GR: Will any modding tools be made available when the game releases?

Cloud: Yes. After the game is released - and this is common to id games - we’ll release all the tools like the map editing tools and some of the resources and things like that so people will be able to start on their mods.

GR: What do you think makes a good mod?

Cloud: You know the thing is that originality is what you’re always looking for. Now I think when you say that, when somebody says “originality,” you’re thinking of the big picture. Everything’s gotta be different. But for me sometimes a map, just the way a map variation is made or a map is improved upon is “originality.” So I want to see something that’s brought something new to the table, not just creating more of the same. You don’t want to see just another take on something that’s already been done in a map. So I’d like to see that from the mod community and I think that’s really what the mod community brings to the gaming community.

I had a similar question earlier during a conversation I’d had a while back with a guy that I’d worked with over at Raven. And we were talking about previous experiences in games we loved: you know Wasteland, and Bard’s Tale, and Event Squadron. The thing is that when we were playing those games, when we got through playing them, we’d make up games of our own. We’d draw pictures of them, we’d come up with our own scenarios, and we would just dream about what we could do to expand this world. So it’s cool to me, this idea that when a game gets out the door that I’ve worked on, that it’s having the same effect on somebody.