We are game designers John Romero (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake) and Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal, UT, Gears of War), and FPS: First Person Shooter documentary co-director David L. Craddock. Ask us anything!

What was the best gun in UT, and why was it the Flak Cannon?

Me reading the first clause of your question: "What kind of question is--"

Me reading the second clause of your question: "My faith in humanity is restored."

Hello! Do you have any favorite video game (fps, but not necessarily) you spent hundreds of hours playing?

I've played thousands of hours of Soulsborne across Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, and Bloodborne. For FPS games, still play Doom, Duke 3D, UT99, and UT2004 every year.

This is going to sound harsher than I intend so I apologize in advance:

What is it about the First Person Shooter genre that warrants watching three hours on the subject? What insights do you expect from all the names you listed?

Totally a fair question. The main reason we set out to make this documentary was to tell stories that have never been told. I write stories (books and now films) because I'm curious about how things work. Until recently, I didn't know that Maze War was considered the first FPS. I spoke to two of the guys who worked on it for our documentary and learned all sorts of things about how they approached level design, game balance, and deathmatch--20 years before the term was codified--on mainframes and dumb terminals. I love learning things like that, and hearing about how different designers approached the same concepts in their own ways.

People who enjoy a hobby often wonder what goes into it. If you enjoy FPS games to any degree, there are stories in our film that will intrigue you, and make you laugh, and give you a lot to think about. Most of all, we're telling stories we know you'll have fun learning.

For entire party: This upcoming documentary looks fantastic. As fans of FPS what excites you about it? And how is it different to documentaries that have come before it?

What excites me is getting more insight into some of my favorite games of all time. I've played Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, UT, and too many others to name regularly for decades. Every time I play, I notice something new. I've had the privilege of talking to John Romero, John Carmack, and others for related projects. Every time I talk to them, I learn something new about these great games I love.

Of all the devs involved in the documentary, who wins in a cage match?

My money's on American McGee.

Sandy Petersen has been hanging out with Cthulhu and his/its minions nearly his entire life. They're practically at his beck and call. Just saying.

Are you guys not worried you aren't pulling a "Ready Player One" and addressing a genre/industry to the fully extent, instead only capturing a snapshot? To expand, RDP1 promises to talk about gaming in this fictional universe where literally anything is possible but it mostly focuses on the EARLY EARLY stages of game dev. We've had massive mmos, insanely deep strategic games, fps games that are roleplayers, tactical shooters in outdoor/indoor environs, battleroyales..but it talks about pac man. So do you guys talk about PUBG? R6: Siege? CS:GO? or is it just 90s to 2000s?

This is a great question. One of the most important steps we took early in this process was to poll the backers of our Kickstarter--which launched and received over 400% of its funding goal last summer--what games and eras they were most interested in seeing. Overwhelmingly, the response was to dive as deep into FPS games from the '90s and 2000s as possible.

We're doing that, but we're also trying to leave few stones unturned. We spoke with Greg Thompson and Dave Lebling, two of the authors of 1973's Maze War, widely considered the first FPS. The film will start there by plumbing the depths of that game, and as a way of setting expectations for the depth of our interviews and the stories you can expect to tell.

No single documentary can capture everything about a subject, especially one with a history as rich as the FPS genre. But we're going to go as deep as possible into as many games as possible; without confirming the full list of titles, I can say we cover dozens with the sort of depth fans would expect. If you're a fan, you'll come away with more cool insights into how these games came to be than you'll be able to count. (Unless you set out to count them. Then you'll be able to keep count. Maybe.)

I've heard timesplitters was great, but never got a chance to play it. Any chance of a rerelease?

I'm in the same boat: I hadn't played TimeSplitters before working on this documentary, but I still have my PS2, so I want to track down copies of some of the games and give them a go.

WE ARE NOT WORTHY

Anyone else read Masters Of Doom?

This book was pivotal in my journey as an author of books about video games. In fact, we interviewed David Kushner for the documentary.

Hi, John and Cliff. Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament? And one for John Given Quake's engine legacy, do you think it was worth the sacrifice of innovation in retrospect?

Not to step on Cliff's or John's toes, but I want to say that we cover the "holy war" between Q3 and UT99 in the film. It's a fun topic, and you'll be surprised at some of the answers devs of id and Epic gave us.