Game Informer recently posted a new interview with id Software's John Carmack. The interview covers a range of topics including discussion of the new id Tech 5 engine, the company's plans for Quake Zero, and the growing number of Macs infiltrating id's offices.

GI: So why did you choose a Mac show to first debut id Tech 5 for the first time, and then show it all off at QuakeCon. I know you showed it to a few people at E3, but not the masses.

Carmack: The Mac thing was just this weird happenstance. Macs have been sort of infiltrating our office. They’ve been sprouting up a lot and people are getting Macbooks and they’re generally pretty well regarded. Robert Duffy who’s the programming lead has four Mac’s or something. He was like, “I’m going to port Rage over to the Mac.” Okay, that’s a good thing. We learn something every time we move over to a new platform. It was always a good idea there. As it was going over we had a meeting with Apple and they said, “What about doing some of this for Steve’s keynote.” I’ve had ups and downs with the whole relationship with Apple and Steve, but we thought it was probably a decent thing to do because it was going to be the first crunch point for the team. It’s a good team building exercise. The time where you get everyone there working at 2am trying to get things done. In the large scheme Mac Worldwide Developers Conference isn’t the hugely important thing to do. It was a good point to see what we could do, because we knew at that time we were already aiming to be showing at E3. So then we were like, “Can we limit features a bit and show something a month before E3?” We figured it was a reasonable thing to do and in hindsight it was a worthwhile technology path to take.

Game Informer: John Carmack Q&A

id Software (add to watch list)

Search for other Mac games news stories or browse our Mac Games News Archive.