Dumb rants, movie reviews, and other thoughts.
The Ultimate DOOM - Or how I learned basic level design

We all know Doom, right? The most iconic shooter ever made? Put FPS' into the mainstream? Yes? Yes! Now, I don't feel like there is really a need for another Doom review, considering how many there already are. But I want to share my personal thoughts on it.
Doom was one of the first FPS games I played ( I played like one round of Halo multiplayer at a friends house before, but it was a very brief experience) and I loved it. It was hard, since it was my first experience with the genre, but it was fun! I played some of the shareware, but quit once it got too difficult for me. Through the years I would come back to it from time to time. It was still great and an awesome time killer, but it didn't always stick with me... until I played Star Wars: Dark Forces.
So I go on Steam and I see there is a Steam sale going on. I look around and I see Star Wars games are on sale. Personally, I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, I like the movies but I never really got into the expanded universe, but I always liked the games, so I started to look around. I saw Dark Forces, and it had a lot of recommendations so I gave it a shot. And I loved it. It was such a fun game! It was basically Doom but with Stormtroopers and Droids, which was awesome! Playing that game gave me an urge... an urge to play mid 90s to early 2000s first person shooters! So I downloaded the Doom Shareware and started playing... it started to click. The sounds... the graphics, everything! I was blasting through the levels and I actually beat the first episode. I was hooked! I knew that Doom had a large modding scene, so I looked at some of the levels people had made, and it made me want to make my own.
I downloaded Doom Builder and started learning the in's and out's of the program, and I started screwing around and making levels. I didn't really know what I was doing at first, but I got the hang of it and I spent a few days making a level, and then another one. I actually put up a download for my first two levels if you wanted to give them a shot.
Doom really made me appreciate level design more. In a lot of games I play now, I notice the smaller parts of each level, and it made me enjoy games more. If you play games, you need to try your hand at making a Doom level, even making a simple one can drastically change your view when it comes to game levels. Plus, it's just a blast to do!
- FN



