Romero hints at old-school FPS plans

John Romero has hinted at plans for an "old-school" FPS, but denied a cheeky suggestion that it's Daikatana 2.

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Shooter pioneer and hair enthusiast John Romero has been laying low lately, but he's hinted at plans to get back into first-person shooter development. His single vague comment didn't shed much light on what this mystery project is, but we certainly know what it isn't.

A fan and indie developer asked on Twitter if Romero has called it quits on the old-school FPS, also directing the question at George Broussard. Romero tweeted in reply, "Definitely not! I have plans..." He followed up roughly a half-hour later, claiming, "There will be no DK2!"

Whatever his FPS plans, it will mark a return after a full decade away from the genre. We've seen rapid advances in the genre as its popularity has exploded, so we have to wonder just how "old-school" Romero plans to make his, and how that will be accepted by a modern audience.

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  • reply
    March 13, 2012 10:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Romero hints at old-school FPS plans.

    John Romero has hinted at plans for an "old-school" FPS, but denied a cheeky suggestion that it's Daikatana 2.

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      March 13, 2012 10:44 AM

      This could be good but he really only makes awesome games when someone else is keeping him in check

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      March 13, 2012 10:45 AM

      he has been saying this for a long time. romero always wanted fast paced shooters with high movement speed etc practically the exact opposite of what the genre has devolved to. there have been a few notable exceptions in form of serious sam,painkiller and hard-reset but overall its unfortunately a niche that is almost flat-lining.

      romero is a smart guy, with the rise of independent gaming, digital distribution and recent experiments in funding he knows he could possible pull of a smaller scale old school shooter.

      the guy gets a lot of shit for daikatana but he is also the guy that made doom and quake and anyone who knows the maps and development story around those and the decline of id software products ever after should at least be somewhat excited about the prospect (rarely brought up fact, as abysmal as daikatana sp was, the mp was actually good).
      then there is almost certainly tom hall lurking around him as well which is always a bonus.

      lets hope he has someone who keeps his ego under check and the attention-whoring to a minimum and we are good.


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        March 13, 2012 11:17 AM

        well they need to slow down the pace.. its dat console era

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        March 13, 2012 11:27 AM

        even painkiller was a long time ago, and the sequels to that have been mediocre

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        March 13, 2012 11:40 AM

        tom hall hasn't made anything since Anachronox right? He was at Kingsisle, but he wasn't part of the Wizard 101 crew. I mean these old game gods were great back in the day, but come on, if someone hasn't made a game in over 10 years shouldn't we start praising new 'game gods'?

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        March 13, 2012 11:44 AM

        Tribes Ascend, Tribes Ascend, Tribes Ascend.

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          March 13, 2012 12:42 PM

          That game has really reminded me what I loved about playing FPS games :)

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        March 13, 2012 12:12 PM

        Is this even possible really on a console? One of the things that bugs me as a PC gamer is exactly this idea that FPS games have slowed.

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          March 13, 2012 12:35 PM

          So much this. I bought a 360 for x-mas and tried playing Halo 3. Somehow, playing the original Halo wasn't as frustrating but these days I can't stand playing fps on a console. The controls seem so shitty no matter how much you tweak them.

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            March 13, 2012 4:35 PM

            The Halo series in general is not a good example. Those games are intentionally plodding.

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          March 13, 2012 5:05 PM

          Timesplitters 2! Maybe my memory is a bit fuzzy but in its fastest modes it was a lot like old school pc shooters.

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        March 13, 2012 1:27 PM

        I wouldn't trust him to lead a team though. Maybe he's learnt a lot from the Daikatana debacle and has more sense now, but that was such an absurd and broken game it's insane. Also there was just no design restraint, in a bad way - EVERY idea got into that game, meaning it was all over the place and you'd see some enemy models maybe twice - no wonder it took so long to finish.

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      March 13, 2012 10:48 AM

      it'd be funny to see him try kickstarter and get like $2000 out of the million he'd ask for.

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        March 13, 2012 11:36 AM

        was just thinking the same thing.

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        March 13, 2012 12:26 PM

        He wouldn't pull a double fine 3 million but he'd get at least half million, which should be enough, I imagine.

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        March 13, 2012 1:37 PM

        that would be great and show there's some reality checking going on with kickstarter.

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        March 13, 2012 4:49 PM

        "Romero will be your bitch."

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      March 13, 2012 11:25 AM

      you know john is reading these comments too.. it would be cool to see a solid OS FPS, but it does take a significant amount of skill to pull off something worth playing and paying for... we shall see...

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      March 13, 2012 11:27 AM

      I would play Daikatana 2 and like it.

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        March 13, 2012 12:05 PM

        I was thinking that I need to re-install and finally finish it. I was one of those who enjoyed it.

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          March 13, 2012 1:28 PM

          You enjoyed tiny bouncing robot frogs, crushing office doors, suicidal side-kicks with atrocious dialogue and weapons that did as much damage to you as it did to enemies?

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        March 13, 2012 4:38 PM

        Yeah people thought the same of DNF... never underestimate the ability of a sequel to disappoint after so much time has passed.

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      March 13, 2012 12:13 PM

      If he and Carmack would just hook back up....my throbbing desires will finally be fulfilled in full.

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      March 13, 2012 4:34 PM

      This news has me quite excited.

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        March 13, 2012 4:42 PM

        Your last post was from 2003.

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          March 13, 2012 4:47 PM

          Yeah I'm shocked this still works and that I remembered the pw in only three attempts. Well done shack database.

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            March 13, 2012 4:50 PM

            You've been lurking, not logged in for the past nine years?

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              March 13, 2012 5:12 PM

              He's been waiting for a chance to strike us down.

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              March 13, 2012 8:41 PM

              He's been trying but Supafly was stuck in the level somewhere and he couldn't continue. :[

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            March 13, 2012 8:27 PM

            You know you miss a lot of posts if you aren't signed in :(

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              March 13, 2012 8:45 PM

              Yeah, you miss out on the good stuff

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      March 13, 2012 5:24 PM

      I have no problems with Romero. I'd play this game as long as he doesn't appear on the forums to tell us how fucking awesome the PC version is compared to the console versions and that FOV is an artists decision.

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      March 13, 2012 6:36 PM

      This is pretty vague. I put this right up there with a 14 year old who has an idea for the ultimate game.

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      March 13, 2012 7:56 PM

      These games sold 10 or more years ago. He needs to really think hard about this if he wants it to be a success. Probably just going to get a bunch of funding and not make a profit though.

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      March 13, 2012 8:38 PM

      you know daikatana SP was pure crap, but daikatana MP was actually fun.
      If Romero wants to do another FPS, I think the he should.

      I know the community has already given him so much shit for it, but I would be interested to see
      what he has in mind, especially since its "old-school"

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      March 13, 2012 8:43 PM

      isnt doom 4 supposed to be old school

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      March 13, 2012 9:12 PM

      QW style bunnyhopping, crazy power weapons (things like the DOOM2 SSG and the Q1 RL), and a high skill ceiling and I'd be all over that shit!

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