Nearly thirty years on, and the original Doom game is still influencing an industry that has vastly moved on since those early days. It's not just the reboots that have brought it back into the limelight. The 1993 release stands on its own two feet as one of the most influential FPS games ever made. However, this didn't come about from a simple spark of an idea and a bunch of young developers deciding to kick-start a whole gaming genre. It turns out it took way longer for the game to become a reality.
That's according to John Romero, at least. For those who aren't aware, Romero is credited as being one of the creative minds behind the first Doom games, along with John Carmack who now works at Oculus. In a recent tweet from the former, he gave some words of encouragement to would-be developers, saying to just "start making games. Any games." He ends the tweet by saying that Doom was the 90th game he made.
This may come as a surprise to many. The history of id Software, the company both Romero and Carmack founded along with a couple of other people, stretches back into the early 1990s. Some older gamers will know of the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, and going back even further, Commander Keen. At most, many fans would assume that there had been maybe half a dozen projects before Doom would eventually skyrocket the studio to international stardom. However, the fact that Romero made nearly 100 games before the innovative shooter saw the light of day is pretty astonishing.
Although the long-haired developer departed id Software after finishing work on Quake, he still comes back to the series that made him a household name in the industry. Earlier this year, John Romero released a Doom 2 map in support of Ukraine. Called "One Humanity," the custom level managed to raise around $27,000 at that time, with all proceeds going to those affected by the Russian invasion that began in February of this year.
On top of this, John Romero also revealed he's working on a new FPS game. Although he will always be known for the early days of PC gaming, namely Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, he is still actively developing games. The likes of 2000's Daikatana failed to make much of an impact, especially after a lot of hype built up by the man himself, but hopefully his next project will be just as successful as his classic body of work.