John Romero - How to Start Developing Video Games

Some fantastic advice from game industry legend, John Romero, about how to get into creating your own games for mobile devices.

John is best known as one of the co-founders of id Software and designer of groundbreaking games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.

Part of the Heritage Lottery funded Viva Computer project run by the Centre for Computing History.

[Peterplayingguitar]

This guy is my hero! Not just because he can design a game level really well but also because he seems like a really positive, easy going dude.

[dragdusan]

Both John Romero and John Carmack are my childhood (and adulthood 😊 ) heroes. Great stuff presented here

[mwarrensims]

Some of the best advice I've ever heard--not with Game Development, necesarilly—is to start any way and anywhere you can. The important thing is to GET STARTED NOW.

[elijahking]

John and the original ID team along with Ken Levine (Irrational games) are the reason I'm going to be working in the industry. Very inspirational.

[wildwest]

romero is pretty awesome. What him and carmack contributed to gaming was huge.

[aftabhussain]

5:50 i think is a reference to carmack not understanding romero back at IDsoft

[MrHieronymusBosch]

one of the best guitarists in death metal

[XadePsyconic]

Mister Romero is a super chill and informative guy. Respect.

[higgins]

For what it's worth, as a 10 year veteran ;), this is great advice. Romero is such a top guy.

[Moarmmoforme]

Started Corona a couple of days ago, all I can say is that it is a beautiful engine/framework, so easy to work with, the device simulation is phenomenal, the tutorials are so simple and elegant (you make 2 simple games following instructions, all assets are included), the console logger is brilliant, building the actual app is super easy. I can imagine it being a great tool for making mobile apps in general.

[SnackCannon]

I'm going to try out Romero's advice, but I've found a lot of comfort in starting with text adventures!

[jakejake]

Just finished Romero's book Doom Man over 3 days. I couldn't put it down. I was doing very low level 6502 game coding on an Atari 400 the same time as Romero but never created a commercial product. I was doing it for fun 14 hours a day. I read the book with a ton of nostalgia.

[chrisbyte]

Lots of awesome advice! Start small, build your personal toolkit, and grow out from there. I also agree on working with other people; it's disconcerting at first especially if you've been solo for a long time, but when everyone is dedicated and passionate it can turn a good idea into a amazing game/application.

[mexforever]

Wow, the knowledge of this man is broad and clear, bless him.

[Cypher]

Holy shit. John Romero is the man. This was really good. Smart and chill dude.

[bootblacking]

Romero seems like a really based dude.

[chuazinerd]

Mano... ver o John Romero ensinando a criar um game e usando Lua que foi criada no Brasil é sensacional demais.

[relexelumna]

Romero is very generous sharing information. He really inspire others with real life example. Respect.

[citizengoose]

I met him, asked him for advice and said practically the same thing + aiming for mobile and that the most important thing is to constantly make stuff.

[Guilherme-momz]

Finally a very informative video on the subject, thank you!