1. Where do you mainly get the inspiration for your levels?

Most of my inspiration for levels come at random times. I will be watching tv, or driving, and see something that will fire off a nerve somewhere that gives me a excellent idea for a level. Over time I have built up quite a sketchbook of unique and intersting ideas, which I try to incorperate into each level that I do.

2. Do all of your levels have a common theme or feel, and if so, what is it?

Most of my levels (I notice..heh) have a clean and shiny look. I try to make sure that each hallway, room, corridor, monster, and item is placed in logical, fun, and interesting location. Its very important to me that people have fun playing my levels, that items, ammo, and monsters are placed in ways that make it difficult, yet fun to play.

3. Have you developed any special techniques to make editing faster or easier?

Well, I do have methods that help me develop a lot faster. It takes a lot of time to do good levels, you can get very caught up in every concievable detail. So, my most recent, and so far quickest method behind making levels revolves around completing the level geometry 100%, then placing mosters and items, and finally doing deathmatch/coop placement. This seems to help me develop the levels much quicker, versus older methods I have used.

4. When you start a new level, what are the stages you go through during the process?

See #3 :)

5. Are there any mistakes you commonly see in user designed levels?

Most mistakes I have seen are caused mainly due to lack of direct information related to limitations and drawbacks in the Quake engine. Once people have documented problems and things to avoid, I think user levels will become better than ever.

6. What should every designer avoid when building a level?

There are a lot of pitfalls that a designer can fall into if they are not careful. Its very important to keep the level fun, this takes a lot of balancing with architecture, monsters, and general playability. Sure a level can look good, but does it play well? Sure a level can play well, but does it look good? Try to aviod overdoing things.

7. What do you think is the best resource for people new to level design?

Specifically for Quake, I learned a lot reading the unoffical quake specs, alongside the Quake map specs. Its paramount that designers have a understanding of the engine, and how things work within the game. Having a general understanding of the technology helps in every possible way.

8. Are there any levels out there that have really impressed you?

The whole Threewave CTF package impressed the heck outta me. I download just about every map I can get my hands on, there have been many that have impressed me in one way or another.

9. When you test or play a new level, what is it that makes you decide whether you like it or not?

Its a combination of elements. If the elements in a level work well, I usually like the map, otherwise, it falls by the wayside.

10. What is your best tip for level designers?

ALWAYS ask youself, "is this really fun?"

11. If you had to name one thing, what is the most important part of designing a level?

Atmosphere.

12. In your .plan file, you mention some new stuff that will be in the hipnotic quake add-on...will level designers be able to take advantage of all the new additions? Will there be a technical list of new entities, items, monsters etc so we know what we're dealing with?

Oh yes. We have added a lot of incredible stuff to Quake. I plan on releasing a design spec alongside the release of the progs for our pack. There are a lot of things that are unique to our Quake pack and unique to Quake itself that I hope will give designers a specific reason to design for our pack in the future. I forsee many people moving away from designing for Quake alone, but designing for things in our pack.

13. In your .plan, you mention "Not possible in the Quake engine" things, could you elaborate a bit on that, or is it top secret?

Well, as of now, a majority of those things are still hush-hush. Although, once the pack hits the stores, that of course will change.

As a gamer myself, I am very impressed with how this pack has turned out, I hope to pleasantly surprise the Quake community.

I would like to thank Tom for taking the time to do this interview, especially during the busy final stages of the first Quake mission pack, Scourge of Armagon.