Samsâra is a level design project using the “Doom Builder” software. I wanted to keep the classical “Doom” signature while adding a more subtle hindi touch, mostly inspired by Indian stepwells and traditional mandalas.
Indian stepwells, as the one above photographed by Weldon Kennedy, was a primary inspiration for Doom : Samsâra, which I like to think as a tribute for those wonders.
I wanted to work on an existing architectural reference to add more depth and richness to the project, but also to have the opportunity to learn more about those vanishing work of art that are centuries old.
The player incarnate a fighter going inside an tortuous sanctuary, now entirely corrupted. They need to beat zombies and monsters, find magical oppening-door skulls and survive trough a difficult boss-battle fight to enter the most sacred part of the sanctuary.
In addition of being architectural treasures, Indian stepwells’s stairs have an incredible aesthetic and gameplay potential in level design: they allow a certain type of verticality supported by a relatively rigid engine, have a labyrinthic touch and naturally highlights what’s at the center.
For this level, I filled the stepwell with low-resistance ennemies and have the opportunity for the player to get a gatling weapon. While shooting from a high-ground floor, the player needed to be carefull at fireballs thrown at them. Once the gatling is empty, the player needs to navigate through the stairs to finish off the last ennemies with a shotgun previously unlocked.
With the Indian stepwells inspiration, I wanted to add even more flavour to this level and decided to go for mandalas.
Mandalas of course have an aesthetic purpose but they also act as landmarks for the player to orient themselve in a complex architecture. Intitiating a language between the game and the player, they also indicate a certain level of intensity, every room with a mandala announcing a relatively tough fight ahead for the player.