john romero
Latest
Ravenwood Fair, a Facebook game from ... John Romero?
You're probably familiar with the name John Romero. The legendary co-founder of id Software, and co-creator of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, Romero is often credited with the first-person shooter mechanic that now commands so much of the video gaming world's devotion. And you might be surprised to learn that Romero's newest game -- no, it's not the Slipgate Ironworks-developed MMO, though he's still working on that as well, downsizing be damned -- is a Facebook game called Ravenwood Fair. "Clear the scary forest and build a fun fair!" it instructs players. The game -- built by the terribly titled, up-and-coming Facebook dev LOLapps -- is akin to peers like Zynga's Frontierville. In fact, Romero points to Frontierville's lead designer Brian Reynolds, formerly of Big Huge Games, for helping set the Facebook stage for developers like himself. "I knew when the game developers moved into social games it would get more gamed up," Romero told VentureBeat. The small-scale, "craftsman-like" work of building a Facebook game is familiar to Romero; id's original (and current!) team sizes are dwarfed by the rest of the industry. Romero's projects with larger teams -- from the ill-received Daikatana to the refocused Gazillion-published MMO -- are complicated affairs, while his early cellphone-gaming company, Monkeystone Games, was marked by a familiar DIY ethos. VentureBeat reports that "it took Romero and his handful of people about two months to make" Ravenwood Fair. For Romero, that's an incredible trade-off for the hundreds of millions of potential users Facebook offers. "More people could play it than would ever play an MMO," Romero said. You can play Ravenwood Fair today, if you're not worried about certain Facebook apps accidentally revealing your personal info to unscrupulous advertisers. But then, who will clear the scary forest? Decisions, decisions.
John Romero becomes consultant for casual game developer LOLapps
John Romero may forever be known as the man behind Doom and Daikatana to hardcore gamers, but he's since diversified his resume quite a bit. While he remains the head of MMO developer Slipgate, Romero is now acting as a consultant for casual game developer LOLapps. The company boasts over 100 million users of its various Facebook apps, such as Gift Creator and Quiz Creator; its most recent title is Critter Island (pictured above), "a game where you can decorate an island for tourists and invite friends to come visit." Romero recently joined the team to work on an unnamed Facebook game, one that will likely follow the company's mantra to "[marry] web and game technology to the kind of mini virtual worlds that are popular on Facebook." We're not exactly sure what that means, but it should sound thrilling to venture capitalists. "This is where the excitement is now," Romero told VentureBeat, marking the next step in the developer's rather unique career.
Romero remains head of Slipgate following layoffs
Parent publisher Gazillion Entertainment has confirmed that John Romero will remain with Slipgate Ironworks following a round of layoffs that struck the development studio this month, reports Joystiq sister site Big Download. As previously detailed, a smaller staff will be left intact to complete an unnamed MMO project, which has undergone a change in "format," according to Gazillion.Co-founded by Romero in 2005, Slipgate once boasted a staff of about 80 veteran developers -- now reportedly reduced to around 30 -- that had combined to work on 16 MMO titles for other studios. Their seventeenth and first MMO for Slipgate, however, remains an elusive undertaking.
Romero's Slipgate Ironworks cuts staff, work continues
Publisher Gazillion Entertainment has confirmed layoffs at John Romero's studio, Slipgate Ironworks, which is currently working on an unnamed MMO. Although the publisher wouldn't reveal the number let go, Kotaku reports that former staffers estimate around 50 people are looking for a new place of work.A statement from Gazillion obtained by Gamasutra claims that the company decided to "change the format" of the Slipgate Ironworks project to reach the "widest possible audience." The game will now launch with a "smaller core team." Gazillion is also publishing the delayed Jumpgate Evolutions and 2012's Marvel Universe MMO.Source -- Gazillion Confirms Layoffs At Romero-Led MMO Dev Slipgate Ironworks [Gamasutra]Source -- Romero's Slipgate Ironworks Hammered Down, MMO Project Still On [Kotaku]
Gazillion layoffs hit Romero's Slipgate Ironworks
Whatever Gazillion Entertainment's secret mastermind plot is, their next step has been to create an unfortunate situation for a suspected 50 now ex-employees at Slipgate Ironworks. The reasoning? According to Gazillion, "As part of our focus on reaching the widest possible audiences with breakthrough MMO entertainment, we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim," So, whatever unannounced MMO the team was working on is now canned, it would seem. At least there's a silver lining, in some sense. Gazillion also stated, "-the other Slipgate staff are already in discussions around the many open positions across our slate of projects." You know what? We'd make another world conquering joke here, but that'd be too easy. Instead, we're just going to sit in our chair, pet our cat and sip this lovely whipped latte. Oh, whoops, guess we just can't help ourselves sometimes.Seriously though, next year is going to be interesting, because the official statement alludes to something being released from the publisher next year. Unless they're just talking about Jumpgate Evolution -- at least, we hope that comes out by next year -- and then we're not really sure why they just didn't say as much.
Dead Rising vs Dawn of the Dead lawsuit dismissed
That's it folks. Show's over. Move along. US Magistrate Judge Richard Seeborg has dismissed the case of MKR Group -- the company that owns George Romero's Dawn of the Dead film -- versus Capcom -- the publisher behind Dead Rising. MKR Group tried to make the case that Dead Rising is too similar to the film Dawn of the Dead, but Seeborg chose to grant Capcom's motion for dismissal, which stated that the MKR had "not identified any similarity between Dead Rising and any protected element of Dawn of the Dead." The motion elaborated that the noted similarities were "driven by the wholly unprotectable concept of humans battling zombies in a mall during a zombie outbreak."Several claims were made by MKR noting similarities between the game and the film, including the use of photojournalists as main characters and the fact that "Many of the zombies wear plaid shirts" (no, seriously). One interesting note in Capcom's favor, the judge completely dismissed MKR's claim that both works are a "parody of rampant consumerism." He stated, "To the extent that Dead Rising may be deemed to posses a theme, it is confined to the killing of zombies" and discovering the cause of the outbreak. He concluded that the "social commentary" drawn by MKR from he film "appears totally absent from the combat focus found in Dead Rising."That's all well and good for Capcom, apart from the fact that Dead Rising totally is about consumerism. So, we're guessing that either Seeborg didn't actually finish Dead Rising or, perhaps, he wasn't paying attention. Judges these days. Sheesh.
Auran wants to make you their bitch
John Romero and Mike Wilson might be indulging in increasingly childish verbal fisticuffs over the famous "John Romero's about to make you his bitch!" advertisement, but all of that testosterone-laden scuffling kind of glosses over the fact that antagonizing and belittling your players is not a great way to gain a solid following. Especially if your players are over ten years old. Well, according to Signe at F13, Auran (or whoever's really in back of the game Fury these days - funnily enough it appears to be Mike Wilson's Gamecock) wants you to suck it down and stop being such a shameful girly loser in what has to be one of the outright worst MMO incentive emails I've seen so far, endearingly titled "LOSER! LOSER! LLLOOOOSSSSEEEERRRRR!"
Romero: GameCock is dumb, GameCock: No U R!, Us: Whose bitch are we?
As the adage instructs, we are usually inclined to save drama for our mamas. But sometimes it's just too much fun to pass it up. Such is the case with a vitriolic exchange between marvelously coiffed game dev John Romero and GameCock CEO Mike Wilson. Let's get straight to the aforementioned drama, shall we?So, Romero was blogging, and he was all like "Once again, just like with Godgames, Wilson is taking all the credit away from the indie devs and pasting his asinine logo everywhere" and Mike Wilson was totally like "I will also not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do)with your dream company."And we were all like "Have either of you guys made any games since the Clinton administration?"Though we're trying to seem cynically aloof and above all the squabbles, we do have to give the 2008 Burn of the Year award to Mike Wilson for "Your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has (just in the time I've known you) left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation." Wow. Romero may have taken the first swing but Wilson responded with the Enola Gay. Metaphorically speaking, John Romero has just been shoved into a wood chipper.
John Romero totally hates Gamecock
John Romero is pretty opinionated regarding the head of Gamecock, Mike Wilson. He says some of his feelings via his blog, stating that Wilson is merely taking the credit for the hard work of his developers and labeling the company's E.I.E.I.O. event as another in a supposed long line of "jackass stunts."Romero goes on to say more negative things regarding the Gamecock CEO, adding "Wilson is taking all the credit away from the indie devs and pasting his asinine logo everywhere." Romero claims that industry insiders are more along his line of thinking, as well, stating "People are now starting to get a clue about how Mr. Wilson operates. Hey everyone, he hasn't changed in over 10 years – these are the kinds of jackass stunts he pulled at Ion Storm."[Via Gamesindustry.biz]
Sierra making "mass-market" online game with BigWorld suite
It seems like every time we hear about a new title, the first thing we hear is an announcement about what engine or dev tools its developers will use. This time, Sierra has licensed the BigWorld Suite, parts of which are also used in Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Stargate Worlds and John Romero's forthcoming MMO project.The announcement was made by BigWorld Technologies, not Sierra, and it didn't reveal much about the nature of the game, except that it it will be (according to Gamasutra) "targeting a mass-market audience." King's Quest Online? Probably not, but if only! If you want to know more about BigWorld, Ten Ton Hammer did a great interview with one of the guys behind it earlier this year. Oh, and just so you know; Sierra is/was owned by Vivendi Games, and so is (like Blizzard) now part of the epic corporate monstrosity known as Activision Blizzard. All your studio are belong to us.
Romero unearths unreleased Doom music
So you think you know everything about Doom, huh? You've beaten all the games on Nightmare without cheats? Played every fan-made WAD you could get your hands on? You're listening to a megamix of Doom MIDIs right now, aren't you? Well we've got some tunes here that we can guarantee aren't on your playlist.Doom co-creator John Romero has posted these unreleased tracks on his blog with the warning that, much like deleted scenes on DVDs, "there's a reason these weren't released - they're not very good." And he's right -- with a few exceptions, the tracks are overly repetitive and a bit wonky. Still, if you worship anything and everything Doom-related, then, uh, I guess you should start worshiping ... because these are definitely Doom-related. Yeah!
John Romero: PC is about to make console its bitch
With the disfigured ghost of an anti-climactic game and the remnants of a self-destructive marketing campaign chasing him for the rest of his life, it's only fair that John Romero occasionally gets to look forward and into the future. In an interview with Adrenaline Vault, the Quake designer predicts that "cheap" multi-core processors will eventually steal hardcore gamers away from the "next-gen" consoles and bring them to the PC (or something "PC-like"), while the Wii's simplicity will earn it a casual gamer audience. "Next-gen console is big but its future isn't too bright with the emergence of cheap PC multi-core processors and the big change the PC industry will go through during the next 5 years to accommodate the new multi-core-centric hardware designs," says Romero. "My prediction is that the game console in the vein of the PS3 and XBOX 360 is going to either undergo a massive rethink or go away altogether." While the next five years may indeed bring enough cheap multi-core processors to blot out the sun, we submit that the PS3 and Xbox 360's intended audiences will happily play in the shade. By the time those PC parts are even considered to be cheap (try buying just a comparable multi-core chipset and a Direct X 10 graphics card for under $400 today), these consoles will likely be home to several franchises that hardcore gamers will be taxed to resist -- and the next wave of consoles won't be far off either.Romero goes on to say that "The Wii has the perfect design for a console that doesn't pretend to be a PC and is geared more toward casual gamers than hardcore gamers. The hardcore gamers are going to either be playing on their PCs or a new PC-like platform that sits in the living room but still serves the whole house over wifi, even the video signal." A PC-like platform sitting in the living room? Now that sounds a little more likely -- in fact, hasn't this convergence already begun?
NeXT crucial to PC game history
John Romero, pausing from his CPL project, recently updated his weblog, reminiscing about the tenth anniversary of Apple buying NeXT; id used NeXT machines to develop some of its most iconic games. Doom, Doom II, and Quake were created on NeXT boxes, and Romero also says Raven Software developed Heretic and Hexen on the same platform. Romero's post delivers lots more geek love, with more specific notes about the development process; we almost forgot that developers have platform allegiances even if their products are made for other operating systems.[Via TUAW]
A decade of NeXT and Apple
In the summer of 1989, I had a really, really tough assignment: I had to evaluate the NeXT Cube for a publishing company. What a hardship to have that black box on my desk, along with that 400-dpi laser printer! I don't know how I ever managed.It's hard to believe that it was ten years ago, on 12/20/1996, that we welcomed Steve Jobs and NeXT Computers back into the Apple family. Legendary game developer John Romero remembers, and he's got a fascinating post up about the role of NeXT in bringing his babies to market.According to Romero, the original development environment for both Doom and Quake was NeXTSTEP; in fact, the first four years of id Software's efforts were on NeXT. He fondly remembers the days of simultaneously building for three different architectures, and side-by-side map editing across the LAN with cofounder John Carmack.Romero ends his post by noting that he spent the 15 years prior to 1996 working on computers built by Steve Jobs, and that "maybe someday I'll get one of those kickass iMacs." Cue the salivary glands of Mac gamers everywhere...[via IMG]
