Explaining Doom mapping for other people

[BetelgeuseSupergiant]

So, few days ago i wondered: how to explain doom mapping for that people, who has not played Doom?

When i was talking about hobbies, i tried to tell about mapping, but faced with one problem: i can't compare it with something more understandable

And so.. how do you can describe Doom mapping for a person, who knows not so much about Doom?

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

You know doom, right? You're a space marine, shooting demons. Well, I make the areas for you to shoot them in. I can make barren wastelands, hills and valleys, scifi research centrers, and hellscapes where they came from. But not just that, I also make the story of what you as the player go through. Goals and obstacles in the path of the goals. It's like I'm an architect or a painter of the environment but also a storyteller, leading you through the environment. You can feel like a god, massacring demons left and right, or you can feel like you're just barely scraping by and the hordes just keep coming.

The game is like a box of legos - you got the weapons and enemies and stuff, and mapping/level design is building stuff with those pieces. That's how I think about it.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Sneezy McGlassFace

[Klear]

Do they know what video games are? If so, just tell them you make extra content for one really good one.

 

If not, it might not be worth getting into any kind of explanation.

[Shepardus]

I wasn't aware that creative activities needed explaining.

[Roofi]

 

I asked ChatGPT

[Major Arlene]

at my last job, one of my closest coworkers was a woman in her 60s and had no understanding about video games whatsoever, but she knew that my mapping projects were one of my favorite hobbies and asked me about them a lot. I pulled up a 2-D view of E1M1, told her the lines represented rooms that would eventually represent 3D spaces, showing her a screenshot of a corresponding room in the map. then I told her that's what I did, and she seemed to get it :D

[joepallai]

"So you're a programmer?" was the best response I'd get from non-computer people when trying to explain Doom editing.   

[Ar_e_en]

It's like 3D level design for people who are afraid of the 3rd dimension!

[dasho]

If someone doesn't know what either Doom or the concept of levels in a video game are, I probably wouldn't be trying to explain any of this to them.

[slugger]

I would just tell people I build tiny furniture for dollhouses. It's not really a lie.