But in one of video game history’s great “what if?” moments, Williams chose not to proceed with the acquisition. Romero tried to negotiate $100,000 in cash upfront to complete the deal.
The meeting ended with an offer from Sierra to buy the studio for $2.5 million, plus stock. Williams was impressed, however, by the revenues id Software was making from its shareware distribution model. “Here’s the future, the start of a new genre, the first-person shooter. Williams was not particularly impressed by what he saw and was more interested in showing off Red Baron Online. So you have to really listen to the game.” When Sierra met id Softwareĭuring the early stages of Wolfenstein 3D‘s development, a build of the game was demoed to Ken Williams, co-founder of Sierra Entertainment. “Sometimes the fun isn’t in the features that you thought were going to be fun. “The entire time you’re trying to make a game, you’re trying to find the fun as soon as you can,” Romero says. The change was a simplification of the original design, but the benefits were clear. The team followed their instincts and ripped out any gameplay elements that slowed down the experience. Stopping to drag a guard or unlock a chest really slowed down the innovative high-speed running and blasting Nazis that was the real fun core of the game.” “But,” he adds, “while we were adding these features and playing constantly, we started to notice that the more fun part of the game was running and gunning. “Searching dead bodies, dragging guards around so enemy soldiers wouldn’t become suspicious, and breaking into storage lockers for food and ammo.” “When we started creating gameplay, we were replicating all of the original game’s stealth features,” explains Romero. This immediately opened up a canvas for the game’s vibrant aesthetic, which would be a significant part of its appeal.Īlthough Wolfenstein 3D began life as an adaptation of its 1981 inspiration, a new identity emerged as development progressed. Each of its palette slots could be set to one of 16 million colours. At first, the game used 16-colour EGA graphics before moving to 256-colour VGA. We played so much Castle Wolfenstein ten years earlier that it was an obvious win to us,” says Romero.ĭevelopment started – using the Catacomb 3-D engine – in January 1992. “Me, John (Carmack), and Tom were Apple II gamers. The idea was immediately embraced by his id colleagues. The concept didn’t appeal to Romero, but it triggered the thought of making a new version of 1981’s Castle Wolfenstein. He came up with an idea for a more advanced version of Hover Tank 1‘s premise, but with you walking around in first person.” “He immediately started coming up with ideas. “Tom, our creative director, instantly understood that we were burned out on Keen,” recalls Romero. Rather than continue, he suggested creating another game that used 3D texture mapping, like Catacomb 3-D. However, after five successful entries in the franchise, Romero was fatigued with Keen’s exploits. Romero explains that the initial idea for Wolfenstein 3D came during prototyping for a new Commander Keen adventure.
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