Unfortunately, it seems Doom won’t be as friendly for modders as we thought it would be. Ironically, it will be because of SnapMap.
In a livestream today, Bethesda revealed that the PC version will not have any more modding tools beyond SnapMap. Don’t expect the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions to fare any better either.
To put in perspective why this is not great news, consider SnapMap’s limitations. It won’t allow you to create outdoor spaces, nor will you be able to create large open spaces. Really, you will only be able to build smaller interior rooms.
Now, in SnapMap’s defense, Bethesda shared this argument that the feature is meant to be accessible:
The base Snapmap doesn't but I actually want to make this point. Snapmap is our approach to making everybody have the ability to mod "in some fashion" it doesn't in our mind replace our desire to make our tools and technology available like we always have to real programmers.
Now I will say, if you've done that, if you've been a modmaker I highly encourage you to try Snapmap too because just the fuctionality in there is really cool. My favorite part about Snapmap is that everybody has all the data so is you've been a modmaker or somebody who makes levels or texture packs to have somebody play your stuff requires you to upload it and to download it and things like Steam Workshop have made that easier but with Snapmap literally everyone has everything and the only data that passes between clients is a little instruction file.
The depth of the stuff you can make is going to blow you away. We had a guy in QA that made a piano. So I highly encourage everyone to try Snapmap but fear not, making our stuff available to you is near and dear to our hearts so it certainly isn't a replacement.
Do you feel Bethesda made a compelling argument for Doom SnapMap? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
Doom will be released on Spring 2016 on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
