Doom creator John Romero commited to social games, signs RockYou deal

The co-creator of Doom, one of the most violent video game franchises ever, is officially hooked on social games. John Romero and Tom Hall have signed a deal with social game publisher RockYou to create a new game for Facebook with their new studio, Loot Drop, VentureBeat reports. The duo, who previously founded id Software and worked with (and started) several traditional game studios over the years, are leaving the land of big-budget PC and console games behind.

Romero recently struck gold with developer LOLapps in creating Ravenwood Fair, which enjoys over 5 million players even through an almost crippling privacy scare. Romero said that his goal with Loot Drop and RockYou is to push the boundaries of social games with creative game design, according to VentureBeat. The studio's first deal with a third-party publisher is good for one game that RockYou--who just bought Playdemic last week--will fund and publish. Romero hopes the game will come out in the summer.

Romero feels that the social games industry is strong enough to support an independent social game studio like Loot Drop that employs a team of eight, VentureBeat says. Based in Austin, Texas, Hall will serve as Loot Drop's studio head and game designer. Romero will not work as chief executive of Loot Drop, but will leave that job up to Robert Sirotek who has released 150 games over 26 years through his company, Sir-Tech.

"We are not interested at all in going back to the normal game industry cycle where it takes years to do a game," Romero said to VentureBeat. "This audience is unbelievably massive, and we are very early in its history. I feel like it is 1981 again, and the industry is ready for an explosion of creativity." With an impressive track record in both traditional and now social games, Romero and Loot Drop could be the ones to inject even more life into the social games industry.

What do you think of Romero's new found commitment to social games? Do you think he can pump out another hit like Ravenwood Fair with Loot Drop? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.