Doom modding


Doom modding is the practice of creating modifications for games in the first-person shooter franchise Doom developed by id Software, such as the original Doom and its sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth. These modifications allow players to design new levels, change graphics and sounds, and adjust gameplay mechanics.
During the development of Doom, id Software designed the game to be easier to modify and change; game content was separated from the engine itself. Levels, textures, sounds, and other game data were packaged as WAD files. The name "WAD" stands for “Where’s All the Data?”. The WAD format made it possible to create and share new content without patching the game or writing code. There are two types of WADs: internal and patch WADs. An IWAD contains the data necessary to load the game, while additional PWADs contain add-on data, such as more character sprites, other weapons, and other content. Immediately following Dooms release in 1993, it attracted a sizeable following of players who created and shared WADs.
Following id Software's release of the Doom engine source code in 1997, the community began developing modified versions of the engine called source ports. These expanded the technical limits of the original game and enabled new forms of modding, including advanced scripting, 3D environments, and modern rendering features. As a result, Doom modding has remained very active well past its release date. Although mods exist for later games in the series, such as Doom 3 and Doom Eternal, modding has continued to focus on the first games.
Doom modding is considered a significant portion of Dooms identity, and has played a vital part in making modding more accessible and commonplace in gaming, including games other than first-person shooters. Thousands of mods have been created, ranging from small levels to full original games; most of these are freely shared and downloadable on the internet. Several mods have also been released commercially. Some modders later became professional game developers, with several joining commercial studios.

History

Development of ''Doom''

When developing Doom, id Software was aware that many players had tried to create custom levels and other modifications for their previous game, Wolfenstein 3D, but the procedures involved in creating and loading modifications for that game were cumbersome.
John Carmack, the lead programmer at id Software, designed the Doom internals from the ground up to allow players to extend the game. In particular, game assets, levels, and other content was separated from the engine in WAD files. Tom Hall is responsible for coming up with the name WAD.
The idea of making Doom easily modifiable was primarily backed by Carmack, a well-known supporter of copyleft and the hacker ideal of people sharing and building upon each other's work, and by John Romero, who had hacked games in his youth and wanted to allow other gamers to do the same. In contrast, some video game artists, including Jay Wilbur and Kevin Cloud, objected due to legal concerns and the belief that it would not be of any benefit to the company's business.

Utilities and first mods

Immediately after the initial shareware release of Doom on December 10, 1993, players began working on various tools to modify the game. On January 26, 1994, Brendon Wyber released the first public domain version of the Doom Editing Utility program on the Internet, a program for creating new levels. DEU continued development until May 21. It was made possible by Matt Fell's release of the Unofficial Doom specifications. Shortly thereafter, Doom players became involved with further enhancing DEU. Raphaël Quinet spearheaded the program's development efforts and overall project release, while Steve Bareman led the documentation effort and creation of the DEU Tutorial. More than 30 other people also helped with the effort and their names appear in the README file included with the program distribution. Yadex, a fork of DEU 5.21 for Unix systems running the X Window System, was later released under the GNU GPL license. Carmack released the source code for the utilities used to create the game, but these were programmed in Objective-C, for NeXT workstations, and were therefore not directly usable by the mass userbase of IBM PC compatible.
Jeff Bird is credited with creating the first custom WAD for Doom, called Origwad, on March 7, 1994. Soon, many players were creating custom WADs and sharing them over AOL, the CompuServe forums, and other Internet-based channels. Many of the WADs were made in the style of the base game, others were based on existing TV series, films, or original themes. Some of the id Software staff were impressed by some of the WADs; John Carmack later said the following about a Star Wars-themed modification:
Another early modification is Aliens TC, a total conversion based on the film Aliens.
Although the WAD format allowed modifying the game to a higher degree that most others, the amount of customization was still limited. Much of the game's behavior, such as the timing of enemies and strength of weapons, was hard-coded in the Doom executable file and impossible to alter via WADs. DeHackEd, a Doom editing program created by Greg Lewis, addressed this by letting users modify parameters inside the Doom executable itself, allowing for a greater degree of customization.

Commercial mods

Around 1994 and 1995, mods were distributed primarily through BBSs and via CD collections found in computer shops or bundled together with instruction guides for level creation. In later years, FTP servers became the primary method for obtaining these works. Although the Doom software license required that no profit be made from custom WADs, some WAD sets and shovelware bundles were nonetheless sold at certain outlets.
To compete with unauthorized collection CDs, id Software also began hiring and recruiting particularly talented modders in the Doom community to create official expansions. The team produced Master Levels, a expansion pack containing 21 levels. It was released on December 26, 1995 on a CD, along with Maximum Doom, a collection of 1,830 other mods that had been downloaded from the internet. During this time, id Software was also working on their next game, Quake.
In 1996, Final Doom, a package of two 32 level megawads created by TeamTNT, was released as an official id Software product.
Various first-person shooter games released at the time use the Doom engine under a commercial license from id Software, such as HacX: Twitch 'n Kill. In some instances, these are simply custom WADs packaged with the Doom engine.
In addition to the many people who contributed to commercially released mods, various authors became involved with the development of other games:
  • Kenneth Scott, who contributed artwork to HacX, later became the art director at id Software and 343 Industries on the post-Bungie Halo games.
  • Tim Willits, who contributed two levels to Master Levels for Doom II, later became the lead designer at id Software.
  • Sverre Kvernmo, designer of five levels in Master Levels for Doom II and member of TeamTNT, was hired by Ion Storm for Daikatana.
  • Dario Casali, author of a quarter of Final Doom, was hired by Valve to work on Half-Life.
  • Iikka Keränen, author of several Doom and later Quake mods, was hired by Ion Storm to create levels for Anachronox and Daikatana, and by Looking Glass Studios to create levels for Thief II: The Metal Age. Keränen was later hired by Valve.
  • John Anderson, also known as "Dr. Sleep", level designer of five levels in Master Levels for Doom II and E4M7 in The Ultimate Doom, later worked on Blood, Unreal, and Daikatana.
  • Matthias Worch, a level designer, joined Ritual Entertainment to work on SiN. He later contributed to the Unreal series.
  • James Paddock, who has composed music and designed levels for many mods, has composed for SIGIL.

    Notable mods

Since their releases, many Doom mods have been created. Some have acquired fame even outside of the modding community. The following is a select listing of popular and historically significant mods.
The types of mods are:
; Level
; Joke WAD
; Episode replacement
; Megawad
; Total conversions, partial conversions

Levels

  • The Harris levels: Created by Eric Harris, one of the two perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre. It is believed to have surfaced on the internet in 1996 or 1997, but it was removed by the FBI after the 1999 massacre. Downloads for the levels Deathmatching in Bricks, Hockey.wad, KILLER, Mortal Kombat Doom, Outdoors, Station, and UAC Labs have been found since. Dylan Klebold, a friend of Harris and the other perpetrator of the massacre, was credited by Harris for playtesting Deathmatching in Bricks. The ending screen for UAC Labs shows names of other levels made by Harris, although they are since lost: Assault, Techout, Thrasher, Realdeth, and Realdoom, a patch for another WAD. UAC Labs mentioned in Doomworld's Top 10 Infamous WADs list.
  • Lullaby: A level created by Danlex in 2021 which contained surreal visuals.
  • MyHouse.wad: Created by Doomworld user Steve Nelson in March 2023. It is a liminal horror map loosely inspired by the 2000 novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, and the online urban legend the Backrooms. It has been praised as one of Doom IIs most technologically-advanced mods.
  • National Videogame Museum: A recreation of the real life National Videogame Museum by employee Chris Bacarani. The level took over a year to make, and is featured as an exhibit in the physical museum.
  • Nuts!: Released in 2001, it is one of the first documented "joke WADs". It consists of a single room, with an invulnerability power up, plasma rifle, BFG, and 10,617 monsters. Its creator, B.P.R.D., created multiple sequels, including a version of Nuts recreated in Dusk.
  • Origwad: Created by Jeff Bird and released on March 7, 1994, it's notable for being the first custom WAD to be released for Doom. It consists of a single level with two rooms separated by one door, and a total of six enemies, making it extremely basic.
  • Void: A single-level modification created by Mike Watson based on the 2000 game American McGee's Alice, itself made by former id Software employee American McGee.