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Back in 1996 or so, I started a project for a doom prequel called B4DooM (before doom). Some of you might know it from geocities - it ranked #7 of over 3000 doom mods at one point by some place I can't remember

I saw it one day on a hard drive backup and thought I would see how the ports are doing nowadays, and was pretty impressed. So I've decided to ressurect the project. I have to start pretty much from scratch though, because the last project used gross hacks and so had some pitfalls. This will be cleaner and more special than before.

The prequel combines the plots of doom and heretic/hexen, where you play as the sorcerer d'sparil, who was banished into hell but escaped with the new slipgate technology - unleashing the monsters onto mankind once again.

The gameplay is obviously different, more warlike and not a matter of finding keys and exits - but rather killing all marines and possessing them into the zombies and using their souls for health, weapons, powers, and to summon/ressurect other monsters to attack the others. All current monsters in the doom game are on your side and the possessed soldiers are still marines. You are more powerful than the doom player - you can fly, have magical weapons, more speed, more "health" and demons on your side - but the marines are more powerful than many of the original doom monsters and have rocket launchers, plasma rifles, BFG9000's... so the battle is not completely one sided.

Although the previous project was quite developed, this one is in a very early stage, and has alot of further potential (a cool intro, scripts showing the demons impaling marines etc after the battle, making cyber-monsters etc).

There is a strong focus on commercial-level quality and a philosophy of keeping it close to the original doom game - meaning no sprites, sounds, or 3d models etc that look too different to the original or levels that are too complex. It is not about making the doom engine more than it is (it will never match current 3d games), but enhancing it to feel like it was how it was supposed to be.

I put up a blog to introduce it. No downloads are available yet - but if you'd like to contribute something by all means let me know!

http://b4doom.blogspot.com

Sounds interesting but I'm not sure using D'sparil as the player character is a good idea, IMO. Why not it be some unnamed powerful wizard so it can be anybody, just like doom guy?

A question, will this project have its own map set at one point?

I'm flexible on D'sparil as the player, and actually using the bishop from hexen at the moment as the player skin because I didn't like the look of d'sparil really (or anything from heretic lol) - but would like to hear what other people think about the 2 worlds being combined (no other monsters from heretic/hexen though). I've chosen to combine them because they fit well and look good, but I'm also thinking of merging this with another game I was looking to develop at the time.

I hope to have a good map set. The original b4doom already had zdoom enhanced levels from knee deep in the dead, and an intro level based around 1000 years ago which was to set up the plot. This is still the idea now and it can be done alot better with all the improvements to gzdoom, although I don't want to do much more level editing myself and I don't want to change the original doom much. I would like the first level to be a epic movie style battle/ambush type scenario that takes place at night on at a church graveyard. I had a church graveyard level but no battle in the original version.

The map set will stay optional. The original project had 2 versions, one with the maps and one without so it can still be played with existing levels from any doom wad.

B4DooM wrote:but would like to hear what other people think about the 2 worlds being combined (no other monsters from heretic/hexen though).

What I think is "NO."

ZDoom Wars got away with it because it's very un-serious at its core, and isn't meant to make a lot of sense.

But for any serious project, I think any game universes that aren't canonically tied together (especially when they're so different in focus) should be left separate. Engine aside. (No, the Tome of Power easter egg in Wolfenstein 2009 does not count. But on the subject of Wolfenstein, that series IS canonically related to DooM, per the heroes sharing a bloodline.)

Why not make the main character an Arch-Vile type? There are a ton of hellish sorcerer types. But even if you do keep the Hexen Bishop sprites, I would still forego trying to tie it to the Raven universe at all.

Why not let him give it a try? The spritework I've seen so far for player-D'Sparil looks quite nice and the idea of playing as a badass evil sorcerer sounds intriguing, so long as it's done right.

Everything about it seems pretty cool except for the name.

NeuralStunner wrote:But on the subject of Wolfenstein, that series IS canonically related to DooM, per the heroes sharing a bloodline.

If you're going to pull that in, don't forget that Commander Keen's in the family, too.

ETTiNGRiNDER wrote:If you're going to pull that in, don't forget that Commander Keen's in the family, too.

True, which is what makes the end of Map32 so agonizing.

He's from the future, And what about the lost cousin Duke? Or How about Blake Stone? When i first Read a prequel to doom, i though someone was make the mod where the UAC scientists who where working on gate technology, accidently brought the demons here, as per the story goes. Also if the "end" boss in doom, is romaro's head, Should the main guy for this wad be him, before he got Piked?

HellCattX wrote:Also if the "end" boss in doom, is romaro's head, Should the main guy for this wad be him, before he got Piked?

That's an easter egg too, not canon. The Icon of Sin was a huge demon, and I'm sure it didn't design most of the UAC facilities on Phobos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%28video_game%29

The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire upon civilians. The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

Also Have any of you guys Read the Novels that where made? They really Explain alot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_novels

We're not exactly talking about the DOOM novels. That's another continuity altogether.

...And why exactly are we talking about the canon of DOOM of all things, again?

HellCattX wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_%28video_game%29

The player takes the role of an unnamed space marine who has been punitively posted to Mars after assaulting his commanding officer, who ordered his unit to fire upon civilians. The Martian space marine base acts as security for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a multi-planetary conglomerate, which is performing secret experiments with teleportation by creating gateways between the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.

Also Have any of you guys Read the Novels that where made? They really Explain alot.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_novels

I read them...wasn't that impressed. Not sure why everyone wants to turn hellish beasts into genetically engineered monsters from an alien planet (Novels) or Disease riddled mutant freaks (Movie)...Seems like people can't grasp the fact that they are demons from hell.Seems pretty simple to me.

The novel Stated that the reason for that was to "inspire" the classic form of fear in humans, as it was about 500 years since they last visted earth, and as a culture we developed fast than the other species out there, and they where not expecting rocket technologies, UAC, or the marines and adapted the hellish creatures they made of invading, into war machines. Hence the flesh cubes randomly in space, where there wasnt enough humans up there to make them in the first place. It also explains how they can "terra form" structures into hellish designs. Demons for hell, means that the end boss would be satan, i do not believe that the demon spitter is a portrayal of satan, so it leaves you to wonder, who put it there?

But i did like the idea of playing d'sprial, and it was a mod idea i was going to try, but it seems i wont need to heh. looks good though. Sorry for jumping of the moon there lol. If ya need any kind of sprites or anything let me know might be able to help ya out.

Details aside, I think a prequel has a wealth of potential for great ideas, to do something different while keeping it classic.

Ideally I would like the player to choose all sorts of different classess from the sorcerer to marines and monsters. That would make cool multiplayer - good ol good vs evil

It looks like using the name D'sparil has caused all sorts of reactions, and come to think of it I prefer to keep the player unnamed while keeping the original plot idea, to create a hint of association with hexen etc without confirming or denying it. Right now though I'm using some hexen sprites and modding the weapon hud ones, so it's not that mysterious lol. That is intended to change though as the project is finished.

Thanks hellcattx for the comments and offering to help. Did you have anything in mind at the moment?

I am trying to set up the game to have marines target monsters and the player. Currently they only really go for the player and will even do nothing if a monster attacks them first before they see the player. I've also seen some mods to make monsters strafe and jump and this is great for the marines (I think the zombies and most monsters should move as they do in the original, and leave the strafing and jumping for marines which is more realistic).

If playing on original doom levels, i would prefer if the monsters aren't already there standing around, but teleport or something in their place and start attacking - something to tie in with the new plot.

Another feature that looks cool on some new modded monsters and in hexen is orbiting sprites etc, but it doesn't seem to work on the player pawn? (i get critical errors)