This year’s QuakeCon begins today, and with it, a celebration of all things id Software (DOOM, Quake) with massive multiplayer tournaments, an enormous Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) LAN event, all kinds of presentations and exhibitions, and what many would call the ‘crown jewel’ of the event, John Carmack’s annual keynote.

Every year, id Software’s co-founder, technical director and all-round genius John Carmack gets up on a stage and speaks at length (up to three hours sometimes) with no notes or prompts (except during the lengthy Q&A session) and goes on a stream of conscious ‘technical ramble’ about his work at id Software, the game industry, future directions, various programming challenges, and of course his rocketry work at his aerospace company, Armadillo Aerospace.

Sometimes, he even reveals id Software games.

These talks are always incredibly fascinating, despite the fact that 95% of the people listening in on the conversation would probably admit to not understanding 95% of what Carmack is talking about, but quite frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Today, though, Carmack’s keynote may just hold a special reveal for id Software fans that he himself has labelled “neat.” If you know a little bit about Carmack’s vernacular, ‘neat’ translates into ‘pretty darn cool.’

From a recent Twitter tweet (yeah, he’s on Twitter!):

“I’m showing something neat and unannounced at quakecon tomorrow. Deciding if I should leave it be or sneak a little more code in…”

Could Carmack be alluding to a formal announcement of the next DOOM game, or something else that no-one outside of the company has seen yet?

Keep your ears to the ground and your eyes to the sky – Carmack may just have something to get you excited later today.

Also look out for talks and an appearance by ex-Infinity Ward developers (and co-founders of new studio Respawn Entertainment) Jason West and Vince Zampella, at QuakeCon this year.