Emphasis is placed on movement and player physics, with a focus on gaining speed, jumping great distances, and conquering the level geometry.

The game runs on the DarkPlaces engine and thus supports bloom, dynamic lighting and shadowing, offset mapping, and high-dynamic-range rendering.

The developers claim that the graphics quality is comparable to commercial video game titles released between 2006 and 2007.

[5] In March 2010, controversy arose over the original Nexuiz being licensed to IllFonic to create a commercial version.

The original creator, Lee Vermeulen, secretly made a deal with IllFonic which gave them hold over the Nexuiz trademark.

[10] Since the release of this version, Team Xonotic's stated aim has been to "create the best possible fast-paced open-source FPS game".

It added sRGB lightmap rendering, a new menu interface, 4 new maps, an integrated statistics system (XonStats), a Sandbox editing mode and the long-awaited feature of ClientSide QuakeC (CSQC) networked players.

Additionally, the team migrated to the gmqcc QuakeC compiler which generated faster, more optimized program files.