A couple of posts back, I mentioned some important news about Doom, which is worth repeating here: the completed maps from The Ninth Gate are going to be released individually... well, wait, that's not exactly right, as one of them is out already!

The Ninth Gate was an intended replacement for all nine levels for Episode 4 of The Ultimate Doom, with maps contributed by Pablo Dictter, Tobias Münch, Damian Lee, myself and my brother, and testing by Joel Murdoch.  The project was started in early 2001, but remained incomplete.  8 out of 9 levels were finished, but then due to everyone being busy with "real life", it was obvious that the project was never going to be finished.  Therefore, it was decided to release the completed levels individually, rather than let the work we did go to waste.  So, these levels are going to finally see the light of day.

Varun's contribution to the project was the seventh level, E4M7, then titled "The Gate to Hell".  He started making the level in 2001 and completed it sometime in 2003, and there were tweaks done to it after that as well.  This also happens to be the first map from the project that is being released now, and it has an all-new, Lovecraftian-sounding title, The Outer Darkness!

It's a little difficult for me to be completely objective about this map, as I've seen it being created from scratch till its present, completed state.  Still, it is a great level for several reasons —

• The visual design is absolutely professional, a consistent, moody atmosphere throughout, with a high level of detail and great architecture.  There are some key moments in the level which are intended to grab the player's attention and make them go "wow", and it's amazing that he did all this with a rather primitive editor, DoomCAD.
• Gameplay is tough, but fair.  The level itself is quite straightforward and there are no confusions.  This is one aspect of the level that he has refined quite a bit (early on, the lava in the map used to hurt, and there was a different route which you followed to complete the level).
• The overall attention to detail, architecture and polishing that was done has been an inspiration to me.  Varun takes time and has not released a large number of maps, but every one of his releases is a quality work, and that's something I admire (I was checking out his first release, The Anomaly Part II yesterday, and it still holds up well).

Well, enough talk, the following page is where you will be able to see more pictures from the level, and actually download it: The Outer Darkness!

Let's not forget that I contributed maps to The Ninth Gate too, and I actually have three of them that I will be releasing over time.

I made a map for the E4M1 slot in 2001, but then that was way too dated and didn't match up to the quality of the rest, so in 2003 I made a new E4M1, and I am very proud of that one (first screenshot above).  Then, I also did the intended E4M3 in the project which was created from 2002-03 (second screenshot above).  This one is a considerably larger map and it needs a bit of refinement before it can be released.  For the discarded E4M1, I thought I would add a bit of detail and all to it, and then release it, along with the unaltered, original version as an "extra".  Now if I could only get a few days off from work to do all this...