If you played FPS’s in the 90’s, theres a good chance that you’ve dabbled in map editing and level design. Many games had easily available map editors such as Quake, and some even included it, like Unreal. Sadly, most of those tools are antiquated, no longer updated, or simply don’t work anymore. I found this brand new level editor called TrenchBroom for id Software’s 1996 classic, Quake via John Carmack’s Twitter.
It’s pretty cool looking allowing you to work on levels with a 3D view. One of it’s main features is that it has a lot of documentation. This means less googling for “how to remove leaks” and more working on your levels. Many of you youngins may laugh at making levels for such an old game but you’d be surprised how many game developers began their career making maps for Quake. This can be a great, simpler way to get started with 3D game design and show off your great ideas. Furthermore, if you’re an indie developer, you can make a whole game with the Quake Engine because it’s under GNU General Public License. Just make sure you don’t use any Quake assets (images, textures, models etc).
Check out this video demonstrating TrenchBroom’s nifty features…
TrenchBroom is for Windows PCs and Mac OS X. There’s also a source for Linux users.