I just heard that Smartest Man Alive a.k.a. John Carmack will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, in recognition of “two decades of groundbreaking technical contributions, and his role establishing the first-person shooter genre with landmark titles like DOOM and Quake.”
Gamasutra did a good job of recapping Carmack’s many achievements:
John Carmack and his team at id Software, the company he co-founded in 1991, pioneered real-time 3D graphics in game, setting the pace and the standard for other developers to follow. Carmack and his colleagues at id are credited with essentially creating the modern-day first-person shooter (FPS) genre with the PC game Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and helping to popularize networked multiplayer gaming on PCs with the release of Doom in 1993.
id has gone on to create other major FPS and action game franchises such as Quake, and Carmack and id Software are currently in development of a number of projects, including the free-to-play, web-based title Quake Live, the upcoming new franchise RAGE, and Doom 4.
As a largely self-taught technology purist, Carmack has devoted himself to pushing the limits of hardware and software. He’s helped to set the technical and gameplay standard for modern 3D gaming – and in the process, created some of the most popular video game franchises in history, which is why he’s being honored by the Game Developers Choice Awards this year.
Of course I’m always after a reason to honor my wretched blog with bits about his honor.
The two johnes are waiting for you…