how long it's taken you when the intermission screen arrives. Unless you need to eat or something - Warp Spasm syndrome.

Do you have a website/links where we could check out your stuff?

Nope, sorry. I'll get around to it one day. The maps I've made can be all found at Quaddicted.

What are your best memories about this community?

Finding some of the great sites like func_messageboard or Inside3d or some of the old archives which have enough resources to keep any enthusiast busy for years.

Are you regularly playing Quake? Are you trying out mods, maps and engines?

Pretty much. I tend to try and keep a hand in even when I'm not working on a project, playtesting or whatever - its always interesting to bounce ideas back and forth. Plus the maps that have been coming out for the past couple of years are very high quality - you look at retail FPS level design and have to scratch your head sometimes.

Have there been other games you have been playing a lot?

Dawn of War had me hooked for a while, and the Orange Box. Luckily my interest has waned so I can concentrate properly on Quake again.

How would you describe the Q1 community right now? Is there any contribution that really impressed you in the last couple of years?

Pretty solid. Best contributions are basically made by the webmasters who create the meeting posts - Spirit, Baker, Metslime and the others. Without these there wouldn't be a community.

How do you picture the future of the community? Do you (objectively) think that people will still be modding/mapping for it in, say, 10 years from now?

I don't see why not. If people were going to get sick of old-fashioned graphics and prefer slower gameplay then they would have done already. There's been quite a few new faces showing up, and most of them contributing in some way or other. So as long as there's interest there'll be a community.

Your #1 secret special ingredient to a good map (imagine a newbie asking for your advice)?

Surprise the player every way you can, but without killing them.

What is the question you would have like to be asked (but weren't), how would you have answered it and how pissed are you for me not thinking about it?

Not sure, have to go see a man about a dog.