Would IOQuake3 be right for my project?

ioquake3
1

Hello, I am thinking about using IOQuake3 for a project I’m working on, and I was hoping I could get some information to help me decide if this would be a good fit for me or if I should look elsewhere.

I am looking to create a game that look old; like a shooter from the late 90’s. I am creating original art assets, and I would like to be able to sell the final product commercially.
My biggest concern is that I want to do a minimal amount of programming. I have some programming ability, but not a lot, and so I don’t want to do much more than simple tweaking. I mostly want to just build a mod and not have to code anything more complicated than tweaking the weapons and menu.

To this end, I am not completely certain if using a Quake 3 port is the best route.
The game I am creating is single-player in focus (though I would like to have multiplayer as well.) So just looking at Quake 3, I am unsure if the game even contains the requisite code or if I would have to be creating most of what I need. Enemy behavior more like what is in Quake 2, an inventory system; these things come to mind. I suspect that making items and enemies not respawn would be simple changes, but changing their behavior might not be, unless the behavior was built to be more customizable.

Honestly I feel like a source port of Quake 2 would be more in order for a single-player experience, but I suspect there are a lot of under-the-hood changes made to the engine that make it more reliable and functional.

2

For a game to be original you’ll need original art, sound, and new code, so minimal programming isn’t going to be possible with any off-the-shelf engine. The only free thing you get with quake 3 that you can distribute is the code.

You can sell something you make with ioquake3, as long as you provide source code to any code changes you make.

If you’re focusing on single player then you might want something like Yamagi Quake 2 as your start.

3

Thank you; I am aware that I need original art and sound, that’s part of my plan. As you pointed out, I can distribute the code. It’s part of the GPL that the source was released under. It’s why I’m considering using the quake 3 engine.

Thank you for the suggestion. I take it this means that Quake 3 doesn’t come packaged with the code I would need for the single-player experience.

4

It has some single player code and could be modified, but it isn’t neccesarily going to be the kind of game you’re looking for - one that needs minimal coding - if you’re looking to develop a more traditional level-based shooter experience with many AI enemies per level.