I had been introduced to ID software's Doom, a few years earlier. After endless nights playing their other flagship; Wolfenstein 3D, I had become of fan of what is now refereed to as the FPS or First Person Shooter. Doom was Wolfenstein squared. The light blues and bright colors of my quests to destroy the Nazi's had been replaced by the dark grays and barren locales of Demon infested moon bases. It blew my mind.
After a few years of dooming. I had played all the levels that ID had created but that wasn't enough. I found out about .WAD files. Many people like me who found doom like a second home, wanted to rebuild that home over and over again. The original doom levels were sets of these .wad files. A custom made .wad file could be loaded via MS DOS. That's right, Doom in the old days was pretty much useless on windows. The true Doom fan was very familiar loading the original game and custom levels using DOS.
Many people like me who found doom like a second home, wanted to rebuild that home over and over again. The custom levels were uploaded to Bulletin Board's online. I spent hours searching for custom made Doom levels, and even more time playing them.
The spark hit one day. "Why don't I build Doom Levels?" I was always creative and had plenty of idea's but where do I start?
I found a shareware copy of a doom editor program. I began to mess around with this and many other types of editors that were coming out. Lucky for me, Doom was popular and there were many tools at my disposal. Unfortunately, the programs were complex. The simple task of making a room was simple, but making two rooms was difficult and making a whole level was daunting.
Doom editors were not very intuitive in the early 90's. I would spend just as long putting the pieces of my level together and just as much time troubleshooting and getting rid of misplaced wall textures and the dreaded hall of mirror's effect. The complexity of the editors has resulted in many aspiring editors simply making a large room with 1000's of demons in it in a either a lack of creativity or a lack of level building know how. This didn't stop me from making a few levels, but I eventually had to give it up. I messed around with new editors over the years but never really made anything new.
A few years ago the spark came back. I had found a program called Doom Builder. It was good. It's predecessor, Doom Builder 2 was even better. Gone was the endless trouble shooting. Now I would be able to build those dream levels that I never could make as a teen due to the cumbersome programs.
Here is an example. In the original editors. you would make 4 dots in a square then connect the dots with four lines. you would make a room and connect to other rooms. You had to be perfect. If you made a line too long you might have a glitch. you wouldn't know until you booted up your level in the game. Then you would go back into the editor. You had to build a 3D environment but all you had to go on was an overhead view of your dot's and lines.
With Doom Builder you can build a room in only a few clicks, it has a 3D mode that you can move around in and edit in real time. Any missing walls or glitches are recognized by the program and most can be fixed from within the program. With the editor working for me and not against me, my creativity flowed.
I make levels regularly now, almost 20 years since my first obsession with Doom. There is a small online community that still makes some pretty impressive stuff. Now Doom editors can use new software to make custom sounds, and themes. Simpsons Doom anyone! Newer programs let you make custom levels for games like Half Life and render things in full 3D, and the Unreal Engine let's you make your own games.
Even with all these advances, I still stick with my first love, Doom. I build levels for fun and for myself. I love the new programs that allow me to re-create my nostalgic feelings daily. I thank the community that keeps this game alive even now. Thanks to you and keep dooming.
