Doom (1993 video game)
Because id planned to self-publish the game, as the game neared completion they had to set up the systems to sell the game. Jay Wilbur, who had been brought on as CEO and sole member of the business team, planned the marketing and distribution of "Doom". He felt that the mainstream press was uninterested in the game, and as id would make the most money off of copies they sold directly to customers—up to 85 percent of the planned US$40 price—he decided to leverage the shareware market as much as possible, buying only a single ad in any gaming magazine. Instead, he reached out directly to software retailers, offering them copies of the first "Doom" episode for free, allowing them to charge any price for it, in order to spur customer interest in buying the full game directly from id.
Iikka Keränen
In his teens, Keränen programmed freeware games for the Commodore Amiga. Later he created the popular "Quake" mod "Airquake", as well as over a hundred free add-on levels for the "Doom" and "Quake" series of first-person shooters. He was named the top "Doom" level maker of all time by Doomworld in 1998, described as "one of a few pioneer level designers that created the new bottom line for playability and design in "Doom" levels, as well as helping to develop some of the special FX that many level authors now take for granted".