Rare unused monster in Doom 3 files.

Hi, I want to share with you my finding and my attempts to bring it to life.


First of all, maybe some of you knew about this interview with Kenneth Scott, art director of Doom 3: http://pixologic.com/interview/artist/archive/kenneth-scott

In there you can see a bit of his great work, and among them, this beast:

In Doom Wikia this thing appears as an unfinished model cut from the game. Searching through the vast game files (as I usually do in my lonely nights) I stumbled with a complete set of textures for an apparently non existing model file, and long story short, I managed to find the corresponding mesh.

To my surprise, it was that monster from the image, and I couldn't help myself, I needed to rig the hell out of that mesh and see it in motion:
Currently I'm animating all what is needed and trying to put it in the game to make it an actual enemy. So far I'm learning upon the process but things are going well so far I guess:
As you can see, the guy is quite bulky, and is a bit taller than a Hellknight. I think this could be some kind of brute lumbering demon, basic in behaviour (right now it has the AI of a zombie) and with a lot of health.

Anyways, I'm happy to take this thing into the light, I think Kenneth Scott is a very good artist and did a very good job with Doom 3, is a pity that this piece of work was buried in the game files like this for so many years and never used.

That looks like an Early version of a Doom 3 ROE Boss Model .

It looks kinda like Shambler from Quake a bit. I think it was going to be some variant of Hell Knight or something.

Interesting find...

Arl said:

Spoiler

http://giant.pourri.ch/id/Kenneth%20Scott/abandonedqy9.jpg

That kind of reminds me of the Regi Pokemon such as http://pldh.net/media/dreamworld/379.png

Wow, this is really cool! And it could be a great addition to the bestiary as a slow but powerful melee monster. High hit points and a slam attack like the Mancubus. Maybe coupled with a floor shockwave attack like from that Guardian from RoE.

I remember seeing this guy before, untextured. It actually resembles the Guardian in a lot of ways.

This is really cool, I hope you succeed in your mission.

As for the monster itself, I feel it's still too slow other than very specific moments where it feels nearly scripted. Like a very narrow Hallway and it's forcing you back while you having nothing but basic weapons blasting. Also the design seems very original Quake instead of Doom.

Based on the copyright date on the image, it would have been early in the game's development. The Vulgar and Bruiser from ROE were monsters cut from the main game (the Vulgar was the original mesh used for the Arch-Vile and the Bruiser with the screen coming out of the head was going to be introduced in a scare sequence where you'd walk up to a computer terminal and the monster would reveal itself.) Mr. Spikey here may have been a boss at some point based on the size.

Commendable work, but it's a reminder that D3's character designs often lacked personality.

It was mainly the random NPC's which lacked character and they all had very generic looking heads and faces.

I'd say put a mouth full of bloodstained teeth on there, give it some demon horns, and glowing red eyes and make it look like a threatening demon. Use the unused monster to your advantage, make the dream demon you've always wanted to make.... =)

But hey that's just me. =P

Avoozl said:

It was mainly the random NPC's which lacked character and they all had very generic looking heads and faces.

I know it's subjective and all, but I would argue that D3's imps, revenants and archviles are the most uninspired of the entire series...

For those who said it could be a powerful melee demon, I was thinking the same. Not only because of how it looks, but also because it's the most accessible thing for me to do right now since I'm completely new in making a new enemy.

That's why I decided to just make him go after you and try to punch you, having a lot of health and a lot of melee damage, is the most basic behavior to do.

So far I'm learning slowly but reaching new horizons, right now I've discovered how to make an 'articulated figure' for him (AF or Ragdoll) and I'm working on that:

-

DoomzRules said:

I'd say put a mouth full of bloodstained teeth on there, give it some demon horns, and glowing red eyes and make it look like a threatening demon. Use the unused monster to your advantage, make the dream demon you've always wanted to make.... =)

But hey that's just me. =P

I'm going to leave his appearance intact since this is a restoration of cut content to me. But, with what I'm learning, I'll be able to make my own critters.

Arl said:

For those who said it could be a powerful melee demon, I was thinking the same. Not only because of how it looks, but also because it's the most accessible thing for me to do right now since I'm completely new in making a new enemy.

That's why I decided to just make him go after you and try to punch you, having a lot of health and a lot of melee damage, is the most basic behavior to do.

So far I'm learning slowly but reaching new horizons, right now I've discovered how to make an 'articulated figure' for him (AF or Ragdoll) and I'm working on that:

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/aSx27jG.png

http://i.imgur.com/W3KZqkw.png

-

I'm going to leave his appearance intact since this is a restoration of cut content to me. But, with what I'm learning, I'll be able to make my own critters.

=) Hopefully you'll be able to make some more demonic looking critters... see Diablo 1 and 2 for a good healthy source of demonic looking critters. =)

DoomzRules said:

I'd say put a mouth full of bloodstained teeth on there, give it some demon horns, and glowing red eyes and make it look like a threatening demon.

All that comes to mind when I read that description is pure cheese.

With the current in-game texture, it kinda looks like a sharkman. Especially on that picture:

Jaxxoon R said:

http://i.imgur.com/ldcLAlI.jpg
All that comes to mind when I read that description is pure cheese.

Yes. Exactly! =D

Well, the bloodstained teeth was supposed to be like a homage to the Shambler...

The demon horns? Well I was thinking of making it look demonic. =P

Red eyes? Well... giant red eyes staring at you is pretty creepy IMHO. =3

No face at all is creepier than giant red goggly eyes...

Kenneth Scotts design is cool and fits right into the Doom 3 bestiary, it shouldn't be changed.

Makes me think of a Golem with the shape of the upper body.

lol that thing is not scariest in the slightest. It looks like a depressed fish with maces for hands.

Are you implying Fish have hands?

Tetzlaff said:

No face at all is creepier than giant red goggly eyes...

Kenneth Scotts design is cool and fits right into the Doom 3 bestiary, it shouldn't be changed.

No what I mean is bright red eyes staring at you cold like the Imp from the original Doom, combined with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and demon horns on it....

It'd look cool that's all. =P

Fit right into the Doom 3 bestiary? Looks more like a Quake 1 reject IMHO.

Like a rejected deformed Shambler that got fucked up because the mom was smoking crack or somethin'.

Anyway, Doom 3 needs more demonic looking enemies.... but maybe that's just a little complaint I have eh?

After a big amount of trial and error I've finally made Inverse Kinematics work with this monster, now the legs will bend appropriately if a foot is at a different height than the other in order to adapt both pose and animations. This is especially good if the monster is walking over some steps or any uneven surfaces.

This looks hilarious to be honest. Arl is displaying his talents as usual, but for some reason I don't wish to see this as an enemy in game. Just my opinion.

I think it is obvious that this model wasn't completed regardless, I don't think any developer in their right mind would actually use it as is. The model kind of looks like a Shambler from Quake.

Even the high-poly version looks unfinished as it's kind of a blobby humanoid with some spikes almost like someone in a mascot suit.

I kinda like it; most Doom 3 monsters were pretty goofy anyway.

Lol, I hardly see it as being around the same tier of goofiness, if anything it's much much higher with this unused model.

Am I the only one who thinks he looks friendly?

Btw, nice work Arl.