"But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game."

Chris Kohler at Wired interviewed John Carmack for the 20 year aniversary of the seminal game, Doom.

I have fond memories hacking at on custom WAD files and learning about binary space partitioning. id Software defined so much about the game industry, not just in style and format, but in development practices, too. That’s why I found this quip at the end of the interview so interesting:

If I could go back in time and change one thing along the trajectory of id Software, it would be, do more things more often. And that was id’s mantra for so long: “It’ll be done when it’s done.” And I recant from that. I no longer think that is the appropriate way to build games. I mean, time matters, and as years go by—if it’s done when it’s done and you’re talking a month or two, fine. But if it’s a year or two, you need to be making a different game.