Wolfenstein
The "Wolfenstein" series of video games started with the 1981 stealth-adventure video game "Castle Wolfenstein". It was developed by American programmer Silas Warner, a pioneer in the early eras of video gaming, especially the stealth genre. It was published by his (then) company M.U.S.E. Inc. (Muse Software). The player controls an unnamed American prisoner of war as he steals war files containing information about secret German war plans while avoiding or sometimes killing guards, and tries to escape the fortified Nazi stronghold Castle Wolfenstein, set during World War II. The game is often credited as one of the first video games of the stealth genre, since it focuses more on avoiding or disarming enemies, and killing them is considered a last resort.
Development of Doom
Following the release of "Spear of Destiny" and the completion of the "ShadowCaster" engine, id Software discussed what their next title would be. They wanted to create another 3D game using Carmack's new engine as a starting point, but were largely tired of "Wolfenstein". Lead designer Tom Hall was especially weary of it, and pushed for the team to make another game in the "Commander Keen" series; the team had created seven episodes in the series in 1990–91 as their first games, but the planned third set of episodes had been dropped in favor of "Wolfenstein 3D". While Carmack was initially interested in the idea, the rest of the team was not. They collectively felt that the platforming gameplay of the series was a poor fit for Carmack's fast-paced 3D engines, and especially after the success of "Wolfenstein" were interested in pursuing more games of that type. Additionally, the other two co-founders of id were not interested in creating another "Keen" game: John Romero, the designer of "Wolfenstein", was not interested in doing another "cutesy" game, and lead artist Adrian Carmack preferred to create art in a darker style than the "Keen" games. John Carmack soon lost interest in "Keen" idea as well, instead coming up with his own concept: a game about using technology to fight demons, inspired by the "Dungeons & Dragons" campaigns the team played, combining the styles of "Evil Dead II" and "Aliens". The concept originally had a working title of "Green and Pissed", which was also the name of a concept Hall had proposed prior to "Wolfenstein", but Carmack soon named the proposed game after a line in the film "The Color of Money": "'What's in the case?' / 'In here? Doom.'"