For fans of classic shooter Doom, the latest entry in Double Fine’s ongoing ‘Devs Play’ series is well worth a watch. Can the game’s creator, industry legend John Romero, finish its first episode ‘Knee Deep in the Dead’ in one piece?
He’s joined by “Doom history enthusiast” and Spacebase designer JP LeBreton, and the pair have some interesting discussions about various aspects of game design.
My favourite episode of this series is the second one, in which Romero discusses the classic opening ‘Hangar’ level. This is the one I remember most clearly, due to endless hours spent secretly playing it on a school PC during my IT classes. Romero says that he designed this level last, using the skills he’d built up during the development process to create a perfect distillation of what the game was about to hook players in.
”Here’s kind of a golden rule of level design,” Romero says. ”Finish the first level last, because then you’ve learned everything about the game’s level design, and you’re going to put it all in the first level where you want people to get excited anyway.”
The whole series is fascinating viewing. You can find a full playlist right here on Youtube. Hey Double Fine, could we get the Half-Life guys to do one next?
