I love Splash Damage. Having browsed a good share of mod team websites, I can tell you that Splash Damage is, by far, the best named mod team ever to come out of the Quake community.
Their emergence, talent, and drive would ultimately propel the entire team to full-fledged, professional, game-studio status. I played, and loved, their first mod. Quake 3 Fortress was a faithful recreation of the original Team Fortress for Quake. However, they didn't stop there. They made many innovations, taking advantage of better graphics, better physics, and even accommodated the deaf with a symbolic sound system. It was a great game, with a great community. I played all the time after working on Tremulous.
So one day, probably while working on a website, Carcinogen messages me. It was a pleasant surprise. Carcinogen had worked on Tremulous with me. He proceeded to tell me how he was now a member of Team Reaction, and how work was going well on Quake 3 Gloom, but they could always use an additional developer.
By this time I had gotten over my disdain for the mod team. It felt like it had been so long since that foolish bickering that lead to my over-dramatic exit from the community and alliance with Black Knight Productions. In fact, I was interested in finding out how the team was doing, not just on a development level, but personally as well.
He told me that things had been going well, and he was excited. He was gushing enthusiasm, and in the midst of it, leaked various screenshots and videos of maps, and models, and told me how the game logic was coming along. If you ever meet Carcinogen in an enthusiastic mood you'll find it's the most infectious enthusiasm one could ever experience. By the time we finished talking I knew I had to get in on this
And so he encouraged me to do what I did best, map. And so I did. And along the way I learned of Q3map2. This was a compiler for Quake III: Arena maps rewritten by RR2DO2, a programmer with Splash Damage. It had become the de facto compiler for Q3A maps, and for good reason. Its feature set was amazing. It allowed precise control over every pixel in the map. From its position, and texture coordinates, to its light level. I dove into Q3map2 and devoted myself to learning every aspect of Q3A's shader language while I was at it. I began producing objects and rooms that I didn't think were possible in Q3A. The power of these two versatile tools was exhilarating. I was being invited into Team Reaction's development channel. I really thought I had a chance to make it.
Things start to get a little fuzzy after that. I guess work and issues with my girlfriend at the time started to consume me. I later learned that Splash Damage had gone professional!
It was amazing, I didn't see it coming, but I was too busy with other matters at the time to get back to modding.
Eventually things settled down. My girlfriend and I broke up, and I started doing better at work. I soon met a new girl, a wonderful girl. So wonderful in fact that she invited me over to her house the night we met, and I simply never left!
She was (and still is) a fun-loving but responsible girl, and I wanted to avoid being any sort of burden on her. Over the previous few years, my credit had been shot, and I was suffering from other personal problems that she helped me address.
By this time Quakecon 2004 was coming. I described it to my girlfriend and she was adament that we go there. And so I did, where I met Carcinogen in person for the first time, as well as other members (current and former) and several gloomers. This was right after Doom 3's release. Thus, a big question all of Team Reaction had was if we should move Gloom to this new engine.
We learned how mod-friendly it was (the most modifiable release to date), but also learned that asset creation was difficult. Taking tips from Robert Duffy, and Brian Harris, I created some proof-of-concept assets to demonstrate to myself and others what we'd be working with. It didn't take us long to decide we were going to the Doom 3 platform. To help in the monumental task of creating a total-conversion for Doom 3, we formed an alliance with Wirehead Studios.
By the end of 2004, I committed to working for my company in Iraq. The deal was pretty sweet, as it was pitched to me. 10 hour work days, seven days a week, but no living expenses and an insane amount of money made it irresistable. I got back in contact with Team Reaction and informed them of my good fortune. A 70-hour work week with no commute, and no chores, meant 36 good working hours that I could dedicate to Gloom each and every week for a whole year! Surely I'd wind up making half the levels for the mod with that much time!
Yeah right. The money was good but you worked from the the time you awoke, til the time you went to sleep. When it comes to infrastructure, especially computer infrastructure, in Iraq, nothing goes right. I worked on Gloom whenever I had a few free hours and wasn't completely exhausted, or completely indespensed while deployed at a remote site. My contributions were dismal. So I started learning how to create a greater variety of assets, such as textures.
Over that year, I watched my fellow team-members' enthusiasm wane. One-by-one, a developer would disappear. At first for a little while, and then a bit longer, then longer still.
I got home and underwent some surgery (the ability to afford which was a big drive for going to Iraq) in early 2006. The general anaesthetic made me completely useless in any creative capacity though. I'd open D3Radiant, or Photoshop, and simply stare at it. I'd make some shapes or simple geometry, just to prove to myself that I still knew how to operate the tools. I certainly did, I was as fluent as ever, but I couldn't make anything interesting.
Then for the next few months, I started learning how to model. I decided I wanted to know how to make almost every asset one can include in Doom 3, and I learned well. During this time, Carcinogen would call everyone he could and try to get them back together. They'd get excited and be back for a while, but then their interest would wander and we'd suddenly stop hearing from them again.
The next Quakecon was drawing closer, and I was certain it would be the best way to rally the troops...
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