Tim Willits was the former studio director, co-owner, and level designer of id Software. Starting in August 2019, Willits became the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive. He became a director at 3D Realms after Saber Interactive acquired the company.

Biography

Willits earned a degree in computer science and business from the University of Minnesota. He was a member of the University of Minnesota Army ROTC program. During his junior year, he served as battalion cadet-command sergeant major (C/CSM). He attended ROTC Advanced Camp at Fort Lewis, Washington, during the summer between his junior and senior years of college. After an injury during that summer, Willits completed two assignments, being assigned to both the first and seventh cadet regiments. In his senior year, he held the rank of cadet-major (C/MAJ) and was assigned as the battalion training officer.

He married for the second time in 2009. Willits now lives in a suburb of Dallas with his wife, Alison Barron Willits. They have three children who are triplets.

Career

Willits said in many interviews that he wanted to make video games after downloading a free version of Doom. He played the first room of E1M1 and thought that was the whole demo. Then, he found a door that led to other rooms. When the door opened, Willits decided he wanted to create video games. In 1995, he joined id Software after showing the company owners and developers Doom levels he made in his free time and shared online. Willits worked on Strife, The Ultimate Doom, Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena, and Doom 3.

Willits was the lead designer for Doom 3 and the executive producer for Quake 4. He also served as the creative director for Rage and Quake Live, and as the game director for the arena shooter, Quake Champions.

Willits was the only id Software employee to attend every QuakeCon event since it began in 1996 until he left id in 2019. He is proud of this achievement. On July 18, 2019, Willits announced he would leave id Software after working there for 24 years. He is now the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive.

Willits was mentioned in the Doom movie as Dr. Willits.

Controversy

In August 2017, Tim Willits said he was responsible for creating the idea of multiplayer maps during the development of the game Quake. He claimed he shared the idea with coworkers John Romero and John Carmack, but they reportedly called it "the stupidest idea they'd ever heard."

The next day, John Romero denied Willits' claim on his personal blog, stating that the meeting Willits described never happened. John Carmack said he did not remember the conversation and trusted Romero's account. Romero explained that many multiplayer-only maps were already created for the game Doom before Quake was released. He also noted that earlier games, Marathon and Rise of the Triad, included maps designed only for multiplayer. Tom Hall, a co-founder of id Software and director of Rise of the Triad, supported Romero's account.

Willits responded by sharing an early version of a map fragment on Instagram and said, "I stand by what I said." In January 2020, Willits appeared on the Arcade Attack Podcast and clarified that his comments about multiplayer-only maps referred only to Quake, not all first-person shooter games. He also stated that Quake was the first FPS game to use a dedicated client-server system for multiplayer.

In 2007, Willits was interviewed by Warren Spector and gave the same account about creating multiplayer-only maps. He also claimed to have designed all of Quake's shareware levels, but John Romero disagreed with this claim.