Creators of Doom and Quake Announce New FPS Blackroom

After releasing his first Doom level in 22 years and teasing us with a return to first-person shooter (FPS) games, legendary game designer John Romero has finally unveiled what he's working on next.

In collaboration with Adrian Carmack, who defined the art style of classic shooters such as Doom and Quake, the duo will work on a new FPS called Blackroom. Carmack was one of the four founders of id Software along with Romero, Tom Hall, and John Carmack (no relation).

The game's story focusses on a character called Santiago Sonora. He's an engineer at a holographic simulation company. Things invariably get ugly giving players an excuse to engage in intense weaponised combat across a host of different environments such as Victorian mansion and pirate galleons.

"It is incredible to work with Adrian again," said John Romero, game lead. "We're developing exactly the type of game we think a lot of shooter fans want. It's the type of shooter we're known for, and the type of game we love to play ourselves. It's a skilful shooter, from movement to weapons and map mastery."

Carmack, who got his start with John in 1990 at Softdisk before going on to co-found id Software, echoed Romero's comments. "It's been great working with John again, and we're really setting out to produce a visceral FPS," said Adrian Carmack, art director at Night Work Games. "Because of Blackroom's setting, we have a lot of freedom to create environments that players might not expect in an FPS. Blackroom's technology lets its users enter just about any universe imaginable, and gives them the power to alter the world. That gives me lots of artistic freedom."

Blackroom will initially hit PC (Mac and Windows) with a console release at some point. It's now up on Kickstarter with a goal of $700,000 and a December 2018 release window. Romero said in the game's promotional video will be looking for additional investors if it meets the target. To him, it would be proof that there's an audience for these kind of games. But with games like Strafe, Shadow Warrior and its upcoming sequel, as well as Doom itself making a comeback, we can't help but feel that Romero is late to the party.