You can now add Fortnite to the list of things someone has put Doom into

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It looks like E1M1, but it's not.

Still image from video of Doom in Fortnite
(Image credit: Jackson Clayton (Twitter))

"Things running Doom that weren't meant to run Doom" is a category that's been with us for years now. Pianos, printers, the screen that shows your order in a restaurant, a motherboard BIOS, gut bacteria, Doom itself: The list goes on and on. And now that list is just a little bit bigger, as UEFN developer Jackson Clayton revealed that he's brought the classic id Software shooter to Fortnite.

A video of the work shared by Clayton on Twitter (via Kotaku) starts off innocently enough. That's E1M1, alright, complete with weird angles, low-res textures, and a distinctly flat space marine waiting for someone to lead him into battle against the minions of Hell. It takes a turn a few seconds in, though, when he jumps out a nearby window (which you absolutely cannot jump out of in Doom, and trust me, I've tried many, many times) and begins slapping together shoddy wooden ramps and platforms.

This is not Doom at all! And it's not, really: Clayton told Kotaku that UEFN's programming language is "too high-level" to actually get Doom running in Fortnite, so instead he had to fake it: He used Ultimate Doom Builder to export E1M1 as a 3D model, which he then imported into Fortnite's editor. After that, he said most of the effort went into making it look "unlit and unfiltered," and to give the space marine its familiar "choppy spinning effect."

"It also helps a bunch that I have released a number of Doom-inspired games on Steam in the past before moving over to UEFN, so I have experience with replicating its visual and gameplay style," Clayton told the site. 

Clayton said he undertook the Doom-in-Fortnite project even though he knew he'd be unable to release it publicly so he could learn more about UEFN, and also as a way to "trick my friends," which honestly is a pretty good reason for doing just about anything. They convinced him to put the video on Twitter, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.