Doom Radio

On this Emergency Pod edition of Doom Radio, the impending, and extremely leaky, release of John Romero’s hotly anticipated episogawad “SIGIL” has necessitated some gonzo journalism. Doomworld’s Linguica plays through SIGIL for the first time, with the help of playtester extraordinaire dew, who not only assisted in the playtesting of SIGIL itself, but also assists in the inner workings of Doomworld. It’s an insider extravaganza! This episode is an edited version of the conversation of Linguica and dew during a co-op playthrough of SIGIL.

For all that Doomworld has been hotting up recently with some long-awaited projects finally coming to fruition and the announcement of the latest installation in the franchise, one evergreen bugbear of the forums seems to be staying lit, so to speak. Join Benjogami, Mr. Zzul aka Killer5 and I as we examine the “slaughter” scene from the inside and probe the edges of possibility for this massively influential and yet often maligned school of design. We talk about getting started, the concept of difficulty as opposed to slaughter, how the challenges posed within maps influence thinking in other areas of design, slaughtermaps as the endgame of Doom level design, the popularity of hard levels among streamers and more!

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Doomworld has an impressive history of developing lateral-thinking level designers, and if the current era of fast mapping and mimicry doesn’t strike you as remarkable in its ability to do the same then consider the works of Obsidian, master manipulator of engine quirks and gimmickry. In today’s episode, Sid talks about his relationship with the game, project scope, hard versus self-imposed limitations, Heretic, the rise and fall (and rise) of A.S.S., the cleverness of preying upon players’ familiarity, horror, Maskim Xul, and the creeping acceptance of maps that cannot be beaten by their creators(!).

Obsidian is the one of the Doom community’s chief DeHackEd proponents, the founder and (occasional) leader of the ongoing Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions, and author of various works including Countdown to Extinction and Into The Code. His most recent work—the behemoth duo of maps in Maskim Xul—is available now on the forums.

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Doom Radio is a platform that continues to explore the developments behind Doom’s community and to understand the creative minds of its greatest contributors. For most of its history it has done this in discussion with people who have a lengthy and storied history with the game. What, however, might we be able to learn from someone who is not only new to Doom but who attempts a more academic unearthing of its development and significance? Are there things that we can learn about this 24-year-old game that we aren’t positioned to discover from within, but which others are from without? Is there something that Doom can teach the world of video games, even, in the creation of “metagaming” phenomenon like speedrunning and modding?

In this episode, Linguica talks to Assistant Professor of Cinema and Digital Media Patrick LeMieux from the University of California, Davis, about his 2017 Doom experiment. Joining them is Amber Graham, a computer science major and student in Patrick’s program. You can find links to their projects below, along with the Doom Is An Art Scene video by jmickle66666666, which was shown in the introduction to the course.

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Hello and welcome to 2018 aka not another barren wilderness of Doom Radio/TangoTV content as we embark for the umpteenth time on a mission to improve the frequency of everyone’s favorite double-barreled podcast. I didn’t surgically replace my face with a microphone for the looks, you know. Together we’re going to make this thing work!

This interview with author/level designer Mike “@Impie” MacDee explores the creative process from a different perspective. Impie’s Winter Agent Juno tie-in series of WADs, including Project Einherjar and Midgard Outlaw, is a rare example of cross-platform world-building with Doom at its center. It allows for a fascinating insight into how an understanding of level design can help empower the development of a seemingly unrelated practice. We talk about managing creative commitments, the importance of limitation in making good games, the indie game movement, Heretic and Hacx (and how neither are much good), Matthew Costello, the repeat ignorance displayed by game and film studios, the death of the splatterhouse genre, the marketing skills required of self-publishing writers, similarities between the structuring of good levels and good stories; and all of it is complimented by someone with a remarkable breadth of knowledge in film, books, and video games (no, really—his name-dropping game is off the charts).

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