In a new interview with VGC, FPS legend John Romero revealed how things were going at Romero Games, the studio he leads alongside his wife, veteran designer Brenda Romero. After its unannounced shooter project was canceled by Xbox last year, Romero Games managed to secure a new publisher, but there's a catch: The team is now only a tenth the size it was while funded by Xbox. Romero says they've rescoped to use the material they already had on a smaller, more focused game.
"Last year we basically got defunded, like a lot of people did, and so we had to spend time figuring out what we were going to do. Eventually we decided that we can’t keep everybody on forever, and we kept them on as long as we could, trying to find funding to finish the game, keep everybody there, but as time goes on and people leave you can’t build that game again.
"So we went down to five people, we had this big game that we had made. We 100% own everything. We own the name, we own all the IP, all the art, all the graphics, the code and everything. And so I needed to basically design a new game that could use as much of that stuff as possible, to just basically get a head start.
"I just contacted somebody that I knew, and we basically did a deal, and so we have a new publisher. Can’t say anything about who it is, or when the announce is, or any of that stuff.
"We don’t need to be bigger than [The 15-16 people team the studio has now], the game is scoped for a team that size, and we’re just super happy. The game’s going extremely well, we’re very happy with it. It’s a shooter—that part totally makes sense—but everything else around it is really new, and everybody on the team is so excited. We’re very excited with how the game is turning out.
"We’re not getting [the project's original form] to the end. That game we can’t get to the end, because it’s a 110-person game. So this is a complete redesign of a totally different game, but it uses a lot of the work that we had in the previous games.
"As far as I’m concerned, I love small teams, and it’s way more fun making games on small teams. You can pivot—in hours you can completely pivot everything if you have to.
"It’s also the deal that we have … Every publisher has various things that they put in the contract. And most of the time you’re working with the publisher to make the game that they believe will make money, and that your vision is going to hopefully meet at the same point of making money.
"A lot of times the publisher changes what your game is going to be because they have a specialization, or they know something you don’t, and they want to steer you in a certain direction because of whoever they are. The publisher we’re with right now has zero creative goals for this game. They’re like 'you make what you want, we’re publishing it, we’re not going to tell you what to make.' That’s the perfect deal."
A lot of what Romero's saying about team size lines up with what I've heard from other developers: There's a liberating quality to creative constraints and small team sizes. This is even more borne out by Romero's own output. His greatest successes (Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom, Sigil) came from smaller teams or even solo development.
The large and ambitious Quake, meanwhile, taxed id Software to the breaking point and resulted in Romero's departure. Romero's most divisive game, Daikatana, was made with the largest team and most resources he ever had access to.
All the same, that team size question is still the silver lining in a massive bummer: Given the choice, I don't think Romero would want things to have gone this way if his hand hadn't been forced. If this game comes together, it's a shame that Xbox's fecklessness and the misery of those 95 laid-off developers are part of the story.
As for who Romero Games' mystery benefactor is, I certainly have my guesses. But rather than engage in baseless speculation, I'm happy to wait and see when the studio's project gets its long-awaited full reveal.
