#1 2020-10-12 23:41:53

BlackIb
Member

‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

https://bloody-disgusting.com/video-gam … es-bosses/

For those who noticed that episodes 2 & 3 lacked bosses, well turns out they were cut content as I actually suspected.

#2 2020-10-13 04:06:39

Lane Powell
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

I like the sound of the giant zombie boss especially. Cool ideas.

#3 2020-10-13 07:14:58

fairweather
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

They sound absolutely terrible in the best way possible. It's like a child's interpretation of what a cool boss would be. Not that Quake had a track record at all with that I guess.

#4 2020-10-13 07:16:53

Lane Powell
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

LOL you're probably right. Chthon sounds cool on paper even, Shub sounds like a cool cutscene... obviously, what makes Quake great is something else.

#5 2020-10-13 07:36:45

BlackIb
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

Lane Powell wrote:

I like the sound of the giant zombie boss especially. Cool ideas.

I'm pretty sure that Giant Zombie was just a upscaled version of the normal Zombie since apparently they didn't have enough time to create new models so they first went with existing models to fill in the tight schedule but found that they didn't work so they scrapped them completely thus ending up with we got today.

Last edited by BlackIb (2020-10-13 07:38:23)

#6 2020-10-13 14:07:33

dwere
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

I'm almost glad that it didn't work out. Fleshed-out bosses or bust. Although the zombie idea sounds interesting at the very least.

The lack of bosses is one of the main contributors to the fact that the game largely feels like a collection of random levels.

#7 2020-10-13 21:12:12

Gila
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

Yeah not sure if bigger-sized versions of regular enemies as bosses is that great.

It would be nice to have other 3 episodes to have boss encounters as well, with each boss having its own model, mechanics and gimmicks (for example like the Swamp Thing boss in original Painkiller).

The game was constantly changing, for example check the different level order: http://scar3crow.com/2016/01/quakes-original-map-order/

Just the other day I found this article, which has several quotes on how the game had no direction because engine was in development, and then when it was ready, not only a lot of things changed, but also a decision was made to just make another shooter and release the game, so it ended up being a really bizzare mix of things that remained: https://www.shacknews.com/article/10115 … etail-view

Maybe on Quake's 25th Anniversary Romero will dig up and release some more of the scrapped assets and concepts, maybe even some files with actual content, like he already released original ID1 maps sources (including chopped off intro of Dismal Oubliette), as well as some unused DOOM graphics, including 'missing' proper rotational sprites for enemies. I'm hoping, anyway. It's always interesting to see how things were changing.

#8 2020-10-13 23:50:20

Lane Powell
Member

Re: ‘Quake’ Level Designer Sandy Petersen Reveals Scrapped bosses

BlackIb wrote:

I'm pretty sure that Giant Zombie was just a upscaled version of the normal Zombie since apparently they didn't have enough time to create new models so they first went with existing models to fill in the tight schedule but found that they didn't work so they scrapped them completely thus ending up with we got today.

I gathered that from the article. I know Quake had a troubled development history that produced a great (imperfect, but great) game as well as a lot of "could have beens"--not least Romero's ambitious original concept for the game. All I'm saying is it's a neat idea that *could* be cool if the right time and resources were available.

Board footer