American McGee

Eat me. Drink me. Inject me?!

The game is deliciously dark, and is being put out of Electronic Arts.

It is interesting to note that this is an example of a new way of marketing games, by using some form of star-power. American McGee is seen to be a star game designer, and you buy the game because of his name on the box. Similar marketing is done with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and things like John Madden's Football series.

American James "Tokay" McGee was born in Dallas, Texas on December 13, 1972. Starting into the world of computer games at the age of 13, his first computer was a "Timex Sinclair 2000"¹. A highschool drop-out, McGee's eventual spot at Id Software was essentially a fluke. After a string of jobs in the service industry he moved into the same apartment complex as John Carmack, "{Some friends} were living next door to John Carmack. We met, John eventually offered me a job, and the rest is history."²

His starting position at Id Software was working as tech support alongside Shawn Green, "At the time he and I were answering support calls for DOOM. So from 9 to 5 I would get my head beat in by Shawn in DOOM deathmatch while taking calls from people who couldn't figure out how to get their own heads beat in. At night I started teaching myself map editing."

During his stint as tech support he began learning map editing. His first map evolved into "The Crusher" which was included in DOOM II (see the map list below). McGee cites his time working on DOOM II as his "golden moment" at id Software, "We were a real team working on something that we all wanted to make great. When Michael Abrash came to id I described it to him as Wonderland."

His proficiency at map editing let to an expanded role in the creation of id's next product, Quake. For this title he did more than just level design, but also sound effects and Quake C programming. He also completed some level design for Quake II but soon after the Quake II point release John Carmack posted this .plan³:

3/12/98
-------
American McGee has been let go from Id.

His past contributions include work in three of the all time great games (DOOM 2, Quake, Quake 2), but we were not seeing what we wanted.

After his departure from id Software it was rumored that McGee was going to move into the online gambling industry. In the long run though, McGee came back to doing what he loves doing. According to McGee he wanted to work in one of the big production companies, since he had already worked for a small shop. He ended up with Electronic Arts, one of the long time players in the video game industry.

His first title with EA was American McGee's Alice, which is "a 3rd person adventure/shooter title based on a well known children's story, but with my own demonic twist".

Comprehensive list of maps American McGee created for id Software games:

For Ultimate Doom

1. e4m1: Hell Beneath
2. e4m4: Unruly Evil

For Doom II

3. map02: Underhalls
4. map03: The Gantlet
5. map04: The Focus
6. map05: The Waste Tunnels
7. map06: The Crusher
8. map07: Dead Simple
9. map14: The Inmost Dens
10. map22: The Catacombs
11. idmap01: id Map01 - a Deathmatch only level

For Quake

12. e1m6: The Door To Chthon
13. e1m7: The House of Chthon
14. e1m8: Ziggurat Vertigo
15. e3m2: The Vaults of Zin
16. e3m3: The Tomb of Terror
17. e3m4: Satan's Dark Delight
18. e3m6: Chambers of Torment (by American McGee and Tim Willits)
19. e3m7: The Haunted Halls
20. dm2: Claustrophobopolis
21. dm4: The Bad Place
22. dm7: Archophobia

For Quake II

23. q2dm2: Tokay's Towers
24. q2dm3: Frag Pipe
25. q2dm6: The Lava Tomb
26. q2dm7: Slimy Place