John Anderson (Dr. Sleep)

John W. Anderson (aka Dr. Sleep), born on November 7, 1956, was an American game designer, level designer, and writer. In April of 2018, Dr. Sleep passed away due to pneumonia.

He was best known in the Doom community for his Inferno series of maps, originally conceived as a full episode replacement of nine "cantos":

• Dante's Gate and Crossing Acheron were standalone releases. Created in 1994 before sophisticated editing tools were available, they were widely praised by Doomers and, according to Dr. Sleep, led directly to an offer of employment from id Software.
• The next five levels were included in the Master Levels for Doom II package:
  • MAP03: Virgil's Lead (VIRGIL.WAD)
  • MAP05: Minos' Judgement (MINOS.WAD)
  • MAP07: Nessus (NESSUS.WAD)
  • MAP08: Geryon (GERYON.WAD)
  • MAP09: Vesperas (VESPERAS.WAD)
• "Chiron" became E4M7: And Hell Followed in The Ultimate Doom.
• A final installment, "Lethe" (also variously mentioned as "Waters of Lethe"), was still in development as of late 2004 but remains unreleased; the only details released are a few screenshots.

The architecture and storyline of the series was inspired by "Inferno" in the epic poem The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, which describes a descent into hell. Several mappers of later generations, such as Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal and Paul Corfiatis, have cited Dr. Sleep's unique and attractive aesthetic as a basis for their own designs.

Dr. Sleep also wrote a comprehensive Doom Builder guidebook, and maintained the official distribution (though not the code itself) of the venerable editor DETH. He released a single Heretic level, titled Recant.

His non-Doom projects included Blood (Q Studios), Unreal (Epic MegaGames), Kingpin: Life of Crime (Xatrix Entertainment), Daikatana (Ion Storm), and a definitive bibliography of H. P. Lovecraft.

External links

• Dr Sleep's DOOM Apothecary
• MobyGames profile
• The H. P. Lovecraft Studies Weblog: "Deconstructing Howard: An Observation of Lovecraftian Studies" (archived 🏛)
• John Anderson article on the Blood Wiki

Sources

• Unofficial Master Levels FAQ (archived 🏛) by Henrik Larsen
• Who is Dr Sleep Anyway? (part of Dr Sleep's DOOM Apothecary)
• "Dr Sleep Resurrects His Doom Apothecary" (archived 🏛) (news post at New Doom)
• Dr Sleep's DOOM Apothecary (archived 🏛)
• The WebLife of John W. Anderson (archived 🏛)
• Portfolio of John W. Anderson