Carmack "magic" powers new id franchise

Id Software's Todd Hollenshead has revealed that the Quake and Doom creator is working on a new gaming franchise powered by a brand new engine from developer John Carmack.

With the finishing touches being applied to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the US firm's collaborative project with UK studio Splash Damage, Hollenshead insists that internal projects are still id's top priority.

Speaking exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz at a London event earlier this week, the id CEO said: "We are working on an all-new franchise: it's not Doom, it's not Quake, it's not Wolfenstein, it's not Enemy Territory, it's not even Commander Keen.

"It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

Id's last major internally developed title was 2004's Doom 3, which utilised new technology created by Carmack. In the interim, id's technical director has been heavily involved in bringing games onto mobile, including Doom RPG and Orcs & Elves.

"Our first task at id is as a single studio developer," Hollenshead continued. "That's really where everything spawns from. Because John Carmack is a programming genius, who in my opinion is unequalled in video games today, he makes a great technology that we can use across a wide range of applications and different games within our suite of franchises.

"The new stuff that we're working on does have a brand new engine that John has been working on, actually is still working on today. We canât really talk any details about it; we'll see about when the timing is right for an announcement. We like to be able to talk about stuff that we can show at the same time and it's not really ready to show yet."

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is due for release on PC later this year, with PS3 and 360 versions to follow.