The first Doom and the first Diablo are two of the most influential and popular games in all of PC gaming. Each game practically single-handedly launched entire genres: the FPS, and the ARPG. Sure, Doom and Diablo weren't the first FPS and the first ARPG -- but because both games were so well made, they established formative ideas in game mechanics that are still very much a large part of gaming today.
Andrew, an indie game-maker, felt that merging these two classic games had potential. So he started working on the PC game Doom: Fall of Mars.
The two games actually fit together quite well, into a sort of retro-styled hybrid. Doom: Fall of Mars takes the setting of Doom and puts it into the gameplay of Diablo. The game is an ARPG with guns instead of medieval and magical weapons, with sounds and images from Doom, and the isometric perspective, and random loot system, of Diablo.
The project is only in the earlier stages. Right now, there is a sort of tech demo of the game at If Software, but it is only enough to leave you wanting the full release of the game.
But the full release is coming!
I emailed the maker of the game and tossed some questions his way:
Where did you find the inspiration for Doom: Fall of Mars? Where you inspired by any other Doom-themed games, like Doom:Rogue Like?
Well there are the obvious Doom and Diablo influences, which are personally my two favorite games, and that is how this got started. As for Doom: Rouge Like I had never actually played it until someone compared it to Doom:FoM. Honestly, I'm surprised this wasn't done before.
How's the project coming along?
Great. There was a pause in development for a few month in the winter, but that is all over. If there was one thing I could tell everyone who is playing the game or has played the game it would be "It's much better now!". And I'm always dumbfounded at all the praise it gets because honestly it's just a proof of concept demo. The game now has developed so much since then, with things such as random levels, that I can't wait to get it out there.
You are just a one man team right? Would you be open to anyone helping you out with the game?
Yes, I am just one man. I have had many offers from people with as little experience as me, and more, sometimes less, but honestly I'm comfortable doing this on my own. That's not to say that I am completely against any help, but it would have to be a very tempting offer. As for future projects however, I would love to start a team.
While it's still early on, something tells me the final release of Doom: Fall of Mars is going to be a blast. If you played the first, classic games in the Doom and Diablo series, you'll probably like the combination of them both.
Above is a short gameplay video of the game in action. Sorry for the odd resolution -- for whatever reason FRAPS didn't like recording at 800x600 so we had to switch to 1024x768.
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