An Interview with DaMaul

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

My name is DaMaul, I'm 28 and come from Oxford in the UK. I was playing Q1 in the UK clan leagues in 1997-98 and then moved over to just making maps from 1998-2000.

How did you get involved in the community?

I'd always been interested in making & modifying games since I got shoot em up construction kit on the C64. Over the years I made some levels for doom & duke nukem, then got ridiculously addicted to playing Quakeworld online. After a year and a bit of ruining my social life by playing online too much, I decided to try and turn that addiction into something more constructive so decided to concentrate on improving my skills at level design. I got involved in a couple of community mapping projects like UKPAK and it went from there!

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

I am easily best known for a map called DaMaul6 aka "Bestial Devastation" which caused grown men to excrete their glands with joy. I guess that's my favourite! I can still remember what I was watching on the television when I made the various rooms. For instance, when I made the big central room, the first ever S-Club 7 TV show was being premiered. I may even have had a break from mapping to crack one off over Rachel Stevens. Just joking kids! I also made a map called DaMaul7 which is infamous for being the only map for a FPS game ever made from the inside of a garden shed.

What was your initial motivation to work for Quake?

I played some great custom maps like Zerstörer which made me want to get in on the action. I also had waaaay too much free time while at university and not enough money to fill that all of that time with alcohol abuse. So I made quake maps instead!

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

No I havent bothered having a website for ages, my old site died when planetquake rejigged all their servers. I did make an awesome video on youtube which you can see here. I look a bit like this guy in real life by the way. The ginger one I mean. Just ask Pingu.

What are your best memories about this community?

The doctors say I have been supressing various memories due to profound mental trauma. I'm guessing my memories of the quake community are some of those! And I always hated the "community" when applied to a bunch of people who just happen to like playing a video game by the way!

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

I last installed Quake about a year and a half ago and I played a great map by Than. I think it was a dm3 single player remix. Than is the best quake1 mapper by the way. I actually worked with him in real life for about two weeks. He was forced to move to Japan because having the two most awesome quake mappers under the same roof was causing rips in the fabric of space and time. Than drinks baileys though so that pretty much cancels out his awesomeness.

Have there been other games you have been playing a lot since you left the community (if you did)?

Well I work professionally as a game designer now, so I've pretty much had to keep up to date with all the latest games. Call of Duty 4 is the game to beat at the moment. My xbox threw the red rings of death at me a few weeks ago and I can't be arsed to get it fixed at the moment. I've also been playing backgammon at an international level.

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

I haven't really got any idea what's going on in the Q1 community. Every year or so I google my nickname to see if people are still talking about me. I think my name comes up once every 2 years. I don't find the gameplay in Quake that much fun anymore. The weapons just arent satisfying to use and the enemies aren't fun to fight. I think it's time to move on!!

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'm sure some people will be modding and mapping for it. But I base that prediction on the fact that there's still people out there making maps for Jet Set Willy on the spectrum!

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

Firstly, think about what the player will be DOING in your map. Think about everything else once you've figured that out.

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?

I wanted to be asked a question about the impending recession in the UK and my thoughts on its main causes. I would probably have answered it while adopting the stance of a bear and the voice of Jeremy Clarkson. I'd rate the level of how pissed I am at you as 4.5 piss units out of ten. Incidentally that's the same rating that HAZE was given on IGN.