GDC11 - Story of DOOM

Doom pre alpha was build in Feb 1993.

Feb -1993
IT is like old school pixelated raw environment.
They had UI in the game to prototype and saw what was working and what wa not.

Had quite a few items that don't appear anymore such as a sandwich and a captain's hand!

March - 1993
20th Century Fox contacted them and they thought they would be the right team to make Aliens, the game.  They were in the middle of building Doom, but had to stop to work on Aliens, as, who wouldn't work on Aliens?  

E1M2 development
Second level of the game, forget cement walls, they were trying to make a level that didn't feel realistic but you could still vibe with something that was like a military space, but where you felt you were on a space station / moon (for the Aliens thingy).

They made then a room that changed the look of the game. Instead of high ceilings with banks of computers and detail, they were able to create a room that was an abstratction, almost an artistic choice to elevate and make things grow and be huge. This room was the start of the look that really defined DOOM. Instead of it being realistic, it was designed to match the tone of the game.

BUT THEN DISASTER STRUCK!
They had to stop working on Doom. The Super Nintendo version of Wolfenstein was not finished yet, and publisher (imagineer) was not pleased.  They couldn't get a hold of the guy who was working on it, it was a nightmare situation. So they stopped work on Doom and everyone had to work on Wolfenstein.

 They ported Wolfenstein 3D to the Super Nintendo in about 3 weeks - they worked 24 hours so they could get back on Doom.


Map E1M3 caused a problem - the game kept slowing down and chugging due to the way the game visuals. Instead of just pairing down the visual to a bunch of blocks, they figured out the best way they could fix using engine instead. Shows how communication and perseverance through a great group of people who have a common goal can find solutions to problems.

Thus, the BSP Tree was born - an algorithm that sped things up significantly. It affected the whole industry.

April 1993
New Alpha. Sent out to beta testers they had known for years. Frame rate was 2 dots, and there was 4mg of memory.

Doom was inspired by Aliens - deeper and deeper sense of dread, knowing there were scary experiences converged in an unknown room, knowing you had to make your way to the danger. 

E1M7 - was so different from the actual release game. Still limited a lot of textures. Characters were still quite pixelated.

May 22 - 1993
Pre-Beta - it was getting more real, more textures, UI at the bottom i totally changed, there's even a final font! Markers and menu systems were taken from learnings from Wolfenstein.

August 1993
Creative Director parted ways with team, works on Wolfenstein, created Rise of the Triad, then in process realized all the project needed was creative happiness. This was not happening so this is why he left Doom at the time (went to Apogee Software).
Hired two more people to replace creative director. Jumped on the game, took over design and some programming to get to September. Loads of levels are getting done, got the DMX sound drivers done, had a guy named Paul Radec to come in to do these SFX.

October 1993
Pre-release of the game. 2 months away from release - texture, light, SFX are in there and you can see how much more atmospheric it is. Suggest to keep going over and over and over each area to improve and improve the look and effects.

Can now pick up items, track items, keep track of awards etc.

Wanted to get rid of arcade game rules such as having lives, if you get killed you just go back to beginning of level.  Gives it a higher probability that players would be able to complete game.

Next revision would be the final game.

October 1993
Press release version - by November did first IPX Multiplayer is created. The word deathmatch is created along with that mode of play. Coop mode is created. All final systems are coded, intermission , menus, instalalation. Seriel code for modems was created. Game maps were modified for deathmatch and coop play

Usenet was going CRAZY!

December 10th 1993 -
30 hour stretch at the end running games on every machine. There was a last minute bug that was fixed (had to do do with timer code was happening).
Doom was uploaded via the programmers computer at the University of Wisconsin! Had to book a slot to do the upload, and it blew up the whole server.   This happened twice. 

Finally got uploaded and made it's way across the BBSs - went on to make DOOM2.