This Doom mod is made from Id Software's abandoned and rejected ideas

24.01.2024 - 17:43 / rockpapershotgun.com / Bethesda Softworks / Id Software

Before Doom became the lean, mean murdermachine we know and love, Id Software had far bigger plans for their seminal satanic FPS. Ideas dropped during development include a big focus on story, four playable characters, elemental shields, demonic weapons, and more. The mod Doom Delta brings to life many such ideas from sources including an old design document and leaked alpha builds, which I think makes it fanfic? A new version of Doom Delta launched last week, offering a curious vision of the many Dooms Id didn't make.

Doom Delta is not trying to recreate any particular pre-release version of Doom, more playing with the many different elements from the different games Doom could have been (and was) at different times during development. As developer DrPyspy explains, it "aims to bring together many elements from the pre-release iterations of Doom, including (but not limited to) the alpha builds, the press release beta, and Tom Hall's Doom Bible. Elements such as the helmet HUD from early alphas, enemy designs, unique characters, and unused weapon concepts return."

Tom Hall's Doom Bible, which you can read online, is a 1992 design document laying out a wildly different vision of Doom. This Doom was to be a story-heavy open-world game set on the distant moon of Tei Tenga, with an actual plot, a less abstract setting, four different named characters with different stats, a weapon made of demon bones powered by killing human enemies, points and high scores, and heaps more things that are very much not in Doom. Much of this was changed or jettisoned due to technical and design decisions, and tension over what Doom should be contributed to Hall leaving Id before the game launched.

You can grab Doom Delta from its site. To play, you'll need a copy of Doom or Doom 2 as well as the GZDoom updated engine. Ta to PCGamesN for pointing out the latest version's launch.

Doom Delta isn't the first mod to channel and intepret Hall's Doom Bible. Many modders have tried over the years, though few were released and fewer reached any state of done-ness. Another you can try is The Tei-Tenga Incident, which finished its first episode but hasn't been updated since 2019. You could give a dozen teams the same design document and end up with a dozen different games.

I'm reminded a bit of Doom The Way Id Did and its sequel. This pair of map packs was made by players attempting to mimic the styles of individual Id level designers, everything from their design philosophies to decoration preferences, and create levels which felt like they could've been from the game.

Doom wasn't the first Id Software shooter to dramatically change shape during development. Initial proposals for Wolfenstein 3D were closer to the stealth game it's