Doom: A Nostalgic Journey Back to the Classics for Creative Inspiration

Doom creators consistently look back to the groundbreaking shooter from 1993 for motivation, so significantly that it even influenced the direction identity Plan chose with Doom: The Gloomy Ages.

“It’s akin to a timeless masterpiece,” says game director Hugo Martin in the latest edition of Edge Journal. “It’s comparable to an artist visiting a gallery and examining the Norman Rockwell artwork they’ve already analyzed numerous times. Each time you view it, you discover something new.”

This time, the Doom experts recognized something relatively understated in the ancient domains of hell: the trajectory, or lack thereof, of enemy projectiles. The original Doom’s projectiles don’t solely result from instantaneous reflexes to bullets – they stem from skillfully dodging, avoiding, and weaving through incoming fire. “The projectiles begin to accumulate in the environment, forming a labyrinth that the player has to navigate through,” explains Martin.

The foundation of Doom: The Gloomy Ages was subsequently designed around that maze-like experience. In response to Doom Eternal’s alarmingly fast bullets, vicious red orbs move alongside the inch-wide Doom Slayer, and when you find yourself surrounded by adversaries from all sides, you must maneuver very carefully to avoid collisions.

“In Eternal, there is considerable action along the [vertical] Y-axis,” Martin clarifies, “but [here] it felt more suitable to focus the dangers and targets along the horizon line,” serving as yet another nod to the original that initiated it all. “It’s still a movement shooter, but the movement emphasizes what’s occurring along the X-axis.”

As if hell and demons weren’t enough, Doom: The Gloomy Ages ventured into medieval territory so identity Plan “could get darker and more sinister with the toolkit”