RPG: First of all, please introduce yourself for the throngs of raving fans who already know who you are.
Mindcrime: I'm Mindcrime. The founder of the large partial conversion for Quake called Nehahra. I did/do extensive work in all departments, except in level design as I have no aptitude for it. Though I wish I did. I created the crazily long 4-hour "epic" that is Seal of Nehahra. I reckon that covers it.
RPG: Covered like Mr Willy on Friday night...
RPG: So, your name is Mindcrime... is that some sort of protest against fascist dystopian governments?
Mindcrime: This probably calls for a wise-crack, but I'll abstain. You might say it was a kind of homage to my favorite concept album 'Operation: Mindcrime' from Queensryche. I didn't give a lot of thought to the nickname, truth be told, when I chose it.
Mindcrime: Now I'm rather stuck with it.
Mindcrime: At least, for a little while longer.
RPG: Nehahra was released in 2000. What were you up to in the year or two after it's release?
Mindcrime: Immediately after I was fixing bugs :) They're insidious things. Then I dove into a project called Obscurus, what was meant to be a total conversion, a spin-off from the Quake universe. Progress slowed after a year or two as my other aspirations began claiming my creative outlets.
Mindcrime: I did enjoy the few custom maps made using Nehahra too.
RPG: Moving into more recent history, what have up been up to lately?
Mindcrime: Working on other creative endeavors. Moving all over the place. When I first began Nehahra, I lived in Illinois. A good sum of my end was done in Tennessee. Several of the SON scenes were done in New York. Finishing touches in Connecticut.
Mindcrime: Other than this:
Mindcrime: I've been respirating and attempting to learn how to be a decent human being.
Mindcrime: I'm now down south again. Maybe Nehahra has a southern soul. ;)
RPG: It's probably just the moonshine it's after.
RPG: Either that or grits.
RPG: Rumor has it you're going to do a DVD release of Seal of Nehahra with chapter selections, bonus material, and box art. Confirm? Deny? Tell me to stop making up blatant lies?
Mindcrime: I've heard this rumor, but it did not originate from me. If some fan is going through the trouble to do it, bravo. Not I--said the Mindcrime.
Mindcrime: Not a bad idea though.
Mindcrime: But I've had my fill of SON.
RPG: I don't suppose it would help encourage you to do it if I threatened to call you a ponce, pansy, candyass, or any other child-like insult?
Mindcrime: Highly doubtful, sir.
RPG: Such a pity.
Mindcrime: I wouldn't know how to do it, even if I wanted to.
RPG: Well, speaking of rumors, a little bird told me something about playing Nehahra in the nude... Nehahra Nekkid? What's this?
Mindcrime: That was one of the pet projects that came after the Nehahra release. I had intended to release a Nehahra version that skipped the nehahra engine specific things, or compensated for them, so Nehahra could be played on any engine. It proved a little knottier than I expected. The possibility of that now, with the final version, is absolute zero.
Mindcrime: Although Bengt Jardrup's regular engine will supposedly have support for it.
RPG: You've mentioned on a few occasions that mappers haven't even scratched the surface of what's possible with Nehahra's entities. Is there anything specific you wanted to see mappers do or experiment with but hasn't been done yet?
Mindcrime: The capability was there to do some wondrous things. I can't remember now all that's in the final version that wasn't in the original, but that has increased at least five-fold. I said before that mappers would be able to do things they never could before. I'm going to echo that sentiment very loudly now. Some of the things I have done, however immodest it sounds, are revolutionary.
Mindcrime: The mapper has more control over the monsters, their AI, and all the map entities than ever before. That might even be an understatement.
Mindcrime: It is so open-ended now that the margin for customization is incredible.
Mindcrime: Whether anyone will utilize this last gift to the community to its potential remains to be seen.
Mindcrime: On that note, I've become cynical.
RPG: heh
Mindcrime: Nonetheless, I'll finish what I began.
Mindcrime: Use it, hate it, squander it. See if I give a damn.
RPG: Was there anything you had planned for Nehahra that you had to drop because of restraints on time or technology?
Mindcrime: I can't think of anything in particular. I had dropped a number of things from the original that I simply didn't have the skill to pull off. I have a lot more experience than I did then. Everything I had wanted to do prior that I couldn't, I have done, and more.
Mindcrime: Come to think of it, the one function I really wanted to create was a mapper-friendly interface into the Hipnotic rotate routines (which are in Nehahra). Those entities are hell. Alas though, I never mastered rotating brushes.
Mindcrime: The engine wasn't made for it.
Mindcrime: I at least wanted to make an entity that would use the hipnotic routines intelligently and give the mapper an easy interface.
Mindcrime: Every time I look at the hipnotic rotate code my head verges on exploding in a carnival of blood and cerebral fluid.
RPG: So what are your plans for the future? Avoiding blood and cerebral fluid spillage as much as possible?
Mindcrime: Pretty much. Right now there are three people working on Nehahra final. Myself, Bengt Jardrup, and Benoit Stordeur, aka Bal. Though I've heard a rumor that RPG guy might contribute something to the total package.
Mindcrime: Once this is released--and no I don't precisely know when, but there is no matter of *if*, it will be--the Nehahra storyline will come to a conclusion. Not an absolute ending.
Mindcrime: It will leave a few windows open for theoretical custom mappers to extend the storyline, if they truly wished to.
Mindcrime: As for me, this is my final dance in Quake.
Mindcrime: After this, I'm done.
RPG: Does this mean no Obscurus? On the Nehahra website you said "I'm never going to leave it behind."
Mindcrime: I haven't quite left it behind, you see. The broader vision of Obscurus was not realized. I simply don't have the time I used to. Back in the Nehahra days, I had all day every day. Now: life is much different.
Mindcrime: Much of what was Obscurus has merged with Nehahra. Considering Obscurus was a cluster of parallel dimensions to the "Quake dimensions", the concepts blended fine.
Mindcrime: Obscurus is partly to credit for all the new monsters that have entered Nehahra.
Mindcrime: Which is more than a dozen.
Mindcrime: Not to mention some other breakthroughs including but not limited to: emulated water, movable emulated water brushes
Mindcrime: and global water.
Mindcrime: I gave one away (:
Mindcrime: Some of what was Obscurus will be left behind, but quite a bit of it lives on in Nehahra now. Many of the breakthroughs I made were during my work on Obscurus.
Mindcrime: I'm being redundant, aren't I? Wouldn't be the first time.
RPG: So, did you ever consider a job in the games industry? With all the different things you did on Nehahra, it seems like you could get in there doing one job or another.
Mindcrime: I have always been a hobbyist. The good thing about hobbyists is you continue to do it for the love, only the love of the thing, you know. I know quite a few folks who found jobs in the gaming industry in the past 5 years
Mindcrime: and they're all jaded. It's work now. Nonetheless, no, I have never had aspirations to work in the gaming industry. Even if I had developed my skills in that pursuit, I would have never excelled there. (grin)
Mindcrime: Because I have these things.. called 'thoughts'.
Mindcrime: And if it's shit, I'll call it. Every time.
Mindcrime: it being a particular game on the table.
RPG: Boxers or briefs?
Mindcrime: Never boxers. They're instruments of Satan.
RPG: So you think when American McGee made "Satan's Dark Delight" he had boxers in mind?
Mindcrime: It's highly possible, or Hawaiian shirts
RPG: By the way, I have one fan-submitted question, courtesy of Zwiffle: Why are you so Aewas0me??!
Mindcrime: I am not. I am merely a heart-worm wriggling in the chest of a rabid dog about to be run over a big rig.
Mindcrime: Seriously, I'm too weary to be Aewas0me.
RPG: Does the dog know it's about to be run over?
Mindcrime: The dog is rabid. I think not.
Mindcrime: :>
RPG: Just one more. Please ask yourself the most burning question that you've been waiting for someone to ask you.
Mindcrime: Why will this be the last interview Mindcrime ever gives?
RPG: We are all just sitting on the edges of our seats waiting for papa Mindcrime to answer!
Mindcrime: He finds comforts in shadows.
Well that's all the time we have for the interview! Thanks to Mindcrime for giving his last ever interview! I hope you found out everything you want to know about him.
