Carmack Proposes Quake Arena on DS
Though Quake Arena-themed, the title, which would run at 60fps, would have gameplay similar to Doom II's deathmatch mode. Carmack said the limited range of movement found in Doom II's multiplayer would be more "digestable" on a portable. His inspiration for this decision was Nintendo's Metroid Prime Hunters, which he said seemed "really cool" at first, but found difficult to play for extended periods of time.
Several publishers have been approached with the concept, but id has yet to sign a definitive contract. Despite the non-concrete nature of the plan, Carmack spoke as if the project is fairly likely to happen, and would be his next project on DS. As he did with Orcs & Elves on DS, Carmack hopes to lay the initial groundwork for the game and then have another team handle the heavy development lifting.
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PLEASE!!!! This would rock so hard. Thumb stylus ftw.
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If this were a straight Doom port I would not be excited either. But the idea of a new game with online competition as a focus is very interesting indeed, regardless of the control method. They may use stylus control but restrict it to a 2D swiveling view, or perhaps the control will be completely like Hunters but the maps will be less vertical in design (this seems more likely, since this is exactly what iD did with the early maps in Quake III Arena). Even without stylus support they could make a compelling game.
The biggest disappointment with Hunters was the quality of the multiplayer. The matchmaking was too restrictive, the maps were too vertical considering the quality of the input device (better than joypad but not as good as kb+m), and, for me, it was difficult to keep tabs on opponents. Maybe I just needed to get better at the game.
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