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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In a move that experts around the interwebs are describing as “about fucking time,” Doom Radio has finally decided to get its act together and produce an interview with Andrew “Linguica” Stine. Yes, the guy who made InstaDoom. During the podcast you will be treated to a great unfurling of interesting facts and anecdotes surrounding Linguica’s return to prominence in 2014. We discuss the events leading up to Doomworld’s near-death experience in 2015, the forum software update, Brutal Doom, the rationale behind Post Hell’s (sort of) removal, Ling as a mastermind publicist, not playing the game, April Agitation, Linguortals* and more. There’s also a Tarnsman.
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This episode’s hour-plus interview features a different breed of nerd in Max “Altazimuth” Waine, who is the latest member of Team Eternity and one of its chief contributors. Attempting to bridge The Chasm between my knowledge in this area and source port enlightenment is an easy task for Altaz, who has a natural way with words, but all the same; this is very much a conversation for the uninformed. In addition to talk about the Eternity Engine’s goals and how they relate to neighboring ports we discuss the accessibility of programming, innovation, Patreon, promoting the engine, the relationship between developers and their player base, the significance of mods versus level design, and more!
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The interview with Linguica hit a bump after a server fell through on Discord at the inopportune moment, but don’t worry; I had a backup plan! In this 60-minute podcast for Doom Radio, Emil “NaturalTvventy” Brundage takes to the hot-seat to talk about the development behind his best-known work and collaboration, his return from obscurity in 2009, the evils of the super shotgun, his involvement with the Chaos Crew and Caverns of Darkness, the attraction of designing levels for Doom 1 over Doom 2, playing with the music turned off (unless it’s Metallica), and denying the ever-present/alternative reality of how the community sees his work.
NaturalTvventy is a celebrated level designer who is best known as one of the two major leads behind No End in Sight—a 38-map megawad that was inspired by the Doom The Way id Did project of 2010—and for his ‘Ultimate’ affinity. He has a history with creating content for the game dating as far back as the late ’90s, with his cult offerings in The Beginning of the End and its sequel, both for Doom 1, and his contributions to other well-known releases such as Caverns of Darkness. With an outspoken and inspirational figure who is well-worth his weight in maps, this is a conversation for every member of the mapping community, prospective and established alike!
The Doom Radio Interview series resurfaces in 2017 with James ‘Jimmy’ Paddock, who takes to the hot seat for the second time in TTV history. During this 90 minute podcast we discuss the creative differences between composition and level design, the discipline of ‘speedmapping’, MIDI commissions and Patreon, the fine line between hobby and work, motivation, platforms for coordinating projects (and our shilling of Discord), meeting fellow users abroad, and the wonderful world of musical studies.
Jimmy is an accomplished student of the MIDI arts, having recently exceeded more than 500 compositions to play alongside his extensive modding and level design history with projects like Adventures of Square, Jenesis, and various contributions across Doomworld, ZDoom Forums, and Skulltag. He is a texture artist and coordinator of several ongoing efforts across platforms, and like the rest of us Doomworld tragics has made certain that he’s spread himself as thin across these obligations as is humanly possible. Poor bastard.
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Today, Tango TV interviews DavidPH, a previously mostly-unknown figure in the Doom community responsible for much of the modernization effort involving ACS (the scripting language introduced by Hexen) and ACC (its compiler). We talk about such subjects as:
- David’s first modifications, and his scripting language for creating Doom maps
- His contributions to ZDoom and the Eternity Engine, plus a failed attempt at writing a Doom clone
- The purpose of ACS, and his efforts to improve it by creating a new compiler, and supporting other languages such as C
- Nitty-gritty details about ACS bytecode and the ACS virtual machine
Though much of the discussion is technical in nature, David makes a sincere effort to explain the concepts in a way most listeners could understand, so there’s no reason to be intimidated by the content of this episode.
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The most recent Tango TV interview is with a veteran of the Doom community, James Haley, more often known as Quasar. Join us as we discuss a veritable cornucopia of topics, including:
- The Eternity TC and the Eternity Engine
- His contributions to the source port scene in general, such as UDMF
- The Genealogy of Source Ports article written for 10 Years of Doom
- His work with Kaiser on Strife: Veteran Edition
- Recent history of the Doom Wiki and his efforts to improve it
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