COMM 344: The Level

The perfect level is one that challenges us, but does not frustrates us, one that is neither linear nor a hedge maze. id Software has made a lot of games: Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and Rage are the ones that come to mind immediately. 3 of those 4 games are level based shooters, while Rage is an open-world shooter (there's a longstanding community rumor that Borderlands was more or less designed based on prerelease footage of Rage, based mostly on how similar the games feel, and how Borderlands was developed almost entirely in the eternity between when id first showed off Rage and when it shipped, a year after Borderlands). The goal of this post is to analyze the structure of game levels, particularly how id changed it's methods of making a first level between Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake.

Wolfenstein 3D's Episode 1, Floor 1

The first level of  Wolfenstein 3D is mostly linear. There are some corners for early weapon upgrades hidden here and there, and a set of connected rooms that provide at least 3 ways to complete the level. As far as general game levels go, it's fairly fun to play through, though the world is flat in every way. The level takes place on a single floor of a castle to compensate for the lack of variance in floor height that the Wolfenstein engine had. The engine also lacked diagonal walls, making everything feel somewhat square.

Doom's E1M1: Hangar

Doom's first level is even more linear than Wolfenstein's, on the surface. The main path of the level is such that it can be completed in less than 30 seconds, however, some early weapon and armor pickups, plus a secret area that takes up roughly a third of the map, give the level more replay value than Wolfenstein's three slightly different grey and blue square paths. Doom also adds floor height and diagonal walls, in addition to enviromental dangers. The look and feel of Doom's level is closer to the expectation we would have for real architecture than it's predescessor. The issue with the level design emulating reality is that idTech 1 could not do what is called floor over floor, that is, multiple levels on top of each other. Height could done, but a second story, or even a balcony or bridge, was out of the question.

Romero's sketch for Quake's E1M1

Quake changes things considerably. idTech 2 introduced floor over floor, as well as smooth slopes (rather than idTech 1's solution of doing slopes as really tiny stairs) and rudimentary support for curved walls (basically the really tiny stairs idea, but with walls). Quake's layout is pretty linear, but contains more bonus rooms, a bridge, and the introduction of switches to id's first level work. Doom 2 also contained switches in it's first level, and Doom had switches and keycards throughout most of it's levels after the first, the reason I count Quake's inclusion of the switch as novel is that it's the first a switch is introduced in the first level of an unfamilar game, as Doom 2 was so similar to Doom that the game could assume more knowledge of mechanics in it's first level.

While first levels are not always the most exciting in the game, they serve an important purpose as a benchmark for change in a developer's expectations of a player. id Software made their levels more interesting over time while also increasing the general scope and challenge of the levels.