See 'Recursive'

About two weeks ago, I was browsing through the games on my computer and came across my old DOOM-engine games (DOOM, DOOM II, Heretic) and got into playing a few levels for old times' sake. It triggered my memories of years ago (early 2000s) when I tried creating my own custom levels for DOOM, and it renewed my interest in creating custom levels.

At first, I had trouble tracking down the utility I had used all those years ago (DEU, a DOS-based level editor), and when I did, I couldn't make it run with my modern OS because it was built with a computer architecture that existed 15 years ago. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make custom levels on this computer, until about a week ago I discovered a tool called Doom Builder that would run on modern Windows OS's and allow me to make levels.

The interface was slightly different than what I was used to with DEU, but after toying around with it and creating a few practice "levels" I got the idea to re-create a custom level I had made years ago, but with a modern twist, incorporating features that didn't exist in DEU (e.g. curved surfaces, thanks to a built-in batch process). The original level was simply called "Loop," but I decided that "See 'Recursive'" would be a more creative title. (It's a reference to an old joke: "If you look in the dictionary under 'recursive,' it says 'see "recursive."'" It's a play on the meaning of "recursive," something that refers or calls back to itself, and is a reference to some particular features of this level, which you'll just have to play and discover yourself.)

This level isn't very large, but it's compact. I like making puzzles out of levels and it may take you a while to find that stubborn red key to finish the level, but you'll find it if you just pay close attention to the setting. In terms of items, the level is self-sufficient, i.e. it is possible to kill all the monsters at the highest difficulty level using only the weapons and ammo scattered throughout the level (though some of it might be in secret areas). The level also relies heavily on transporters, and there are plenty of map features that remain hidden from the map, including the entire first portion of the level, so you'll be poking around blindly there.

I specifically picked the level E2M5 (episode 2, level 5) to replace because it normally has a normal exit and a secret exit to the episode's secret level. This means that this level also has a normal exit and secret exit, which is difficult to find but not impossible. If you find the secret exit and head to the secret level, you'll find a little easter egg waiting for you there.

To play this custom level, you need a DOOM engine and the IWAD for the original DOOM game (not the shareware version). Download this ZIP file and extract the WAD file into the same folder as the DOOM engine executable, or wherever you store your patch WAD files. Refer to the help file of your DOOM engine for how to apply a patch WAD to the game.

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Editor: Doom Builder 2.0

Build time: approx. 10 hours for all custom work

Levels replaced: E2M5, E2M9

Level tested (and screenshots taken) with Doom Legacy 1.42 in OpenGL mode