Editing Doom modding (section)

===Commercial WADs===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:The Doom Hacker's Guide cover.jpg|thumb|"The Doom Hacker's Guide" by Hank Leukart, who also created and maintained the official Doom [[FAQ]]]] -->

Around 1994 and 1995, WADs were distributed primarily through [[Bulletin board system|BBS]]s and via [[CD]] collections found in computer shops or bundled together with instruction guides for level creation, while in later years [[Internet]] [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] servers became the primary method for obtaining these works. Although the ''Doom'' software license required that no profit be made from custom WADs, and [[Shawn Green (game designer)|Shawn Green]] objected to people selling their WADs for money,<ref>{{cite web |author1=Green, Shawn |author2=McGee, American |title=Doom Conference |url=http://rome.ro/lee_killough/articles/doomconf.shtml |publisher=Planet Rome.ro |year=1994 |access-date=May 7, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080415232414/http://www.rome.ro/lee_killough/articles/doomconf.shtml |archive-date=April 15, 2008}}</ref> some WAD sets and [[shovelware]] bundles were nonetheless obtainable for a price at certain outlets.

During this time, id Software was working on their next game, ''[[Quake (video game)|Quake]]'', using new technology, but started projects picking up the most talented WAD makers from the ''Doom'' community to create official expansions and to compete with the unauthorized collection CDs. The team produced the 21 ''[[Master Levels for Doom II|Master Levels]]'', which, on December 26, 1995, were released on a CD along with ''Maximum Doom'', a collection of 1,830 WADs that had been downloaded from the Internet. In 1996, ''[[Final Doom]]'', a package of two 32-level megawads created by [[TeamTNT]], was released as an official id Software product.

Various first-person shooter games released at the time use the ''Doom'' engine under a commercial license from id Software, as such essentially being custom WADs packaged with the ''Doom'' engine, such as ''Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill'' (1997).

In addition to the many people who contributed to commercially released WADs, various authors became involved with the development of other games:
* Kenneth Scott, who contributed artwork to ''Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill'', later became the art director at id Software and [[343 Industries]] on the post-[[Bungie]] ''[[Halo (franchise)|Halo]]'' games.
* [[Tim Willits]], who contributed two levels to ''Master Levels for Doom II'', later became the lead designer at id Software.
* [[Casali brothers|Dario Casali]], author of a quarter of ''Final Doom'', was hired by [[Valve Corporation|Valve]] to work on ''[[Half-Life (video game)|Half-Life]]''.
* Sverre Kvernmo, designer of five levels in ''Master Levels for Doom II'' and member of TeamTNT, was hired by [[Ion Storm]] for ''[[Daikatana]]''.
* [[Iikka Keränen]], author of several ''Doom'' WADs and later ''Quake'' mods, was hired by Ion Storm to create levels for ''[[Anachronox]]'' and ''Daikatana'', and by [[Looking Glass Studios]] to create levels for ''[[Thief II: The Metal Age]]''. Keränen was later hired by Valve.
* John Anderson (level designer), also known as "Dr. Sleep", author of five levels in ''Master Levels for Doom II'' and E4M7 in ''The Ultimate Doom'', later worked on ''[[Blood (video game)|Blood]]'', ''[[Unreal (1998 video game)|Unreal]]'', and ''Daikatana''.
* [[Matthias Worch]] (level designer) joined [[Ritual Entertainment]] to work on ''[[SiN]]''. He later contributed to the ''Unreal'' series.