John Romero

About

John Romero is a Video Game Designer, Programmer, and Developer renowned for being the co-founder of id Software and designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Hexen, Commander Keen, Doom and Quake.

History

Career

John Romero has been developing games since 1982, working for Capitol Ideas Software. He released his first own game, Scout Search, on 1984. Romero is well known for being the co-founder of id Software, and also for his work on the video game franchise Doom.

id Software

Romero worked at id Software from its incorporation in 1991 until 1996. During his incorporation he worked on several milestone games, like Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, and Quake.

During the development of Quake, Romero clashed with John Carmack, co-founder and lead programmer of id Software, over the future direction of id. Romero wanted the game to follow his demanding vision without compromise, but Carmack insisted that the project had to make steady progress toward completion and accused Romero of not working as much as the other developers. Although Romero relented on his vision and joined a months-long death march effort to finish the game, this did not resolve the tensions within the company, and Romero was forced to resign.

His work on id Software established his place in the Video Game Industry and made him as one of the most inspirational game devs in the industry.

Ion Storm

On November 15th, 1996, John Romero co-founded Ion Storm in Dallas, Texas with id co-worker Tom Hall, Todd Porter, and Jerry O'Flaherty with the slogan: "Design is Law".

During his incorporation on Ion Storm, Romero designed and produced his most infamous game: Daikatana.

The Daikatana Controversy

In the year of 1997, John Romero announced his shooter game Daikatana with a advertisement boasting: "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch…..Suck it down", which caused controversy amongst gamers and gaming press. The massive pre-hype and subsequent delays were compounded by poor reviews when it was finally released in 2000. Daikatana was critically panned with negative reviews and appeared on numerous "top 10 worst games" listings.

According to many reviews the game had bad controls, unsatisfying gameplay, bad AI, and bad looking graphics from its time.

Romero sent an apology letter to his fans, stating that he made a mistake and feels humbled for such incompetence:

Recognition

John Romero is considered to be one of the most influential game designers and programmers in the video game industry. His work on FPS games like Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake have redefined the FPS genre, giving a massive popularization to the genre in the 90's. He was also credited for coining the famous multiplayer term "Deathmatch".

Personal Life

John Romero was born in October 28th, 1967, on Colorado Springs, Colorado, he is of Yaqui and cherokee heritage.

In January 2004, John Romero married with Raluca Alexandra Pleșca, from Bucharest, Romania. They divorced in 2011.

John Romero and game dev. Brenda Brathwaite founded social game development company Loot Drop in November 2010, and worked on Cloudforest Expedition and Ghost Recon Commander together.

Romero and Brenda became engaged on March 24th, 2012, and married on October 27th, 2012. The couple worked together on Ravenwood Fair, a Facebook game, with Romero as Lead Designer and Brathwaite as Creative Director and Game Designer.

Romero has three children from two previous marriages: Michael, born in 1988, Steven born in 1989, and Lillia Antoinette, born in 1998.

Online Presence

Romero has announced his new video game he's been working on with Adrian Carmack on Kickstarter in 25th April 2016. The new game is called Blackroom

Blackroom has its official website and is predicted to be released on December 2018.

Search Interest

External References

Facebook – Main Page

Twitter – Main Page

Youtube – John Romero

Wikipedia – John Romero