Game Designer Profile: John Romero

Well as we know Romero was resposible for several of the most popular Doom levels. So I decided to take a closer look at some of thses

The Hanger- Doom

map from Doomwiki-levels-E1M1

probably the most played level in all of Doom, this was the very first level in the entire game and you can really see how Romero was able to pull the player into that world. You start off in a empty room that gets the player used to the visual style and teaches them how to open doors without throwing enemies at you from the start. Then in the next room you meet the firsts enemies, zombies, with plenty of room one quickly learns how to kill these two low level eenmies. Then in the third room you meet your first Imp, not up close but from a distance, he is up on a ledge, this also teaches the player that they can hit anything on their horizontal axis. Also, the player learns the danger of toxic chemicals of which pools of the stuff are on teh floors. Then in the last room you meet the Imp up close not only teaching you that some creatures have melee attacks and it scares the crap out of you. Then of course you flip the swtch at the end  and beat the level. but you could also head back and find the secret areas of the level. One will get you armor and one will get you a nice shotgun.

Overall this is an idea example of what a first level should be and is one of the reasons Doom became so popular. And it all came from the mind of John Romera.

John Romero’s Daikatana is probably considered his worst game, but why. I myself have never palyed it (apparently it was out on N64, I had PSone). According to several reviews I have read on the game I beleave I can see what went wrong. Daikatana is another shooter were you are a martial artist, who uses guns, who travels through time to aquire a special sword before an evil corporation (not cliche at all) gets it.

- Over hyped, a common flaw with many a games. People seemed to think that this would be the next Doom or wolfenstien but it was mediocer at best, perhaps it would have been given positive reviews if it had not been over hyped.

-Allies, what was suppose to be a key feature of the game turned out to be ahead of it’s time. Your allies were suppose to he heavily controled by the player however primitive A.I. and no real precedent made your allies more of a hassel than help.

-Poor weapons Desgin, another Hyped feature of the game was diffrent weapons for diffrent time periods. However, in actual gameplay these games turned out to be not what it was suppose to be. The weapons aparently just plane sucked.

- Same old, Same old. Nothing really new was made for the game other than the above mentioned failed ideas which in essence just made Daikatana a slightly upgraded version of Doom, problem being Doom 64 alredy exsits

reviews

IGN.com

Firingsquad.com

Gamespot.com

Here’s a recent photo of Romero from Techgiiger.com - The article tells about how Slipgate Iron Works is looking for new employees in the Bay Area.

Romero in his younger, more Hippish years from softpedia.com- there article tells of his leave from Midway after his game, Daikatana, lack luster performance. However we now know that he then went on to find Slipgate Iron Works.

An undated, though aboviously outdated Time Digital arcticle on John Romero. The article ranks him among the “Cyber Elite” in 1998. Romero is ranked 36 and states his net worth (for 1998 ) at $10 million dollars est.

article

Here is DOOM’s own wiki, a wiki site completely dedicated to everything DOOM.

So if you need any thing DOOM here is the place to find it. Now some of the same source problems that effect wikipedia are the same here, however, generally only DOOM fans go and edit these pages, but that dosen’t mean their info is solid.

 DOOM wiki

and of corse here is Romero’s DOOM wiki page, same basic stuff as the regualr wikipedia page though diffrent picture. But it does have all the levels Romero desgined for DOOM and DOOM II.

Romero’s DOOM wiki page

Famously Jhon Romero is best known for putting himself in as the ultimate boss in Doom II, know in the game you actually need to use a noclip cheat in order to clearly see him, else it is just a  giant picture of a demon on the wall that shoots other demons out of its head.

Here is a video from youtube that shows John Romero up close as the utimate boss from HELL!

Well wikipedia is not the most reliable of webites, however there is some good information and this page as some of the best overall biographical information.

Wikipedia Page

Just keep in mind that wikipedia is not the best of sources

http://www.slipg8.com/ 

Here is the link to Slipgate Ironworks’ website. The company was founded by Jhon Romero and is his current game studio. Slipgate Ironworks is also the studio behind the mysterious MMORPG Romero is currently making.

In a quick, impromptu interview by the website The MMO Gamer Romero has confirmed that he is working on a new MMORPG, being developed by  Slipgate Ironworks. He gave no details as to what the MMO would be, only that it is unlike any previous MMO, which is why it is so hush, hush.

Click here for the interview

Well no better source for a person than themselves her is Romero’s own personal blog.

johnromero.com

And his site is not just about his past and present work eitheir but also his own likes. He apparently liked the movie cloverfield (well monster movies on general but that is not surprise) and is excited about the new apple air notebook (can’t say I agree with him there because apple sucks, and the air is lacking, well alot, perhaps that is why it is so small. Oh, and no USB, come on.)

I’ll keep and eye out for any new info from the man himself, so stay tuned