Will Sandy make more Doom maps? 

I'm only interested in playing a map that you wanted to make because you have fun doing it. I don't really want to convince someone to do a thing they aren't into doing. It shouldn't be something you do as a chore or out of obligation. Love it? Do it. Don't? Don't.

3:12 I love that you name dropped TRICKS AND TRAPS, one of my all time favorite levels, from the main games or among fan wads.. God dang that starting room with so many doors to choose from is just unforgettable. You were in general an under-appreciated master at environmental storytelling. Those hung-up Barons in Tower of Babel made me scared/excited as I started the level in a very similar way. (Maybe if I compliment Sandy's maps enough he'll make just one more... It can't hurt to try!! I'll FRAG the damn swamp dwellers who insult your maps!)

"It's not like people are asking John to do more Daikatana maps, right?" Me: That is so much more of a burn than he probably realizes, and that's just wholesome.

Even though I would absolutely love to see a new WAD created by you, I don't disagree with your decision of not doing it to stay away from any possible toxicity of the internet. Even if only a very small minority of people who actually hate on you like that, I know it can hurt and be a distraction/loss of motivation. I fully understand. Also, your response to that comment made me laugh out loud! 😂

1:40 it would absolutely not take 6 months + learning the software. Ultimate Doom Builder is an amazing piece of software where you can easily create new maps within just hours. By comparison, I have tried using some DOS editors and it took me like 20 minutes to simply create 2 rooms connected by a hallway. You have already created doom maps, and so should have enough experience to get started. Plus, here's a cool idea: you can do a mapping stream where, in 2-3 hours, you learn the UDB and try to make a map. I would definitely watch it

Before making Sigil, John Romero decided to make his own version of maps E1M4 and E1M8 based on his vision, maybe you could edit the maps you made and add stuff based on your original vision for them.

My uncle introduced me to Doom back in 1994, when I was a 6 years old girl. We still love this game, and have great respect for you and the other team members for creating such a timeless masterpiece! I'd really love to see new maps created by you, but I understand your point. Don't get discouraged by haters, you've brought joy into the lives of millions of people with your amazing work (I also love Age of Empires). I wish you the best.

I would LOVE to see you do more maps in a few years! I think you'll find the modern editors make it a breeze, you might even get addicted! It always bugged me how hard people were on your Doom 2 levels. I'm always like - Dude, I want you to make the majority of the biggest game ever released at the time, with time crunch, with no modern editors, no post Doom 2 design or programming advancements, and no time to polish anything. Everything is year zero to these people; they think y'all made the game in DoomBuilder for GZDoom scripting and just didn't put all the modern stuff in

Dude! YOU're absolutely incredible. If anything gaming related, I would love nothing more than more video from u telling development stories, design ideas a process u had on ur older games, talking about the work environment in Micropose and Ensemble, more about ur coworkers, ur daily routines... I know u have talked a lot about DOOM's dev and had a few long Age of Empires related interviews, but the more in depth u get on those topics, the better in my eyes. I said that because, the amount of experience u have in game design and the contribution u gave to the industry over the years is staggering. And it's quite hard to find any info an perspective from some devs outside the rare D.I.C.E Awards or GDC conferences here and there. I know Bruce Shelley and Cid Meyer's have a ton, but people like Ian Fisher, the Rippy brothers, Matt Pritchard, theirs is a lot harder to find. So u my good sir, has been a blessing for fanatics of old game dev like me in coming up with this channel. I would love to see more o ur perspective about ur colleagues over Ensemble, since one of ur interviews u explained in detail how Don Mattrick fucked MS over, and I believe that sort of perspective is imperative for fans to truly know what happens with their favorite studios, games and franchises in our oh so corporate industry. In any way, I thank u, from the bottom of my heart, for your contributions. Both in games and outside them.

What I would rather see is Mr. Petersen sit down with someone who knows how to use a doom map-builder and offer suggestions or ideas for them. Far more valuable than seeing more "finished product" from the veterans is to see how the veterans think about product in general. Having Sandy continue to describe why he made old Doom levels or describe how he would make new Doom levels seems far more useful than just being given a set of new Doom levels with minimal explanation. Also, I would rather give Mr. Petersen my money for his excellent new boardgames coming out of Petersen Games. There are countless Doom maps coming from the fan community, but only Petersen Games makes what it makes. Thanks for taking the time, Mr. Petersen. You continue to inspire and entertain.

I just want to send my appreciation for your contributions to Doom. I have you to thank for my favorite Doom 2 level, Suburbs. It may not be the most visually appealing level ever, but the combat from a pistol start is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of Doom 2. Plus there's also Entryway, The Pit, Refueling Base, Tricks and Traps, Courtyard and Monster Condo which I thought were all good levels too (hell Monster Condo might be my 2nd favorite). Doom wouldn't be the same without you, and if you do ever happen to make new levels, I'd love to play them!

The main point: this doesn't have to, maybe even shouldn't be, a big deal. I firmly believe things like this are the best when they are some sort of a pleasure (even if weird, masochistic or self-destructive) for the creator. Don't force it, just grab a tea/coffee/your preferred beverage on some free evening and give it a shot. If it works, great, if it doesn't, too bad. You don't have any obligations or timelines to do it. John hyped Sigil up a bit because he wanted to. You might as well doodle and take as much time as you please, when you please, then drop the results in a Doomworld thread or wherever without prior notice, whenever it's done (unless you want to make it a professional, commercial release). Another point: this isn't a competition, your maps don't have to be better than John's or anyone else's. In fact your maps are likely to be mostly incomparable to John's anyway. Although, granted, people will try to compare them anyway, because of course. There's people who love insanely hard, intimidating, massive maps, there's people who love casual dooming, there's people who love platforming, there's people who love the combat, there's people who love the atmosphere, there's people who love maps 100% compatible with the OG executables, there's people who love maps in slightly extended formats, there's people who love Doom modded into oblivion. No single mapper appeals to all those niches, not even close. If you asked ten people about the best mapper, you would get more than ten different answers, because some would overlap, but also most people would hesitate and give a few. Another point: the tools are pretty convenient nowadays and it really isn't that complicated to pick them up. Especially since you were able to do this without all the quality of life features. If you don't want to do wild things (and you don't have to, see above), it's exactly the same, except now you get useful extra highlights and previews. You don't have to remember linedef action numbers, they're organised in a nice, searchable list, you can have affected sectors highlighted when hovering over lines that affect them, you can zoom around in a decent 3D preview and so on. Another point, expanding on the previous one: the community is generally eager to help even nameless newcomers, so if you'd want to do some advanced/complicated stuff and needed a hand, you'd surely find a dozen available. This isn't even to try to convince you either way, because there's still those other, absolutely valid arguments you brought up, this is just to help you make a better informed decision. By the way, "Will Sandy make more Doom maps?" is actually a perfectly adequate title, technically, because the video literally explains the reasons why/why not/when would Sandy make more Doom maps. Makes sense. Blame the general culture/media for abusing questions like this for titles.

I know this is probably even less likely than more Sandy maps... but I'd love to see John Romero and Sandy work together on a map pack. Sort of like one of your favourite bands getting back together for a reunion tour. 😄

I'd love to see more of your "bad" map design!

I liked your maps. I didn’t know who made what back in the day. But I loved episode 2 and 3 of the original Doom.

'There are always those vocal few who live on hatred' Well said!

I think you nailed it here. You've "done your time" on Doom, so to speak, you shouldn't feel any obligation to work on stuff you're not personally invested it.

A cthulu themed wad by you would be awesome. Episode 6 "Eat this Civvie" or "Bring me the head of John Romero" could call it . . .

Sandy, I would like to start off by saying I LOVED your levels. People demanding a full perfectly crafted city in a first person non-3D shooter in 1994 are simply asking too much. But the newest level makers are SO MUCH EASIER than what you had to work with in the early 90's. Imagine the beautiful things you can accomplish NOW! Have you SEEN what we can all do with just two months? People still make full games out of your work using Doom Builder! I PERSONALLY and WHOLE-HEARTEDLY believe you can not only make more, but completely outdo yourself! And what's more, YOU'RE the one we want to do it, not John this time! You have our support, our love, our backing, and our understanding when it comes to the time frame. We don't need it to be immediate, we just want it eventually. Taking your time and not crunching time is exactly what you would need for it to be perfect. We would LOVE a new Doom or even better, a new Doom 2 chapter. The Doom engine went VR recently. You could take advantage of the architecture possibilities and craft something truly incredible, and we would be able to experience that new world you made in Doom Engine as though we were right there in the rooms you would make. Get on a site called Discord. Find "Team Beef." They do VR-exclusive classic Doom work. THERE'S a good idea! There's a whole OCEAN of work you can do, and we would love it. Don't give up on us, Sandy! You still GOT it, man! I KNOW you do. Just one suggestion. No more floor arrows pointing to the exit, okay? That's the only advice I have on that. You can do it. We believe in you.

I love to design and build levels for my own Doom. None of my content has been released. I am currently in the middle of creating an all 32 map wad. A lot of planning is still happening for future levels and it's very time consuming. I have already figured out the structures and puzzles for 4 new maps that I will be building soon.

I loved all of your Doom levels growing up!

I couldn't help noticing the Battletech game in the background. I LOVED those cards when I was a kid.

I am definitely fine with waiting 5 years for you to do more doom maps! You created some of my favorite levels!

Not sure if you remember me, but I was one of your students at SMU. Coincidentally, I happen to be playing through Doom currently - I tend to do that every few years since it's one of my all-time favorite games. Is Doom a perfect game? Perhaps not. But what often gets overlooked nowadays is the fact that when you were making Doom, there were hardly any existing templates or design principles on how to create fun and interesting maps in a 3D game - you and Romero essentially wrote the book on that as you went. Doom may have been one of many things you've done in your long and fruitful career, but it also laid the foundation for level designers of my generation. And for that, I appreciate you and your work on Doom, and I'm grateful for your time at Guildhall.

The uniqueness and experimentation of your levels has inspired me a lot. I don´t often make levels compared to mods but when i do I always try to put a new spin on it. Especially with all the modern capabilities of slopes, 3d floors, portals, gravity etc. That legacy alone, from you and everyone is more than enough.

Being a more or less recent doom mapper, I admire your work on doom1 and 2, that episode 2 and episode 3, e2m2, e2m6, mt ​​erebus, e1m8 and a very long etc. Your work as a role-playing game designer has captivated me and I love your lovecraft fanaticism, my favorite writer and one that I have great appreciation for. My doom maps are based on a dark and abstract style, taking inspiration from some aspects of your maps, it would be wonderful to see at least 1 map of damn SANDY PETERSEN! I'm sure that visually it could be something great, and in terms of atmosphere too, it could even have references to the priest of R'lyeh. There could be people collaborating with new textures and sprites, etc., seeing just 1 current map of yours would be great and a great milestone for us!

It's perfectly understandable that you have other responsibilities now. I think once you have more free time you should test the waters with a single map to gauge the response, John Romero also did a couple of one-off levels before going on to making Sigil. Speaking of Romero, I don't think you have to worry about competing with him, since your styles are so different. I'm one of those people who prefer Shores of Hell and Inferno to Knee Deep in Dead. You shouldn't worry about learning Doom Builder taking a lot of time, as it's probably easier to use than the original DoomEd.

Brb asking Romero for Daikatana 2. I think that a lot of the designs you were doing in classic Doom actually could make for an interesting package. The creativity and weird architecture, but applied to a limit removing port like GZDoom and built in modern tools could be spectacular. You’d also largely select for your own audience that way. IE someone buying Doom 2 or UD was just grabbing a variety pack, and maybe they prefer another designers work. If I’m downloading a Sandy-only map pack, I’ve gotta be into your style. Not sure this makes it necessarily worth it for you, though. I just want another big box to go next to Si6il in my Doom collection.

I would love it if you ever found the time and inspiration to make even one new doom map. Personally I would be happy if it was the kind of map you made back in the day. Doesn’t need to be extremely detailed just because a lot of modern maps are. Gameplay first always makes the most fun maps to play. Of course some people would disagree. I doubt learning Doom Builder would take long for you. Even I learned it fast and I’m no game designer. Not to mention it’s a lot of fun to learn and mess around with. With all the modern conveniences you didn’t have back in the day… visual mode, testing the map in a few seconds, all kinds of search functions, stair builders etc. I’d recommend Ultimate Doom Builder even when doing vanilla maps. Even if you never get to it. Your work will continue to be loved and inspire so many players and designers out there for a long long time. Thank you for all your work. Doom and Doom II are games I always come back to.

I would love to see new Doom levels from you..... When you actually have a desire to make them. I feel like the best video games are made when it's obvious that whoever made it really had a passion for what they were doing, and did it because they enjoyed it. I actually really enjoyed your levels in Doom, but I think you should wait to make new ones until you actually think you would enjoy it. And if that never happens then that's ok too. You've helped create some of the most influential video games of all time, and even if stopped working on any new projects tomorrow, you've still done more to influence the gaming landscape in your life than most people could even dream of doing. So thanks for all the great childhood memories from Doom, AoE, and probably a lot of other stuff I don't even realize you worked on!

Hey Sandy, your games made my childhood! Age of Empires 2 is my all time fav RTS, and to this day I am still a very active player. I've enjoyed all the other games in the Age franchise you've worked on as well. I would never want to play doom or quake without your maps, they are part of the experience, and those are also games I still actively play. The stuff you make is timeless!!!!! When my life settles down a bit I am going to dive into your tabletop RPG world as well. You are a master game designer and someone I find very inspiring, cheers to whatever project you decide to work on next, if its Doom maps ill be sure to try them out!

Just finished Masters of Doom for the third time! Thank you for all you have done/ continue to do Sandy!

I'll love to see a new map from you. The newer Doom map editors are quite fast to work with, they have advanced a lot since the 90's. Making a full wad like Sigil is gonna be a lot of work instead you could do a single map, maybe reusing some designs that didn't make it to the game.

Sandy, do whatever makes you happy. It will bring that same happiness to otheres.

I'm pretty sure the folks in the doom community would love a chance to collab with you. If its easier; do 9 maps on paper then contact decino or romero whos more connected with the community; and then they can in turn hand the maps over to some people to make a wad project out of it. Set your self limits on how long you take for each drawing and description? Would be interesting to see some ideas based on stuff your interested in currently :)

Do whatever you want, Sandy. You're AWESOME.

While I would LOVE to see more maps from you, I'd actually be more interested if you were to join forces with more prolific and contemporary makers to introduce new themes or enemies. Modern incarnations of the Doom engine can handle insanely complicated things compared to what you worked with, and I have no doubt that you'd be able to do all sorts of amazing things with it; however, the limits of what's possible with enemy AI have been just as improved on, yet that's the one area that doesn't seem to have been explored as fully, and I think you could come up with some incredible things to push the new capabilities to the extremes.

That's fine Mr. Petersen ! You have revolutionized Doom with your bold and awesome maps enough ! The Doom community follows your ideas to this day in creating new Megawads and we are grateful for that inspiration . You shouldn't do anything that could drain you or upset you.

I have two thoughts on this. 1) I'd love to see you make more doom maps, I'd also love to see you document and discuss the process (though I'd want to watch after I played) Tricks and traps is iconic doom, I get the feeling something else amazing would come from your work now on doom with far fewer limitations than back in the 90s. 2) if you and John are mates, what are the odds of a collab ? Is there anyone else from Id that'd be "keen" on joining in ? Also for the haters, I get it .. it's a gross feeling but in all things they're best ignored, these are people that have achieved so little in their own lives their only hope is to try and drag you into misery with them, they're best ignored.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Sandy. I'm big fan of your levels in both Doom and Quake and I would even go as far as to say that your lovecraftian influence on Quake is what gave the game its own soul as opposed to feeling like "another Doom". I'd play a new level for Quake or Doom from you in a heartbeat, but not at the cost of your current projects/company or even your Lovecraft analysis like you did with The Rats in the Walls. I will say if I had elder god like control on the future I would have you as a creative director for a Quake reboot if MS/ID decides to go forward with that.

i'D LOVE TO SEE YOU MAKE MORE DOOM LEVELS SANDY! Ignore those troll bastards, they have no talent or probably no social life.

We love Sandy's levels, and we love Sandy. Whenever you're ready to do them, and even if you're ever ready, you'll find a community that is eager to play them 🙂

know you mentioned it was a piece of history amidst other games, but I can tell you have a passion for it. I totally understand the time thing. You have to make it work for you and those that depend on you. And if it's not the right time, that's totally okay. All the best - good video!

I love you Sandy. I don't care what anyone says, you did your absolute best on your map designs and I love them greatly for what was available you guys back in the day. Thank you for everything! I wish I could map like you and Romero one day. . . True legends! 🥰

I want to go on the record for saying that I love "The Chasm" and think it is an underappreciated, memorable level.

I'll think you're cool regardless of what you decide, as will many others. Do whatever makes you happy at the time, I enjoyed your contributions to doom 1 and 2 very much.

E3M4 is one of my all time favorite locations in any video game I've played. I don't know about your contributions vs. Tom Hall's in E3M7, but it's also a favorite of mine. Its atmosphere is unbeatable! For what it's worth, I really loved SIGIL but I'm sure whatever new levels you designed would be a completely different experience from that, and I'm sure the world would love to see it! I know I would. I can only imagine what sort of maps you could make with today's tools.

to be honest, i would like to see you make anything for Doom, or Quake, especially Quake, seen as the idea of it's H.P.Lovecraft inspired design came from you. It would be interesting to see even just a glimpse of how you would have done it, also just having some new levels made by you with the technical improvements and limitation-removing Doombuilder, for Doom would be amazing, as more things could be done with the engine that you may have wanted to do initially, but couldn't with Doom's technical limitations.

Your work on The Shores of Hell was one of my all time greatest gaming experiences. I’d love to see a Shores of Hell style wad from you one day. Your work on Quake was sublime too

Really hope so. I really liked your levels back in the days Sandy. You made an awesome job completing spawning vats, and spirit world was my favorite doom 2 level when I was a kid.

Well, dont worries sandy, german peter already made a sandy like mals, even though its not you who made, they are pretty neat, i hope you do well in life, and merry Halloween

As others have said the tools are very easy to pick up and are pretty intuitive. Some of the easiest to learn editing software I've played around with. Even getting around some hard coded limitations is incredibly easy these days. I would love to see what you would do with what we have now, even if you just made a map or two. It's not something you should prioritize but if you ever have free time and want to dabble. Even your maps that I didn't care for as much I respected a lot for exploring new ideas. It's that kind of attitude that's stuck with a lot of the mapping community in no small part thanks to you and we all owe you a big thank you for showing us that we could all do more than just halls and rooms with monsters.

I don't think you "need" to make more levels for Doom, but I just want to say that I think many of your levels from the first two games were great and some of my favourites.

I've got the perfect idea for a Doom map: Slough of Despair, but make the map shaped like a middle finger for all the angry bitter trolls. Another idea: Do a livestream where you start learning the map editor and take donations for questions. I'd check in for that. Tricks and Traps, Barrels of Fun, The Pit, Mt. Erebus, and Halls of the Damned are killer maps. The Chasm is frustrating but so damn innovative with what was done with the Doom engine. Your imagination in Doom has left a lasting impact on people like me. Yes I'd love to see you create some new Doom and Quake maps, but I understand you have a business to run, family to see, and a map editor learning curve to overcome. I do agree though that the new Doom map editing programs are much more user friendly than the old dos based editors. I recommend you find a happy medium: Why not reconnect with some of the old Id crew? Chat with John Romero, Tom Hall, Bobby Prince, Adrian Carmack, ask who is interested in helping you create just ONE map as a test drive? Or hell, talk to Decino or any one from the Doomworld community. There's lots of people there who would be happy to help. Take your time, and see if you like dabbling in map development again. If not, then move on. Regardless of what happens, thank you for doing more BTS Doom content, and for showing your grandkids Doom. Cheers!

Do whatever you enjoy doing!

The truth is that you, Sandy, have your own style of mapping which is very unique, I for one know when playing through doom and doom 2 when I'm playing a Petersen map, I'd love to see what an older and wiser Sandy would come up with on his own spare time and not being rushed by deadlines and the fact that he has to do the majority of the game's maps on his own.

well, you should do whatever makes you happy, personally I would try to do 1 map, there's always ideas floating on our heads and maybe a map could land them

Thanks Sandy, for making my favorite Doom and Doom 2 maps. They happen to be the most fun maps for me in multiplayer coop, great times over the modem.

Tricks and Traps part 2 would be an easy one to start with. Everyone loves that

A 30th Anniversary of Doom (or Doom 2) collaboration with Romero would be a hit. For every Romero level; there's always been an equally impressive Sandy level. There is a style contrast & the level design reflected new changes in game-play that made Doom unique. I never truly felt as though I'd entered hell until I played "The Shores of Hell". (P.S. You had be near-genius while using the original design tools, the news suites are ridiculously fast to use & you'll find yourself limited by imagination rather than anything else)

Honestly would love to see a map pack exclusively inspired by Tricks and Traps, arguably my favorite Doom 2 map. Wouldn't have to be large either, just clever triggers and puzzles. I really enjoy every time I come back to the classic Doom games on a yearly basis, and have even started to come around with the City levels :) Wish you the best and good health in 2024

There’s also an immense ton of my childhood in ultimate doom episode two and three which is mostly again Sandy Peterson --was an excellent representation of a base partially taken over by hell and then probably one of the first representations of hell as not one static location but different places in episode three

I think you'll bring many people joy if you release even just a single level made by you. And if you feel joy in the process of making them, then i think it's totally worth it. That's the ultimate goal of any undertaking in my opinion, to be satisfied with what you do and share your good sentiments with others. I don't need fancy textures, professional soundtrack or custom WADS like John did to appreciate a new level, i just need to know the author really liked it, and hoped others did as well. Blessings for you and your family Sandy! :)

I think making a doom map is like making art, we all have our unique way to do it and we do art when we feel inspired so naturally it's fine to wait for that inspiration to ignite, I personally would love to play a Sandy Petersen doom map made in doombuilder, it's easy and fast to get into that program but once you get the hang of it, it does take time to work on them, so I hope it happens one day and I would definitely play and enjoy that work, also as any art piece, we should do it because that's what we feel, not really thinking about doing it better than someone else or if people will like it or not, but even in this case everyone would surely appreciate a work made with love by one of the legendary creators of the game itself.

Do you know, my favourite maps in Doom 1 and Doom 2 tended to be yours. That's not to say that there weren't also maps of yours that I thought could have maybe been done better, but in general I think your approach to creating interesting and unusual gameplay ideas even when that might have been at the expense of the visuals has aged better than most of the other designers. Maps like E2M6, E3M6, E3M7 in Doom 1 or The Courtyard and Monster Condo in Doom 2 are still highlights of those games for me, even with all the amazing fan-made wads that I've played -- and that's just picking out a few of your designs that I like. If you were to decide to go back in, at whatever time in the future, and build another episode, I would jump on that and devour it for sure. I would absolutely want to see how a lifetime of designing all sorts of games would influence your design for Doom and make it better. If you were to instead announce that, nope, you're never going back to Doom ever, I'd just find something else to play. Even just within Doom itself, there's no shortage of good content and more is always being made. Demanding more just because we happen to like the person who would be making it would be horrendously unfair and greedy of us. Not to mention, probably a little bit creepy. All that confusing mess of words is to say, if you're going to do it, don't do it because it's important to the rest of us. Do it if and when it matters to you, and you can be sure that we'll want to see it if that ever happens. Even if it's years from now. As a small-time musician who's just in it as a hobby, I can certainly say that when you have a personal creative project like this, you need to feel like you're doing it for yourself. If you haven't got that sense of fulfillment, then it's just thankless work for no reward, and it's not worth doing.

I'd love for you to make a return to Doom, Sandy, even if it's just a single map WAD that you worked on for several months in your spare time. You wouldn't even have to make it a commercial release. The Doom community alone would be thrilled for you to simply put together for fun and then shared it with us over on Doomworld. Even if we do have to wait 5 years for you to feel you have enough spare time, it would be met with much excitement, I promise you.

Sandy, if you make em, I'll play em. As a kid I thought your maps were super fun and I still like em today! If I see some new maps in 5 years, cool! If not, then I know you're chillin' in retirement with a big pair of sunglasses on the beach with a fruity coconut drink and a paper umbrella. Win/win

I always enjoyed the idiosyncrasies of your maps, and I think it would be neat to see how your design sensibilities may have changed over the years.

I'd really like to see at least one map from you made for modern source ports with none of the old technical limitations. The ultimate Sandy Petersen map.

This makes 100% sense.. plus good things are worth the wait if you decide to.

Well, for whatever is worth, I do like your levels Sandy and would love to see more. Cheers!

Who's up for Sandy and Romero pulling a Blues Brothers and getting the band back together for a new Doom episode?

Ah just got the end of the vid - -honestly as a long time fan I would MUCH rather you made some more Quake levels. I know the original designers don't really take a look at the modding community, but there are SO MANY excellent single player Quake maps that are made now, and lots and lots of different assets that have been created to help map makers. Not all are great - there's a lot that are fun and clearly don't have the full 'design' thoughts put into them that a full time level designer would do, but there are so many outstanding ones. Arcane Dimensions is the obvious one to look at first. ...and of course it would be AMAZING to see what you could do with all these new assets. I think episode 4 is the best of all the original episodes, and would love to see you do some more content.

Sandy I turned 30 this year, sure I grew up on Doom and id games but really they were kind of before my time. During COVID I bought a CRT monitor and put together an old Pentium system and got to work on completing Doom on Ultra Violence start to finish for the first time. I find myself consistently finishing a map, loving how impressive and immersive it was, and then hopping online to see who designed it. It’s almost always a Sandy Petersen map. Dude, I’d just love it if you released a new wad some day!

I would personally prefer some direct information on your thought process when making a level. Either in the form of level playthroughs with commentary or just a discussion of your general process. What informed your decision making process? How do you start when making a level? I'm a musician first and foremost but Ive dipped my toes into Doom mapping, and I have to have some sort of grand concept to start making a level, but when it comes down to moment to moment gameplay choices, I have no idea why I would want to make one choice or the other. Some perspective on that in the form of a video would be awesome in my opinion. Also I love your levels, anyone who loves Doom loves your contributions to that game, consciously or otherwise. You made the vast majority of the levels, so anyone who hates your levels but loves the game is just ignorant. Loving a game but hating the levels is like loving a book but hating the story.

As an aspiring game designer, your doom levels have been a great source of inspiration. You took the mechanics of a game that was very arcade-y and action oriented and managed to come up with unique, creative and surprising moments. I think that without you, doom would have felt a lot more repetitive. In my view, I wouldn't consider a map release by you as competition to John. Both of you have different strengths as designers, and I think the whole purpose is to celebrate doom, to gift something to the community. Even if it's just one or a few maps, I would be happy to play something made by you again. I'm really curious to see what your take would be on making a creative doom map with current limit-removing stuff.

1:29 brb asking John Romero to make more Daikatana maps

I'm fine if I don't see anymore maps from Peterson but his were always my favorite.

I'd play the heck out of a new Sandy map or episode. I can look beyond some of the simpler architecture in your levels because the gameplay is usually very inventive and has inspired myself and others to try and emulate that style. The recently released "into sandy's city" is a good example of this, and even my own Quake map "Sandy's Hollow" for the Episode 4 Jam (a collection of Sandy style maps) I am proud of tormenting the player. I'm not sure if there's a commercial case for making doom maps but personally speaking I did buy both Sigil boxes so who knows.

Favorite episode of Quake for me personally by far episode four designed entirely with the exception of the first level by Mr. Sandy Peterson. Extremely atmospheric and disorienting and with a consistent design theme and the palace of hate is probably one of my favorite levels of any classic video game of all time.

do whatever makes you happy creatively but i have to say your maps in doom 2 are awesome i couldn't figure out how to beat them when i was a little kid, but now they feel very interesting and creative. doom is a very abstract game these days compared to other shooters so the designs are appealing. doom is just an absurd painting you shoot demons in, not a game where you have to visit sensible locations based on the real world. you wielded the editor in ways most people don't and made some very memorable experiences because of it

If you made more maps, I'd play them for sure

It occurs to me also that something you can do is to *force* all levels in a set to be Pistol Start, either by the old fashioned death exit, or by using a feature from DSDA and Woof, where you just define every single level as having a forced Pistol Start. This would let you be way meaner to the player, because as long as they make it to the exit, they'll always have the same odds and chances on the next map, no matter how beat up and low on ammo they were on the last one.

So I'm just here to say I love your original maps. They are very enjoyable to play. So if you ever make more, I'll be more than happy to play them! However, if it turns out it's not something you feel like doing, don't feel pressured to do so

Sandy, today we have a editor called Ultimate Doom Builder and you can make made in it pretty quickly. You can copy textures with ctrl + c and ctrl + v in 3D mode. You can hit ctrl and click to highligh all block and then hit ctrl + v to put textures on it within a second. You can watch a couple of BridgeBurner's vids about how it works. You can check hotkeys in settings by yourself. Maps like yours should be possible to do within a couple of hours. You can do them in Limit Removing format, which means classic Doom without any Zdoom things, but also not any vanilla doom limits, like visplane limit and so on. Also, no need to make a huge project. You can make a small map first, put it on Doomworld and watch if people like it or not.

You do whatever you want to do. Outside pressure in a creative work almost always leads to some kind of compromise. In this case the compromise is that you can't work on board games while you make Doom levels. If you don't want to or feel it would be unwise don't, you ain't obligated to make anything for people until they pay money for it. Stay focused on what you want to do. Staying focused and innovative is saying no to a 1,000 good ideas as Steve Jobs said.

I think you should take a look at TrenchBroom, an awesome Quake-focused map editor with beginner-friendly tutorials on RU-vid. I love it because I can easily sculpt the map directly in the 3D viewport with a WSAD movement, and modern mods and engines like FTEQW or QuakeSpasm all allow things like fog settings in the BSP and larger maps through new protocols. I came back to Quake mapping as a hobby after my early attempts with Worldcraft shareware back in the late 90's, and now I'm refactoring a mod that collects a bunch of id, Hipnotic and various other mod features in a mapper-friendly manner. Proper game designers and developers are also part of the Quake mapping community, and I assume the same stands for the Doom modders as well, and they are all very friendly and supportive.

It would be a dream if both you and Romero got together to do a wad but I know this is asking too much considering all things that happen in real life. Regardless, just keep being you Sandy, I love your work.

Great vid, totally understandable reasons. You do you, Sandy. Also, Tricks & Traps is peak Doom 2.

Hello Mr. Petersen. I'm glad that you're even thinking about making new levels for Doom/Doom 2. It would certainly be nice as I'm a fan of your levels and even though you think they don't look as nice as they could, to me they look nice and are pretty memorable. Most importantly, they're blast to play. On the other hand I can imagine that it's been one of many chapters in your life and you're probably done with it. I tend to feel that way sometimes about some things in my life because it's easy to dwell on a nostalgia and not make progress in other areas that are arguably more important. Still, if you ever decide that you do a new level, I agree with others that making a level in Doom Builder is a breeze (for example, it can auto-align textures horizontally and vertically, which saves you hours of work). And I wouldn't bother making a level that looks stunning. There are a lot of very good looking levels which play badly. That shouldn't be a main focus. For me, the best thing is creating vanilla or perhaps limit-removing level which can be done quickly and is somehow relaxing as there's no pressure to make it super detailed. With this format however there is a question what can one do that hasn't been done in the previous 30 years? Probably not much. That's why it should be a way to relax. If I ever do another map, it'll be because I want to have some fun with it, not to satisfy others. But that's my take on it. Either way, thank you for your contributions in the world of video and board games. You did (and still do) wonderful work and I'm grateful for that.

I admire your dedication to not half-ass it. Thing about Sigil was not just about it being done by John Romero, but about him showing off what he can do with all that extra computing power and restriction-removing source ports. While making Doom levels is WAY easier and quicker than ever before it also means that they are expected to be more impressive than they used to be. The technical gap between WADs from decade or two ago and now is bigger than one in, say RPG modules from then and now, so learning curve would be a bit steeper. If you take few weeks in 2027 to do something fun, I would gladly play it, as Doom remains very playable game with vibrant community and you had great impact on it. But most of your reasoning is sound.

A bit late to the punch, but your Doom 2 maps are among my favorites, Suburbs especially. I'd genuinely love to see another bizarre, nonsensical, even Lovecraftian map by you, because I don't think many people are able to capture that style so well.

I think it's always best for someone to decide they want to work on something as big as a doom level , although I would say if your up to it I would appreciate it lots!

I was gonna say, make a counterpart for "SIGIL." But if you don't wanna, I would say, don't force yourself.

I understand where you’re coming from, and it was explained really well, so no one should hold this against you. Although, I have to say going back to something creatively that I haven’t explored for ages surprised me in my abilities and what I had come up with. I also don’t think people look at this as some kind of contest against Romero. We’re just curious what you would make. It’s like seeing a Super Mario Bros developer coming up with something new that could use on the NES today. It doesn’t matter whether it’s good or not. It’s fascinating to see something made by a pioneer on a platform they pioneered on.

I would say the middle ground approach is a John-Sandy map(s) collab. While John will probably be doing most of the map making, it'll be interesting to see your inputs in a modern day Doom map.

Here's an idea: you can lay out the main ideas, story, and locations for a Doom wad, and see what the community comes up with.

A moment of silence for how poorly Doom and Quake sold. As much as I would enjoy a new collection of Doom levels made by you, I'm already grateful to you - and I think many other Doom fans are too - for all the videos you dedicated to Doom. I recently watched Dwars and Decino's playthrough of Episode 2 with your commentary, and that video was simply wonderful. Hearing you talk about your work behind those levels was something I thoroughly enjoyed and would have never expected to hear until I discovered "Oh wow, Sandy Petersen has a YT channel!". Even more than playing some new levels made by you, people like me would like to express how much it meant to them stuff like the traps in Doom 2's map 8, the fake exit in e2m6, the depressing blue hallways in e2m4 and so on. So really, all these videos you made are already a nice gift. Of course, things like the missing e1m1 arouse curiosity, and it would be interesting to see more of your creativity applied to Doom. But then again, making maps for Doom is probably more of an hobby than anything else, and if you don't feel like you'd have a fun time, I don't think it would be worth it. And it wouldn't be that big of a deal honestly, it's already great that you went back to analyze your work and share your thoughts. Nonetheless, Doom mapping is a cute hobby, and if you feel inspired when you'll have some spare time, you may give It a go. You already proved it's not necessary to make a very complex level to make it great. Much love! P.S. If you'll ever go back to mapping, please let us have a remake of The Chasm with even more narrow ledge-walking!

honestly i totally get where youre coming from. yeah of course new sandy maps would be awesome (especially speaking as one of the few people that actually likes the chasm) but its definitely time consuming and everything. trolls suck. and if you do make new doom maps in five years that would be awesome. but im not expecting it, do whatever you enjoy man. btw the reply to the comment in the video was so funny omg

"So you're telling me there's a chance!"