John Romero has revealed the release details for Sigil 2.
As shared by pagb666 on Twitter, Romero has dropped the release date of December 10, 2023 for Sigil 2. While Sigil was built as a Doom WAD, Sigil 2 will be a Doom 2 WAD.
For those who are unaware, WAD is an acronym meaning “Where’s All the Data?” id Software created the WAD format, as the file format they would use to store their package files.
So, for Doom, and Doom II, the WAD was the part of these games which actually had all the pictures, sounds, audio, map, etc.
After Doom became hugely popular, fans as well as other developers started making their own WAD files to make their own games on the Doom engine.
If you needed this explanation, you would probably also be surprised to learn that id’s developers did not clamp down the banhammer on these fans making their own WADs. They did license the Doom engine to some developers, but they also looked around the fan creations and actually hired some fans based on how good their work was.
However, it all came full circle around 2016 when Romero himself started making his own WADs, on his own, and after leaving id so many years ago. After releasing two levels for fun, he released a nine level episode called Sigil in 2019.
Now, John and Brenda Romero’s Romero Games are actually working on a fully commercial first person shooter as well. We haven’t received any details on when that will release or what platforms it will be on, but if Sigil 2 is releasing soon, it’s probably a sign that John will be committing himself 100 % to that game very soon.
John actually first announced Sigil 2 in August 2021, so it probably isn’t that big of a game. But, it will likely be around the same scale of a single episode of Doom 2. Some fans even have an idea of what to expect, as John streamed himself working on the game last December.
Now John actually revealed the release date a few days earlier, but the interview it was on didn’t really spread the news, partly because he also talked about a lot of other things.
In any case, this was what John said to Screenrant about progress on Sigil 2’s development:
“I’m really happy about the things that are going on with the sequel to SIGIL. I can’t say too much, other than it’s consistent with the original design.
We have the Baphomet’s eyes, and I’m still using the experts that I used in the first place to make sure that every byte of data is perfect in the levels. It can’t be taken apart online when people see my levels and go, “Oh, my God!”
This is all about texture alignment, and it’s all about fun and consistency. We’re going on the same kind of rollercoaster ride that people went on with the first one; we want to do that with the second one.”
Unless John is forced to delay releasing it, Sigil 2 will be a satisfying year ender to the incredible year that has been 2023. In this year, we saw new installments in giant franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Diablo, and Street Fighter, and we have even more to come in the likes of Starfield and Super Mario Wonder. Without even getting into GOTY discussions, this has been one of the biggest years in the industry in terms of big title releases, and it’s not over yet.
