IndustryGamers' GDC coverage is sponsored by Perkins Coie Interactive Entertainment Practice.
_ _
Speaking to a full room, veteran game designers John Romero and Tom Hall went through a month-by-month account of the year leading up to the release of the seminal first-person shooter, Doom.
Along with John and Adrian Carmack, Romero and Hall composed id Software. Already running high off the successes of previous titles such as Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D, the four developers decided in November 1992 to work on another first-person shooter, the fifth for the company. They entered the project with a clear thematic goal.
“We felt really sure what the game was going to be like,” said Romero. “Dark, scary, and fast.”
“We played a lot of Dungeons and Dragons before we started making Doom. We decided this was going to be our Dungeons and Dragons-inspired game,” he said.
Throughout November, Hall worked on the 'Doom Bible,' a book of concept art and notes that set out the designs for the weapons, enemies, levels, and more. “It was pretty much a design document for the entire game,” said Romero.
Tensions started to emerge between the developers and their different ambitions early on. Hall worked for a month on art for a massive, open world before it became apparent that the technology would not be able to cope with it. Everything had to be thrown out and started again with more traditional level-by-level design.
“I felt something snapping early on,” said Hall.
In January 1993, they began making the game. “For us these games never have pre-production,” explained Romero. “If we make something it goes into the game, that’s the way it is.” This meant that the technology and the art would all be worked on simultaneously, one determining the future of the other.
The group felt really confident right from the start and put out a hyperbolic press release, telling the world how revolutionary the game would be. “Out of the overview of features, about four never made it in to the game. So don’t do a press release before you start making the game,” warned Romero.
A surprise came in March 1993 when id software was contacted by 20th Century Fox. “Thanks toWolfenstein 3D, they thought we would be the right team to make Alien the game,” said Romero, though ultimately the group didn’t want to give up on Doom. “It was a huge opportunity, but we didn’t want to give up creative control on our game.”
However, Alien remained an influence over Doom. “So we decided let’s not do aliens attacking the space marine, let’s do demons attacking the space marine. That is more original.” The crowd chuckled. “Well it was back then,” Romero clarified.
At first, the level design of Doom took a very utilitarian approach, with simple, military bases and square rooms linked by corridors. This was easy to create, but ultimately felt flat. “We wanted to make it more interesting to explore,” said Romeo.
An epiphany came while Romero tested an early build of the game. He built a room with a high ceiling and rows of computers far above the player’s heads. It was this room that helped the team realize the potential of using vertical design. “It was a defining moment,” said Romero. “This room set the tone for the level design and everything.” Leaving the realism behind, the team decided to focus on more abstract level design.
This more abstract design strained the engine. At times a level would be created that the engine couldn’t handle. Rather than change the levels, though, John Carmack was determined to go back to the engine and make the technology better.
Through the middle of the year, the game began to get its first press coverage with a preview appearing in Computer Gaming World, slowly beginning the huge hype that would build up by the game’s release. Huge advances were being made in the game, too, with advances in the user-interface design, lighting, and textures.
Hall, however, was not completely happy. He was determined to innovate further in the game, deciding that the game needed flying enemies. It took some convincing to get the others agree.
“It was a fight to say there has to be something flying,” said Hall. “But we needed things that could come up and scare the crap out of me.”
Eventually, the trademark flying skulls and cacodemons were added to the game, but the fight left a tension between Hall and the rest of the team.
“Tom wanted more creativity but we still had to optimize the design,” explained Romero.
In August, unable to find a satisfactory compromise, Hall left id to work at Apogee Software. In turn, id hired Dave Taylor and Sandy Peterson to help complete the game. Romero and Hall both emphasized, though, that ultimately it was Hall who wrote Doom.
By October, the game was nearly complete. The group sent out press copies of the game that closely reflect what Doom looks like today. Many of the levels had remained through the numerous alpha builds of the game but had gone through countless iterations.
“It takes a long time when creating levels to keep going over and over the same level. Making a great level require a lot of iteration and a lot of playing,” said Romero.
In the press release of the game, though, Doom still had collectable artifacts and a lives counter. Ultimately, Romero wanted these gone. “I felt like this is a pretty modern game,” said Romero. “Let’s get rid of the things arcade games had. So I got rid of the idea of lives and if you get killed you just go back to the start of the level.”
In the final months before the release, the team buckled down and polished frantically. Multiplayer was implemented, the word ‘deathmatch’ was created, co-op was implemented, and every level of the game was modified to work in both deathmatch and co-op modes. “That last November and December was furious,” said Romero. “It was pretty crazy.”
When the game went live on December 10 1993, the game was an instant success and continues to influence the first-person shooter genre today.
