The Pros of Using Old Tech
Unreal Engine and Unity may be the most popular engines for game developers today, but there are still some who try to go against the grain, such as Wax Heads using Godot. But Skin Deep is even more radical, as it’s a new game made using Id Tech 4 – more popularly referred to as the Doom 3 engine – which is now more than 20 years old.
Having traditionally made its engines open-source, this was the last open-source engine from id Software before it was bought by Bethesda, which still has a passionate community, although Skin Deep is a rare example of the old tech being used for a commercial release, the other being developer Blendo Games’ 2016 cyberpunk adventure game Quadilateral Cowboy.
"I’ve been using various iterations of the Id Tech engines since the late ’90s, so I’m just very comfortable with knowing the ins and outs of it," Blendo founder and creative director Brendon Chung tells me. "The Id Tech engines, generally speaking, are made just for first-person games and not really anything else. which I think is great. I think there’s something really nice about using a very small sharp tool that’s great for doing one thing really well."
The Beauty of Open Source
Whereas Epic and Unity continue iterating and updating their engines, which can come with its own issues of optimisation, the fact that the Doom 3 engine is so old means it’s solid and stable. The downside is that it lacks the accessible features and documentation of a modern engine, perhaps not a huge issue when you’re largely a solo developer with expertise on it already.
Fortunately, joining the team was Suzanne Will, responsible for the level and systems design, art, and programming, who at the time had been making maps in Half-Life, which uses Valve’s Source engine, itself based on a heavily modified version of the Quake engine. "The Source Engine and the Doom 3 engine are kind of both different offshoots of similar ancestral technology, so adjusting from one to the other wasn’t too bad," she explains.
The Challenges of Using Old Tech
As they’re making an immersive sim, it was also beneficial that one of the most significant mods made with id Tech 4’s open-source license was The Dark Mod, a fan-made take on the Thief games, one of the earliest examples of the genre. "A lot of our documentation and even some of our tools and code is thanks to The Dark Mod, which has a really good community," Will adds.
Skin Deep also makes use of id Tech 4’s unique features, such as its implementation of GUI where you can interact with a computer terminal and seamlessly move its cursor while reading an email. Aesthetically however, Skin Deep couldn’t be more different from the dark and gritty look of Doom 3, opting for something more colourful and stylised. This is after all a game where you are rescuing talking cuboid cats, while it also makes use of jump-cuts previously employed in Blendo’s short heist adventure Thirty Flights of Loving.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Skin Deep’s use of the Doom 3 engine shows that even old tech can be used to create something new and exciting. The game’s unique blend of immersive sim gameplay and stylised visuals is a testament to the creativity and expertise of the development team. As Chung concludes, "Our team has put a pretty wild amount of stuff in it to update it to the year 2025, so we’re secretly hoping that more people take this tech and make other cool stuff with it."
FAQs
Q: Why use an old engine like Doom 3?
A: The Doom 3 engine is solid and stable, and the team behind Skin Deep is comfortable with its functionality.
Q: What are the benefits of using an open-source engine?
A: The open-source license allows for community involvement and the sharing of knowledge and resources.
Q: How did the team adapt to using the Doom 3 engine?
A: Suzanne Will, who joined the team, had experience with the Source Engine and was able to adjust to using the Doom 3 engine.
Q: What are the challenges of using an old engine?
A: The engine may lack accessible features and documentation of a modern engine, and may require creative solutions to adapt to modern game development.
