Masters of Doom

Masters of Doom is the untold true story of two brilliant, wildly different visionaries—John Romero and John Carmack—whose groundbreaking collaboration reshaped video games forever, and whose friendship ultimately couldn’t survive the empire they built. In the early 1990s, in the unlikely town of Shreveport, Louisiana, two Johns—one a long-haired, heavy metal-loving design savant, the other a stoic, reclusive programming genius—ignite a revolution. Fueled by shared obsession and punk-rock defiance, they break away from their day jobs and found id Software. Within months, they unleashed Commander Keen, a console-style PC platformer that captured gamers’ imaginations and made them money for the first time. But it’s only the beginning. Together, they channel their creative forces into a darker, more visceral project: DOOM. Built in secrecy, driven by sleepless nights, loud music, and gallons of Diet Coke, DOOM becomes a phenomenon, sparking a cultural firestorm, inspiring a generation of gamers, and turning the Johns into rockstars. But with success comes pressure. Carmack, obsessed with technical perfection and order, finds himself at odds with Romero’s improvisational flair and love of the spotlight. As id’s empire grows—through hits like DOOM II and Quake—so does the rift between its founders. Behind the scenes, the company’s culture spirals. Carmack burrows deeper into his code, demanding 24/7 commitment and tracking staff productivity with report cards. Romero, once the team’s charismatic engine, grows increasingly detached, focused more on his public persona than the codebase. Their philosophies collide—one obsessed with structure and innovation, the other chasing creative chaos. Eventually, Carmack makes a hard decision: Romero must go. What follows is a dramatic split that reverberates throughout the gaming world. Romero co-founds Ion Storm and sets out to prove he was the real star all along, promising the most ambitious shooter ever made: Daikatana. But the project quickly becomes a cautionary tale of hubris, ballooning budgets, and missed deadlines. Meanwhile, Carmack continues pushing the limits of game engines, but finds little joy without his former partner. Masters of Doom is a story of friendship, ambition, genius, and pride. It’s about two young men who challenged what was possible in gaming—and how the very traits that made them successful tore them apart.