Quake 4: The Awakening - CE

Post news Report RSS Quake 4 The Awakening Complete Edition - Development Update #1

This first development update provides an overview of our plan for this mod, a music preview, level design work, an open casting call for voice actors and more! Read on for all the details.

Posted by Spider-Man-Dev on Aug 25th, 2026

What is the Complete Edition?

The main goal for this mod is in the name, to complete the alpha build of Quake 4 The Awakening. We plan no deviations or major changes to what we already have here. This is a very final build in very good shape, so our plan is simply to polish the rough edges and areas that feel more incomplete.

So what kind of things did we find that need finishing? Here is an example of unfinished texture work in a later level in the game we intend to clean up:

Examples of unfinished areas of some levels

There are quite a few spots in the later levels that appear in this unfinished state and we plan to make these area completed with proper textures, lighting, atmospheric effects and the possibility of additional enemies, pick-ups etc for the more unfinished and larger areas. So what else do we plan to complete?

Let's continue on to the next sections of this development update where we will go through more things we plan to complete.

Level Design

The levels in this alpha build are very complete, however we have found a few clearly unfinished areas, as we described earlier along with other interesting things like secret areas with no way to get to them. We plan to finish these secret areas that let you get weapons early and abundant pick-ups. The images below show the area in the map m01_stranarus_trench1.

Location We Found the Secret in map m01_stranarus_trench1

Spot updated so the player can reach it now

We are currently using NetRadiant to update levels such as these newly found secret areas, but also to fix soft-locks, bugs, lighting issues and other things that have been left unpolished in a level.

NetRadiant has become the level editor of choice with our team

Voice Acting

One thing that will be entirely replaced is the voice acting, almost all of it is placeholder with one person doing numerous roles, maybe even a developer from Ritual Entertainment at the time. Due to this we are opening a casting call for all the roles in the game! We are going to be using the exact same script that Ritual Entertainment used, which we extracted from the game files, there will be no deviations other than some inspirations or suggestions from the amazing voice actors that will be cast.

Some examples of roles being cast (please check the Casting Call Club link for details and images):

• Valkaryne
• Private Tak
• Lieutenant Markswell
• Pain Lord

Please check the link below for the open casting call for over a dozen roles that we will need help with:

CASTING CALL CLUB LISTING FOR ALL AVAILABLE ROLES

Music

Most of the music for the expansion is complete, however some tracks are unfinished or were clearly placeholder as they don't fit well or are not timed properly for what is happening in a cutscene. So we are finishing these tracks and we are ensuring we keep Quake's entire legacy in mind when working on the musical influences.

For this introduction music track, we have taken inspiration from the introductory music track in the original Quake. This fusion makes for a fantastic track that fits the military theme of Quake 4 but builds off of the original Quake to create something both new and familiar.

Take a listen to the track below by Arthur:

Here is the first work in progress track for the game's introduction

History

Over the years there has been concept art, enemy designs, screenshots, models and more that leaked out from this never seen expansion. So the entire team has been digging through all these original documents, including a first draft story outline, to help us with everything we do.

Its important that we appreciate and understand the work that went into planning this expansion, which is important as we finish and honour the work done by Ritual Entertainment to create what we have today. Along with many thanks to Justin Marshall who found this build on an vintage PC they purchased and released it online for Quake fans around the world to appreciate.

Please enjoy some of the concept art below!

Valkaryne Concept Art

Tank Concept Art

Pain Lord Concept Art

Wretch Concept Art

Looking for Developer Help!

Our team has grown in size, however we still need some help with the mod, while id tech 4 engine experience is welcome it is not required. The id tech 4 engine is very versatile and was very forward focused, so it has a lot more features and options that most engines from the early 2000s.

We have many tutorials and people on the team to get you familiar with id tech 4 and get going on various tasks.

The roles we are currently looking for are:

• Animators
• Level Designers
• Programmers

Please send us a message if you are interested in helping out the team with any of these roles!

Thank you!

We want to thank everyone for their amazing support for the mod so far, we have created a wonderful small team and we cannot wait to grow and complete this amazing long lost expansion for Quake 4! The logo for our team, The Awoken, that you see below is the Strogg symbol in the form of the Valkaryne.

Thank you again so much from everyone on the team!