Part 2: Building the Anti-id

"With [the new company], I wanted to operate it like a big business - see how much we can do," Romero says. "We were going to go as big as we could do it, because we could." Empowering his optimism was his clout in the industry, coupled with the fact that other veteran designers such as Chris Roberts and Sid Meier had also recently left their former employees. Romero was building a company at a time when publishers were willing to dole out millions for new hotshot developers. "I was sick

"We were going to go as big as we could do it, because we could." - John Romero on his initial plans for Dream Design

and tired of doing just one game at id," Romero says, "so I wanted to make a big company where we could design multiple games and get them out quickly." To expedite the creative process, Romero decided to license completed game engines, building his games with a set of predefined tools.

John Romero met Ion co-founder Todd Porter in the Summer of 1996.

Bigger also meant diverse in Romero's mind; he was looking to make his new company more than just a 3D-shooter shop. In June of 1996, before Romero left id, he met Todd Porter, then vice president of 3D at Texas developer 7th Level, through a mutual friend, Mike Maynard. Romero and Porter instantly hit it off after Romero discovered Porter's roots in Apple II games. "When we did meet," explains Porter, "[John and I] talked for hours about the old days of programming the Apple II and our favorite games." One of Romero's favorite games on the Apple II was a title that Porter had programmed for Origin in the '80s, Knights of Legend.

Todd Porter was developing Dominion at 7th Level. That game would later be published by Ion Storm.

After conversing for a few hours, Porter showed Romero Dominion, a real-time strategy game in development at 7th Level. "It was right at the time C&C had just come out, so it looked amazing and very cool in 1996," remembers Romero. Before long, Romero decided that he wanted to have a real-time strategy game in his company. Porter and his friend, art director Jerry O'Flaherty, were soon on board with Romero and Hall for Dream Design, although there were people who didn't understand why Romero wanted to further extend the company and bring aboard his new acquaintance Porter. Mike Wilson, who was tapped as the CEO at the time, remembers that when discussions began about how to promote the company, no one knew of Porter and O'Flaherty. "I remember [our PR firm] talking about having a photo shoot on Abbey Road, presenting these four guys as the Beatles," explains Wilson. " But there were a lot of snide jokes made at the time, from folks saying things like, 'The fab two and the fab who?'"

"John was the reason Ion existed. John was the reason it was funded." - Adrian Carmack questioning why Romero needed other partners

It seemed that others in the industry were worried about the fab who too. " I didn't understand why John thought so highly of [Porter] that he felt the need to make him his partner," explains Romero's friend and id co-founder Adrian Carmack, recalling the summer of 1996 when he advised Romero to be careful going into a business relationship with Porter. Carmack says he had asked around the industry and heard negative things about Porter. Of course, he does admit that many of those comments could have been rumor. Yet, "I still don't know why he hired Porter," explains Carmack, noting that "John was the reason Ion existed. John was the reason it was funded." Todd Porter says that most of these stories are fiction, explaining, "The people who know me and have worked with me know the truth and that's good enough for me."

Regardless, Romero was keen on taking the industry by storm with a huge development house, and that meant that Porter's real-time-strategy expertise and O'Flaherty's art skills would be vital pieces needed to develop a game shop with over 50 employees.
 

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