-
It is a shame that homebrew development can't be officially sanctioned and supported, because it would be a wonderful platform for a modern generation of programmers to be able to get a real feel for low level design work, to be contrasted with the high level web and application work that so many entry level people start with.
John Carmack
-
At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.
John Carmack
-
I'd rather have a search engine or a compiler on a deserted island than a game.
John Carmack
-
It is true that the gameplay for 'Orcs&Elves' was designed around the limitations of mobile phones, and that if we were starting completely from scratch for the DS, we would probably do things a bit differently, but the bottom line is that when we sit a random DS player down with the game, they have a lot of fun.
John Carmack
-
I've never been one of those programmers that works effectively on short amounts of sleep. I've always needed eight hours.
John Carmack
-
It really feels like VR has the possibility to be something really huge.
John Carmack
-
The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.
John Carmack
-
We were happy with funding 'Rage' on our own nickel for years. We intended to do the same with 'Doom 4'. We had offers early on for 'Rage'. People offered us X million dollars. But we carried the risk, and when we finally signed a deal, it was X plus $10 million.
John Carmack
-
Because of the nature of Moore's law, anything that an extremely clever graphics programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later.
John Carmack
-
Rocket science has been mythologized all out of proportion to its true difficulty.
John Carmack
-
Obviously, virtual reality is where I've placed my bet about the future and where the excitement is going. At this point, I could say it's almost a lock. It's going to be magical - it is magical - and great things are coming from that. Along the way, I was focused on the first-person shooters. I said we should go do something on mobile.
John Carmack
-
With ZeniMax, they have a lot to be proud of. 'Fallout 3' is one of the favorite games of so many of our people. But they had zero overlap with the things we do. We do the best shooters in the world. It's a perfect hand and glove fit. We started talking about this before they rolled out 'Fallout 3'. We watch them roll it out worldwide.
John Carmack
-
The Xbox 360 is the first console that I've ever worked with that actually has development tools that are better for games than what we've had on PC.
John Carmack
-
Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems.
John Carmack
-
I consider myself a remarkably unsentimental person. I don't look back on the good old days.
John Carmack
-
It's a good thing Doom 3 is selling very well...
John Carmack
-
We had staffed up to do 'Doom 4' internally in parallel with 'Rage'. We also had our mobile and 'Quake Live' departments. We were taking a lot of steps to kind of provide a little bit more scope and protection for ourselves. And we certainly were listening to offers from all the majors about acquisition.
John Carmack
-
'A large fraction of the flaws in software development are due to programmers not fully understanding all the possible states their code may execute in.'
John Carmack
-
I think 'World of Warcraft' shows that people today still like a good fantasy hack and slash game. I always thought that a lot of computer fantasy games leapt into complex party-based play somewhat prematurely.
John Carmack
-
I don't think anyone is going to say great things about being a native developer on Android.
John Carmack
-
The core of what I do is solve problems, whether that's in graphic engine flow or rockets. I like working on things that are going to have an impact one way or the other.
John Carmack
-
Oculus really started popularizing a new approach using cellphone screen technology, a wide field of view, and super-low-latency sensor tracking. It's not crappy stuff that doesn't work and makes everybody sick. When you experience Oculus technology, it's like getting religion on contact. People that try it walk out a believer.
John Carmack
-
There are some things that are exciting for distributors. I love Apple's AppStore and the things people can do with digital distribution.
John Carmack
-
Developing games for the PC and consoles is all about everything and the kitchen sink. In many ways, you don't have design decisions to make. You do it all. So I enjoy going back to making decisions about what's important as I'm working on a game.
John Carmack
