British Author Bails Out DOOM 4 Storyline

[Evil Avatar]

Computer & Video games is reporting (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=205696) that id Software has hired British author Graham Joyce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Joyce) to help write the storyline for DOOM 4.

CVG can confirm that British Fantasy award winning author Graham Joyce is writing the story to the game as you read this, though he had signed his life away and was unable to tell us anything about the direction the game was taking. We did ask. "I can say that ID have hired me to help develop the storyline potential," was all Joyce would give us when contacted.

Joyce has published fourteen novels and twenty-six short stories to date. He even picked up a few British Fantasy awards, so he knows what he's doing. Does he know Doom though? We'll have to wait and find out.It must be tough to top the guy who wrote the 'Monster Jumps out of Closet Behind You' parts of DOOM 3.

[Rirath]

In my opinion, the Doom games do not need a deep storyline. I knew everything I needed to know about the story playing Doom 1.

I just don't expect Doom to be like Half Life.

[Cha-Ka]

I'm gonna send that guy a whole list of synonyms for the words "open" and "door".

[Deepsleeper]

It must be tough to top the guy who wrote the 'Monster Jumps out of Closet Behind You' parts of DOOM 3.

Because this never happened in Doom 1 or 2.

Ever.

At all.

Certainly not every six minutes, or whenever you picked up a new gun or flipped a switch.

[AversionFX]

Doom 3's story was pretty paltry. Certainly not something you pay talent to write, at least.

"Okay, so, you're a dude in Mars, on a space station that pays its electricians very poorly, and then suddenly Hell comes to the station, and now you spend the next 4 hours fighting zombie R Kelly, all while cursing how shitty the station's electricians are."

[ElektroDragon]

Computer & Video games is reporting (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=205696) that id Software has hired British author Graham Joyce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Joyce) to help write the storyline for DOOM 4.

It must be tough to top the guy who wrote the 'Monster Jumps out of Closet Behind You' parts of DOOM 3.

Ok, this is a rather inane comment. Did you bother to read any of the audio or text logs in Doom 3? The story and atmosphere created were top notch. One of my favorite games of all time (well up to the kinda lame boss battle at least.)

Look everyone, I am actually SUPPORTING a game. Refreshing, no?

[pwnophobia]

Look everyone, I am actually SUPPORTING a game. Refreshing, no?

*writes in blog*

Today, ElektroDragon made a break through while posting on EvAv.......what's next, a donation? ;)

[ElektroDragon]

*writes in blog*

Today, ElektroDragon made a break through while posting on EvAv.......what's next, a donation? ;)

I actually donated $5 last year.

[evilgoodwin]

Doom 3: The Text Adventure

You are standing in a room. It is dark.
>turn on flashlight

You turn on your flashlight. You see a box of ammo in front of you.
>Get ammo

As you pick up the ammo, the wall opens and your flashlight shines on a demon, ready to attack you!
>Attack demon

You do no have a weapon equipped!
>Equip weapon

You put away your flashlight and equip your weapon. It is dark.
>Shoot demon.

You can not see demon. You are dead.
Continue Y/N?
>quit game

[Returner]

It's all about the clone porn.

[ElektroDragon]

evilgoodwin, the need to alternate between flashlight and weapon was a brilliant design decision. Ok, so what if it didn't make sense? Demons on Mars makes sense?

[Chimpbot]

evilgoodwin, the need to alternate between flashlight and weapon was a brilliant design decision. Ok, so what if it didn't make sense? Demons on Mars makes sense?

I wouldn't exactly call it brilliant, but the decision to force players to use either a weapon or a flashlight was a conscious one...and its definitely not without its merits. The whole purpose of that setup was to force players to make the decision to either see their target or defend themselves. Once you spooted your target with the flashlight, you then had to depend on your memory and instinct to locat and dispatch your target. It was certainly a unique setup and I applaud id for that.

In practice, it took some getting used to...but if you didn't like it, there were dozens of "duct tape" mods that affixed the light to whatever weapon you had drawn, thereby negating the complaint entirely. Sure, we had to rely on the users to "fix" this "problem"...but it was certainly "fixed" for those who wished to play the game in a manner outside of the intentions of the developers.

[XxSATANxX]

Doom was on of those franchises. For many the real first experince of Doom was Doom 3. For those of us of advanced years we remember what an ass kicking great time Doom I and II were. A first in many ways. As id grew the Doom franchise was let down a bit by Doom 3. The movie was an awful let down and the kids at Dallas just seemed to grow older an less relevant. Like a rock band past it's prime the guys have failed to advance beyond the eye candy. id was never a big story teller but the fun part was that you the Gamer filled it in as you went. I'm happy to see them bring in some fresh ideas.

Quake and Doom could use a creative kick in the ass. Quake wars was the first real fail I've seen out of id. Quake Live might put them right back in the middle of the fray if they ever get the damn thing going....

[bulldozer.sweden]

Doom 3: The Text Adventure

You are standing in a room. It is dark.
>turn on flashlight

You turn on your flashlight. You see a box of ammo in front of you.
>Get ammo

As you pick up the ammo, the wall opens and your flashlight shines on a demon, ready to attack you!
>Attack demon

You do no have a weapon equipped!
>Equip weapon

You put away your flashlight and equip your weapon. It is dark.
>Shoot demon.

You can not see demon. You are dead.
Continue Y/N?
>quit game

That's how you "write/design" a game really :) It's called "Narrative & gameplay intentions" :)

Example:
Narrative summary:
Intended Player information "check points":
First realisation:
Second realisation:
Third realisation:
Visual output:
Audio output
Intended Player mood:

And so on. That's how you "should" do it, before you make anything in the computer :)

[workerbee]

It must be tough to top the guy who wrote the 'Monster Jumps out of Closet Behind You' parts of DOOM 3.

Please! The full name is "Monster Jumps out of a Closet Behind You ON MARS."

[JazGalaxy]

I agree.

Story + Doom = Fail before you even start.

We have half-life for a highly storied FPS game.

Doom is doom because it's fast paced level based first person shooting with an driving soundtrack and absurd environments.

To take Doom and make it fundamentally something else, like Doom 3 was, is to ruin teh franchise.

[ElPresidente]

Considering the level of atmosphere that has always been present in the Doom games I'm surprised more people aren't behind the idea of the franchise developing a strong narrative.

I feel it is crying out for such content. I'm quite happy with this news.

[Apushmataha]

I agree.

Story + Doom = Fail before you even start.

We have half-life for a highly storied FPS game.

Doom is doom because it's fast paced level based first person shooting with an driving soundtrack and absurd environments.

To take Doom and make it fundamentally something else, like Doom 3 was, is to ruin teh franchise.

That's what I thought. When I think DOOM, I think lots of hellspawn, guns, and one pissed marine. Painkiller was more in the spirit of the DOOM that I love than DOOM 3 was.

[AlmostSente]

Better story would make it a better game in my opinion. The story written in the blogs etc wasn't bad but it should have shown more in the gameplay too.

[bulldozer.sweden]

Story = also what's happening in the game like Get blue key card, level is set in marine base/muddy caves, get weapon upgrade in the lower levels of the base, kill the big boss with 100 tentacles. So story doesn't have to be dialog of 100.000 lines, it can be everything else on the screen that's happening :)