Quake Brutalist Jam Iii

Posted5d agoActive12h ago

Venn1

162 points

23 comments

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QuakeGame Mod

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Quake

Game Mod

The Quake Brutalist Jam III mod is blowing minds with its stunning architecture and nostalgic value, transporting players back to the classic Quake experience. Commenters are raving about the mod's attention to detail, with some even recalling specific level layouts and hidden secrets from over 20 years ago [tyfighter][russdill][Freak_NL]. As players dive in, they're also discussing the mod's compatibility, with some suggesting it can run on Linux via Proton or Wine, and others pointing out the availability of Quake source ports for Apple Silicon [rcarmo][empressplay][hnlmorg]. The thread is abuzz with excitement, showcasing the enduring appeal of Quake and the creativity of its community.

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60-72h

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Comment distribution46 data points

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01Story posted
Jan 4, 2026 at 3:24 PM EST
5d ago
Step 01
02First comment
Jan 4, 2026 at 6:50 PM EST
3h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
20 comments in 60-72h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Jan 9, 2026 at 10:26 AM EST
12h ago
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Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (23 comments)

Showing 46 comments

rendaw

4d ago

2 replies

The architecture looks amazing, and the monsters too! Is this co-op? I only played Quake 2 once... (wait, this is Quake 1?)

This may be me reading into it too much, but it's really cool how these old games have become kind of timeless platforms for content (doom too). You don't need a billion polygons to express lots of ideas and it reduces the effort required to contribute, and the open source-ness of it makes it available on lots of platforms, irons out lots of bugs and issues, etc.

russdill

2d ago

1 reply

It's crazy that it's been almost 20 years since I played a large amount of quake/quake 2/q3a, but I can instantly recognize the architecture of the levels that are re-skinned. The original map development was incredibly iconic.

Freak_NL

2d ago

It's crazy that there can be over a quarter century between the last time I played Quake, yet the first thing I do in e1m1 is shoot the fake wall in the recessed area on the right and grab the shotgun shells from the secret area…

imiric

2d ago

Not just old games. There is a trend of modern "boomer shooters" that have similar visuals and mechanics as these classics. They're fun for a while, but none of them capture me as much as these games did back then. Part of it is because the originals were groundbreaking in many ways at the time, and seeing the same game rehashed with minor changes is not that engaging IMO.

This brutalist mod pack looks incredible, though, and I might just have to give it a try.

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2

2d ago

1 reply

Holy molly. That music too. I had to check credits, because it briefly felt like Gordon's influence, but a different name popped. Anyway, I am excited to try once the damn illness leaves my body.

btw. I appreciate explicit 'you can buy it here'.

hmstx

1d ago

1 reply

I have this on my backlog of Jams to go through, but peeked ahead hoping to see Alekswithak in there, and indeed, it's him. He's already scored a few great SP mods : Alkaline, Dwell, Dwell 2 - which should also be checked out - and some of his tracks have been featured in various map jams as well. He hasn't published the soundtrack for QBJ3 yet, but I assume he will eventually. Until then, enjoy the rest at https://alekswithak.bandcamp.com/

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2

15h ago

Ok. This is awesome. Thank you.

rcarmo

2d ago

5 replies

Wow. And yet, no Mac version. Anyone got it to work on Linux/Proton?

hnlmorg

2d ago

1 reply

It’s a mod so you can run it against a Quake source port, of which there are Apple Silicon ports:

https://www.macsourceports.com/game/quake?pubDate=20250318

There are also Linux native ports too, so no need to use Proton.

CyberDildonics

2d ago

Run it against a source port or with a source port?

aclark

2d ago

1 reply

With vkQuake on macOS (qbj3 and id1 in /Applications), I get "HOST_ERROR: Model progs/v_axe2.mdl not found"... their docs say if it's not ironwail then "expect issues". :-\

fosron

15h ago

Got the same error, but you just press Esc and you are in the game though.

empressplay

2d ago

should run fine with crossover / wine

klaussilveira

2d ago

https://www.macsourceports.com/game/quake

https://github.com/Novum/vkQuake

pttrn

2d ago

vkQuake.app works great on Apple silicon Macs.

divan

2d ago

2 replies

Any chance to play this on Quest 3? (Quake 1-3 is available via SideQuest)

hnlmorg

2d ago

1 reply

This is a Q1 mod, so if sidequest supports modding games and Q1 on there is a source port, then yes this should work

boomlinde

1d ago

"Quake Brutalist Jam III was created for explicit use with the Ironwail source port, version 0.8.1 and above. If using other engines, especially the Quake Remaster, expect issues."

ascagnel_

12h ago

Unlikely -- this pack was created for the latest revision of the "Ironwail" source port, and that only supports Windows & Linux.

Freak_NL

2d ago

1 reply

Just what the doctor ordered in the bleakness of January. Fitting for brutalist architecture.

I do hope Dwell isn't updated with episode 3 too quickly now.

bitwize

2d ago

1 reply

Indeed. I remember the times I needed to interact with the Massachusetts state government. State House notwithstanding, many of the Boston government district's buildings are brutalist in style, and when you go there in January or February, the winter wind really whips through the courtyard, making you legitimately feel like you're on Vogsphere instead of in Boston. Seeing some of these maps gave me flashbacks to that time.

A lone coffeeshop, barely more than a kiosk, called Cuppacoffee, is in the area. It's run by an affable fellow from Australia, a country with an excellent coffee culture, and also sells Australian style meat pies. An oasis of warmth.

distances

1d ago

1 reply

Australia indeed has great coffee culture, I had no idea before visiting. On my holiday there I never had bad or mediocre coffee, which was a bit wild. Not once.

You can get great coffee in Europe of course, but you'll specifically have to go to a cafe that knows what they're doing, or the likelihood of a mediocre brew is high. Australians, I bet most of you don't realize how good you have it there.

Sorry for the off topic.

bitwize

1d ago

When I was in Queensland I was a bit flabbergasted that every roadside sandwich shoppe, no matter how small or God-forsaken, served excellent coffee. Thankfully the world is healing and American coffee culture is improving. Starbucks has as much difficulty getting a toehold in New Orleans as it did in Brisbane and for the same reasons: there are so many places you can get better coffee, that no one wants to go to Starbucks.

Venn1Author

2d ago

2 replies

Getting Quake Brutalist Jam III running on Linux using Quake from my Steam library took a bit of research.

The -nosteam flag in ironwail is needed.

./ironwail -nosteam -basedir . -game qbj3

Outlined the process here: https://interfacinglinux.com/community/linuxgaming/quake-bru...

sigmonsays

2d ago

it hit me too and I ended up having to put the qbj3 directory in my steam directory. Apparently with ironwail 0.8 it looks there.

I think I like this approach more though so i'll try it

Freak_NL

2d ago

Is it? I hadn't used Ironwail before, but I just installed it somewhere (as per the instructions) and it found the Quake dir from Steam (where I extracted qbj3 as well) all by itself. I used VkQuake before this.

brettermeier

2d ago

1 reply

Has someone the standalone version for download? The link provided on the website is unfortunately dead: https://cloud.umami.is/q/C7hou8V8u

khreathor

2d ago

1 reply

I added download mirrors, refresh website please.

brettermeier

1d ago

1 reply

Thank you very much!

brettermeier

1d ago

Edit 2: Fuck y'all, F9 is load but F10 is close the game? And quick loads aren't available because of I didn't save normally, just with quick save (F5)? Why?

quantummagic

2d ago

1 reply

The standalone download worked great on Linux after compiling ironwail. It really looks great, having to choose whether to walk through the easy, normal, or hard doors in game to set the difficulty level was a nice touch i'd never seen before.

In case anyone tries to play it with a Logitech F310 game pad on Linux, it crashed for me unless +joy_rumble 0 was set on the ironwail command line.

Klaster_1

1d ago

1 reply

>having to choose whether to walk through the easy, normal, or hard doors in game to set the difficulty level was a nice touch i'd never seen before.

Have you played Quake 1 campaign before? That literally what you do at the start - walk through one of three doors.

quantummagic

1d ago

1 reply

No, never really played video games much. I suspected it was only new to me, but it made a strong impression, it is such a clever idea.

unbalancedevh

1d ago

And then there's the "nightmare" difficulty, but you have to find that hidden door!

ferguess_k

1d ago

1 reply

Quake is the evergreen of classic FPS modding. I wish Half-Life held this long. Half-Life used to have a bigger community back in the early 2000s but nowadays it mostly went away. Even HL1 and HL2 combined cannot match Quake. There is some beauty about Quake that people keep coming back to it. I do prefer HL as a better (or, more preferable) FPS, though.

shellwizard

1d ago

1 reply

Don't forget about Doom (1993) and Doom 2 (1994), 30 years old and still have a large community of users and mappers, even John Romero released episodes 5 and 6 for the original Doom. On the other hand I used to play some single player maps for Q1 some years ago, the site [quaddicted](https://www.quaddicted.com/) was wonderful

ferguess_k

1d ago

1 reply

Yeah DOOM definitely has a large community too, maybe even a larger one than Quake. Kind interesting how some games enjoy large communities while others do not. e.g. Blood and Duke Nukem 3d are both very good games but their communities are smaller.

hananova

1d ago

1 reply

I think in this particular case the cause it pretty obvious. For Doom you have Ultimate Doom Builder and Doom Tools. For Quake you have Trenchbroom. For blood and duke nukem, you don't.

ferguess_k

12h ago

They do have a modern version of mapeitor but yeah it's probably not as good as the other two, especially Trenchbroom.

tyfighter

5d ago

Another amazing piece of gaming and art by an incredible, dedicated community. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far, and I've still got a long way to go.

movetheworld

1d ago

That brings back the old days. Incredible well done mod/total conversion. Having a blast, thank you for taking the time and energy to create this!

stared

2d ago

In the topic of brutalist maps, here is one for Doom:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/134404-angmngthoo-brut...

sigmonsays

2d ago

so excited to try this, quake1 and quake2 have been my jam for far too long. I still play once in a while these days.

ironbound

2d ago

Recommend checking out the AD mod, the map design is unbelievable https://www.moddb.com/mods/arcane-dimensions

kogasa240p

2d ago

Looks gorgeous, will try on Darkplaces.

crimsoneer

2d ago

Worth pointing out this is a single player total conversion, not just a bunch of maps. It's also absolutely banging.

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ID: 46491808Type: storyLast synced: 1/7/2026, 9:00:54 PM

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