My Uncle, Todd Porter, was constantly looking forward with his games. I beta tested Doom when I was in grade school... didn't know what it was, of course. He no longer works with id, but you can see a lot of his work in the source of the games. He was unpopular for writing gobs of asm code.

Damn that guy could type fast.

Google Todd Porter with id or with Ion Storm, then you'll know who he is.