You’re Tasked With Rebooting a Legendary Series

This one is more for the folks who didn’t dig the two latest entires.

Doom 4 is cancelled. Carmack just left. The tides of change have swept over iD Software and you’re appointed head of the new Doom project. You’re tasked with rebooting the franchise in a way that beckons new players but retains the fan base that has kept it alive for decades.

How do you approach this? What directives would you give the team? What would be your dream vision for a proper modern entry in Doom? Any major industry vets you’d love to bring onboard? For what reasons?

i'll do it, i recently completed making the mockery.wad doom mod,

On 12/31/2020 at 4:24 AM, CivilianM91 said:

How do you approach this? What directives would you give the team? What would be your dream vision for a proper modern entry in Doom? Any major industry vets you’d love to bring onboard? For what reasons?

Keep the Spirit.

You don't need famous Veterans, you need People that are passionate about the Frenchise(s) AND understand the Spirit.

Remember Expansion Packs from the 90s or early 2000s that weren't made by the same Company and felt off and different while playing?

Or some RPG-Maker Fan Games where Characters feel off?

They didn't get the Feel for it.

Let your Employees replay the old Games until the Look and Feel is part of their DNA.

Than they can mix it up with their own Ideas.

Thats why the original Doom 4 is called Call of Doom, because it felt off.

  I sincerely feel thankful for the fresh start of the game. You always have to choose the proper development team that has the necessary knowledge of the known shooter IPs offered and played on the past and respecting the personality of those previous games and then implementing that spirit to the modern version of the rebooted project you expect to make a hit. Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal impacted the whole first person shooter industry and allowing other developers to feel inspired by those two masterpieces. You can notice how indie development on shooter games has shifted to be classic, arcade and fully action packed like Prodeus, Postal: No Regerts, GRAVEN, Brutal Fate, WRATH: Aeon of Ruin, Fallen Aces and DUSK.

  Now think about this. we have to understand that the reason behind the canceled version of the game was to focus more on the Doom 4 scripted combat elements that made the new ones great and pleasing the fans, impacting the whole DOOM fanbase and the gaming industry. You have to remain open minded and think that the canceled doom opened so many opportunities and lessons learned during these 9 years and the 4 years of glory we got. In historical reasons, there is no reason to dislike a 9 year old "dead project" anymore. Be glad we got great games because of the originally planned gameplay elements of Doom 4. It was all about sacrificing the dark and realistic reimagining of "Hell on Earth" for the sake of completely action oriented experiences. Doom 4's DNA still flows through Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal because of its scripted sequences, synced-melee glory kills, RAGE's amazingly animated enemy AI on fights, story and lore combined with the focus of gameplay.

i would create high resolution 3d recreations of the original Doom 2 enemies, same goes for the weapons.

you would have an all new story, but you get to unlock the original Doom 1 and 2 levels [and later on, plutonia and tnt as well]

i would get @Jimmy to create a high quality soundtrack [so you will still have the classic doom vibe] and for the original levels you will unlock, there will be remastered renditions of the Doom 1, Doom 2, tnt and plutonia soundtracks.

i would also see if i could get John Romero's advice to keep the truest Doom atmosphere since Doom 2.

Overall, the thoughts in my head, guaranteed, are better than doom 4 and eternal.

im sure you agree with me....

Doom 64 2

On 1/2/2021 at 5:50 PM, Deathclaw886 said:

i would create high resolution 3d recreations of the original Doom 2 enemies, same goes for the weapons.

you would have an all new story, but you get to unlock the original Doom 1 and 2 levels [and later on, plutonia and tnt as well]

i would get @Jimmy to create a high quality soundtrack [so you will still have the classic doom vibe] and for the original levels you will unlock, there will be remastered renditions of the Doom 1, Doom 2, tnt and plutonia soundtracks.

i would also see if i could get John Romero's advice to keep the truest Doom atmosphere since Doom 2.

Overall, the thoughts in my head, guaranteed, are better than doom 4 and eternal.

im sure you agree with me....

That sounds like the Sonic Mania of Doom games to me, which while badass, wouldn’t replace the feeling of something new I’d catching myself yearning for.

The classics are untouchable but I don’t want to see id recreating the same game over and over. 

On 1/3/2021 at 7:10 PM, Pseudonaut said:

Doom 64 2

I’d fuck with that. Doom 64 is possibly my favorite campaign of the classics.

Something like jDoom.

hmm...

Well it's a bit tough for me to say, because I find myself overwhelmingly satisfied with the new direction Doom is taking in recent years... however the thing about Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal is that they're more successors to Doom's cultural Zeitgeist than the classics themselves. So let's say our alternate universe sequel ignores all of that.

Let's say that we're purely going off of the classic entries and Doom 3, and we're just building off of that in a bubble. We're ignoring where Doom functionally sits in the public consciousness.

**(Henceforth we will be calling this alternate universe take on Doom 4, Project Doom for the sake of clarity)**

The short version is Project Doom will attempt to emulate the classic core gameplay loop of Doom, but with environments and atmosphere much closer to that of Doom 3.

Doom 3 was trying to be the original vision of classic Doom unhindered by technical limitations, allowing Id to create the highly immersive and spooky environments they wanted to have in Doom 1. We still got an attempt at this in the classics of course, there was plenty of dark areas and attempts at jumpscares, but as the years went by the spook factor had faded. The issue with Doom 3, however, is that it failed to understand that the actual gameplay of Doom 1 was part of the original vision as much as the environments and technology were. And while I would argue there are still plenty of things that could be tweaked, it largely hasn't aged a day.

As for the story- I dunno.

Fuck it, let's put it in Antarctica. Like in "The Thing". I just don't want to do Mars again, and I feel like skipping to full Hell on Earth would be jumping the gun a bit. So putting it somewhere cold and desolate creates that same feeling of isolation you'd get in space, plus I like the contrast between a cold, Antarctic UAC base and the motherfuckin fires of hell.

I'm not gonna get into how the portal to hell got opened this time tho. Again, I feel repeating the whole teleportation experiment gone wrong thing would be getting redundant, so really whatever. A penguin tripped over the wire that was plugging in their "hold together the fabric of reality generator" and now demons are invading.

The game would follow a similar formula to Half-Life in that it would maintain a fully uninterrupted journey. And we're committing this time- it's not like in Doom 3 where you go in an airlock that is technically the junction between two levels, with the loading screens in that game flashing where you're going next. Here it's pretty simple, you have a linear series of open-ended explorable chunks of the facility, each connected by a linear junction. Once you get to the end of a junction, then you get to quickly see where you're at in the facility. The disaster strikes in the middle of the night. You don't get the expository segment that Doom 3 had. Instead, it's pretty simple: You're a member of UAC security and you were sleeping in your bunk, when suddenly everyone started screaming, things were on fire, and it's safe to assume something had gone wrong. The initial parts of the game is where the horror and atmosphere focus are at their strongest. It's both pitch black and foggy outside- you'd get cornered by an imp within seconds if you stepped out for some fresh air. Your weapons are limited and the situation is bad.

As you progress through the base, however, night eventually gives way to daylight. As the night and fog clear, you're expanding your roster of weapons, you've found better versions of your crummy starter guns, and you- as a player -are becoming more skilled at the combat to allow for the action to ramp up. This creates a gradual curve where it starts from atmospheric horror trek, to full-on hardcore action badassery. Sort of like what Doom 3 was kinda trying to do, but I always felt the way they handled it was kinda weird and not fully realized.

Within each level, you have one core problem that you need to solve before you can move on. This is where we incentivize exploration- Each area of the UAC base has a significant exploration puzzle that you need to accomplish. In fact, think of these as being structured somewhat similarly to a 3D zelda dungeon but with less pushing blocks around and more running at things with a shotgun. And yes, these would also have a bunch of secrets to find.

And like I said earlier- Project Doom isn't your slow-paced corridor shooter. Maybe the UAC were working on Mechs in this antarctic base or something because you will have arenas that give you a decent space to move around in. Your movement speed will be nice and swift (maybe not 56 mph, but hey not even Doom 2016 went that far), and the only thing your stamina will dictate is whether you have a dodge roll ready (This is basically just a dash). Your arsenal is pretty standard: Fists, handgun, shotgun, super shotgun, SMG, LMG, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and a nailgun (which is basically a stand-in for the plasma rifle. I know the plasma rifle is more iconic, but it's my Doom game and I like nail guns). And you obviously gotta have your BFG. The idea that I had for this is that its power core is some sort artifact related to hell, making this BFG a hybrid of hell and human technology. Oh yeah, and it's also like a burst fire electrified napalm launcher. I think that sounds like a good super weapon. Also, your first 3 weapons, the handgun, shotgun, and SMG, all start off with early variants that are relatively weak. The game WILL make it clear, however, that there are better versions of these out there in the facility. Your handgun eventually gets a second upgrade that turns it into a super-accurate pistol that shoots like 4 bullets at once, effectively making it your sniper rifle. 

oh yeah and for the last level of the game the facility is completely swallowed up in a hell mouth and you need to go kill the spidey brain boi.

Anyway, I guess that was my impromptu design doc for Project Doom. I may or may not have gotten completely carried away with it. You just gave me a topic and that got my brain going on the ideas train, and it's really hard to get it to stop once it's started.

EDIT: Fuck how could I forget about the music! For when it shows up we're going to deal with it like a mix of Doom 3 and Half-Life. The standard tracks that loop in the background are just droning ambience, but when it's time for an action set piece, then we go into high gear and get the rockin' tunes going. I'm not sure how metal I'd go for the actual soundtrack exactly tho. I'm honestly not that much of a metal guy, I mostly like the stuff that's sort of in that in between space of Rock music and actual metal. But as long as it's got a good melody to it, then it passes my test.

Damn this is an old thread..

I'll prioritize making the game popular with today's audience than people who fight all day over what they like or hate in the old games. Internet forums won't help when I get fired or demoted for a failed AAA game.

2 hours ago, Pegg said:

Damn this is an old thread..

 

I'll prioritize making the game popular with today's audience than people who fight all day over what they like or hate in the old games. Internet forums won't help when I get fired or demoted for a failed AAA game.

You’re right too- and besides, if they really cared about the franchise they’d wanna see it succeed and popularize itself again right? 
 

Catering to what is ultimately a niche market (the ones who feel we should just stick to the old ways) would not equal measurable success.

On 1/12/2021 at 1:03 AM, HQDefault said:

hmm...

Well it's a bit tough for me to say, because I find myself overwhelmingly satisfied with the new direction Doom is taking in recent years... however the thing about Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal is that they're more successors to Doom's cultural Zeitgeist than the classics themselves. So let's say our alternate universe sequel ignores all of that.

 

Let's say that we're purely going off of the classic entries and Doom 3, and we're just building off of that in a bubble. We're ignoring where Doom functionally sits in the public consciousness.

 

**(Henceforth we will be calling this alternate universe take on Doom 4, Project Doom for the sake of clarity)**

The short version is Project Doom will attempt to emulate the classic core gameplay loop of Doom, but with environments and atmosphere much closer to that of Doom 3.

Doom 3 was trying to be the original vision of classic Doom unhindered by technical limitations, allowing Id to create the highly immersive and spooky environments they wanted to have in Doom 1. We still got an attempt at this in the classics of course, there was plenty of dark areas and attempts at jumpscares, but as the years went by the spook factor had faded. The issue with Doom 3, however, is that it failed to understand that the actual gameplay of Doom 1 was part of the original vision as much as the environments and technology were. And while I would argue there are still plenty of things that could be tweaked, it largely hasn't aged a day.

 

As for the story- I dunno.

Fuck it, let's put it in Antarctica. Like in "The Thing". I just don't want to do Mars again, and I feel like skipping to full Hell on Earth would be jumping the gun a bit. So putting it somewhere cold and desolate creates that same feeling of isolation you'd get in space, plus I like the contrast between a cold, Antarctic UAC base and the motherfuckin fires of hell.

I'm not gonna get into how the portal to hell got opened this time tho. Again, I feel repeating the whole teleportation experiment gone wrong thing would be getting redundant, so really whatever. A penguin tripped over the wire that was plugging in their "hold together the fabric of reality generator" and now demons are invading.

 

The game would follow a similar formula to Half-Life in that it would maintain a fully uninterrupted journey. And we're committing this time- it's not like in Doom 3 where you go in an airlock that is technically the junction between two levels, with the loading screens in that game flashing where you're going next. Here it's pretty simple, you have a linear series of open-ended explorable chunks of the facility, each connected by a linear junction. Once you get to the end of a junction, then you get to quickly see where you're at in the facility. The disaster strikes in the middle of the night. You don't get the expository segment that Doom 3 had. Instead, it's pretty simple: You're a member of UAC security and you were sleeping in your bunk, when suddenly everyone started screaming, things were on fire, and it's safe to assume something had gone wrong. The initial parts of the game is where the horror and atmosphere focus are at their strongest. It's both pitch black and foggy outside- you'd get cornered by an imp within seconds if you stepped out for some fresh air. Your weapons are limited and the situation is bad.

As you progress through the base, however, night eventually gives way to daylight. As the night and fog clear, you're expanding your roster of weapons, you've found better versions of your crummy starter guns, and you- as a player -are becoming more skilled at the combat to allow for the action to ramp up. This creates a gradual curve where it starts from atmospheric horror trek, to full-on hardcore action badassery. Sort of like what Doom 3 was kinda trying to do, but I always felt the way they handled it was kinda weird and not fully realized.

 

Within each level, you have one core problem that you need to solve before you can move on. This is where we incentivize exploration- Each area of the UAC base has a significant exploration puzzle that you need to accomplish. In fact, think of these as being structured somewhat similarly to a 3D zelda dungeon but with less pushing blocks around and more running at things with a shotgun. And yes, these would also have a bunch of secrets to find.

 

And like I said earlier- Project Doom isn't your slow-paced corridor shooter. Maybe the UAC were working on Mechs in this antarctic base or something because you will have arenas that give you a decent space to move around in. Your movement speed will be nice and swift (maybe not 56 mph, but hey not even Doom 2016 went that far), and the only thing your stamina will dictate is whether you have a dodge roll ready (This is basically just a dash). Your arsenal is pretty standard: Fists, handgun, shotgun, super shotgun, SMG, LMG, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, and a nailgun (which is basically a stand-in for the plasma rifle. I know the plasma rifle is more iconic, but it's my Doom game and I like nail guns). And you obviously gotta have your BFG. The idea that I had for this is that its power core is some sort artifact related to hell, making this BFG a hybrid of hell and human technology. Oh yeah, and it's also like a burst fire electrified napalm launcher. I think that sounds like a good super weapon. Also, your first 3 weapons, the handgun, shotgun, and SMG, all start off with early variants that are relatively weak. The game WILL make it clear, however, that there are better versions of these out there in the facility. Your handgun eventually gets a second upgrade that turns it into a super-accurate pistol that shoots like 4 bullets at once, effectively making it your sniper rifle. 

 

oh yeah and for the last level of the game the facility is completely swallowed up in a hell mouth and you need to go kill the spidey brain boi.

 

 

Anyway, I guess that was my impromptu design doc for Project Doom. I may or may not have gotten completely carried away with it. You just gave me a topic and that got my brain going on the ideas train, and it's really hard to get it to stop once it's started.

 

 

EDIT: Fuck how could I forget about the music! For when it shows up we're going to deal with it like a mix of Doom 3 and Half-Life. The standard tracks that loop in the background are just droning ambience, but when it's time for an action set piece, then we go into high gear and get the rockin' tunes going. I'm not sure how metal I'd go for the actual soundtrack exactly tho. I'm honestly not that much of a metal guy, I mostly like the stuff that's sort of in that in between space of Rock music and actual metal. But as long as it's got a good melody to it, then it passes my test.

I actually really dig this and would absolutely play this game. You’re not a game dev by any chance are you? That was very well thought out

2 hours ago, CivilianM91 said:

I actually really dig this and would absolutely play this game. You’re not a game dev by any chance are you? That was very well thought out

No but if I play my cards right I might be some day