Lone concrete spires stand guard over shallow bowls of rock, shielding rusted trapdoors from the elements. Step onto the trapdoor, and it yawns open like iron jaws, dropping you through a vertical shaft into a subterranean museum. Here, dozens of doors line the walls of three vaulted grey galleries, each leading to a pocket dimension of dizzying virtual architecture and fierce gladiatorial combat.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam is an underground celebration of id Software's classic first-person shooter from 1996. First run in 2022, the event has grown into a beloved community gathering, where veteran game developers, aspiring level designers, and enthusiast modders come together to construct new maps and missions themed around brutalist architecture.
This year's edition promises much more than its predecessors. Over six weeks, contributors designed 77 brutalist-themed maps, featuring new enemies, weapons, and intense gameplay. The original Quake boasted only 37 levels when it was first released, a far cry from the wealth of content generated by this community-driven effort.
Event coordinator Ben Hale is a professional game developer who worked as a senior environment artist on Subnautica 2. As a child, he learned to build Quake levels with his older brother's encouragement. The idea for the brutalism-themed jam came from another Quake mapper named Benoit Stordeur, inspired by Hale's concrete textures.
The first Quake Brutalist Jam was a success, capturing the community's imagination and producing 35 levels in two-and-a-half weeks using Hale's textures. The second jam ran in 2023, spawning 30 more grey levels for players to blast through. But this year's event has taken a bold new direction.
Organizer Fairweather is Lain Fleming, a veteran modder who led numerous community Quake projects, including Dwell and the Coffee Quake series. Rather than simply making new levels, Fleming suggested giving participants new tools to work with. The result was an almost entirely new toolset for Quake, featuring 77 brutalist-themed maps.
Maps like Escape from KOE-37 showcase the remarkable work done by community members. This epic three-hour affair is heavily inspired by Half-Life and features over 1,000 enemies to fight. Its creator, Mazu, spent about 400 hours building it and aimed to create interactive environments for players to explore.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam has become a beacon of hope for a lost art form – complex 3D mazes with navigation as much a challenge as combat. Events like this one are keeping the style alive and often surpassing the achievements of old masters, twisting and warping 3D geometry in ways that wouldn't have been possible 30 years ago.
The event is not just for hardcore Quake fans but also welcomes newcomers and industry professionals. Robert Yang, a game designer and former teacher at New York University's Game Centre, contributed to the jam with his map One Need Not Be a House.
Yang created an open-ended map that wouldn't look out of place in an adventure game like Myst. His contribution shows that even those new to Quake can create amazing content.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam is more than just an event – it's a community-driven celebration of creativity and collaboration. Its organizers have big plans, including their own independent video game project. After this jam, they're taking a break from modding and mapping for Quake but won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
"It's the underground Met Gala of concrete murderzone design," Yang says, "the biggest event on the Quake calendar." Everyone shows off, everyone nurtures new faces, and everybody eats. It's an infectious spirit that continues to drive this amazing community forward.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam is an underground celebration of id Software's classic first-person shooter from 1996. First run in 2022, the event has grown into a beloved community gathering, where veteran game developers, aspiring level designers, and enthusiast modders come together to construct new maps and missions themed around brutalist architecture.
This year's edition promises much more than its predecessors. Over six weeks, contributors designed 77 brutalist-themed maps, featuring new enemies, weapons, and intense gameplay. The original Quake boasted only 37 levels when it was first released, a far cry from the wealth of content generated by this community-driven effort.
Event coordinator Ben Hale is a professional game developer who worked as a senior environment artist on Subnautica 2. As a child, he learned to build Quake levels with his older brother's encouragement. The idea for the brutalism-themed jam came from another Quake mapper named Benoit Stordeur, inspired by Hale's concrete textures.
The first Quake Brutalist Jam was a success, capturing the community's imagination and producing 35 levels in two-and-a-half weeks using Hale's textures. The second jam ran in 2023, spawning 30 more grey levels for players to blast through. But this year's event has taken a bold new direction.
Organizer Fairweather is Lain Fleming, a veteran modder who led numerous community Quake projects, including Dwell and the Coffee Quake series. Rather than simply making new levels, Fleming suggested giving participants new tools to work with. The result was an almost entirely new toolset for Quake, featuring 77 brutalist-themed maps.
Maps like Escape from KOE-37 showcase the remarkable work done by community members. This epic three-hour affair is heavily inspired by Half-Life and features over 1,000 enemies to fight. Its creator, Mazu, spent about 400 hours building it and aimed to create interactive environments for players to explore.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam has become a beacon of hope for a lost art form – complex 3D mazes with navigation as much a challenge as combat. Events like this one are keeping the style alive and often surpassing the achievements of old masters, twisting and warping 3D geometry in ways that wouldn't have been possible 30 years ago.
The event is not just for hardcore Quake fans but also welcomes newcomers and industry professionals. Robert Yang, a game designer and former teacher at New York University's Game Centre, contributed to the jam with his map One Need Not Be a House.
Yang created an open-ended map that wouldn't look out of place in an adventure game like Myst. His contribution shows that even those new to Quake can create amazing content.
The Quake Brutalist Game Jam is more than just an event – it's a community-driven celebration of creativity and collaboration. Its organizers have big plans, including their own independent video game project. After this jam, they're taking a break from modding and mapping for Quake but won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
"It's the underground Met Gala of concrete murderzone design," Yang says, "the biggest event on the Quake calendar." Everyone shows off, everyone nurtures new faces, and everybody eats. It's an infectious spirit that continues to drive this amazing community forward.
! The idea of a community-driven celebration where devs & level designers come together to create new maps & missions is genius. I mean, we've seen what the community can do with just 37 original levels - now they're pushing the limits with 77 brutalist-themed maps? Mind blown 
i mean, the idea of giving participants new tools to work with was genius, and now we've got some seriously mind-blowing creations 
400 hours of building by mazu? that's dedication 
Robert Yang's map one need not be a house is like, whoa what kind of magic is this 
? i'm loving how the community is pushing the boundaries of what's possible with quake 3d geometry 
love how the organizers are pushing the boundaries with new tools and features, Mazu's Escape from KOE-37 is insane what a team effort! 
i mean we all know id software's quake was a classic but the fact that a whole community is creating new maps and missions on their own is just insane 
i'm low-key jealous of robert yang's map one need not be a house btw what even is that?! 
it sounds so myst-inspired 
they're creating new levels, enemies, and gameplay that's way more than what the original game had back in 1996 
and inspiring a whole new generation of game developers and modders 
it's going to be a fun thing to watch as they continue to grow and create more awesome stuff 
I'm just so proud of all these talented creators who come together to make something so unique and amazing! The fact that they're able to take a game that was released 30 years ago and still manage to create new and exciting content is truly inspiring 
. I love how it's all about creativity and collaboration - it's like a big ol' hug for the gaming world 
. Can't wait to see what they come up with next!
. I mean, 77 new maps? That's like a whole library of levels just waiting to be played 
. It shows how community-driven events can really foster creativity and collaboration. I'm intrigued by the new toolset they've developed too 
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. And let's not forget the camaraderie – it's clear that everyone is there to support and learn from each other 
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And the fact that newcomers are welcome too is amazing! I'm definitely going to check out some of these maps and see what all the fuss is about 
, with over 77 brutalist-themed maps featuring new enemies, weapons, and intense gameplay. It's like they're keeping the style alive and often surpassing the achievements of old masters 
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. But what's really interesting is the way they've taken something that was originally meant for entertainment and turned it into a platform for self-expression and collaboration 
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