I really wanted my project this week to be more gentle than my previous projects have been – and more gentle than doom itself is (it does not take much though). I knew from early on I wanted to eliminate any sort of combat in the level, and was trying to think of different interactions that could be positive instead. I was also reeeallly hung up on using deer for some reason (I didn’t quite intend on the relationship between deer being the most hunted animals vs the setting of target, but I did really want an animal that was often vulnerable and gentle around humans).
As for the setting – I wanted it to be grounded in reality but also explore an open space. I liked the idea of deer guiding the player around different abstract spaces, but I wanted the initial one to be something both familiar but subtly surreal. The idea of target came to mind .. sometime really early in the morning too. I thought of how being inside a target can seem like a liminal space due to its overwhelming brightness, signature colors and layout, and massive assortment of products. The interior of the target can be anywhere or take place in any time of day. I also thought this would be a perfect opportunity to make the level’s textures and physical layout true to target stores. The stores usually deal in the same floor texture as well as clear flat lines in its layout, something that wouldn’t be too hard in doom. I went through a lot of pictures to get the different floor textures right:
Initially, I wanted to add a lot more textures/sprites to populate the shelves of the store, but I liked the feedback everyone gave on how it was nice to be a slightly more abstract representation of the store that still allowed the player to know where they were. I had a lot of fun making this level and hope to expand it!
This was such a crazy level. It definitely got some pretty interesting reactions out of me when I first saw it, the most prominent one being confusion regarding the deer in Target. I thought it was a funny commentary on the fact that deer are typically just seen as ‘targets’ by hunters, and in a game like Doom, you’d expect to be able to shoot the deer with a classic shotgun. I really enjoyed the fact that the interior of the store is not exactly like an actual Target, with merchandise lining the aisles. The emptiness of the store conveys a surreal feeling, where you know you’re in a familiar place, but there’s just something off about it that keeps it from being entirely tangible. You really nailed the atmosphere, and I’m looking forward to seeing how you incorporate the Arduino with a real tape recorder to make an alternative interface.