Former id Software producer Andrew Willis talks about the difficult conditions the team worked under to create the Revelations add-on for Doom: Dark Ages. According to him, development takes place within a system that many employees call the worst crisis of their careers.
Willis recalled that for about two months, he worked at least 12 hours a day, sometimes even 17 hours. In total, he works about 80 hours a week. Additionally, a significant portion of the new content was created in just three to four months.
This burden takes a particularly severe toll on employees’ personal lives. Willis admitted that he hadn’t seen his son in several days as the team tried to bring “Apocalypse” to the required level of quality. He said many developers, including those with decades of experience in Hollywood and the gaming industry, have experienced similar situations. At the same time, no one formally mandated rework—the teams themselves were faced with the need to complete a large amount of work in a short period of time. Notably, Willis himself was fired the day the supplement was released.
