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First, could you give us some basic info on you and your past/current projects?
My name is Tom Hall. I was born in Wisconsin, and got my first computer, an Apple II+, on June
9th, 1980. It was love. I made like a hundred little games on it. Later, I got a degree in
Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. During that time I did some side
programming for a teacher: educational software for learning-disabled kids.
The Apogee/3D Realms headquarter
After college, it was Softdisk Publishing,
then founding id Software and doing
Keen,
Wolfenstein, and
DOOM; then
Apogee/3D Realms, for some of
Duke Nukem II,
Rise of the Triad,
Terminal Velocity, the story for
Duke Nukem 3D (just took an hour or two, no biggie), and the starting
year of development on Prey (though it's quite a bit different now). Then I co-founded
Ion Storm.
A Porsche!
What was it like working at id Software during the early years?
It was awesome. We had just enough money to survive, and we were working 16-18 hours a day, and
loving it. We were all in one room, all listening to loud music, all playing the same games, all
critiquing what we liked about them, and all doing completely separate tasks that we were all
very good at. It was perfect. I think it was really perfect until Town East Tower for me, when
everyone was in a separate office. I really missed that sort of social workplace.
What was it like making the first three Keens?
We were taking home our computers, using every spare minute for development. We did the
Keens in 2.5 months, at night and on weekends. John Romero and I did the episode three
levels in two days. It was crazy, but we were so in the zone. It was insanely fun.
Keen in 'Invasion of the Vorticons'
What was it like making Keen Dreams, and the other id Software games that came before
'Goodbye Galaxy'?
As part of leaving, we agreed to do games so the Gamer's Edge product could continue. At the
time, I really didn't want to do a Keen for them, but we needed a ramp-up for the next
Keen trilogy. I was eventually convinced. We were doing this game and some other game at
the same time. It was kinda crazy. But doing all those different types of games (puzzle, shooter,
platform, and so on) was incredible training. You'd have to work for a decade on normal-sized
games to get that experience. We did it in a year.
What was it like working on 'Goodbye Galaxy' (Keen 4 and 5) and
'Aliens ate my Babysitter' (Keen 6)? How was it different from working on
'Invasion of the Vorticons' (Keen 1, 2 and 3)?
Deciding on the tilted perspective made things look really cool, but the levels took a lot longer
to make. I think the overall art design was a lot cooler, though I have a definite place in my
heart for the original Keen development. We were in Wisconsin (my home state) for most of this
development. We got convinced to make the third game a commercial game, which I think hurt sales
of the first two a lot. Getting a trilogy seems great. Getting the second half doesn't seem at
cool. They still did decently, though.
Since we'd moved to Wisconsin in the winter (I wanted to move in the summer, but the rest of the
guys wanted to enjoy the boathouse in Shreveport for one more summer), we didn't go outside much,
and we worked long hours. We moved back down south, to the warmth of Dallas.
I had done most of the art in the original Keen trilogy. With Adrian Carmack working on
this new set of Keen, his skills honed over many games, the art was looking awesome. We
did Keen 4, then Keen 6 ('Aliens ate my Babysitter'), and then Keen 5. We
did Keen 5 in one month. That was an amazing amount of work, but it's probably the
favorite Keen, even though it doesn't have a
Dopefish!
Keen in the Shadowlands
What did you have planned for Keen 7? Do you think Keen as any future?
Well, I don't want to talk too much about it, as I may do it someday, but as you know from the
end of Keen 6, Mortimer McMire is back, and he has big, bad plans for the end of the
universe as we know it...
If I can ever get the rights back to Keen, or if I can strike a deal with id Software so
I have creative control of him forever, then you'll see Keen again. I don't want to start
Keen back up, only to have him taken away again if he's successful. That just wouldn't
seem fair.
I would love to do another Keen. My last idea for Keen 7-9 ('The Universe
is Toast') was a game world was 3D, and at certain places the camera rotated with you for
different games. It was halfway between Super Mario 64 and Pandemonium. This was
two years before those games came out. I wish I'd been in a place where I could've made that
happen back then.
I do miss the good ol' days of Keen. I love the universe and the gameplay, and I'd love
to make another chapter in the saga. We will see how the future unfolds...
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DOS Games
