John Romerodraft

“Always change floor height when changing floor textures.”

Why it matters

Romero ranks here for the rules, not the resume. Before Doom, 3D level design was folklore; after it, there was a checklist that any modder could hold a map against, and thousands did. The rules work because they are about the player's perception at speed: every one of them forces a difference the eye can catch without stopping. That is why they transfer to games he never touched.

Lessons

1. 01 · space

   Level design is contrast management

   Romero's eight Doom rules read as one rule stated eight ways: change the floor height when you change the texture, put light against dark and cramped against open, use border textures at every seam. Each rule forces a difference the player can feel, so the space stays legible at full running speed. The reader of a Doom map is moving at 60 units a second and never stops to look.

   • Arena and corridor rhythmpacing
   • Sightline controlguidance
   • otherTips for creating good WADs (Romero's Doom rules, as recorded by the Doom Wiki)
   • bookJohn Romero, Doom Guy: Life in First Person (2023)

2. 02 · space

   Loop the player back so the space becomes a place

   Two of the rules are about memory rather than looks: make levels flow so the player revisits areas and understands the 3D space, and build several easily recognized landmarks. Together they turn a maze into a map in the player's head. E1M1 does this in under two minutes: the courtyard you see through the window is the courtyard you later cross.

   • Foreshadow the destinationguidance
   • Shortcut looptopology
   • otherTips for creating good WADs (Romero's Doom rules, as recorded by the Doom Wiki)

3. 03 · process

   Keep the game shippable every day

   id's early principles, as Romero tells them, were about never letting the build rot: no prototypes that are thrown away, no code that stays broken overnight, test on the slowest machine, and keep the whole team able to play the game at all times. Design was tuned by playing, not by document. The Doom Bible was abandoned and the levels were found by building them.

   • gdc-talkJohn Romero, The Early Days of id Software: Programming Principles (GDC Europe 2016)

Known for

• Commander Keen1990 · co-designer
• Wolfenstein 3D1992 · designer
• Doom1993 · level designer
• Quake1996 · level designer
• Sigil2019 · designer

Levels in the atlas (1)

Derived from level entries, not maintained here.

• E1M1: HangarDoom · 1993

Lineage

Cites as an influence: Shigeru Miyamoto