When Doom launches next year it will not support modding beyond the tools offered by SnapMap, Bethesda's Pete Hines has confirmed. SnapMap is the level editor that will launch with Doom in early 2016, and while id Software hasn't outlined the full extent to which the game can be customised with the tools, Hines highlighted some of its strengths and limitations in an interview with GameTrailers.
”Everything that we’re doing on the mod side will be through SnapMap,” Hines said when asked about modding tools in addition to SnapMap.
"I used the analogy the other day [of] Minecraft. If you just pull any 12 year old and sit them in front of Minecraft, if they don’t know what they’re doing they could still make something: they can make a smiley face or build themselves a house. But if you put it in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, they can recreate Zelda in Minecraft.
"The SnapMap tools are much the same. Give it to anybody and they can do simple stuff, but the complex stuff – all those things that used to be super-complicated – the idea is that there's enough complexity and depth there that you can do all this scripting stuff, and make new gameplay modes. It’s got this really steep high end, but you don’t have to jump right to it like you do with the [previous] Doom tools."
Still, SnapMap won't be as flexible as previous Doom modding tools or even Minecraft, with the editor seemingly incapable of recreating outdoor environments. When asked whether it would be possible to make Doom 4 through SnapMap, Hines said: "I don’t want to say yes for sure because of some of the outdoor stuff we do and how that works, this is more an interior thing."
When asked if it would be possible to recreate, say, Duke Nukem 3D levels, Hines elaborated.
"Some of the stuff [we showed at] E3 with the Foundry, where you’ve got these massive open spaces, SnapMap isn’t something that’s saying 'here, build this cavernous interior space'," Hines said. "It’s more about the stuff you saw in multiplayer – it’s tighter. You’re not worried about building an interior space that’s 30 stories high and half a mile across."
While SnapMap's UI on PC will be different to the Xbox One and PS4 versions, the functionality will remain the same. Users can share content cross-platform via Bethesda.net, though as expected, cross-platform play will not be supported. The full interview is worth watching if you want more details on SnapMap's toolset.
Doom launches in early 2016. Here are Ian's hands-on impressions of the game.
