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id Software taking control of Doom's multiplayer, planning new modes and content

The developer will aim to plug empty holes by implementing missing features.

David Craddock

June 9, 2016 1:00 PM

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id Software farmed Doom's multiplayer to an outside studio so it could devote all its resources to developing a strong campaign. In an interview with Eurogamer (via GameSpot), game director Marty Stratton announced that id would be handling multiplayer internally going forward.

"We worked with Certain Affinity through the launch of the game and really appreciate their contributions and effort on the game," Stratton told Eurogamer.

The team's first priority: shoring up multiplayer by introducing missing features. "There's certainly no lack of commitment to Doom as a multiplayer game on our side. We are already working on private matches with custom game settings and expect to include that in a free update this summer."

Stratton explained these and other features were present in Doom's alpha but intentionally absent from the final release. During the alpha, those features existed as development tools that players were not meant to access until id (or Certain Affinity) had time to complete them.

Bots are another feature on id's radar, and will be available in both multiplayer and SnapMap creations. It so happens that the foundation for bots was laid months ago. Senior programmer John Dean, who wrote bots for Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, wrote code for bots in Doom, but had no time to implement them, as he was assigned as the lead coder on SnapMap.

Stratton expects these and other multiplayer features to be rolled out in phases. "We know that talk will only go so far with players and hope that our actions this year continue to give players across every component of the game - multiplayer, singleplayer and SnapMap—more and more reasons to continue playing and enjoying the game in whatever way they choose."

For more on Doom, check out our review and bask in its 9/10 score.

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.