The Risky Pivot That Changed Gaming Forever: How id Software Abandoned Commander Keen to Create Wolfenstein 3D

In the early 1990s, id Software stood at a crossroads that would fundamentally reshape the trajectory of video gaming. The legendary developer behind Doom and Quake faced a decision that seemed counterintuitive at the time: abandon their cash cow franchise Commander Keen to pursue an experimental first-person shooter concept that many within the company viewed as little more than a technological curiosity.

The financial reality was stark and compelling. While id’s experimental Catacomb 3D had earned the team a modest $5,000 through a contract with Softdisk’s Gamer’s Edge magazine-on-a-disk service—approximately $11,750 in today’s dollars—each episode of the Commander Keen series was generating ten times that amount. These charming side-scrolling platformers had become a reliable revenue stream, and the business case for continuing down that path seemed obvious to everyone involved.

Yet what makes this story remarkable isn’t just the decision itself, but the internal struggle, the moments of doubt, and ultimately the vision that propelled a group of young developers to bet everything on an unproven concept.

The Comfort Zone They Almost Stayed In

The team had already begun development on Commander Keen 7, incorporating ambitious new features like parallax scrolling and full VGA color support. This wasn’t just another sequel—it represented the natural evolution of what they already knew worked. The developers had refined their craft with each successive Keen title, building a formula that resonated with players and generated consistent income.

John Romero, reflecting on those pivotal moments, described how the team initially viewed Catacomb 3D as “just like a weird gimmick thing that we did for a little bit because we wanted to play with a different technology.” The 3D perspective felt like a novelty, an interesting experiment that might not have staying power in the market. After all, platformers and side-scrolling adventures dominated the gaming landscape, and id had found success within those established genres.

The Moment Everything Changed

The turning point came from an unexpected source: Adrian Carmack’s visceral reaction while testing Catacomb 3D. As he pivoted the camera to face an in-game troll, he experienced what he described as an “almost falling out of his seat” moment. The ability to look around corners, to peer behind walls, to have enemies suddenly pop into view created a level of immersion that traditional 2D games simply couldn’t match.

“It automatically sucked you in,” Carmack explained. “You’re trying to look behind walls, doors, whatever… you get a pop-out like that, and it was just one of the craziest things in a video game I had ever seen.”

This wasn’t just about better graphics or smoother animation—it was about fundamentally changing how players interacted with virtual worlds. The first-person perspective created a sense of presence, of actually being inside the game rather than controlling a character from outside looking in.

The Difficult Decision

Convincing the entire team to abandon two weeks of work on Commander Keen 7 required more than just one person’s enthusiasm. John Carmack had to make the case that this experimental technology represented the future of gaming, even though the market hadn’t yet shown clear demand for first-person experiences.

Romero recalls the late-night conversations that ultimately swayed the team: “Within two weeks, [I was up] at one in the morning and I’m just like, ‘Guys, we need to not make this game [Keen].’ This is not the future. The future is getting better at what we just did with Catacomb.”

The response from his colleagues was immediate and decisive. “Everyone was immediately like, ‘Yeah, you know, you’re right. That is the new thing, and we haven’t seen it, and we can do it, so why aren’t we doing it?'”

The Risk That Paid Off

This decision to abandon a proven franchise in favor of an unproven concept exemplifies the kind of calculated risk-taking that defines technological innovation. The team wasn’t just choosing between two game genres—they were choosing between playing it safe with incremental improvements or potentially revolutionizing an entire medium.

Looking back, Carmack reflected on their mindset: “It kind of felt that’s where the future was going. [We wanted to] take it to some place that it wouldn’t happen staying in the existing conservative [lane].”

What makes this story particularly compelling is that the team had every reason to stay conservative. They had a successful formula, a dedicated audience, and financial stability. The pressure to continue producing Commander Keen games would have been enormous, both from a business perspective and from the expectations of their fans.

The Legacy of That Choice

The decision to pursue Wolfenstein 3D rather than Commander Keen 7 didn’t just create another successful game—it established the template for the first-person shooter genre that would dominate gaming for decades to come. The mechanics, the perspective, the sense of immersion that began with Catacomb 3D reached their full potential in Wolfenstein 3D, and those innovations would echo through Doom, Quake, and countless other titles that followed.

This moment represents one of those rare instances where a group of developers recognized that they were standing at the edge of something transformative. They could have continued refining their existing formula, gradually improving with each sequel, but instead they chose to leap into the unknown.

The result wasn’t just a successful game—it was the birth of a new way to experience interactive entertainment, one that would influence everything from military training simulations to virtual reality experiences decades later.

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