CODA THE FAQ PAGE: JOHN ROMERO Develop grills respected figures from the global games industry
it wasn’t as exciting as the pinball machines I was playing.
What is your favourite game ever, and for what reason? My favorite game ever is World of Warcraft, because it is all games. I played that game every day – literally – for five years. I have five level 80s and several 60s and 70s. One of the most interesting things for me was the technology behind the world – the entire world was streaming seamlessly as you travelled with no loading screens. The load- balancing server tech is the best in the industry, and the client software is the best piece of engineering I have ever seen.
The first video game I ever played was
Loot Drop CEO and co-founder John Romero is puzzled by what he sees as a short-sightedness by the traditonal industry to recognise the potential of the social space
Who are you and what do you do? My name is John Romero, and I am CEO, co- founder and CCO of Loot Drop. What kind of jobs do I do? A lot of things. Programming, game design, audio direction, and art direction. I also handle a lot of the business tasks that come with being an independent game studio.
What are you working on right now? I’m overseeing two social games and doing some level design onGhost Recon: Commander.
What was the first video game or product that you ever worked on in the industry? I worked on a lot of games before getting in the industry, but when I finally did get into the industry at Origin Systems my first job was to port 2400 A.D. from Apple to Commodore.
What was the first video game you ever played, and did you enjoy it? The first video game I ever played was Pong on a Sears system. I thought it was okay, but
Pong on a Sears system. I thought it was okay, but it wasn’t as exciting as the pinball machines I was playing.
How many hours a week do you spend playing video games? When I am not trying to ship a game, I play games on the weekends, probably for between five and ten hours a day. Otherwise, it’s probably a couple of hours a day.
What area of the industry do you think needs more ‘investment’? I think companies, especially big companies, need to invest more effort in attaining stability and not have to lay people off all the time. Plan your development cycles more efficiently and be more fluid in resource allocation.
What do you enjoy about the video games industry today? I love that as technology changes and improves, games start following suit. Sometimes, this ends up with really
interesting opportunities for design, and that makes it an exciting place to create in.
What disappoints you about the video games industry today? I don’t know that I’d say it’s disappointing, but I find the traditional games industry’s lack of awareness of games in the social space puzzling. Sometimes, I’ll see a post on a forum asking ‘has Romero done anything lately?’. Ravenwood Fair, one of my most recent social games, was a big success, financially and critically. It was even nominated for multiple awards. There are a lot of vets in this space who have had similar success, but it’s largely unnoticed by the traditional games industry.
Which has been your favourite game to work on? My favourite game to work on was probably Hyperspace Delivery Boy. It was great, working closely everyday with just me and Tom Hall. It’s always a blast working with Tom, and we are always laughing and joking and having fun the entire time while we’re making games.
What game that you were not involved with would you most liked to have worked on? I wish I could’ve been part of the ‘dream team’ that made Chrono Trigger.
What other video games developer do you most admire? The developer I most admire is Tim Schafer, because he makes whatever game he wants to make and they all turn out great. To me, Tim is the embodiment of my motto ‘design is law’ because Tim doesn’t make his games around technology, and he doesn’t compromise design because of technology. He makes the games he wants to make, and that is why he is here.
What hobbies, collections or interests do you have that are completely unrelated to video games? I’m a huge Disney fan. Brenda and I go almost every month. I also love cooking Mexican food.
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Contributors David Braben,, John Broomhall, Nadeem Daya, Sini Downing, Christopher Dring, Nick Gibson, Tim Heaton, Will Luton, Simon Pressey, Mark Rein, Stephan Schütze, Jason Smith
74|MAY 2012
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