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91-431: Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is an American video game developer . He co-founded id Software and designed their early games, including Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Doom (1993), Doom II (1994), Hexen (1995) and Quake (1996). His designs and development tools, along with programming techniques developed by the id programmer John Carmack , popularized the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. Romero

182-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

273-494: A conversation with podcaster Lex Fridman , Carmack stated that, in hindsight, he regrets the way he dealt with the firing of Romero, citing immaturity and lack of understanding of corporate structure as the primary causal factors. Additionally, Carmack clarified that both he and Romero were currently on good terms. Romero co-founded Ion Storm in Dallas , Texas with another id co-founder, Tom Hall , where he designed and produced

364-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

455-507: A dispute between the two companies over EA's 1987 game Deathlord . Origin, with about $ 13 million in annual revenue, stated that it had considered an IPO before agreeing to the deal. By 1996, Origin had expanded to more than 300 employees, most of whom were divided among small, largely autonomous development teams. In 1997, Origin released one of the earliest graphical MMORPGs , Ultima Online . After this title, Electronic Arts decided that Origin would become an online-only company after

546-432: A first-generation Mexican American, was a maintenance man at an air force base, spending his days fixing air conditioners and heating systems. After Alfonso and Ginny married, they headed in a 1948 Chrysler with three hundred dollars to Colorado, hoping their interracial relationship would thrive in more tolerant surroundings. Among Romero's early influences, the arcade video game Space Invaders (1978), with its " shoot

637-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

728-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

819-519: A game company named Inside Out Software, where he ported Might & Magic II from the Apple II to the Commodore 64. He had almost finished the Commodore 64 to Apple II port of Tower Toppler , but Epyx unexpectedly cancelled all its ports industrywide due to their tremendous investment in the first round of games for the upcoming Atari Lynx . During this short time, Romero did the artwork for

910-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1001-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

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1092-533: A launch in late 2018. The Kickstarter campaign was cancelled four days after its launch. In 2023, Romero confirmed in his autobiography, Doom Guy: Life in First Person , that while a demo had existed and was shown to publishers, no publishers expressed interest in funding the game after the Kickstarter cancellation, and the game was fully cancelled after that behind-closed-doors demo. On 2017, Romero won

1183-469: A new FPS. In April 2016, he announced a partnership with the former iD artist Adrian Carmack to create the FPS Blackroom , describing their vision as a visceral, varied and violent shooter that harkens back to classic FPS play with a mixture of exploration, speed, and intense combat. They hoped to raise $ 700,000 (~$ 836,729 in 2023) via Kickstarter to see the project to completion and anticipated

1274-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

1365-402: A post. The player defeats the boss (without the noclip cheat) by shooting rockets into its exposed brain after activating a lift and riding it. Romero's head functions as its hit detection point; when he "dies", the boss is killed and the game is finished. In the 2013 IGN Doom playthrough to celebrate Doom 's 20th anniversary, Romero shared the backstory behind the inclusion of his head as

1456-681: A programmer in its Special Projects division. After several months of helping the PC monthly disk magazine Big Blue Disk , he officially moved into the department until he started a PC games division in July 1990 named Gamer's Edge (originally titled PCRcade). Romero hired John D. Carmack into the department from his freelancing in Kansas City, moved Adrian Carmack (no relation) into the division from Softdisk's art department, and persuaded Tom Hall to come in at night and help with game design. Romero and

1547-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

1638-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

1729-444: A source of both admiration and derision for his fans. John guest-answered Planet Quake ' s "Dear Mynx" column, in which a female fan asked for hair care tips. Romero cut his hair short in 2002 and donated it to Locks of Love . Discussion boards such as Doomworld and BeyondUnreal had threads discussing his new look at the time, although he began to grow it back to its original length in 2003. On January 11, 2022, Romero gave

1820-533: A statement via Twitter on the subject of his hair, to coincide with the 120th anniversary of William Arthur Jones' "Indian haircut order" of 1902. In the statement, Romero said: "I wear my hair long as a proud Yaqui and Cherokee man, and will continue to do so until the day I die." In 2000, during the development of Daikatana , Romero listed Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny , Super Mario Bros. 3 , Age of Empires , Duke Nukem 3D and Chrono Trigger as his favorite games of all time, with Chrono Trigger topping

1911-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

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2002-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

2093-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

2184-535: Is also credited with coining the multiplayer term " deathmatch ". Following disputes with Carmack, Romero was fired from id in 1996. He co-founded a new studio, Ion Storm , and directed the FPS Daikatana (2000), which was a critical and commercial failure. Romero departed Ion Storm in 2001. In July 2001, he and another former id employee, Tom Hall , founded Monkeystone Games to develop games for mobile devices . In 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as

2275-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

2366-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

2457-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

2548-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

2639-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

2730-705: The Apple IIGS version of Dark Castle , a port from the Macintosh. During this time, John and his friend Lane Roathe co-founded a company named Ideas from the Deep and wrote versions of a game called Zappa Roidz for the Apple II, PC and Apple IIGS. Their last collaboration was an Apple II disk operating system (InfoDOS) for Infocom's games Zork Zero , Arthur , Shogun and Journey . Romero moved to Shreveport, Louisiana , in March 1989 and joined Softdisk as

2821-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

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2912-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

3003-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

3094-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

3185-521: The Ultima franchise such as Ultima X: Odyssey , originally to be released in 2004 but later canceled. In February 2004, the studio was disbanded by Electronic Arts. The Longbow series of simulation games was developed at Origin and published under the Jane's Combat Simulations brand of Electronic Arts. A follow-on project, Jane's A-10 , was under development when the project was canceled in late 1998 and

3276-405: The boss is supposed to be a giant demon head with a fragment missing from its forehead. When first viewing the demon, a distorted and demonic message is played, which is actually John Romero saying "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!", reversed and distorted to sound like a demonic chant. One can use the "noclip" cheat to enter the boss and see Romero's severed head which is skewered on

3367-477: The fighting games Street Fighter II , Fatal Fury , Art of Fighting and Virtua Fighter . John Romero started programming games on an Apple II he got in 1980. The first game he wrote was an unpublished clone of the arcade game Crazy Climber . His first published game, Scout Search , appeared as a type-in program in the June 1984 issue of Apple II magazine inCider . At least 12 of his games published for print and disk magazines were developed under

3458-596: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas . It

3549-467: The Apple II to Commodore 64 port of 2400 A.D. , which was eventually scrapped due to slow sales of the Apple II version. Romero then moved onto Space Rogue , a game by Paul Neurath . During this time, Romero was asked if he would be interested in joining Paul's soon-to-start company Blue Sky Productions, eventually renamed Looking Glass Technologies . Instead, Romero left Origin Systems to co-found

3640-567: The Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival , which takes place in the Spanish city of Bilbao. Romero and his wife Brenda Romero established Romero Games on August 11, 2015. They published Gunman Taco Truck in 2017, SIGIL in 2019, and Empire of Sin in 2020. In March 2022, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Romero created a new level of Doom II which

3731-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

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3822-484: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

3913-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

4004-589: The alien " gameplay, introduced him to video games. Namco 's maze chase arcade game Pac-Man (1980) had the biggest influence on his career, as it was the first game that got him "thinking about game design." Nasir Gebelli ( Sirius Software , Squaresoft ) was his favorite programmer and a major inspiration, with Gebelli's fast 3D programming work for Apple II games, such as the shooters Horizon V (1981) and Zenith (1982), influencing Romero's later work at id Software. Other influences include programmer Bill Budge , Shigeru Miyamoto 's Super Mario games, and

4095-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

4186-646: The company on January 1, 2011. Romero was the Chairman of the Board for the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) for ten years. On December 20, 2006, John Romero announced a new FPS project for the CPL titled Severity for both consoles and PC. It was announced that Tom Mustaine (ex-Studio Director at Ritual Entertainment ) would act as Director of Game Development at CPL's new studio. It

4277-477: The completion of Ultima IX: Ascension in 1999. However, within a year's time, in part due to Ultima IX ' s poor reception, EA canceled all of Origin's new development projects, including Ultima Online 2 , Privateer Online , and Harry Potter Online . Richard Garriott left Origin shortly after and founded Destination Games in 2000. In later years, Origin mainly existed to support and expand Ultima Online and to develop further online games based on

4368-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

4459-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

4550-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

4641-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

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4732-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

4823-429: The final boss and the reversed sound effect – they were both a result of in-joke pranking between development team members. During the production of Quake, Romero clashed with John Carmack 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

4914-677: The first episode of Doom , a quarter of the levels in Quake , and half the levels in Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny . He wrote many of the tools used at id Software to create their games, including DoomEd (level editor), QuakeEd (level editor), DM (for deathmatch launching), DWANGO client (to connect the game to DWANGO's servers), TED5 (level editor for the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny ), IGRAB (for grabbing assets and putting them in WAD files ),

5005-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

5096-481: The first-person shooter Daikatana . It was announced in 1997 with a release date for the Christmas shopping season of that year. However, this release date slipped repeatedly in the coming months, and the game began to accrue negative press. In 2010, Gamesauce featured Romero on its cover and contained an in-depth interview with Romero written by Brenda Brathwaite . In the interview, Romero publicly apologized for

5187-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

5278-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

5369-477: The infamous Daikatana advertisement. In particular, a 1997 advertisement boasting "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch....Suck it down" caused controversy in the press and public. The massive pre-hype for the game and the subsequent delays (it was not released until April 2000) were compounded by the poor reviews the game received when it was finally complete. Daikatana was panned and appeared on numerous "top 10 worst games" listings. During this time, Romero

5460-505: The installers for all the games up to and including Quake , the SETUP program used to configure the games, and several others. In his keynote speech at WeAreDevelopers Conference 2017, Romero named this period Turbo Mode, in which he emphasizes having created 28 games, in 5.5 years with a team consisting of fewer than 10 developers. Romero is also credited with coining the multiplayer term " deathmatch ". In level 30 of Doom II , "Icon of Sin",

5551-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

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5642-1121: The list. In 2017, Romero listed World of Warcraft and Minecraft as his favorite games of all time. Romero's favorite programming language as of 2017 is Lua . Romero says he has hyperthymesia . Romero is an atheist . He also claimed that everyone involved at working on the original Doom was an atheist (although game designer Sandy Petersen is a Mormon ). On December 19, 2023, Romero acquired Irish citizenship, after living there for about 8 years. Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

5733-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

5824-570: The name Capitol Ideas Software. He entered a programming contest in A+ magazine during its first year of publishing with his game Cavern Crusader . The first game Romero created that was eventually published was Jumpster in UpTime . Jumpster was created in 1983 and published in 1987, making Jumpster his earliest created, then published, game. Romero's first industry job was at Origin Systems in 1987 after programming games for eight years. He worked on

5915-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

6006-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

6097-411: The office. The Monkeystone team moved to Austin, Texas to work on Midway's Area 51 title until its release. Monkeystone Games closed down in January 2005. Romero moved from project lead to creative director of internal studio during this time. At the end of June 2005, Romero left Midway Games mere months before the completion of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows . On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed that he

6188-455: 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. In a 1997 interview, Romero said, "Leaving after finishing Quake was the right choice — leaving after finishing a hit game. I keep on good terms with the id guys and it was pretty easy because we've been friends for years." In 2022, during

6279-502: The others left Softdisk in February 1991 to form id Software . There it was, the familiar milieu of Super Mario Brothers 3: pale blue sky, the puffy white clouds, the bushy green shrubs, the animated tiles with little question marks rolling over their sides and, strangely, his character Dangerous Dave standing ready on the bottom of the screen. Romero tapped his arrow key, moved Dave along the floor, and watched him scroll smoothly across

6370-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

6461-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

6552-695: The project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), and left shortly before its release. He founded another company, Gazillion Entertainment , in 2005. In 2016, Romero and another former id employee, Adrian Carmack , announced a new FPS, Blackroom , but it was canceled after it failed to gain funding. Romero was born on October 28, 1967, six weeks premature, in Colorado Springs, Colorado . He has said that he has Mexican, Yaqui , and Cherokee grandparents. His mother, Ginny, met Alfonso Antonio Romero when they were teenagers in Tucson , Arizona. Alfonso,

6643-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

6734-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

6825-467: The same royalty rate as other developers. By 1988, Origin had 15 developers in Austin, Texas , and another 35 employees in New Hampshire. By 1989 they had 50 employees between their New Hampshire and Texas offices. By 1992, Origin Systems had sold more than 1.5 million software units worldwide. In September 1992, Electronic Arts acquired the company for $ 35 million in stock, despite

6916-559: The screen. That’s when he lost it. —David Kushner, describing Romero's experience of observing the game Dangerous Dave by John Carmack and Tom Hall that introduced an innovative technique for side-scrolling on PC Romero worked at id Software from its inception in 1991 until 1996. He was involved in the creation of several milestone games, including Commander Keen , Wolfenstein 3D , Doom , Doom II: Hell on Earth and Quake . He served as executive producer (and game designer) on Heretic and Hexen . He designed most of

7007-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

7098-900: The three-and-a-half-year lifespan of the company. Some highlights of their developments included Hyperspace Delivery Boy! (Pocket PC, Windows, Linux), Congo Cube (Pocket PC, PC, BREW , Java ME ), and a version of Red Faction for the Nokia N-Gage . He and his girlfriend, Stevie Case , broke up in 2003, and she left the company in May while Red Faction development continued until October. John then left Monkeystone Games' day-to-day operations to Lucas Davis while Romero and Hall left for Midway in San Diego. In mid-October 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows . While he continued to maintain his working relationship with Monkeystone, Lucas Davis took over running

7189-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

7280-713: The trouble they had collecting money owed to Richard for his games released by other companies. Origin was initially based in the Garriotts' garage in Houston, Texas . The company's first game was Ultima III: Exodus ; because of Ultima's established reputation and the fact that the company's games were released on computers and not consoles, Origin survived the video-game crash of 1983 which affected console game developers in North America. It published many non- Ultima games, and Richard Garriott claimed that he received

7371-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

7462-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

7553-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

7644-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

7735-554: Was announced that Slipgate Ironworks was part of Gazillion Entertainment . Along with venture capitalist Rob Hutter and investor Bhavin Shah, Romero was a co-founder of Gazillion. On July 22, 2006, John Romero and former co-worker Tom Hall guest hosted episode 53 of the podcast The Widget . Romero departed Gazillion Entertainment in November 2010 to form a social game company called Loot Drop alongside Brenda Brathwaite . Hall joined

7826-668: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

7917-480: Was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert . Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games, such as the Ultima and Wing Commander series. The company was purchased by Electronic Arts in 1992. Brothers Richard and Robert Garriott , their astronaut-engineer father Owen , and programmer Chuck Bueche founded Origin Systems in 1983 because of

8008-590: Was rumored to have been killed and a photograph of his corpse with a bullet wound was also spread through the Internet. The picture was taken for the magazine Texas Monthly . In 2001, Romero and Hall departed after the release of Hall's Anachronox game and the subsequent closing of the Dallas Ion office. In July 2001, Romero and Hall founded Monkeystone Games to develop and publish games for mobile devices . Monkeystone released approximately 15 games during

8099-505: Was stated that Severity would be a multiplayer first person shooter, and that the game would be built on technology licensed from id Software. In October 2009, Angel Munoz , founder of the CPL stated that Severity was no longer being produced because they were not able "to convince game publishers of its value". Romero guest-edited the March 2010 issue of the British magazine Retro Gamer . In August 2014, Romero said he planned to make

8190-1028: Was subsequently listed for sale through his personal website. Romero stated that all proceeds would be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund. In January 2004, Romero married Raluca Alexandra Pleșca, originally from Bucharest , Romania. They divorced in 2011. Romero and game developer Brenda Brathwaite became engaged on March 24, 2012, and married on October 27, 2012. Together, they worked on Ravenwood Fair , with Romero as Lead Designer and Brathwaite as Creative Director and Game Designer. They also founded social game development company Loot Drop in November 2010, and worked on Cloudforest Expedition and Ghost Recon Commander together. Romero has three children from two previous marriages: Michael, born in 1988, Steven, born in 1989, and Lillia Antoinette, born in 1998. Romero's long hair has been

8281-456: Was working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. It was reported that the name was temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway". He said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007. On March 17, 2009, it

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