What is Killing Floor?

“Killing Floor is a first person shooter, allowing each player to move through a 3D environment. Gameplay consists of a single game type, in which the player fights waves of zombie-like specimens, with each wave becoming successively more difficult, until it concludes with a battle against a "boss" specimen, called the Patriarch. Players are encouraged to work together; they can trade items and drop money, healing is more effective on other players than on oneself, and the team can strategically weld doors shut to provide a temporary barrier from the oncoming horde while funneling the other creatures to specific areas. The player does not need to play with that perk to raise its level; for example, the Field Medic perk requires the player to heal a number of points to level up, but this can also be done while playing any of the other perks. Players that die during a wave will drop their current weapon and re-enter the game at the start of the next wave, as long as at least one squad member survives. If the entire squad is wiped out, they will have to restart the game from the first round.” - Wiki

The Challenge

In the summer of 2009, Tripwire Interactive was hosting the “Grind House Mapping Contest” for their newest game Killing Floor. Being an experienced 3D modeler and hobbyist level designer, I thought I’d throw my hat into the ring with a map of my own. In 2009, a sequel, or reboot, of the classic Doom game series wasn’t even a twinkle in a developer’s eye. I saw a great opportunity to hearken back to the classic era of First Person Shooter (FPS) games with this, at the time, modern twist on FPS mechanics. One of the unique challenges of this build, for those of you not acquainted with video game design, was having to rebuild, test, and optimize the level layout to work with Unreal Engine and still have it look and feel like the classic E1M1 level from the original Doom. Killing Floor is a very different game than Doom. Instead of playing alone and shooting your way to the end of the level, Killing Floor is an “Arena” shooter that spawns wave after wave of increasingly more difficult monsters and the only weapons at your disposal are purchased with in-game money between rounds. Built for a six-player co-op, I spent a total of 132 hours building, testing, and evangelizing my map “KF-DOOMed”. In the end, I placed in the top twenty in the contest and the map has been enjoyed by thousands of players. As of 2020, the map is still playable and is ready for you to download from the Steam Workshop. NOTE: You must own Killing Floor 1 to play it.

Plot

Contact with this research base was lost sixteen hours ago. Your team is to infiltrate the facility and look for survivors. Tread lightly... NOTE: This map was heavily inspired by E1M1 from the original DOOM. It has been heavily modified in its design and game play. Added e1m1 music track from Doom: Last Man Standing MOD a Doom1 Remake for Doom3 - Steam Workshop

Game Play Trailer

I edited together this super cut of the level to inaugurate its debut.

A Side By Side Comparison

Killing Floor and the KF-DOOMed community

I still think of the hours spent building this map fondly, and am heartened to see the map so well accepted and loved by the original Killing Floor community. Ironically, the creation of this map predates the Steam Workshop and consequently is still found on map making websites like ModDB. The following are a series of fan made game play videos I found on YouTube.

WARNING: Language may not be safe for work.