I'm never getting any work done ever again, thanks to this website that lets me play thousands of user-made Doom levels in my browser

I didn't think it was possible for Doom to become more accessible than it already is. Id Software's omnipresent FPS is playable on every device imaginable, from pianos to printers to even gut bacteria, while Nightdive released a delicious double-barrelled overhaul of Doom + Doom 2 last year, which exists on top of the fact that you can play vanilla Doom in your browser.

But it turns out I was wrong, terribly wrong, as an entire subculture of Doom modding has just been excavated in a way that might spell actual doom for my career. DoomScroll is a new website that lets users scroll through and play thousands (and I mean thousands) of user-made Doom WADs right in your browser.

DoomScroll is the creation of software engineer James Baicoianu and Internet archivist Jason Scott, who have developed it over several years and released it to celebrate Doom's 32^nd birthday: "Our goal was to make decades of work from one of the most creative communities in gaming history more accessible and visible to everyone," Baicoianu explained in a Bluesky thread. "The community has built so much over the years, and there's no question that Doom has had a lasting influence on the game industry as we know it today."

Baicoianu points out that the DoomScroll archive includes everything from "simplistic maps made by kids just learning how game development works" to "full total conversions with all-new music, textures, and sprites". Presented against a vast wall of Doom sprites and bloody industrial textures, each level is summarised in a small grey box featuring its name, author, description, and a spinning wireframe view of the map.

Clicking on the box brings up a more detailed overview of the WAD displayed on a virtual laptop, with the wireframe overviews now spinning near the bottom of the page. Clicking on these will bring up an interactive automap, with a menu running across the top of the laptop from which you can select to play the WAD. After a few moments, the site launches you into your chosen Doom map from pistol start.

Every year another Doom birthday rolls by and reminds me of the same thing:I never actually launched the project I started five years ago with @textfiles.com Today, I finally fix that.

— @bai.dev (@bai.dev.bsky.social) 2025-12-11T14:33:54.985Z

I tested several maps, all of which worked out of the gate with now-standard Doom KB+M controls. I then very quickly had to stop playing because, good grief, I can see myself losing entire workdays to this. Turns out that Christmas coming early causes you all sorts of organisational problems.

While DoomScroll is brilliant, it isn't perfect. Responding to Jason Scott's own post revealing the project, Doom modder and YouTuber Major Arlene states, "some maps won't work" through DoomScroll due to the "limitations" of the emulator. I tested the WAD Major Arlene mentions (named Army of Darkness), and for me, it wouldn't load at all, simply presenting me with a black screen.

Major Arlene also points out that "not everyone gives permission for their projects to be redistributed outside of where they're originally uploaded". The Doom mapping community has apparently encountered "a lot of problems" with incomplete and improper sourcing of WADS, and DoomScroll currently offers no way for users to check this.

Even so, Major Arlene is enthusiastic about DoomScroll, stating that it is "a fantastic idea". Indeed, even with the teething problems Major Arlene highlights, it's a fantastic way to explore Doom's long history of community creations.

Short of any other wildly ambitious, last-minute surprises, DoomScroll wraps up what has been a fascinating year for the shooter series. This year, of course, brought us Doom: The Dark Ages, another fascinating take on Doom by id Software, which recently received a rework to its wave-based Ripatorium. The Doom modding community also proclaimed the death of popular sourceport GZDoom, as its contributors departed en masse after tensions with its creator came to a head.

Elsewhere, Doom co-creator John Romero is still working on a new FPS, despite his studio having its main project cancelled by Microsoft earlier this year. Fortunately, Romero Games survived the cancellation and salvaged much of that work, transposing it into a new, smaller indie FPS that Romero says "will be new to people the way that going through Elden Ring was a really new experience".