In 2000 Id Software's last game had been Quake 3 Arena, the company was trying to decide what to do next. They knew they wanted their next game to be singleplayer focused as both Id's fans and the gaming press had complaints about Quake 3 being a mutiplayer only title. John Carmack had built up a legendary reputation for his programming skills, even earning himself the title title 'God' by the gaming press. Carmack started researching modern computer technology to figure out how far he could push his next graphics engine. Carmack had researched bump mapping and was sure he would be able to use this relatively new technology to give his new engine the edge over the competition.
Id's project manager Graeme Devin proposed the company should make an action roleplaying game called 'Quest'. Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack liked the idea, but John Carmack hated it. He felt that a roleplaying game would not push the engine he was thinking up to the limit, and that id software's fans would be expecting another action game not an RPG. Carmack decided he wanted to make a sequel to Doom. Id's fans had been begging for a new Doom for years and it was the companies strongest IP. What was more Carmack believed with new technology he would be able create hyper-realistic looking monsters that would scare players like never before. But Kevin and Adrian didn't want to make another Doom. The original games where legendary. Kevin and Adrian considered the original games to be perfect and they didn't want to mess with perfection.

John Carmack ignored Kevin and Adrian and decided to speak to Trent Raznor. Carmack asked Reznor a question. If Id software was going to create a new Doom game would he be on board to create the soundtrack? Reznor said yes. Carmack then with the help of Paul Steed, Trent Raznor and some other employees at Id software confronted Adrian and Kevin on the issue of a new Doom game. Carmack gave an ultimatum, that is if Doom 3 wasn't id softwares next project they would all leave the company.  This was not the first time Carmack had given an ultimatum like this. During the production of Quake him and and other members of Id Software had confronted John Romero over differing creative ideas for the game. Carmack had managed to get his way then and he was going to get his way now.

On June 1st 2000 John Carmack wrote a .plan file and uploaded it to the internet. He announced to the world that Id Software's next game was going to be Doom 3. The game industry had changed a lot since the days of the original Doom. Story was now an expected element in a first person shooter. John Carmack had once said 'Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important'. But times had changed since the first Doom. While some of Id's previous games had featured a story with Quake 2 being the prime example it was never especially detailed.

For Doom 3 id software decided to hire Matt Castello to come up with the games story. Castello had previously worked on the 11th Hour and 7th Guest for Trilobyte. Castello put together a nintety page design document for the game. There would also be a complete set of storyboards detailing all the game's actions. All this was a first for Id Software. To make his new graphics engine truly revolutionary Carmack would use unified lighting and shadowing. Games prior to Doom 3 had used fixed light sources. Carmack would also use advanced animation that would allow enemies to move twenty four frames per second the same as Hollywood films.

Carmack would also have Graphic user interfaces on particular surfaces. He wanted the player to be able to actually interact with a console realistically instead of just pressing the 'Use' key like so many games had done before Doom 3. Id Software went dark on the production of Doom 3. Carmack didn't want to waste time on press releases or interviews he wanted the team to have total focus on making the game. In May 2002 at E3 a demo of Doom 3 was finally unveiled. The press where amazed and described the game as having a quality of presentation on par with Pixar. Carmack proved to the World once again that he was a programming god. The Id Software crew running the booth for Doom 3 told the press that the game demo was completely in real time. The game looked so amazing that the press didn't believe them.


Doom 3 E3 2002 gameplay screenshot