They saw no reason to reinvent the wheel.
Both were familiar with Quake and, as programmers, recognized that its underpinnings were more than adequate for essential operations such as rendering graphics and character movement. Valve's co-founders had other reasons for licensing an engine rather than building one from scratch. That summer, no engine was hotter than id Tech 1, the beating heart of id Software's Quake. Licensing game engines was becoming a popular route for developers who lacked the time or resources to build one from the ground up. They enjoyed computer games, especially first-person shooters, and were interested in writing one of their own.īefore they could do that, they needed technology. In the summer of 1996, Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell left Microsoft to strike out on their own. To further illustrate the era's creativity and innovation, I spoke with developers of other shooters to learn about their contributions-and in many cases, how id Software's work served as their foundation and influence. Indisputably an industry touchstone, Quake was one of many first-person shooters released during the genre's golden age of the 1990s.
