The father of the FPS genre John Romero, who has been praised for creating Doom and Wolfenstein, confirms the development of a new FPS game.
As one of the godfathers of FPS games, John Romero’s contributions to influential series like Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake as well as the gaming industry in general cannot be underestimated. However, his recent efforts have not been as lauded as the titles he made his name in the ’90s. But that could change as Romero Games has set up a studio based in Galway with his wife Brenda in 2015, is currently recruiting for multiple positions related to an undisclosed FPS game the studio is developing.
Romero recently took to Twitter to talk about the topic, but it wasn’t about announcing the game, but more like a recruitment call. He said that Romero Games is “working on a new FPS game” and asked those with skills in the right fields to take a look at the studio’s website. The Romero Games homepage, despite having very little information about the upcoming game, has confirmed that this new project will use Unreal Engine 5. There are currently a lot of Unreal Engine 5 projects in the pipeline and with The ability of this tool is difficult to predict exactly what Romero and his team are using it to bring to gamers.
It is possible that Romero is hoping to assemble a large team to produce additional DLC for the upcoming Doom 2 SIGIL 2, but that doesn’t seem plausible. The original SIGIL launched as megawad for Doom, and its classic-centric design philosophy has been praised by many classic FPS gamers. That said, SIGIL is mostly a single endeavor, and it doesn’t look like Romero will require a team of Unreal Engine 5-savvy developers just to make this DLC.
What’s more likely is that they’re taking part in a revival of some classic shooter, a trend that’s pretty common right now. Titles like DUSK, Amid Evil, and Ion Fury sparked a revival of interest in mid-90s FPS gaming, and based on the developer’s background, Romero Games could very well be making a new one. Cool for those classic crazes. It’s also worth noting that Romero teamed up with former Id Software employee Adrian Carmack to create a crowdfunded title called Blackroom, but that project was never completed.
Could this new project be the next step to that long-abandoned game idea, or will Romero and company venture into entirely new territory? Either way, with his work on SIGIL and Wolfenstein 3D’s recent 30th anniversary, it seems Romero is focusing more on his most well-received works.
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