Tom Hall
![]() | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (June 2015) |
Tom Hall | |
---|---|
Occupation | Game designer, game programmer |
Employer | PlayFirst |
Spouse(s) | Terri Hall (died 2021) |
Website | tomtomtom |
Tom Hall is an American game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as Doom and Commander Keen. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science.
Career[]
In 1987, Hall worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly. Along with some of his co-workers, John Carmack, John Romero and Adrian Carmack, he founded id Software. He served as creative director and designer there, working on games such as the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, and Doom.[1]
After some disputes with John Carmack about the design for Doom,[1] Tom left id Software in August 1993 to join Apogee/3D Realms. He was the game designer for Rise of the Triad, produced Terminal Velocity, and helped in varying degrees on Duke Nukem II and Duke Nukem 3D as well. He also worked on the Prey engine until August 12, 1996, when he left Apogee.
Hall co-founded Ion Storm with John Romero, where he produced Anachronox. The company also produced the 2000 Game of the Year, Deus Ex,[2] in which Hall voiced several characters. He and Romero then founded Monkeystone Games, a company with the goal of producing mobile games in the new mobile industry.[3] He designed, and Romero programmed, Hyperspace Delivery Boy!, which was released on December 23, 2001.
He and Romero joined Midway Games in 2003,[4] and Monkeystone closed in January 2005. Hall also left Midway early that year and did independent game consultation work out of Austin, Texas until in February he joined a startup company called KingsIsle Entertainment based in the same area.
Hall left KingsIsle Entertainment and joined Loot Drop on January 1, 2011.[5] Along with Loot Drop, he unsuccessfully tried to crowdfund a game called Shaker on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter during October 2012.[6] Hall later tried to crowdfund another game on Kickstarter, Worlds of Wander, which was also unsuccessful in reaching its goal.[7]
In March 2013, Hall joined PlayFirst as Principal Designer.[8]
Dopefish[]
Hall is the creator of the Dopefish, a green, dimwitted fish in Commander Keen episode IV. References to it have appeared in other video games, including the Quake series, Rise of the Triad, and Daikatana[example needed] since.[9]
Voice work[]
Hall provided the following voices for the computer role-playing game Deus Ex: Morpheus, a sentient AI; Howard Strong, a ruthless and cruel MJ12 operative; and Walton Simons, the nano-augmented Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He also voiced the project director in Deus Ex: Invisible War's opening cutscene, and PAL-18, Councilman Willis, Dr. Hush-Hush and Eddie the Chew in Anachronox. He was also the voice and likeness of the main antagonist of Rise of the Triad, El Oscuro, voiced the Death Monk enemies from the game,[10] and earlier he voiced some of the characters in Wolfenstein 3D, including the female character Gretel Grösse.[11]
Personal life[]
Hall suffered a stroke on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. He was in rehabilitation until April 21, when he was released.[12] He was married for eighteen years to Terri Hall, who died on May 2, 2021.[13]
Games[]
Year | Title | Developer | Publisher | Credited for |
---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | Catacomb | Softdisk | Softdisk | Creative director (MS-DOS), Levels |
1990 | Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons | Ideas from the Deep | Apogee Software | Creative director, sounds |
1991 | Slordax: The Unknown Enemy | Softdisk | Softdisk | Creative director |
1991 | Hovertank 3D | Softdisk | Softdisk | Game designer |
1991 | Catacomb II | Softdisk | Softdisk | Creative director |
1991 | Catacomb 3-D | id Software | Softdisk | Creative director |
1991 | Shadow Knights | id Software | Softdisk | Creative consultant, level design, sound |
1991 | Rescue Rover | id Software | Softdisk | Game designer |
1991 | Rescue Rover 2 | id Software | Softdisk | Creative director |
1991 | Commander Keen in Keen Dreams | id Software | Softdisk | Creative director |
1991 | Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter | id Software | FormGen | Creative director |
1992 | Wolfenstein 3D | id Software | Apogee Software | Creative director |
1993 | Doom | id Software | id Software | Uncredited creative director |
1995 | Rise of the Triad | Apogee Software | Apogee Software | Creative director |
2001 | Anachronox | Ion Storm | Eidos Interactive | Project leader, game designer |
2002 | Hyperspace Delivery Boy! | Monkeystone Games | Monkeystone Games | Game designer |
2003 | Red Faction | Monkeystone Games | THQ | Creative commando |
2003 | Jewels and Jim | Monkeystone Games | THQ | Game designer, lead programmer |
2003 | Dig It! | Monkeystone Games | THQ | Game designer, lead programmer |
2003 | Congo Cube | Monkeystone Games | THQ | Game designer, lead programmer |
2005 | Narc | VIS Entertainment | Midway Games | Creative director |
2005 | Area 51 | Midway Austin | Midway Games | Additional writing and design |
2012 | Pettington Park | Loot Drop | Zynga | Creative director and lead designer |
2016 | Gordon Ramsay: Dash | PlayFirst | Glu Mobile | Lead game designer |
References[]
- ^ a b Gestalt (November 4, 1999). "Tom Hall of Ion Storm". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ "2000 Game of the Year". GameSpy. 2001. Archived from the original on August 12, 2012.
- ^ Wright, Chris (2008). "A Brief History of Mobile Games: 2001 - A Mobile Odyssey".
- ^ Tom Bramwell (October 24, 2003). "Midway CEO Speaks". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ "Loot Drop banks on talented game designers as it takes on social gaming's giants (exclusive)".
- ^ "SHAKER: An RPG by Brenda Brathwaite & Tom Hall (Canceled)".
- ^ "WORLDS OF WANDER plus "Secret Spaceship Club" Game!".
- ^ "New Job: Principal Designer at PlayFirst!".
- ^ Siegler, Joe. "The Dopefish".
- ^ Bowen, Kevin (1997). "ROTT in Hell - Part II".
- ^ Parrish, Peter (August 27, 2009). "Tom Hall on Wolfenstein 3D". Archived from the original on February 3, 2012.
- ^ Callaham, John (April 15, 2010). "id Software co-founder Tom Hall recovering from stroke". Archived from the original on May 21, 2015.
- ^ @ThatTomHall (May 12, 2021). "I just lost the light and love of my life on May 2nd. Will black out social media for a bit. She was so amazing. E…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
External links[]
Media related to Tom Hall at Wikimedia Commons
- Creative directors
- Living people
- American video game designers
- People from Wisconsin
- University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
- Id Software people