Will Doom creator John Romero return to 'full shooter status' on Facebook? [Interview]

What does it feel like to have made arguably the most violent video games of all time, only 20 years later to make arguably the most adorable? For Doom creator John Romero, it feels like the good old days. After two decades of creating games for the trigger-happy hardcore crowd with originally a team of four at id Software (and later the MMO crowd through Slipgate Ironworks), the game design icon made a 180 and leaped into Facebook games with Ravenwood Fair by LOLapps.

Now, Romero has founded yet another studio, Loot Drop, which its first social game, Cloudforest Expedition, is due out this summer through publisher RockYou. We chatted with Romero recently for more details on his upcoming games, insight on the social games design process, and the answer to the ultimate question: Why?

Why did you decide to make such a leap from traditional hardcore games to social games? What's so appealing to you about Facebook games?

If you think of game development as a pyramid, I think the tip of the wedge is on Facebook, as far as design goes. The way you have to design a Facebook game is really different than normal games. It's really more difficult to design for this demographic, and the kinds of games you design are extremely different from other games. Most traditional games have a lot of space in them and places to go, while Facebook games typically have a small area that you expect players to spend a ton of time in.