John Romero - How to Start Developing Video Games

Some fantastic advice from game industry legend, John Romero, about how to get into creating your own games for mobile devices.
John is best known as one of the co-founders of id Software and designer of groundbreaking games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.
Part of the Heritage Lottery funded Viva Computer project run by the Centre for Computing History.
www.ComputingHistory.org.uk

[@Peterplayingguitar]

This guy is my hero! Not just because he can design a game level really well but also because he seems like a really positive , easy going dude.

[@Adam-yo3bt]

Peterplayingguitar me too

[@peterjohnson9438]

According to others he was a bit of an asshole and high on his own farts in the older days. But just a bit. :)

[@Goremachine]

Wait until he makes you his bitch.

[@sheepthehack]

@@Goremachine He never approved that as a slogan.. infact.. he HATED IT!!! HE said it sounds GAY :)

[@sheepthehack]

He is a PURE GAME CREATOR!!!! He gets tarred with a brush that sees him as a LEVEL DESIGNER!!! The fact that hes programmed 100+ games in his life seems to go unnoticed.. not to mention he never made 1 penny from QUAKE!!! He stuck it out .. JUST for the joy of making games.. THATS FUCKING LEGENDARY!!!

[@dragdusan86]

Both John Romero and John Carmack are my childhood (and adulthood 😊 ) heroes. Great stuff presented here

[@sarpsarp8987]

2 Johns being together.

[@natecoley160]

2 Jobs invented computers for us, 2 Johns invented games for us

[@mwarrensims]

Some of the best advice I've ever heard--not with Game Development, necesarilly-is to start any way and anywhere you can. The important thing is to GET STARTED NOW.

[@kimbaptempura4073]

Not just games - anything you have an interest in - GET STARTED NOW!

[@randomnumbers84269]

Yes! Start immediately! Start at the very moment! Start yesterday! Go Go Go! :D (I'm sounding like I parody you but really I agree)

[@KingLich451]

Dammit okay! I'm starting right here and right now... err, what was I gonna start again?

[@bsherman8236]

7 years later but JUST DO IT

[@RhythmBoy]

The godfather of FPS

[@AL_Mir29241]

That would be John Carmack, this John helped but Carmack laid the technical foundation :)

[@jameslay6505]

@@AL_Mir29241 Hence the name "Godfather", instead of "Father". ;-)

[@Zen-rw2fz]

godfather of pc gaming

[@JohnnyWednesday]

There's no doubting John Carmack is a legend, I've oft cited his work on the doom and quake engines as my inspiration. But now I'm older I can see that as impressive as those feats are? - doom would of been nothing without the gameplay polish, the influence and ideas, of John Romero. There were many games at the time that were also equally impressive technical feats, there were fully open worlds on the Amiga - albeit crippled by hardware of the day. Carmack is a genius that can plug technical concepts together like lego bricks - Romero is a genius that can bring that world alive. Let's face it - Carmack on his own? we'd never of gotten doom - we'd of gotten a beautiful box simulator.

[@Goremachine]

@@JohnnyWednesday It's true, Carmack wouldn't have any started id without Romero. He would have probably just programmed some average games for softdisk with the engines he pioneered, and others would have seen what was possible and catch up, and then some other company would have taken full advantage of the technology with glorious game design.

[@elijahking2653]

John and the original ID team along with Ken Levine (Irrational games) are the reason I'm going to be working in the industry. Very inspirational.

[@MrHieronymusBosch]

one of the best guitarists in death metal

[@kezianaomi1839]

you would never know lol

[@MrHieronymusBosch]

@@kezianaomi1839 why does my comment has so many voteups and why the fuck have i even wrote this comment LMFAO

[@kezianaomi1839]

@@MrHieronymusBosch What you said resonated with everyone lmao we all appreciate your comment

[@MrHieronymusBosch]

​@@kezianaomi1839 AAAAAAH NOW I REMEMBER LOL "luc lemay" from gorguts... that was my point lol...

[@MrHieronymusBosch]

​@Axion jes xD

[@higgins007]

For what it's worth, as a 10 year veteran ;) , this is great advice. Romero is such a top guy.

[@zebunker]

10 years is not a veteran.

[@higgins007]

@@zebunker hence the wink.... there' s always one!

[@nursultannazarov8379]

@@zebunker 11 years is

[@wildwest1832]

romero is pretty awesome. What him and carmack contributed to gaming was huge.

[@thetedmang]

Step one: grow ponytail

[@elcancion]

Step two: dont do Daikatana

[@jan7996]

Step 3 : Don't be cocky

[@naoaquieopatrickpatrick8565]

@@tiagobordin6580 step 5: Don't hire a bunch of Modders to develop your game

[@XadePsyconic]

Mister Romero is a super chill and informative guy. Respect.

[@Moarmmoforme]

Started Corona a couple of days ago, all I can say is that it is a beautiful engine/framework, so easy to work with, the device simulation is phenomenal, the tutorials are so simple and elegant (you make 2 simple games following instructions, all assets are included), the console logger is brilliant, building the actual app is super easy. I can imagine it being a great tool for making mobile apps in general.

[@klaasj7808]

i dont like corona haha

[@bootblacking]

Romero seems like a really based dude.

[@chaotic0726]

the marketing was shit on Daikatana and it was Eidos' fault not Ion Storm's. Eidos overhyped the game and Romero being a perfectionist, he didn't want to release the game because it wasn't ready...

[@naoaquieopatrickpatrick8565]

@@chaotic0726 no it's Romero's fault too, He didn't know how to guide his team properly, did terrible decisions as a Director and hired a bunch of modders to develop his game, not to mention he wanted the game to be on Quake II's engine instead of Quake I's because of Quake II's playable demo at E3 1997, he got easily impressed of Carmack's new engine and forced everyone to port their unfinished assets, programming and maps to a newer engine, but ID only agreed to give him the engine AFTER Quake II's release, a TERRIBLE DECISION, since that meant Daikatana wasn't going to be released at december 1997 like it was promised to, forcing eidos to waste more money than they should, which made they do nothing relevant between february and December because they knew they would only start developing Daikatana seriously at december, and when the engine finally was given to them... guess what, Romero and his team wanted to fucking die, because Quake II's engine wasn't even compatible with Quake I's, which again, forced them to basically scrap EVERYTHING they did on Quake I's engine, and start development AGAIN, this time on quake II's engine, even his team said it was a bad idea and that Daikatana could still be good without all the new improvements from Carmack's new engine, but Romero was too ambiguous, and would say in response "here at Ion Storm, Design is law!" then, the slap in the face: the wasted AN ENTIRE YEAR just learning the new engine and how to port some of the stuff they did to it, and when Daikatana was shown at E3 1999... it was too outdated and was even running with less frames on E3 demo... meanwhile Quake 3 was ALSO at E3... with a newer engine and even better graphics... oof TL;DR: Daikatana was a failure from both development team and publisher. It was Eidos Fault because they hired Romero based on his status as "the god of videogame design", which even the news would compare him to quentin tarantino or steven spielberg of videogame design, but even if romero was a really good, and I mean, REALLY GOOD, level designer and a creative person overall, he didn't have enough experience to actually guide a team or do smart decisions as a Director and leader of Ion Storm, which led to a bunch of unnecessary changes that only made Daikatana be delayed, and delayed... until it eventually was released and it was a flop also it was Ion Storm's fault because again: Romero was too ambiguous and did such bad decisions: most of the team of daikatana was made of modders instead of professionals, didn't know how to guide his team, and used his stupid philosophy that "Design > technology" to justify unnecessary changes that would just made Eidos waste way too much money than they actually wanted, and even ruin his own reputation.

[@Canadian_duck31]

@@naoaquieopatrickpatrick8565 sounds like from what you said here that Romero needed to know when to trust his team and listen to what they were saying and not just himself. I mean no disrespect to him at all he seems like a super nice guy but maybe he should have stayed on the Quake 1 engine and tried to maximize that engine to its full potential. Maybe then Daikatana could have been a really good game instead of a mediocre one. However I’m not a game developer so I can’t say for sure.

[@SnackCannon]

I'm going to try out Romero's advice, but I've found a lot of comfort in starting with text adventures!

[@RhythmBoy]

Ok Nicholas Cage. Just don't spend all your money at once like you always do! hehe :)

[@nope1083]

If youre using c++, text adventures would be perfect for that language.

[@alandunaway3000]

@@nope1083 Or ADRIFT.

[@alandunaway3000]

I'm in the middle of one currently.

[@Anothergames]

Great respect for Romero.

[@oddixgames6704]

How to START? Easy, just freakin START and learn while you progress. That simple. Now, how to come up with a BEAUTIFUL and SUCCESSFUL game? - You need to make a shitload of attempts, fail fast and learn from your failures. Then one day you'll make it. Thanks for the vid btw, Romero is truly a hero in the gamedev :)

[@jakejake7289]

Just finished Romero's book Doom Man over 3 days. I couldn't put it down. I was doing very low level 6502 game coding on an Atari 400 the same time as Romero but never created a commercial product. I was doing it for fun 14 hours a day. I read the book with a ton of nostalgia.

[@mexforever8904]

Wow, the knowledge of this man is broad and clear, bless him.

[@Guilherme-mo2mz]

Finally a very informative video on the subject, thank you!

[@chrisbyte]

Lots of awesome advice! Start small, build your personal toolkit, and grow out from there. I also agree on working with other people; it's disconcerting at first especially if you've been solo for a long time, but when everyone is dedicated and passionate it can turn a good idea into a amazing game/application.

[@mareksicinski3726]

yeah and if you have a proper way to resolve conflicts between each other

[@chuazinerd3340]

Mano... ver o John Romero ensinando a criar um game e usando Lua que foi criada no Brasil é sensacional demais.

[@FusionMagazine]

Top guy - spent some time with John when he came to Revival - so many great stories.

[@Cypher402]

Holy shit. John Romero is the man. This was really good. Smart and chill dude.

[@GameplayandTalk]

Really fantastic advice!

[@Cadeaux_Man]

"Corona Labs" meaning changed 6 years later lol

[@karlmorrison2713]

His advice on the team and finding the right people is spot on. I'm in the situation currently and it ain't swell.

[@relexelumna5360]

Romero is very generous sharing information. He really inspire others with real life example. Respect.

[@citizengoose1342]

I met him, asked him for advice and said practically the same thing + aiming for mobile and that the most important thing is to constantly make stuff.

[@BlackJar72]

I started out trying to make a 3D engine, but yeah, I quickly learned I needed practice on something simpler so switched to arcade clones and modding Minecraft. Still that leads to the problem of ideas, since all my good ideas are for things at a higher skill level and I don't want to do pure clones exclusively (cloning Pacman didn't bother me though, since I wanted a local install or something like that anyway, but I don't like feeling like a copycat).

[@ferna2294]

Nowadays making a new 3D Engine is pointless. You have Unity, Unreal, etc. all free to use and publish your game.

[@BlackJar72]

Well, you could say there no point in trying to make games at all since you can buy them already made. Unity and unreal won't work on my computer; also I can't afford the license. I looked into using JMonkeyEngine, but it seemed learning all the ins and outs wouldn't be that much easier than making my own. I'll probably keep dabbling on it in my spare time between other projects, just for fun, whether or not it ever gets done or used for anything. I'm not nearly as worried about the engine as the assets -- I find programming much easier than make models. Making the engine probably is pointless since for that reason, but a pre-made engine doesn't help me with that.

[@ranger_1472]

Modding minecraft itself isn't programming it's just installing files on a file.

[@mtpstv94]

@@BlackJar72 If Unity won't work on your computer you're going to have a hard time making games.

[@BlackJar72]

@@mtpstv94 Yeah, I know -- I, I'll have to get a better computer so I can use Unreal Engine, though Unity gets closer to working. For Unity it's mostly OS support, while for Unreal it's more a lack of hardware. But I have ideas for whenever I can get a good dev machine.

[@RaterisimoCBA]

Awesome tips! Great video and great guy Romero ! I´m thinkin about making a game with highschool friends !

[@Yellowswift3]

Great way to start. :)

[@OMFGWTFBBQKKTWNTY]

epic video! so very informative. thank you for this upload.

[@donhostiarra5641]

Thank you so much John, this is gold to me.

[@StarwindAmada1]

Corona Labs? It's now April 2020. Fuck that shit.

[@ChromeColossus]

This is fantastic advice. We're having a really hard time finding an artist to do our game though, because we have no upfront capital to provide. And artists do NOT want to work for free!

[@lrochfort]

Great advice.

[@englishtutor6310]

The SDK name CORONA did not age well XD.

[@lakerprime]

ikr lmao

[@iamlordstarbuilder5595]

...nor did the tool...

[@defectivenull]

they got shafted actually

[@MikeDest]

I think it changed names earlier in the year. It's named Solar 2D now.

[@voltcorp]

they don't exist anymore. I guess I'd recommend gamemaker, godot, unity. also bitsy to just do something really quick

[@MedicatedReviewer]

Very helpful thanks

[@dscheme4427]

Really interesting talk.

[@ranger_1472]

My first game will be a free web game called Origins. The game will be what Quake was originally supposed to be, a top-down RPG.

[@braddles]

How's that turned out?

[@NH-ly7zc]

Romero’s advice on working with someone as dedicated as you are in opposition with John carmacks suggestion that the amount of time you work isn’t an obligation. This was discussed with carmack and rogan

[@Terracraft321]

Very educative

[@Kingmannie]

Solid solid advice, timeless, your first 10 games will never see the light of day. Stick em on GitHub, its possible to get good feedback there, sometimes.

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool, thanks.

[@unfathomable3434]

I'll try this after my DOOM 2 TC. Him and John Carmack are my heroes

[@planetX15]

What's TC?

[@unfathomable3434]

@@planetX15 Total Conversion. It's where every Sprite and texture in the game is changed along with weapons and existing weapon behaviours

[@planetX15]

@@unfathomable3434 So TC Is "better" than the original?

[@unfathomable3434]

@@planetX15 no. Its basically making a different game out of the DOOM framework. Shrine 2 is free on steam it's a great game and that's a DOOM total conversion

[@planetX15]

@@unfathomable3434So it sort of similar to saying Blake Stone had Wolf 3Ds engine?

[@SoftBreadSoft]

Wow actual advice.. Not just jargon and buzzwords. What a guy

[@lorikquiin6700]

I just got inspired again. Thanks to the Real Deal.

[@jgreimel]

If you would have put the links he suggested to the description, that would have helped

[@U--oh3bm]

Thank you Sensei ! :D

[@mareksicinski3726]

4:55 well you can try to partner up without money 6:36 or own it together if you need long term stuff and distribute profit equally

[@KeepAnOpenMind]

Where is the full video?

[@Djent7779]

Is it still possible to pitch and sell video games to major developers

[@jpmourax]

Lua is from Brazil! Our pride.

[@LucasFerreira-jy9kw]

Nice, if wasn't you i didnt know. Really our pride! Though i'm learning Python.

[@PI_AYM4NN]

HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

[@Matrixprogrammmer]

Greetings from Suriname

[@Bacxaber]

In summary: 2D is easier than 3D, respect your artists, build a team.

[@codythompson9973]

If you can, build a team. Always look for opportunity.

[@KingLich451]

and experience + balanced dedication = good

[@sajins7444]

Hey its you again!

[@KeepAnOpenMind]

And pay with cash.

[@utkarshrode5178]

Question : Do I really need to learn LUA if I am comfortable with C and C++ ?

[@sensualarmpit3512]

Lua is great addition to any game, compliments native for scripting. If you want game logic that can be prototyped on runtime with fast iteration, you better use interpreter, think level objects, interactables etc.

[@lefranor5773]

This man is the best person in the world, my hero

[@bububububak]

Abbath has got a second life it appears:D

[@eliabaghbaniyan]

LOL nice one i was thinking the same thing from time too when i say his black nail polish in another video

[@psybitwhite3381]

9 minutes and 32 seconds of pure wisdom.

[@HAL900032]

I cant even look at the screen..gives me the chills ..dududu..dududu..duduuuu!!!.duuududududu!

[@Zadster]

I keep seeing the thumbnail for this and think it is Jeff Minter!

[@rinnegansr5980]

i am trying to make a simple mobile game during this corona mess and by god if it wasnt the hardest thing i have ever had to do and still havent finished cause i keep finding more and more errors in the code or how an idea that seemed excellent on paper turned into so much bullshit just upon execution i dont even know if ill finish it tbh.

[@bhoqeem1975]

Fucking LOVE Lua. My very first program was in Lua. It's an amazing and very comfortable scripting tool.

[@Fr3k3]

john romero is such a cool dude lol

[@daniel-zh9nj6yn6y]

The easiest to use 2D game engine I've tried is Gdevelop. It's free, and it has visual programming. To make art, try Graphics Gale, Piskel, Krita, and maybe Gimp (some people hate it).

[@Snavels]

Instructions unclear: got the wrong Corona

[@tmcnairbledsoe]

Along this advice would Unity work just as well as Corona?

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Personally, I'd say yes. Unity is a fantastic game dev platform - we run Unity workshops here at the museum and am always impressed with what people can achieve using it in so little time. I would GUESS (as I don't know Corona well) that Corona might be easier to start with than Unity. Unity is widely used in professional game development.

[@tmcnairbledsoe]

Cool, thanks. Opun further reading I believe Corona was suggested for its 2d development scope. Unity is excellent and I have experience already so I'll stick with that

[@VladSvoka]

I would say no. Unity is really overcomplicated. You start building your game up to bottom, tweaking engine without understanding what is going on. Unity is very opinionated engine, unlike simpler engines like Corona or similar.

[@jsgoller1]

Another good suggestion for 2D game development is GameMaker - it's easier to learn and work with than Unity, but you can still make platformers, roguelikes, and other fun things with it.

[@DJL3G3ND]

the funny thing is I found 3d much easier to learn in ue4 than 2d, and personally I tried starting out making a small game but I couldn't help but build on it until it got bigger and bigger. also, is it bad that I don't know any c++?

[@DJL3G3ND]

@@rdb223 right now Im working on my most promising project yet, since I finally thought of ways to limit myself so that I can get things done, I decided to make it "2D" as in the game is 3d but at a side view and every model is flat, and no detailed textures, but I still found a way to make it look kinda decent. so this just saves a lot of time that would be needed for all the assets and graphics and everything and I can just work on the game how I want to

[@chomnansaedan4788]

Dang, me and this great man have the same hair. I feel more powerful now. Now I just need to make a game.

[@sentel140]

0:43 JOHN TRIED TO WARN US

[@sheepthehack]

This man never made a fucking PENNY!!! From QUAKE!!!! HE stayed on for CRAZY WORK DAYS just for the love of making games.. he is LITERALLY a GOD amongst game designers.. VERY RARE!

[@1luarluar1]

THE GONG - A NEW ENEMY FOR QUAKE (3nd script of the series: WOR(L)DS ) With this script I want to add 1 new unique enemy to enhance the game experience of QUAKE, a game developed by ID Software in 1996. I hope many of you will trasform these ideas into game experiences. THE GONG It's a gong mounted on a stand that can be placed around the levels. Each enemies can bash it creating a mystical gong sound that hurts and numbs the player blocking his movement. The stronger is the enemy the longer is the sound wave, the damage and the time the player is numbed\blocked. The gong reacts also to projectiles. The idea is to enhance the atmosphere of the game with an eerie gong sound and add game strategies that come from the interaction between the enemies and the gong itself. MINI CONTRACT You can use my ideas for free. If you use them, just let me know as I love to hear about your projects and how my ideas are useful for you. If you make a profit with this script, I would like you to share the profit with me. WORDS TO CREATE WORLDS TO PLAY WITH an idea by Raul Gubert

[@Xgamesvidoes]

Nicee

[@graalcloud]

What I got from this was: Don't give the pixel artist part of the company, and Get the pixel artist to do all the design

[@PhilShary]

Screw the pixel artists. Get them to make proper art.

[@sopothetocho]

Thats not what he said at all, he said if you dont know the person well dont make them part of the company, then he gave an artist as an example. Thats pretty reasonable advice.

[@miniontm69]

Isnt this guy in Dragonforce?

[@Jack_in_the_Nox]

watching this in 2023 makes it hard to hear corona so many times

[@chrisklest1238]

What he says about how old games required a ton of technique to make them functional to where programmers would forget what they were making reminds me of many movies today where it seems like creators are hyper-focused on logistics rather than the content itself. I don't know if these cookie-cutter movies are pumped out by profit-motivated corporations or if it is indy, but I'm only exposed to indy's that are picked up by Netflix or the like, which may have a similar outcome.

[@sharklygoldman4040]

Yeah, those days when you had to time the raster off screen before drawing graphics so u don't get a screen full of jitter.

[@juiicetan]

JUST DO ITTTTTT

[@Zen-rw2fz]

lua what is it called?

[@shaleenbaral7176]

Wanna make a game together

[@Zen-rw2fz]

Shaleen Baral im only 16 and cant programm i could help with game design but again im only 16 and cant do alot other then sharing files online somehow

[@Zen-rw2fz]

@@shaleenbaral7176 yeah sure

[@grzyby6474]

@@Zen-rw2fz you responded after 2 years? :O

[@Zen-rw2fz]

@@grzyby6474 took me a little while to get used to game development, I haven't started working on a real project yet but I have enough clues to know where to start now

[@vorname1485]

2020 youtube: 0:46 he said "corona SDK", do you want to watch it?

[@HAL900032]

you need to begin with a good heavy metal soundtrack!! :D

[@grimsk]

I love you

[@sega62s]

Zen man 🍻

[@user-jt5yb5fx9s]

респект

[@maruthupandianm184]

its very sad Corona SDK have discontinued their development

[@AdrienDittrick]

Here 4 years later to use corona.

[@user-bv8wr3vw4x]

"Don't expect your first 10 games to be sold." Yeah, say that to Gabe Newell who never developed a single game before Half-Life.

[@JakeTheCake254]

Damn are you serious? That is actually incredible

[@user-bv8wr3vw4x]

Well he didn't do it by himself, they were 20 guys back then. But yeah, they didn't have any experience in game development. And nobody believed them when they told what kind of technology they will be using back then. But they shocked the world.

[@belandino]

He actually developed Doom95, the Windows 95 source port for Doom which is pure garbage.

[@marrq]

I'm sure the fact that he was already a microsoft millionaire at that point helped

[@someoneincognito2070]

He worked in Microsoft, that must be worth something.

[@mcgibs]

I want to know how Blackroom is going.

[@MBOmnis]

Me too. We've been going too long without any news.

[@Scroteydada]

what if u work on it for years like a mad man?

[@danem2215]

Oh we all know about Corona Labs in 2020.

[@GameCreatorOfGod]

I'm a Game coder and let me tell you, if you learn how to code well, you are in control, dont use others game engines, write your own. You are limited unless you write your own engine.

[@lLxJLxJl]

Daniel Wright Writing an engine that is on par of today’s games will take you ages by yourself, There are so many aspects of an engine that would require a big team. Perhaps a game like Minecraft would be fun, But writing a game engine for a anything more is a life’s accomplishment that will require you years and years of mini accomplishments and errors

Corona.

[@mrthms3247]

Yh

[@merkabah2]

Daikatana

[@philbateman1989]

I think something he doesn't mention that's worth saying is that your first few games will be utter trash, outside of a few very lucky cases. You're going to end up with games that are absolute nightmares in terms of systems design. The key thing is to learn from it and figure out how your design could have been better.

[@person8203]

He never did get to see Westeros, shame

[@Tangerinian]

im way too stupid to figure out how to program

[@RCD97-hm5mv]

Tangerinian same bro

[@Matrixprogrammmer]

you're not. it''s just lazynes. i too tought that programming was hard but then i joined a bootcamp and quickly learned to program in java in just 3 months. spend about 3 hours daily

[@PhilShary]

Try Unreal Engine 4 - no matter how complex you think it sounds, there are tons of tutorials.

[@AesculapiusPiranha]

Not lua you aren't. Seriously. Just start with Corona like he is saying. Or Love2D.

[@PashaDefragzor]

Yes. His haircut looks like "Yes"

[@exactspace]

If you want to get really inspired, check out Daikatana. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

[@marc.silden]

Please, allow the KZbin Community to make subtitles for this video!

[@edgarazaky8256]

Better than the shitty advices most developers give you

[@SanicStudios]

Don't know about you but I'd rather not write games with Corona.

[@TheSimplyJJP]

It didn't age well,but Romero wasn't joking lol.

[@PS-mw9cc]

China be liek: *CORONA LABS* sdk

[@shredder8089]

Haha