In a surprising twist, two game developers have reimagined the first level of the classic 1993 video game Doom as an art gallery. Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone’s creation, titled Doom: The Gallery Experience, transforms the iconic E1M1 level into a virtual museum space. Players guide a glasses-wearing version of the game’s protagonist, Doomguy, through halls filled with fine art while classical music plays in the background.
Each artwork displayed in the game links to its corresponding page on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website. “In this experience, you will be able to walk around and appreciate some fine art while sipping some wine and enjoying the complimentary hors d’oeuvres,” the developers wrote on the game’s itch.io page. As players explore the gallery, they can gather money scattered throughout the environment to purchase items from the gift shop.
The game also features a “cheese meter” that fills up as players consume hors d’oeuvres found in the gallery, collected in a similar manner to health packs in the original Doom.
Reimagining Doom with an artistic twist
Meozzi, who works as an artist’s assistant in the art industry, drew from his real-world experiences in art galleries when creating the game.
He described the project as a parody of art gallery culture. “I’m fairly familiar with the process of gallery openings and sort of just the nightmare that is going to galleries and experiencing these high-brow, drinking wine, [saying] pompous phrases to each other [kinds of people],” Meozzi said. Unlike typical game mods, Doom: The Gallery Experience does not use the original Doom engine.
Instead, the developers spent seven hours studying various versions of the game to recreate its movement and interface design. The project began as a student assignment but evolved into a unique work of art in its own right. The game’s unusual juxtaposition of the intellectual art world with graphics typically associated with violence and brute force creates a delightful and thought-provoking experience.
Doom: The Gallery Experience runs in web browsers and is available to play for free on itch.io.
