
Coelacanth: Lessons from Doom (2010) - Rolpa
http://vectorpoem.com/news/?p=74
======
angersock
To get an idea of this madness, it can help to look at some relevant footage.

Speedrun of Dead Simple from Doom 2:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfijpjvS9Q8&feature=player_de...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfijpjvS9Q8&feature=player_detailpage#t=326)

Quake Done Quick:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpiNDxssUL0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpiNDxssUL0)

~

That sort of manic movement is, I think, what really sets apart the elite FPS
players of the Doom, Quake, and UT era (and the games in the same vein) from
folks in the CoD/Halo games.

Also, the level design is pretty much strictly better, because it mattered a
lot more. With regenerating health and lots of ammo/easy pickups, you no
longer have to be quite so careful when putting together a level, because you
know that if the give the player X seconds of time without suffering
everything will be okay.

~~~
gaelian
> That sort of manic movement is, I think, what really sets apart the elite
> FPS players of the Doom, Quake, and UT era

In those days, my friends and I used to get into UT quite a lot. Most of the
more experienced UT players I watched would use the double-tap of the
left/right arrow button to trigger the short sideways leap as a means of
rounding a corner (for a better chance of surprising an enemy), or to make it
harder for an enemy to keep a bead on them when they were being fired on. I
was always surprised at how - to me at least - this simple mechanic made such
a difference to how dynamic the combat felt.

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Mithaldu

      > Doom is about “maneuverability as defense”
      > ...
      > There’s nothing quite like it today.
    

There's one game i'm aware of:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_(video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_\(video_game\))

By default it also moves fairly slowly, but the player is strongly encouraged
and almost forced to use bunny-hopping to gain extreme agility and speed. Most
youtube LPs showcase this quite well. "Asylum" and "Snowy Bridge" are imo the
highpoint levels to watch for this.

~~~
endgame
The Serious Sam games fit the DooM tradition, as well.

~~~
Jehar
There is a critical gap between the sensibilities of Doom/Quake/Duke and
Painkiller/Serious Sam: level flow. The latter camp is in varying degrees a
series of rooms you get locked into as enemies spawn in waves. The former
involves navigating a highly varied environment as you attract the attention
of pre-existing enemies.

Sure, on the avatar scale, they play at a similar level. The environments are
what really set the earlier generation apart, and in that respect very little
approaches that sort of design.

~~~
Mithaldu
Painkiller sometimes does that, but other times it gives you levels like
Docks, where as much vertical traversal is expected as horizontal:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-0yJ2V41Jk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-0yJ2V41Jk)

~~~
Jehar
I'll happily agree that Painkiller has some more variation then SS, but on the
whole it's much more focused with wave-based arenas. This isn't a knock
against Painkiller at all, it's a favorite of mine - yet it's still a bit
inaccurate to regard it as classical level design.

~~~
Mithaldu
Yeah, you're right. I went and watched the entire video and while they hide it
well by having really big arenas, it's still just kill rooms.

------
tdicola
Interesting article. I played with making Doom levels back in the day and it
wasn't exactly easy. The tools (DEU, DETH, etc.) were generally clunky DOS
apps that resembled very simplified CAD programs. Documentation was non-
existent or spotty at best, so you really had to spend a lot of time figuring
out how to do simple things. It would easily take you months to ramp up and
start building levels that were more complex than two rooms with a door (and
even that was pretty complex to figure out the right line defs, sectors,
actions, etc. to just make a door work!). This was before the web took off so
you couldn't just Google for a Stackoverflow answer when you got stuck!

Duke Nukem 3D and the Build engine were pretty interesting for level creation.
The game engine included the editor so you could actually drop into a mode
where you walk through the level and directly modify textures, floor/ceiling
height, etc. Was a very cool experience at the time.

~~~
yason
That was part of the point: back then things weren't supposed to be easy nor
documented and investing months to really learn how the intricate details of a
Doom map worked paid off in giving us years of fun creating our own levels and
episodes.

~~~
cmurdock
Oh come on. I think they just weren't user friendly tools. I doubt they
developed them with the intention of being obtuse.

------
Maakuth
I just finished reading David Kushner's Masters of Doom, which tells the story
of DOOM development, as well as the id software story around it. It was well-
written and thoroughly researched story, should be a good read for many in
here.

~~~
Paul_S
Fair warning though, if you don't want to see the dark side of your heroes
maybe skip it. Because the book is very thourough and they did some morally
questionable things. Repeatedly. I was horrified. I thought maybe some of it
is not true but then no one sued for defamy.

~~~
ripter
I don't remember anything horrifying in it. It definitely shows that they are
human with flaws, just like everyone else.

~~~
Maakuth
Well, there was a definite rocker component to their actions, something
possibly not compatible with the idea of programming idol. At least the number
of times breaking keyboards was mentioned was quite high ;).

~~~
lobotryas
> compatible with the idea of programming idol

I think I missed the meeting that established the criteria for a "programming
idol" :P

The guys back in the old id were rockstars - plain and simple. They were
trailblazing an entire new industry and setting a lot of firsts. Now that the
gaming industry is more "mature", the major players are more relaxed, trying
to show their artistic side, and no one's smashing keyboards or putting their
coworker's bloody heads on sticks as easter eggs[0].

[0] -
[http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Romero's_head](http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Romero's_head)

------
omarhegazy
What a great analysis. I'd like to see stuff like this on other games : what
about shooters with instant-hit and slow physics where the player is still
definitely NOT a tank (2-3 bullets from most guns will kill you), still
capturing the same sense of gameplay-over-narrative and experience diversity
-- _Counter-Strike_. In fact, I'd like to see an article like this on every
archetypal shooter type. Goldeneye, Halo, System Shock, Counter-Strike... does
anyone know of more game analysis like this?

------
twotwotwo
re: how mod-friendly Doom was, Portal 2's simplified level editor (released
2012, after this was written) was pretty well-done--only exposed a tiny
fraction of the things one could do, of course, but enough to build real
puzzles, and with just enough default visual interest that the product didn't
necessarily look awful.

[http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/Puzzle_Creator](http://theportalwiki.com/wiki/Puzzle_Creator)

Of the user-made levels, it's surprising how many used the full level editor
anyway--even though, as the post notes, building levels ain't quite as simple
as it was in the Doom days. User-made level gallery:

[http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=620&browseso...](http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=620&browsesort=trend)

~~~
gipp
Not entirely surprising; there was already a gigantic Source modding community
well before Portal 2.

------
ahoy
Entirely off-topic, but that thread title sounds like the best metal album
ever.

~~~
logicchains
Not entirely off-topic; Doom had a pretty awesome, reasonably metal-ish
soundtrack, by the standards of the day.

~~~
dirktheman
On the Smashing Pumpkins track 'where the boys fear to tread' they sampled the
rocket launcher sound. I recognized it the minute I heard it first.

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NAFV_P
Has anyone come across the Neo-Doom megawad?

There is one level with a Cathedral.... you walk in through the entrance to
see a few dozen imps standing at pews, and there are a couple of Knights of
Hell and a Baron on the front stage giving a sermon.

The mock up was pleasingly realistic, then I noticed that the crucifix on the
front wall was inverted.

------
joshuaheard
Team Fortress Classic is similar. The levels were built for gameplay, not
realism. A large modding community surrounded the game also.

------
dr1337
I was disappointed to learn that the article wasn't about a living fossil
fish.

------
hnha
[2010] but always nice to revisit

~~~
RobotCaleb
Not sure what you're implying.

~~~
wlesieutre
It's helpful to have dates on things that aren't "news". If (for example) a
doom-like game had become extremely popular in 2012, the [2010] tag would give
readers more context so they know why it's not mentioned.

