Since the release of Doom in 1993 one detail has been shrouded in mystery: who is the mysterious protagonist known only as Doomguy? Well, we may never know the character’s real name in-game, but we now know the face behind the mask seen on the iconic cover art (above). And it’s none other than famed level designer John Romero.
We loved new Doom, check out our review here
Romero reveals this rather surprising piece of history in his blog, rome.ro. Here’s how he tells it:
“Don Punchatz, the illustrator who created the DOOM logo and the famous front box cover art came over to id in mid-1993 with a male body model… The model’s job was to strike various poses for the marine who would be on the cover of the box.
… He did this for about 10 minutes and we just didn’t see anything that we thought would look cool on the cover. I kept telling the model what to do but he couldn’t see the scene in his mind.
Frustrated, I threw my shirt off and told him to give me the gun and get on the floor – grab my arm as one of the demons! Defeated, he deferred. I aimed the gun in a slightly different direction and told Don, “This is what I’m talking about!” Don took several pictures. I moved the gun some, the demon grabbed my leg, other arm, etc. At the end of it we all decided the arm-grabbing pose was going to be the best.
And that’s the story of how the cover composition was created.”</b>
So apart from designing some of the best levels for one of the most influential games of all time, John Romero appeared as both the protagonist and main villain of Doom 2. That man really gets around. We wonder if he was the rabbit too?
