Adrian Carmack (born May 5, 1969) is an American video game artist and one of four co-founders of

id Software id Software LLC () is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: game programmer, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer T ...

, along with

Tom Hall Tom Hall is an American game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as '' Doom'' and '' Commander Keen''. Career Hall attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned a B.S. in Computer Science. In 19 ...

John Romero John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Seco ...

, and

John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related discip ...

(no relation). The founders met while working at Softdisks ''Gamer's Edge'' division and started id in 1991. Adrian Carmack's primary role at the company was as an artist, including work on ''

Commander Keen ''Commander Keen'' is a series of side-scrolling video game, side-scrolling platform game, platform video games developed primarily by id Software. The series consists of six main episodes, a "lost" episode, and a final game; all but the final ga ...

'', ''

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen. Originally released on May 5, 1992, for DOS, it was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game ''Castle Wolfen ...

'', '' DOOM'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'', '' Quake'', ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the ''Quake'' series, but not a direct sequel to '' Quake''. The game's storyline is continued in its e ...

'' and ''

Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

''. He was a 41%-owner of id until he left the company in 2005. At the time the press was told he felt he had done all he could do in the gaming field and was planning to pursue his passions of art. However, in September 2005, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' revealed he was taking his former business partners to

court A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and carry out the administration of justice in Civil law (common law), civil, C ...

, claiming he was effectively fired by them in an attempt to force him to sell his 41% stake in the company for $11 million under the terms of a

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to ...

he wants the court to nullify. $11 million is thought to be a fraction of the true value of his stake, which is thought to be closer to $43 million after the company received a $105 million bid from

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

in 2004. Carmack has also been credited for coining the term " gibs". In September 2014, Carmack was revealed as the new owner of the five-star Heritage Golf & Spa Resort in

Killenard Killenard () is a village in County Laois, Ireland. It lies in the historic barony of Portnahinch and within the administrative area of Laois County Council. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 671 people, up from 622 inhab ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. In April 2016, it was reported that Carmack had reunited with Romero under a new

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city ...

, Ireland-based start-up, The Night Work Games, to produce a new video game, '' Blackroom'', for which they had launched a crowdfunding campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

. The game has been described as "a return to fast, violent and masterful play on the PC". Later the campaign was put on hold to allow Carmack and Romero time to complete a working demo of the game. According to the two developers, their decision was based on players' feedback regarding the playability of the demo. The company behind Blackroom, Night Work Games, was seeking $700,000 to fund the development of the game. Before being put on hold, the campaign had raised $131,052 from its supporters. During Doom development Adrian built clay models of the baron of hell, the Doomguy, and the cyberdemon before

Gregor Punchatz Gregor Punchatz (born 1967) is an artist hired by id Software to create sculptures for the Arch-Vile, Mancubus, Revenant and Spider Mastermind monsters for the ''Doom'' video game series. He built these models using steel armatures and foam late ...

was hired.

References

External links

MobyGame's Rap Sheet on Carmack

Night Work Games
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carmack, Adrian 1969 births Id Software people Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Video game artists