Xenoix: Would you tell us a bit about your current team members and their roles? How long has your team been together, and how many of you guys have been with the team since the beginning?

Revility: The team started back in 2005 while we were working on the HardQore mod for Quake 4. Towards the end of this mod, most of the team left. Those that remained went on to work on Ruiner, Z-Hunter & HardQore 2. During Ruiner & HQ2's development the rest of the original HQ team left or completed their work for the mods. Revility is the only one still around from the beginning. Dinky & Neurological joined us to work on HQ2 & Ruiner. Both have completed their work. Ivan_the_B & Revility are the current members still actively working on both mods. Ivan is working on the ever expanding HardQore 2 patch, and Rev is currently mapping for Ruiner.

Xenoix: After your team's first mod for Quake 4, HardQore, you've since moved on to two mods that are currently in development for Doom 3. What made you decide to use Doom 3 over another game as a base for your newest projects?

Revility: The mod idea, your modding knowledge & skills is what should decide what game it should go for. The game chosen is one you really enjoy also because your going to be spending more time with it in some cases than the developers. We choose to do HardQore 2 for Doom 3 instead of Quake 4 because it was more flexible, easier to work with. It helped us make sure we could do a sequel that would be better & different than the first time. Ruiner was done for Doom 3 because we were very familiar with modding for it by that time. D3 also had a huge amount of assets in the game that would work very well for the mod.

Xenoix: What do you guys draw your inspiration from when you create your projects?

Revility: A single idea or type of game we commonly enjoyed playing. When the First HQ came out, 3d side scrollers weren't big yet. Between that and Contra, we were inspired to make the first HardQore. Red UK's Z-Hunter came from games like Loaded. HQ2 was exciting to do because we gave ourselves a challenge to get it made in less than 6 months. Ruiner came out of the idea to create a third-person Quake. That idea grew and grew into something completely different.

Xenoix: What is the current status of your HardQore 2 and Ruiner Doom 3 mods? What do you expect in the next releases?

Revility: The HQ2 update is 99% done. It was delayed for the best reasons possible, more and more content was being added. It isn't just a bug and control patch anymore. New weapons, game-play mechanics and much more have been added. Most of the features being added were from player feedback of the first release.
We have decided that no-matter what Ruiner will be released this year in one form or another. We are pushing to make sure that it is solid build, fully playable, and with no fillers. There are still some major features we haven't mentioned yet. More videos of the mod are coming this year and updates to it should be more frequent.

Xenoix: Have you faced any unique challenges in your projects? If so, how have you overcome them?

Revility: The most fun part of modding is doing something no one in the that particular modding community has done. Each of these mods provided a number of challenges. We had to decide what were the essential ones that needed to be done and which ones we could go without in case they weren't possible or too costly to do.
HardQore 2 needed many changes to D3's camera, controls, physics and ai. The toughest problem we can remember was making sure the player, enemies and projectiles always stayed on same path despite the physics trying to fight it. This was a vital project goal in helping to make sure the game played better than its predecessor.
Many aspects of Ruiner have been challenging. If you look at our current list of features, it has many things not in Doom 3. A majority of the new features required us to do far more work than just change a few numbers here and there. From the camera system, to the combat system and the ai, we've worked hard to make this feel more like a total conversion than a mod.

Xenoix: Many Doom 3 mods have fallen short of release; what are your thoughts on why your team has managed to avoid that ill fate?

Revility: We each really enjoy what we do, have a ton of patience and are able to perform many different task a game needs to be made. This helps ensure that even during your teams darkest hours, work can still be done and not send everything to a grinding halt. As of the time of this interview, we are a 2 man team, yet we are able still keep the work flowing because of those reasons.

Xenoix: At the end of the day, are you all satisfied with how you've managed to make your creative concepts a reality?

Revility: There is nothing better than seeing words and concepts turn into reality.

Xenoix: Is there anything you'd like to share with others who aspire to make their own mods for Quake 4 or Doom 3?

Revility: Its easy to want to work with UDK or Source now a days because of newer tech and having massive communities behind them. When D3 came out people complained it was difficult to mod for because it introduced a new work flow. That has changed now because the requirements for Doom 3 are less than others. Since its release, the community has created many tools, upgrades, tutorials and open source projects which really helps a mod maker get started with it.

Xenoix: Generally speaking, how do you perceive your mods have been received? Have you found it rewarding to do what you do?

Revility: It depends on the goals of each project. Sometimes success comes in the form of feedback, other times it could be download numbers. Most of the time its what we learned and did for each project. With each mod we get better and learn something new. So yes, it has been very rewarding doing these mods and seeing how other people react to them.

Xenoix: In your HardQore and HardQore 2 mods, you take 3D games and turn them into side-scroller action, and in Ruiner you intend to provide a 3rd-person perspective. What is your reasoning behind making these changes, and are you pleased with the result?

Revility: By changing the perspective for the mods, it helped make them feel like something different and interesting to work on. It took much more effort than changing the camera position and make it feel right. When HQ was released, we weren't happy with the results because it didn't feel right. With HQ2, we were very pleased. Ruiner is getting closer to our expectations. Our goals have never been to create massive mods filled with many levels, story and cut scenes. Our attention is mostly on the game play itself and making sure its as smooth as possible.

Xenoix: Thanks so much for your time. I'm looking forward to future information and updates on your projects! Cheers!

Revility: Thanks for doing this interview with us and the best is yet to come.