“I've had a lot of experience in these galleries and it's always felt like this vague kind of superficial hell to me,” said Filippo Meozzi, director and producer Doom: The Gallery Experiencetelling me
“I work in the art industry as an artist's assistant, I do sculptures and other things like that. So, I am very familiar with the process of opening galleries and the kind of nightmare that is going to Galleries and experiencing the highbrow expressions, drinking wine, ( saying) to each other (kind of people).
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So, when he got the chance to recreate that kind of environment there Software IDand a shooter in 1993 for a school project, he decided to do that.
“The idea I thought (was) Doom, you know, you go to hell and you kill demons and as part of going to a gallery opening you fight nightmares all these demonic people blowing smoke up. end,” explained Meozzi.
“I approached Liam (Stone, Doom: The Gallery Experience programmer and artist) – we've been doing things together for the last few years. We did a game about six months ago for a game game and that was fairly successful as well, we have a very good working relationship. So, he was my other half in terms of making sure that this vision came to light and that the project was able to be in a state that we were all happy with, especially from a technical.”
The pair got to work and “built the entire level of E1M1 from the ground up”, with the goal of making the game playable through a browser so that it was accessible and easy to deploy to people. “We were going with the engine of whatever we ended up doing and that became a very (early) Doom,” Stone recalls. “I think it was necessary to find some kind of online implementation of Doom to mod, because a lot of us, you know, you click on pictures and you open links. We needed something that we could report on quickly and have everything we need immediately.”
While he recognizes that the wealth of Doom mods – including such as Thatcher database – has proven to be “a very fertile infrastructure for development,” Meozzi says the couple still saw the creation of The Gallery Experience as “kind of a challenge”.
“Adapting that to a platform that's never been done in terms of (game-making software) Construct 3” is the big one for them, but the director definitely believes they “sent the vibe and the feeling” they were going.
The gallery you walk around in the game isn't designed to be a direct reflection of one specific place in the world, instead, Meozzi says it's designed to be a gallery of sorts. “Really, any gallery you go to always has the same layout, wooden or concrete floors, white walls, gray ceiling,” he explains, “They're always painted the same . They always feel the same. They are always square, boxy, night-lit, whatever their art.”
So, both got to decorate. “We took the layout of the map and painted the walls white, gave it a nice new floor, brand new ceilings, and moved some of the furniture around a bit to transform the space. ” Meozzi explains, saying that he is proud of how they were able to capture the “oppressive feeling that the galleries make you”.
One thing the pair have stuck with since Doom – after being “a little divided” on whether to do so – is introducing a few secret areas for the player to discover. Two of these are in the same locations as they were in the original game, with Stone explaining that having originally left the courtyard open, the developers thought it would help the player do some work to get into those areas TGE attractive to these people. which exist more for silly Doom remakes than necessarily art.
Spoiler alert: one of the areas you'll find contains beer and it's the hideout of a strange character called Galaktor. I ask the devs who this weird drink-gifting fella is with his own region (and his own cold brews), and they reply with a fake smile. “Galaktor has been kind of a mascot for us for the past few years,” Meozzi reveals. “We've incorporated it into most of the projects we've done in one form or another … it's like an Easter egg for each other.” Why does he have beer? Well, because you sometimes get it at gallery openings, but it's not as common as wine. Of course. It seems that is why it is hidden by Mr. Galaktor.
Getting back to art itself, it all comes from one place – New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art – which had a free open collection of exhibition photos that the couple could use, linking to pages of the museum's website to allow players to learn more about the painting or sculpture they are exploring with one click.
As for the layout of the gallery, Meozzi says the two knew what they wanted to include in each piece and what “kinds of styles and periods they wanted to touch on” and “found a number of things which we thought was very attractive and it wasn't. You really know a lot about them.” One of these is an Ancient Egyptian Toilet Jar, which you can get a copy of from the Doom: TGE gift shop. After buying it while playing, I can definitely recommend it as a purchase.
Additionally, Meozzi says that his favorite piece of art included in Doom: TGE is that statue of Diana in the courtyard, and Stone is a big fan of the sculptures. Colored in the Egyptian section.
I ask the pair what – if any – of the art on display they think Doomguy himself would bite at most, or if they think he is just there for the free snacks. Referring to the religious elements of the Doom games, Meozzi selects the pictures of a madonna and her child returning from a hunt in the Renaissance section. “I feel like he gets this kind of spirit formation (from) the relationship with holy images,” he says, “As that resonates with him, I think that would be the most exciting part for him to bring back with him to. his journey to hell.”
As for what the developers of Doom: The Gallery Experience are getting from the experience that their game is getting a surprising amount of traction compared to their expectations, there is plenty. First, Meozzi says that the pair “appreciate the support from everyone, in terms of just seeing it as paradise, seeing it as such a tight image of the first experience that was in the field we were going to”.
He says it is “always good to encourage people to experience art”. “Most major cities around the world have a museum. Whether it's a ticket or not, whether you're a student, you can find ways to go and access it. I think it's an important part of knowing how things develop to be able to see what people do in a very artistic sense. One of the main things was that I think video games are an art form and not many people in the art fields think that either, but I think it's important to be seeing almost everything that anyone can do as a form of artistic contribution. to the world.”
Meozzi and Stone definitely plan to continue making games together as part of their contribution to the world, with this experience giving them a bit of a boost, though the pair told me they might that they have continued to do so regardless, with Stone adding. that their future projects will likely have “a similar sense of weirdness” to them.
They would also be open – in the hypothetical situation that the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York was going to reach out and give them the opportunity – to create a physical, real version of Doom: the TGE gallery. “I think that's the biggest full circle for the thinking kid that this is,” Meozzi says.
“To make this ironic experience a real experience, and it would just become super meta, hyper absurd – I don't even know how to put words to that.” It would be just weird and it would be great. “
