14 ms·

Coelacanth: Lessons from Doom (2010)

159 points by Rolpa 12y ago

hnha 12y ago
[2010] but always nice to revisit
- RobotCaleb 12y ago
  Not sure what you're implying.
  - wlesieutre 12y ago
    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.
Mithaldu 12y ago
> 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 12y ago
  The Serious Sam games fit the DooM tradition, as well.
  - Rolpa 12y ago
    There's also numerous open source examples. (See Cube/Cube 2)
  - bitwize 12y ago
    As do the Tribes games with their "skiing" mechanic.
  - aeflash 12y ago
    Serious Sam can't compete on level design and art direction, though.
  - moshR 12y ago
    I wholeheartedly agree. I love Painkiller as well, but it (the original, at least) never quite got "maneuverability as defense" right in my opinion. I think one reason for this is the integration with the Havok physics engine. The character would often become stalled on debris from broken crates, vases, etc. Stairs were also an issue. If anyone else is into these kinds of shooters, and wants to try more recent titles, I also highly recommend both Hard Reset (2011) and Shadow Warrior (2013) by Flying Wild Hog. I believe some of the developers were part of the original Painkiller team.
  - Jehar 12y ago
    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 12y ago
      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 12y ago
        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 12y ago
        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.
- bkcooper 12y ago
  Painkiller does feel more like Doom than most other more modern FPSs, but I never felt like the bunny hopping really measured up evasion wise. The game that I felt captured this dynamic really well, at least in multiplayer deathmatches, was Half-Life. You were surprisingly zippy, and the long jump module gave you a lot of ability to get out of where you were in a hurry. I enjoyed this sort of dynamic because it played well to my strengths. Having mediocre aim but being able to dodge well worked out okay in this setting. Doom and Half-Life are probably the only shooters I've ever been decent at.
  - antimagic 12y ago
    You should try out the Marathon series then (the precursors to Halo from Bungie, sort of set in the same universe). They are available in open source at: http://marathon.sourceforge.net/ http://marathon.sourceforge.net/
- lotharbot 12y ago
  > “maneuverability as defense” the Descent series is all about this, even in multiplayer. Here's a video of two of the best players in the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8eCULTB3IQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8eCULTB3IQ (with audio commentary from some of the other best players, starting at around 7%.)
  - arethuza 12y ago
    That reminded me that Descent is the only game to really make me feel nauseous - great game though!
    - NAFV_P 12y ago
      > That reminded me that Descent is the only game to really* make me feel nauseous - great game though!* What a coincidence, I mentioned Descent's notorious nausea inducing properties on HN a few days ago. The version I played was on the Playstation One. Because I was resident in Britain I was playing an incomplete NTSC to PAL conversion. This resulted in noticeable object warping if you did a barrel roll. I swear it intensified the effects. By contrast DOOM on either PS1 or PC wouldn't make me sea-sick at all.
  - moultano 12y ago
    I loved the movement in that game. I wish there was something modern like it.
    - Gracana 12y ago
      Check out Miner Wars, maybe? I haven't played it yet, but it looks cool, and an awful lot like Descent. [edit] Oh, but the reviews are pretty terrible. :|
      - MrZongle2 12y ago
        FWIW: the guys behind Miner Wars (Keen Software House) are working on a new game, Space Engineers, which has full 3D, Decent-like movement. The game is more about construction than combat, though weapons exist in the game. It's currently in beta, but they have been consistently cranking out weekly updates. One of the more tantalizing features they want to add: in-game C# scripting so players can automate a lot of the functionality and build their own communications systems.
- egypturnash 12y ago
  There's an entire genre that's about maneuverability as defense: "bullet hell" shootemups. (Also known as "danmaku" or "curtain fire".) You know, the ones about flying a little spaceship through these huge, complicated patterns of slow-moving bright pink bullets. And my experience of playing Dark Souls was all about "dodging around like a maniac and not being where enemies were putting their weapons". I mean, if you want to constrain it to FPSs, yeah, there's not much like it. But there are a hell of a lot of games whose primary strategy is "Be Where The Bullets Are Not".
  - anon4 12y ago
    That's Dark Souls 2. Dodging in DaS1 is less I AM FUCKING INVINCIBLE and more I AM INVINCIBLE for a very short amount of time and oh please please let me be out of range by the time my limited invincibility frames run out, plus your dodge is shorter and you can wear a lot less stuff before your rolls get slow. The only way to get DaS2-like dodging in DaS1 is with the dark wood grain ring. On the other hand, you can parry much more reliably in 1 and I've killed dark knights simply by parrying them 4 times successively. Or you can backstab, since the enemies don't turn as quickly as they do in 2. I'll agree that a lot of strategy in DaS 1 and 2 comes from careful positioning, given that replenishing your health puts you at a considerable danger while you sit immobile drinking estus and can be interrupted at any time by an attack. However, I find that the two games have a definitely different feel to them, even though they're woven from the same cloth. Another thing is that the camera in DaS2 is much, much faster, due to being truly mouse controlled - you can turn as fast as you can swing your mouse (I still recommend using AutoHotkey to bind mouse buttons to keyboard buttons because otherwise you get lag on attack, due to the game waiting a frame or two to check if you're not double-clicking, since you can bind different actions on single and double click; it's not the end of the world, but it's annoying). In 1, not only is m+kb absolutely unworkable, the mouse has a negative acceleration applied and you can't turn any faster than with a joypad. I like both, but if you play a long enough time these small differences start getting really obvious. Also, I haven't seen someone mention the Serious Sam games, so there.
    - egypturnash 12y ago
- GlennS 12y ago
  The Tribes series takes this much further. The most recent of those is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Ascend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Ascend
  - MrZongle2 12y ago
    It's a shame that T:A is an online-only free-to-play game, meaning that developer Hi-Rez tightly controls distribution and servers and thus hobbles the modding community.
twotwotwo 12y ago
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&browsesort=trend http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=620&browseso...
- gipp 12y ago
  Not entirely surprising; there was already a gigantic Source modding community well before Portal 2.
ahoy 12y ago
Entirely off-topic, but that thread title sounds like the best metal album ever.
- logicchains 12y ago
  Not entirely off-topic; Doom had a pretty awesome, reasonably metal-ish soundtrack, by the standards of the day.
  - dirktheman 12y ago
    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.
tdicola 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    Oh come on. I think they just weren't user friendly tools. I doubt they developed them with the intention of being obtuse.
- Rolpa 12y ago
  Having submitted myself through the same process but with modern tools (see DoomBuilder and XWE) and Google, I can only concur. Anything more complicated than room-corridor-room winds up being a major pain in the ass. :)
- kriro 12y ago
  The Wolfenstein Map Builder on the other hand was really easy and straightforward. I spend a lot of time building maps with that. Especially silly ones with a lot of hidden corridors (space bar on the wall). First "map" I ever built was just a big room filled with treasure :P Granted Wolfenstein was a much simpler game. But man I spend hours with that editor.
angersock 12y ago
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_detailpage#t=326 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfijpjvS9Q8&feature=player_de... 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.
- jrobn 12y ago
  Watching the Quake video brought back memories of playing the Action Quake 2 mod, where the entire gameplay mechanics revolved around jumping and shooting.
- gaelian 12y ago
  > 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.
dr1337 12y ago
I was disappointed to learn that the article wasn't about a living fossil fish.
omarhegazy 12y ago
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?
Maakuth 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    I don't remember anything horrifying in it. It definitely shows that they are human with flaws, just like everyone else.
    - Maakuth 12y ago
      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 12y ago
        > 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
        12y ago
joshuaheard 12y ago
Team Fortress Classic is similar. The levels were built for gameplay, not realism. A large modding community surrounded the game also.
NAFV_P 12y ago
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.

159 points by Rolpa 12y ago

hnha 12y ago

[2010] but always nice to revisit

RobotCaleb 12y ago
Not sure what you're implying.
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  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.

Mithaldu 12y ago

> 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 12y ago
The Serious Sam games fit the DooM tradition, as well.
- Rolpa 12y ago
  There's also numerous open source examples. (See Cube/Cube 2)
- bitwize 12y ago
  As do the Tribes games with their "skiing" mechanic.
- aeflash 12y ago
  Serious Sam can't compete on level design and art direction, though.
- moshR 12y ago
  I wholeheartedly agree. I love Painkiller as well, but it (the original, at least) never quite got "maneuverability as defense" right in my opinion. I think one reason for this is the integration with the Havok physics engine. The character would often become stalled on debris from broken crates, vases, etc. Stairs were also an issue. If anyone else is into these kinds of shooters, and wants to try more recent titles, I also highly recommend both Hard Reset (2011) and Shadow Warrior (2013) by Flying Wild Hog. I believe some of the developers were part of the original Painkiller team.
- Jehar 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    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 12y ago
      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 12y ago
        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.
bkcooper 12y ago
Painkiller does feel more like Doom than most other more modern FPSs, but I never felt like the bunny hopping really measured up evasion wise. The game that I felt captured this dynamic really well, at least in multiplayer deathmatches, was Half-Life. You were surprisingly zippy, and the long jump module gave you a lot of ability to get out of where you were in a hurry. I enjoyed this sort of dynamic because it played well to my strengths. Having mediocre aim but being able to dodge well worked out okay in this setting. Doom and Half-Life are probably the only shooters I've ever been decent at.
- antimagic 12y ago
  You should try out the Marathon series then (the precursors to Halo from Bungie, sort of set in the same universe). They are available in open source at: http://marathon.sourceforge.net/ http://marathon.sourceforge.net/
lotharbot 12y ago
> “maneuverability as defense” the Descent series is all about this, even in multiplayer. Here's a video of two of the best players in the world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8eCULTB3IQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8eCULTB3IQ (with audio commentary from some of the other best players, starting at around 7%.)
- arethuza 12y ago
  That reminded me that Descent is the only game to really make me feel nauseous - great game though!
  - NAFV_P 12y ago
    > That reminded me that Descent is the only game to really* make me feel nauseous - great game though!* What a coincidence, I mentioned Descent's notorious nausea inducing properties on HN a few days ago. The version I played was on the Playstation One. Because I was resident in Britain I was playing an incomplete NTSC to PAL conversion. This resulted in noticeable object warping if you did a barrel roll. I swear it intensified the effects. By contrast DOOM on either PS1 or PC wouldn't make me sea-sick at all.
- moultano 12y ago
  I loved the movement in that game. I wish there was something modern like it.
  - Gracana 12y ago
    Check out Miner Wars, maybe? I haven't played it yet, but it looks cool, and an awful lot like Descent. [edit] Oh, but the reviews are pretty terrible. :|
    - MrZongle2 12y ago
      FWIW: the guys behind Miner Wars (Keen Software House) are working on a new game, Space Engineers, which has full 3D, Decent-like movement. The game is more about construction than combat, though weapons exist in the game. It's currently in beta, but they have been consistently cranking out weekly updates. One of the more tantalizing features they want to add: in-game C# scripting so players can automate a lot of the functionality and build their own communications systems.
egypturnash 12y ago
There's an entire genre that's about maneuverability as defense: "bullet hell" shootemups. (Also known as "danmaku" or "curtain fire".) You know, the ones about flying a little spaceship through these huge, complicated patterns of slow-moving bright pink bullets. And my experience of playing Dark Souls was all about "dodging around like a maniac and not being where enemies were putting their weapons". I mean, if you want to constrain it to FPSs, yeah, there's not much like it. But there are a hell of a lot of games whose primary strategy is "Be Where The Bullets Are Not".
- anon4 12y ago
  That's Dark Souls 2. Dodging in DaS1 is less I AM FUCKING INVINCIBLE and more I AM INVINCIBLE for a very short amount of time and oh please please let me be out of range by the time my limited invincibility frames run out, plus your dodge is shorter and you can wear a lot less stuff before your rolls get slow. The only way to get DaS2-like dodging in DaS1 is with the dark wood grain ring. On the other hand, you can parry much more reliably in 1 and I've killed dark knights simply by parrying them 4 times successively. Or you can backstab, since the enemies don't turn as quickly as they do in 2. I'll agree that a lot of strategy in DaS 1 and 2 comes from careful positioning, given that replenishing your health puts you at a considerable danger while you sit immobile drinking estus and can be interrupted at any time by an attack. However, I find that the two games have a definitely different feel to them, even though they're woven from the same cloth. Another thing is that the camera in DaS2 is much, much faster, due to being truly mouse controlled - you can turn as fast as you can swing your mouse (I still recommend using AutoHotkey to bind mouse buttons to keyboard buttons because otherwise you get lag on attack, due to the game waiting a frame or two to check if you're not double-clicking, since you can bind different actions on single and double click; it's not the end of the world, but it's annoying). In 1, not only is m+kb absolutely unworkable, the mouse has a negative acceleration applied and you can't turn any faster than with a joypad. I like both, but if you play a long enough time these small differences start getting really obvious. Also, I haven't seen someone mention the Serious Sam games, so there.
  - egypturnash 12y ago
GlennS 12y ago
The Tribes series takes this much further. The most recent of those is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Ascend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Ascend
- MrZongle2 12y ago
  It's a shame that T:A is an online-only free-to-play game, meaning that developer Hi-Rez tightly controls distribution and servers and thus hobbles the modding community.

twotwotwo 12y ago

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

gipp 12y ago
Not entirely surprising; there was already a gigantic Source modding community well before Portal 2.

ahoy 12y ago

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

logicchains 12y ago
Not entirely off-topic; Doom had a pretty awesome, reasonably metal-ish soundtrack, by the standards of the day.
- dirktheman 12y ago
  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.

tdicola 12y ago

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 12y ago
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 12y ago
  Oh come on. I think they just weren't user friendly tools. I doubt they developed them with the intention of being obtuse.
Rolpa 12y ago
Having submitted myself through the same process but with modern tools (see DoomBuilder and XWE) and Google, I can only concur. Anything more complicated than room-corridor-room winds up being a major pain in the ass. :)
kriro 12y ago
The Wolfenstein Map Builder on the other hand was really easy and straightforward. I spend a lot of time building maps with that. Especially silly ones with a lot of hidden corridors (space bar on the wall). First "map" I ever built was just a big room filled with treasure :P Granted Wolfenstein was a much simpler game. But man I spend hours with that editor.

angersock 12y ago

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_detailpage#t=326 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfijpjvS9Q8&feature=player_de... 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.

jrobn 12y ago
Watching the Quake video brought back memories of playing the Action Quake 2 mod, where the entire gameplay mechanics revolved around jumping and shooting.
gaelian 12y ago
> 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.

dr1337 12y ago

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

omarhegazy 12y ago

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?

Maakuth 12y ago

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 12y ago
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 12y ago
  I don't remember anything horrifying in it. It definitely shows that they are human with flaws, just like everyone else.
  - Maakuth 12y ago
    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 12y ago
      > 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
      - 12y ago

joshuaheard 12y ago

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

NAFV_P 12y ago

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.