QuakeC is a programming language created by John Carmack and Michael Abrash at id Software for developing the game Quake, which was released in 1996. It was specifically designed to allow game developers to customize and control various aspects of the Quake game engine, such as game mechanics, character behavior, and physics. QuakeC was revolutionary at the time because it enabled a high level of modifiability for the game, which led to the rise of the modding community that created custom game modes, maps, and entirely new experiences using the Quake engine.
The language was based on C, though simplified and tailored for game development. It allowed developers to write scripts to dictate how the game elements behaved. For instance, QuakeC scripts would handle things like enemy AI, weapon behavior, and even how the player's interactions with the environment were processed. This made Quake one of the earliest examples of a game where users could create and run custom mods, greatly extending the game’s lifespan.
One of the most significant impacts of QuakeC was its influence on the development of user-generated content. Players and programmers were able to create new game modes, such as "Capture the Flag" and "Team Fortress," the latter of which became so popular that it eventually led to the creation of a standalone series by Valve.
Although QuakeC was relatively low-level compared to modern scripting languages, it gave developers a surprising amount of control over the game's internals. This paved the way for the first-person shooter modding culture that thrived throughout the late '90s and beyond, especially with games using the Quake engine, which were heavily moddable.
A simple example of QuakeC code might look like this, defining a basic entity:
void() my_entity =
{
sound(self, CHAN_VOICE, "misc/hello.wav", 1, ATTN_NORM);
self.think = my_entity_think;
self.nextthink = time + 0.1;
};
void() my_entity_think =
{
// Entity logic goes here
};In this script, a basic entity is created with a sound effect, and it sets a function (my_entity_think) to be called after a short delay, allowing the entity to perform actions in the game.
Though QuakeC is not widely used today, its importance in game development history cannot be understated. It helped establish the concept of user-created mods and custom content as a core part of PC gaming. Games like Quake and Half-Life owe much of their longevity and fan communities to the accessibility and flexibility offered by QuakeC. In many ways, QuakeC paved the way for modern game scripting languages, enabling today's developers to create the highly interactive and modifiable game worlds we are accustomed to.