They’re not looking for a new Carmack, thankfully – his traditional role will be “unaffected” by his new gig at Oculus, we’re told – but the world’s oldest FPS studio is looking for new blood to inject into its comically oversized biceps.
“id Software has a well-storied past, and now you can be part of their future,” wrote owners Bethesda on their blog. “The Dallas-based studios is ramping up with more than a dozen positions”.
Curious journalists have been known to cast a sleuth’s eye over job listings in the past in the hope of uncovering new projects, so you won’t find any of those listed on Bethesda’s site.
But! Their entry for an environmental concept artist requests skill in “illustrating a wide variety of organic/landscape and hard-surface sci-fi ‘tech’ environments”, which is probably exactly what you’d expect to wind up doing at id.
The developers’ listing for a new physics and simulation programmer, meanwhile, namechecks not only Doom but also Quake. Hmm.
Conclusions aren’t wisely drawn at this early stage. But combined with the news that Arkane too are “ramping up” for their own thing, all of this noise gives the distinct impression that Bethesda are expanding like Uncle Vernon’s sister Marge. Given that they seem to have inherited the old Origin motto – We Create Worlds – that can only be a good thing, right?
For a better idea of where id might be headed, check out this QuakeCon 2013 talk from new art director Hugo Martin: