Under development at id Software, DOOM will return a little later this month for gamers across the globe and a brand new gameplay trailer, showcasing the DOOM Marine blasting through hordes of demons, has been unveiled.
Environment art from the forthcoming shooter has also been revealed, with quotes from the designers themselves:
Ryan Watkins - Hell Vista
Visualizing something as abstract as Hell is very difficult; everyone and every culture has their own version of it. Here, Hell is a fractured world where pieces of other worlds and dimensions are torn apart to have their energy and souls absorbed, leaving behind only a hollow shell of a once great civilization. The color palette was based on the classic Hell theme of fire and brimstone.
Ryan Watkins - Mars Vista
This image was made to start exploring the Mars vista surrounding the UAC facilities. The idea was that the landscape has been decimated by time. Lakes and oceans have disappeared leaving behind layers of rock that have been sculpted and deformed by constant wind. The odd colors of the setting sun are to give the player a sense of unease and that something is not quite right with this world.
Colin Geller - Lazarus Exterior
This was an early pass on the facility that ultimately became Lazarus. In this instance, it was hidden in a volcanic crater. It would only become visible once you made your way over the crater's edge before entering the level. This was also an early pass on what the cleaner, scientific building style would look like from an exterior view.
Colin Geller - Lazarus Surgery
This was an early take on a room in Lazarus where you could find evidence of the UAC experimenting on an unfortunate Mancubus. In rooms like these, we would also see the early steps the UAC was taking to make cyber versions out of various demons. You can find a room similar to this in the final game, surgery bot included.
Colin Geller - Hell Bridge
This is a color and lighting pass over game geometry to establish the mood of Hell. Prior to this, a few early mood paintings were done with color palettes inspired by the work of ZdzisÅ'aw BeksiÅ"ski. This particular image was one of a dozen passes with subtle variations. The goal was to give the player an uncomfortable and unpleasant sense about the place. Unpleasant to the point you could almost smell the sulfur as you entered the level.
Colin Geller - Res Ops Exterior
This concept was to help establish the exterior architectural theme and lighting of Resource Ops. The idea here was to make the first view the player had upon entering this area a sweet vista and a view of their goal. In this case, their intended goal was the tower you can see through the V shaped support.
Emerson Tung - Hell (Necropolis)
This was an early exploration for the Necropolis, which was described to me as a cavernous ruin with a bottomless pit and precarious walkways, which were inspired by the precarious mountain paths of Tianmen Mountain. I added a giant demon skull as the centerpiece as a throwback to the Icon of Sin and it stuck all the way to the end of production.
Emerson Tung - Icon of Sin
It was really fun to redesign something that was so iconic (no pun intended) from DOOM II. We tried to keep as much of the spirit of the original, making it recognizable while putting our own spin on him. Here he lies dormant in the heart of the Necropolis, waiting for the opportune time to rise again.
Emerson Tung - Vortex
It was challenging to come up with a giant portal design that did not look like every other interdimensional giant portal in pop culture, but I think we ended up with one that felt pretty fresh.
Jon Lane - Argent Interior
This is an early concept for the interior of Argent Tower. The tower serves as one of the UAC's key experiments into interdimensional research and exploration.
Jon Lane - Lazarus
In our fiction, Lazarus thematically represents the intersection point between science and mysticism; the point where UAC scientists discover Hell and inevitably become corrupted by its influence. In terms of player progression, the architecture of Lazarus was originally designed as a vertical descent, progressively leading the player downwards towards the Hell portal at the base of the facility.
Jon Lane - Res Ops Enclosure
This is a narrow view into part of the larger Res Ops facility. Because we're making a game with elaborate sci-fi environments, every square-foot of space needs to be visually designed. We did hundreds of shots like these; a concept was made for nearly every room and hallway in the game.
Jon Lane - Res Ops
The look of Res Ops is partially influenced by modern oil rigs. We wanted to hint at the idea that the mining operation on Mars is huge; that there's a large network of these types of platforms, where the workers essentially work and live entirely subterranean lives.
Alex Palma - Lazarus
This is a sci-fi control room based in Lazarus. In this concept, I used some of my favorite sci-fi films as inspiration. It was the first sci-fi room I did and I very much enjoyed it.
Alex Palma - Bloodkeep 2
After doing some iteration on this level, a key word became apparent: "oppressive". With tilted pillars, blood and guts for ground cover, and some opaque atmosphere, it became very oppressive.
Alex Palma - Bloodkeep 3
This piece was also inspired by using some oppressive shapes. The goal for this was to create a tomb or temple inspired environment. With the red atmosphere and oppressive round pillars, it made this part of the level very recognizable.
DOOM is officially released on May 13.