Gears of War and Dishonored devs help lead Doom's "incredible" 30th birthday celebrations

Developers are coming together to celebrate Doom's 30th anniversary, and reflecting on their earliest memories of the classic FPS.

Doom, if you can believe it, is somehow 30 years old. The FPS hit the milestone on December 10, and if Doom hitting its fourth decade doesn't make you want to crumble to dust, I don't know what will. To mark the occasion, developers have been sending out messages of thanks and appreciation for Doom on the anniversary.

It feels appropriate to kick things off with Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin, executive producer and game director on the Doom franchise, respectively. The pair thank not only the original development team at id Software, but also give a special shout out to everyone who has modded Doom over the year. That's a nice thing to hear from the two figureheads. 

The Coalition vice president and technical director, Kate Rayner, also had words of thanks for Doom. Rayner gives thanks not just to the game itself for teaching her how to build engines, but also specifically John Carmack's plan updates and Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book as "essential reading" for her in the 1990s.

Arkane co-founder and Dishonored director Harvey Smith praised Doom as one of his "favorite games of all time" in the video message below. Smith actually started in the industry the very year Doom was released, and remembers people "screaming up and down" the halls of developer Origin when it launched. That's a good thing, just to clarify.

Smith also has kind words for 2016's Doom and 2020's Doom Eternal. "It's incredible, it's a miracle," Smith says of the two latest games from id Software. "You guys took everything incredible about Doom and you modernized it, and you made it great," Smith says, adding that part of the reason everyone's celebrating Doom's 30th anniversary is id Software's continued work.

Fellow Arkane figurehead, and Arkane Lyon studio head Dinga Bakaba also reflected on Doom's origins. Doom was actually the very first game Bakaba ever played on his first PC, and that helped form his opinion and "perception" of what games could be. Bakaba even has the lovely Doom Eternal poster on his wall, as seen just below.

Veteran id Software designer Tom Hall, who not only worked on the original Doom but also Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and Rise of the Triad, also chimed in on his feelings for Doom's 30th birthday. Even after developing games for over 36 years, Hall still feels "lucky" to have worked alongside people like John Carmack and John Romero with Doom, and helped to "birth the FPS genre."

Jordan Mechner, one of Prince of Persia's founding developers, also chimed in on the topic. Mechner's tweet is a little more vague than some of the other reflections we're seeing here, but he does add that his "memories of 1993 are vivid," indicating that he's got some pretty fond memories of the year Doom came out.

It's lovely to see these messages of support for Doom's 30th birthday because, let's face it, it's not exactly every day a game makes it to 30 years old and is still remembered so strongly by the people it helped inspire throughout the world. The legacy of Doom is still being felt on game development to this day. 

Read up on our new games 2023 guide for a look at some of upcoming shooters, Doom-inspired or not, that are coming our way soon.