john-romero posts

id Software founder John Romero has decided to depart the latest game developer company that he helped to form, the San Fransisco-based Slipgate Ironworks. Earlier this week it was revealed that Romero was teaming up with his long time friend and business partner Tom Hall on a new social networking game developer called Loot Drop.

Romero formed Slipgate Ironworks in 2005 and said at the time that it was developing a new but unnamed MMO project. Later it was revealed that the company was part of the many MMO game studios from Gazillion Entertainment. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Big Download, "John is no longer working with Gazillion. We parted ways late last year, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future."

It's been over five years since Slipgate Ironworks was formed yet the developer has yet to reveal the game project or projects it has been working on for all that time. Gazillion's spokesperson gave us a small update on Slipgate Ironworks, saying, ... "the studio is working on a key project in Gazillion. John's MMO project was changed and shifted out to later in the pipeline, as the company decided to move it to an in-browser platform which is an area of focus for Gazillion's future titles. We have not announced a release date for this title and John was not involved with the new plans."

It was one of the most infamous ads for a game ever created. A print ad for Ion Storm's first person shooter Daikatana, released long before the game actually came out, insisted, "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." At the time, the former id Software designer was at the height of his fame and it seems like he could do anything.

In the end, Daikatana was released to poor reviews and sales and Ion Storm shut down shortly afterwards. Now Romero, in a new interview for the PDF magazine Gamesauce, is apologizing for that early ad. He states, "You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch, not you, not them, not any of the other players and, most importantly, not any of my fans..." It seems a little late to make such an apology but then again Romero is no longer a bigger-than-life game developer either.

id Software founder John Romero has been working in near silence at his current job as head of Slipgate Ironworks, a developer that's been working on an unknown MMO since 2005. Slipgate is part of the Gazillion Entertainment company and last year they announced layoffs at the developer. The smaller team caused Gazillion to "change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim."

Now it looks like Romero is hiring people again at the developer. His Twitter page states, "I'm looking for Unreal 3 experienced coders. Lead, server & client engineers. Send your resumes to john@gazillion.com." They are still being silent on what the game project is but Romero does say that it's for an "exciting iP". Hopefully we will finally learn what he and his team have been working on for so long very soon.

[Via Blue's News]

Late last week it was revealed that one of Gazillion Entertainment's MMO game developers Slipgate Ironworks, had suffered some layoffs. The studio was formed back in 2005 by former id Software designer John Romero. Gazillion's official comment about the layoffs, however, did not specify if Romero was one of the people who may have been let go.

Big Download contacted Gazillion for comment and today we heard back from their PR rep that Romero is indeed still with Slipgate Ironworks. He will have to work with a smaller team on their still unannounced MMO project. Gazillion's official statement on the game's status indicated a change in the game's format but no details were provided.

Former id Software designer John Romero's latest game development company is dealing with layoffs. A number of team members at the San Mateo, California based Slipgate Ironworks were given their notices today, according to Kotaku. While the developer's parent company, Gazillion Entertainment, has confirmed layoffs did happen at the developer they are not saying how many people were affected.

Romero helped to form Slipgate Ironworks way back in 2005 and since then the company has been working on a secret MMO game project. In their official statement, Gazillion states the game is still in development with its smaller team but " . . . we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim." The statement indicated at least some of the people affected by the layoffs may be offered positions at Gazillion's other game developers which include NetDevil (Jumpgate Evolution, Lego Universe) and Gargantuan Games (Marvel Universe MMO)

It certainly was surprising news on Wednesday when ZeniMax Media announced that it had purchased id Software and its properties. It certainly was surprising to John Romero, one of id's original co-founders but who hasn't been part of the company since 1996. While he's been working in secret at the MMO game developer Slipgate Ironworks since 2005 he certainly had some . . interesting thoughts on this week's news.

On his Twitter page, Romero first stated, "ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting." and later added, "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow.." Later he seemed to calm down saying, " i am positive about the Zenimax deal. my initial reaction was harsh. sorry." His last "tweet" on the subject was downright melancholy, as he stated, "i guess i was shocked and sad to see the id Software of old changed forever today. it's a new day and a new id."

Part of any game's development cycle is its advertising efforts. Done to drum up interest in a title that might otherwise go unnoticed, there are various approaches a PR staff can take. They can appeal to a gamer's intellect by displaying a bullet point list of key features. They can evoke a sense of competition by challenging the player's pride in his abilities. They can even rely on nostalgia in the case of a sequel, or if the game is a reissue of an old game for a new platform.

Going along with the publisher-generated hype is media coverage of the game. There are dozens, if not scores of game-related sites out there, all ready to give you their opinions and competing with each other to provide first looks at screenshots and gameplay. Given these two forces in action, it can be difficult to avoid oversaturation. By the time a game arrives on store shelves, you might find that the excitement and anticipation you felt upon first hearing of the title has been drowned in the sea of clamoring voices, all vying for your attention. Worse yet, you might find that playing the game itself does not provide the experience promised by all the hype. What's to be done about this?

The first person shooter genre was still something new when id Software was creating their all time greatest game Doom. There were no multi-million dollar budgets for games in 1993 and the Internet was still something that geeks used almost exclusively. So what was it like to work in a game development office back in the "old days" of 16 years ago?

Former id Software team member (and current head of Slipgate Ironworks) John Romero gives us a rare glimpse back into that history on his official web site. He got access to a video that was originally filmed in 1993 and then forgotten about until just recently. The beginning of the over 30 minute movie shows various former and current id Software team members (including Romero but not John Carmack) working on Doom and fooling around in their very spartan offices. The vast majority of the movie shows Shakycam footage a near final (but still not complete) version of the original Doom. There are some bugs shown and the sound effects are not final but this little curio is still worth checking out.

[Via Blue's News]

Today is the 15th anniversary of the release of Doom, the sci-fi first person shooter from id Software. On Dec. 10, 1993, the original shareware version was uploaded to a single FTP server. That's all it took for the game, about one space marine fighting an invasion from Hell on the moons of Mars, to spread across the world like wildfire on tens of millions of PC hard drives.

While the game wasn't the first FPS ever made, the release of Doom arguably launched the genre into the mainstream of gaming. The PC shareware version of the title became a massive hit with some people saying the DOS version of the shareware were installed on more PCs at one point than Microsoft's then current version of Windows.

Click on the logo above to continue reading Happy 15th Birthday Doom!

Download the Doom Shareware here at Big Download
Download the Doom III Classic mod (a remake of the original Doom in Doom III) here at Big Download