Doom: The Dark Ages devs looked to everything from Star Wars to Batman Year One to shape the iconic shooter's next game

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"You follow the IP development rulebook that was created by a lot of great people"

Doom: The Dark Ages
(Image credit: Bethesda)

Id Software looked to the likes of Batman and Star Wars to help shape Doom: The Dark Ages into the game it is today.

In Edge's latest issue, studio director Marty Stratton explains that the beloved comic Batman Year One inspired an internal prototype called Slayer Year One. In addition to riffing on the tale's name, the project aimed to return to the character's roots.

The fantasy setting was already on the mind, too, and shaped by Star Wars creator George Lucas's body of work. A prominent faction in The Dark Ages' story, the Sentinels has been weaved into the fiction since Doom 2016 – a faction whose culture is defined as medieval.

"It’s interesting to go back and look at some of our early prototypes," Stratton says. "It’s amazing to see not only how far they’ve come but how the vision was so tangible."

“You follow the IP development rulebook that was created by a lot of great people, [such as] George Lucas,” he adds.

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.