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Gamecloud recently posted an interview with Lee Vermeulen, project leader of Nexiuz. Nexiuz is a popular multiplayer mod of id's classic first person shooter, Quake (1). Nexiuz features a futuristic setting, balanced weapons, and 17 levels. From the Gamecloud interview:

Gamecloud - How did the idea for Nexuiz come about?

Lee Vermeulen - Well first I really hated the current trend in games, with realism over gameplay. I liked being tossed around blood covered levels, I wanted more games that actually made me get into them and pay attention. I understand there is a place for current realistic games, and I do enjoy them, but I felt this type of game was being completely neglected by the industry. Plus I wanted something that would just be simple and fun to make, no worrying about scripted scenes or having to compete with Valve and ID in story telling. With Nexuiz, I can basically have the textures ready for the level designer, tell him the entities, and they can make the level without me having to be behind their back telling them what to do the entire time. Nexuiz was a great game for an internet team to develop because it was so simple.

Gamecloud - Why did you decide to use the Quake I open source engine for the game?

Lee Vermeulen - I had experience with Quake1, and I talked to LordHavoc about his modification to Quake1 called Darkplaces. Darkplaces is a very advanced version of the Quake1 engine, it wasn't developed entirely for Nexuiz but many of its features were made for Nexuiz. I also enjoyed working with the Quake1 community.

Gamecloud - How hard was it to get the Quake I engine to handle the changes you wanted to make for the game?

Lee Vermeulen - Well the main problem was keeping support for the original Quake1 gamecode. Our engine can still be used to run Quake1 and all of its levels. You can even add realtime lights, or place Quake1 monsters in the Nexuiz levels.

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Gamecloud Website - Nexiuz Interview

Nexiuz Website

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