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Tom Hall

Tom Hall

Veteran Game Designer
Tom Hall is a former co-founder of id software, and a veteran game designer/programmer for 35 years. His games have won many awards and have been enjoy by millions of players. An early pioneer in VR with Wolfenstein VR in 1993, Tom was also the Senior Creative Director at Resolution Games, working in VR/AR, and shepherded the Tinyverse social space initiative at Resolution Games.

SOME OF THE GAMES Tom WORKED ON

Doom
Wolfenstein
Commander Keen

Talks & sessions

Happy Player and The Philosophy of Dense Fun

Veteran Game Designer Tom Hall has spent 35 years making games, including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and DOOM. In this talk, he shares tips about how to "get creative", provides two tools to spur game ideas, and discusses how scoping down and working bottom-up leads to better works. The talk will pull in examples of both techniques from creative leaders from Rick Rubin, Neil Gaiman, Sting, Stephen King, the founders of id software, classic artists, and more, and show how The Philosophy of Dense Fun both informed his previous titles and in hindsight made it clear when excess and stress led to a less-focused vision.