Muff Mode is a server-side multiplayer mod for Quake II Rerelease, built to make every kind of session feel better: drop-in public games, serious competitive matches, and well-run community servers. It combines a more readable match experience for players with deeper match control for hosts, so the same install can support a quick casual night, a pickup, or a polished event.
| Audience | What Muff Mode gives you |
|---|---|
| Casual players | Clearer HUD information, menu-driven voting, approachable team joining, and extra modes such as Horde, Instagib, and NadeFest. |
| Competitive players | Ready-up flow, countdowns, timeouts, overtime, support for Duel / TDM / CA / CTF, flexible rulesets, and captain-led team control. |
| Server hosts | Per-gametype configs, curated map rotations, voting limits, admin tools, team management, debug logging, and built-in diagnostics like doctor. |
| I want to... | Read |
|---|---|
| Install, join games, vote, bind the hook, or learn player commands | Player Guide |
| Run a public server, private lobby, pickup, or scrim server | Server Host Guide |
| Compare gametypes, game modifications, maps, and rulesets | Gameplay Reference |
Browse included mm-* map remasters, ports, original readmes/BSPs, source maps, item registers, and history |
Muff Mode Map Guide |
| Look up commands, cvars, voting flags, and config files | Configuration Reference |
| Build maps or entity overrides for Muff Mode | Level Design Guide |
| Build or publish the Windows updater | Updater Guide |
| Compile the DLL from source | Build Guide |
| Prepare and publish a release package | Release Process |
- Download the latest Muff Mode release.
- Use the Windows installer when available. It detects Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG installs, and also offers an Other location option for custom library folders.
- If you use the zip instead, extract it into the outer
Quake 2folder and allow file replacements. - Launch the game normally. Server hosts can execute the bundled server config with
exec muff-sv.cfgwhen it is included in the release package.
For a more careful walkthrough, use the Player Guide or Server Host Guide.
- Built for every lobby style — supports casual public servers, private friend sessions, pickups, scrims, and more organized competitive events.
- A fuller mode lineup — includes Deathmatch, Duel, TDM, CTF, Clan Arena, CaptureStrike, Red Rover, Last Man Standing, Horde, Freeze Tag, ProBall, Instagib, and NadeFest.
- Flexible rulesets — switch between Quake II Rerelease, Muff Mode, Q2RE Balanced, Quake III Arena style, Quake style, and Quake Champions style depending on the feel you want.
- Better match flow — warmups, ready checks, countdowns, post-match delays, sudden death, overtime, round handling, and timeouts help games start cleanly and stay organized.
- Player-friendly interface improvements — a purpose-built HUD, compact scoreboard, frag messages, timer support, help text, MOTD access, and match-state feedback keep important information visible without overwhelming the screen.
- Fast, accessible voting — use GUI or console voting for maps, gametypes, rulesets, server settings, and administrative actions, with host-side controls to keep votes focused.
- Stronger teamplay tools — captains, captain transfer, team locking, auto-balance, forced balance, and team item-drop notices make coordinated play easier to run.
- Quality-of-life touches players notice — kill beeps, offhand hook support, EyeCam spectating, MyMap queueing, and smarter auto-switch behavior all help matches feel smoother.
- Host controls that scale up — tune per-gametype configs, map lists and pools, votable options, MOTDs, debug logging, and server diagnostics without needing separate builds for different communities.
- Modding and map support — Muff Mode also adds custom maps, entity overrides, item replacement, conditional entity spawning, and new mapper-focused entities for more tailored server content.
Muff Mode releases are intended to include the game logic DLL, server configuration material, bot support files, map entity overrides, and the Windows updater. The source repository contains the C++ game code, Visual Studio project files, updater source, documentation, packaging assets, and project media used to ship the mod.
The project builds on Windows with Visual Studio 2022 / MSBuild. See the Build Guide for prerequisites, commands, output location, and local test installation.
This project was started by themuffinator, later with regular and significant development/maintenance/testing by ozy. It would not be possible without the outstanding work from the Nightdive Team who worked on Quake II Rerelease (source code here). Muff Mode exists thanks to the DarkMatter Discord community, the Nightdive team, id Software, the Quake II Rerelease player community, Paril's Q2 Horde work, ceeeKay's EyeCam code from Q2Eaks, and the Stingy Hat Games modding tutorial.
Muff Mode is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nightdive Studios, id Software, Bethesda, or ZeniMax Media. Quake II is a trademark of ZeniMax Media Inc.
The software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Muff Mode requires a legitimate Quake II Rerelease installation.
See LICENSE for license details.