Doom Eternal

Elevating game
mechanics through
designs.
Table of content ●
●
Introduction – What is Doom Eternal?
How Doom Eternal elevates game mechanics
through designs.

● Aggressive combat system

○ Dynamic movements
○ Impactful weapon gallery
○ Resource management
○ Effective skill tree
○ Gore and its glories
● Merciless enemies
○ Demon Diversity
○ Elite Demons
○ Big Bad Bosses
○ “Work smarter, not harder”
● Aesthetic
○ Refreshing appearances
○ Heavy metal music
○ Battleground Design

● Conclusion
● Works Cited
● Images Cited
Introduction
What is ?

Doom Eternal is a first-person shooter game that was developed by id Software, published
by Bethesda Softworks and released on March 20th, 2020. The game is available on various
console platforms like Xbox One, and Playstation 4 as well as on Windows.

Once again, players will follow the Doom Slayer on his journey of exterminating hellish
monsters. This time, hell is consuming Earth and the Slayer is humanity’s last hope.
Players will fight through hordes of monsters while collecting necessary items/ weapons to
stop the demon invasion.
 Thesis
How Doom Eternal Elevates game mechanics
through designs.

Learning from Doom 2016, Doom Eternal offers much more

entertainment to players by redesigning and improving
what its predecessor could not achieve. Each
individual adjustment ultimately makes a huge impact on
the game together and creates a fresh experience for
both old and new players, most notable changes include:

● Faster and more dynamic movements and combat

abilities that offer more freedom to players.

● A large variety of enemies with purposeful designs

and unique contributions to gameplay.

● Overall changes to the game aesthetic include

characters’ outlooks and battleground locations
which enhance the original mood the Doom franchise
can offer.
 aggressive combat system
Overview

Doom Eternal has a much faster combat

pace compared to prior games of the Doom
franchise. This improvement enhances the
waves of adrenaline rush that every Doom
game offer through combats.

The game gives more control and options

when it comes to movement as well as
taking down enemies. Each combat mechanic
is designed to emphasize the players’
adaptability. Moreover, these additions
are well-balanced and are impossible to
overwhelm players should they know how to
use them correctly.
 aggressive combat system
Dynamic movements
Doom Eternal allows players to double dash, double jump, grapple enemies and interact with
the environment (climbing wall, swinging from protruding bars, etc) which immensely
increases players' mobility and improves platforming experiences. These mechanics offer
great flexibility in executing enemies and supports the weapons system of Doom Eternal,
which can be used to its full potential or not depending on how players engage targets
within combats. For instance, you can dash into the enemy for an effective shot using the
shotgun and immediately dash away, or grapple another weak enemy in your range.

Protruding bars Wall climbing

 aggressive combat system
Impactful weapon gallery
With over 10 weapons, Doom Eternal also
offers two weapon modifications for each
gun and players can switch between two
variations at any time. A shotgun can be
a bomb launcher or be able to shoot
continuously like a rifle depending on
the equipped

Each weapon, even each variation is

unique and is designed to be effective
against certain enemies. Therefore, to
quickly eliminate any demon, players
“As [Stratton] said, ‘the guns are the tool and the AI is the problem’, and you need to make quick decisions on what
gotta bring the right tools to the right situation,” weapon they should use and how they
approach the target.
- Hugo Martin, Creative Director.
 aggressive combat system
Resource management
You can easily run out of bullets in
Doom Eternal. To come out of fights
alive, players need to look after their
ammo and learn how to regenerate them.
Instead of putting packs of ammo on the
grounds, the game implements mechanics
that force players to use specific tools
on enemies to get small rewards.

For instance, spraying the flamethrower

onto enemies will give you armour while
cutting down enemies with the chainsaw “You’ll probably die. Death is an ok thing, it’s how you learn,” said Stratton.
“But you’ll realize ‘I’m low on ammo, I’m low on health, I’m low on armour,’ and
will provide you with ammo. These you’ll know there’s a demon right there from which I can absolutely get what I
mechanics encourage players to move need…As long as there are demons on the battlefield, you’ve got the resources
around and choose the correct moments to you need.”
refill. - Marty Stratton, Game Director.
 aggressive combat system
Effective skill tree
All useful skills in Doom Eternal come down to reducing ability/ tool cooldowns or faster
in-game action ( switching weapons, climbing over obstacles faster, etc). The skill trees
are not designed to offer new abilities or items but to enhance the fast-pacing combat
instead and motivate players to use given tools.

One of the best skills is: faster recharge for dashing. Tt can easily make you feel like
dashing through the whole game and ultimately changes your playstyle. Meanwhile, a faster
cooldown can be applied on the flamethrower and players can make use of the tool for even
more armour drops.
 aggressive combat system
Gore and its glories
With the “Glory Kill” ability, players can
perform gruesome kill on enemies that are
staggered and receives HP drops. Doom
Eternal indirectly makes players remember
the right tools/ weapons to use on
different enemies to stagger them quickly
for the sake of survival.

Players will enter a very short animation

showing them brutally slaying the target
when performing Glory Kill. The animations
are varied depending on how players
approach the victims ( from above, from
“In this system it’s the player’s choice to to rip an arm off and smack them
with their own arm.” behind, etc), and encourage players to
“parkour” around the enemies for
- Shinichiro Hara, Animation Director entertaining moments.
 Merciless enemies
Overview
With huge improvements in mobility and armoury for the Doom Slayer, it is important to
balance him with the demonic force. Besides making demons stronger and pose serious
threats to players, Doom Eternal has cleverly designed them to reinforce players’ habit
of using tools and weapons. How efficiently it takes for players to defeat waves of
demons is proof that players play the game the way it is designed, fun and intense.

“We do everything we can to try to make Doom--we want it to be the martial

arts analogy. You begin the game as a white belt, you can feel yourself
getting stripes and levelling up.”

- Hugo Martin, Creative Director

 Merciless enemies
Demon Diversity

There are more and stronger demons within Doom Eternal compared to the previous Doom
games. We have slow and weak, zombie-liked enemies to teleporters or even supporting
demons that buff others.
The numbers and types of demons that are spawned per wave are calculated to keep players
entertained while putting pressure on players. For example, fast enemies would appear more
in broad battlegrounds or enemies with heavy projectiles appear more in areas with covers
like pillars, forcing players to pay attention to the available resources.
 Merciless enemies
Elite Demons
As the game progresses, stronger
variations of demons will appear.
Introducing tougher enemies are
common in video games, but Doom
Eternal uses this idea to reinforce
players’ ability to prioritize
targets.
One of the elite demons is the
Mancubus Arch-Vile which has the combined
power of teleportation, buffing and
creating enemies. Players will
learn that they need to kill the
Arch-Vile as soon as possible
before it drains all their Arch-Vile
resources. Elite enemies are like a
catalyst that makes each combat
Cyber-Mancubus faster and more interesting.
 Merciless enemies
Big Bad Bosses
Elite enemies are usually introduced for
the first time as mini-bosses or players
will face major bosses that appear once
in a single play-through. Players have to
adapt to the Doom Eternal bosses' move
sets and battlegrounds.

All the provided resources prior to boss

encounters are built up to these moments
where you have to withstand a long battle
with fearsome opponents. It depends
significantly on how effective players
We're not making a hard game. We're just making a game that's going to give use their abilities to achieve glorious
you something to master, and frustration is a part of mastery. All games and bloody victories.
have frustration. All engaging experiences have some form of frustration
that comes with them.

-Hugo Martin, Creative Director

 Merciless enemies
“Work smarter, not harder”
There are more and stronger demons within Doom Eternal compared to the previous Doom
games. We have slow and weak, zombie-liked enemies to teleporters or even supporting
demons that buff others.
The numbers and types of demons that are spawned per wave are calculated to keep players
entertained while putting pressure on players. For example, fast enemies would appear more
in broad battlegrounds or enemies with heavy projectiles appear more in areas with covers
like pillars, forcing players to pay attention to the available resources.

“There are many different tools at your disposal, many different ways to kill
demons. Within our narrow path to success, there are opportunities for players
to make choices. But the key thing is that the solution to every problem is to be
aggressive, and there’s no way around that.”

- Marty Stratton, Gane Director

 Aesthetic
Overview
Learning from previous experience, id Software gives Doom Eternal brighter
environments and more flashy colours, effects being used on the characters and
interactable items.

The main goal of these visual changes is to apply the idea of “functionality over
aesthetics”, which initially caused a few fans to be upset but it was the right
decision from the developer. Players are more likely to explore the surroundings given
many different settings and the ability to travel quickly, strong visual cues also help
players in fighting off demons.
 Aesthetic
Refreshing appearances
Doom Eternal can be described as
“Arcady”. The “arcade” look with flashy
and high-saturated colours in old video
games can be found on the demons,
backgrounds lightning and even as
visual cues.

These changes make Doom Eternal appear

more entertaining and energetic for a
fast-paced game. They also provide
reliable visual cues for players within
chaotic battles like how players could
see bright, blue HP drops despite The speed of combat, that health pack is huge and it’s a blue vial and it stands
demons jumping in and out of the out from the environment and I know in the speed chess, in this combat puzzle
that I’m trying to solve, like tells right there.”
screen.
- Martin Hugo, Creative Director
 Aesthetic
Heavy metal music
The Doom series has always been famous
for its death metal essence and Doom
Eternal is no exception, the heavy metal
music fits the theme of being a berserker
perfectly.

The game is intense with both players and

demons constantly fighting to the point of
chaos, and the music captures the urgency to
fight for survival. Psychologically speaking,
players are more alert and active while playing
which helps them make decisions and perform
multiple tasks faster within combat.
 Aesthetic
Battleground Design
To support the wild movement
mechanics, each battleground is
designed to give as much freedom as
possible for both the players and the
enemies. Players can find themselves
jumping from wall to wall or taking
covers behind giant lumps of flesh
depending on the story progression and
enemy encounters.

The battlegrounds not only support

players when fights break out but also
“The level design also had to get bigger, to make room for this faster racecar, create great platforming experiences
otherwise, you're banging up against the walls. If you had dash, and the abilities and curiosity for in-game exploration.
you have now, but you were playing inside the Foundry level from the last game,
that would not be a good experience.”

- Martin Hugo, Creative Director

 Conclusion
Doom Eternal is a brilliant example of game design in which good games are like machines
with every individual cog supporting each other. The faster movement mechanics help players
defeat tough enemies, while the aggressive demons force players to use provided resources
effectively to defeat them and the intense aesthetic creates a sense of urgency to support
other factors. All these elements support each other, making Doom Eternal a great game that
surpasses initial expectations from any players.
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 Doom (1993)
Postmortem

Development Timeline

November 28th, January 1993 April 2nd, 1993 June 1993 October 4th,
August 1993 December 10th,
1991 The game was Doom Alpha is Doom preview was 1993 Doom Press
Tom Hall left 1993 Doom was
The original officially in the released and was written and praised Release Version
Id and moved to officially
design document of making and a sent to by the gamer is released
Apogee Software released on
Doom, aka Doom press release was beta-testers community
the net
Bible, is finished released
by Tom Hall

November 1992
Feb 4th, 1993 May 22nd, 1994 July 1993
Id Software decided September 1993 November
Doom Pre-Alpha is Doom Pre-Beta Flying enemies
to make Doom their More levels 1993 Final
released. is released. are considered
fifth FPS game (After and maps are polish work
and added to
the success of completed was in
the game
Wolfenstein 3d). progress
ow long did it take to develop ?

Doom was developed for roughly 9 months by a small team from Id Software and released on December 10th, 1993.
he game’s first release is shareware which can be downloaded over modems.

hat things went right in development ?

he unique look of Doom was initially achieved by taking pictures of hand-made clay models by artist Adrian
rmack, from various angles, to create the 3d feeling despite using 2d art sprites. This method was later
anged, but Adrian put a solid visual foundation for the game.

ohn Carmack, Doom’s lead programmer, supports his team’s vision and even encouraged tech upgrades instead of
anging visible elements here and there within the game. For instance, the stair in map E1M2 was slowing down
e game but instead of replacing the environment structure, the team upgraded their tech to include the BSP
ee for the game.

oom Engine, the game engine that powers Doom, is perfect for the game when it automatically makes things that
e further away look darker, which creates a horror atmosphere and sharpens the environment's silhouette.
What things went wrong/problematic in development?

ound March 1993, because Wolfenstein 3d for the Super Nintendo version was not completed, everyone had to temporarily
p working on Doom to port the game to Super Nintendo for 3 weeks.

m Hall, the lead game designer, proposed a document that constructs Doom’s universe known as the Doom Bible with the
a that the game’s story should be one of the main factors. However, John Carmack wants a more fast-pace action game
t focuses on gameplay instead, so Hall’s idea was discarded regardless of multiple times fixing the Doom Bible. On
ust 1993, Tom Hall later left Id Software for more creative freedom because of various reasons while working on Doom
Id Software.

December 1993, the team encountered a “last-minute” bug before releasing their game but the team made it in time and
ing the bug was the last thing they adjust for the game. However, upon uploading the game, Doom was uploaded to
cistin University’s FTP server so the team had to urgently use the university’s computer to re-upload while trying not
destroy the FTP server.

ey design differences from the initial concept to

inal
ring the Pre-Alpha phase, Doom’s UI was enlarged and surrounded the screen. The reason behind
at is to optimize performance since there are fewer to be rendered on the actual screen. The UI
s soon changed and organized at the bottom of the screen

on the Doom Press Release on October 1993, the arcade elements are removed, there is a health
rcentage instead of lives and players won’t have to go back to the beginning of the level.
ost-Lauch performance

ter launching the game, it is estimated that there were 10 million downloads of Doom within the first 2 years.
eover, it is reported that Id Software was making as much as $100.000 per day from Doom.

e critic was praising the game for its groundbreaking visuals and sense of scale, but criticized the heavy violence and
occasionally repetitive gameplay.

crosoft’s CEO, Bill Gates, noticed the game's popularity and built a version of the game called Windom. This decision
a good opportunity to get more people to use the latest version of Windows at that time and changed people's
spective on gaming on a computer significantly.

om is still relevant in the 21st century, people enjoy the flexibility of playing the game on almost any platform, from
rasounds machine to graphic calculators.

hat unique elements did this game introduce?

In terms of graphics, what Doom did was phenomenal when Id Softwares make 2d sprites look like
hey were in a 3d environment. Before Doom, computer games were not aiming for realism, the
nvironments in Doom were convincing and unique at the time.

When it comes to distributing the game to consumers, Doom has a unique model as well. Doom was
roken down into three chapters, with the first being free and can be downloaded over modems. With
his model, Doom is very approachable to players and therefore contributes significantly to the
ame’s fame.
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