Why Video Game Doors Are The Worst

One of the most overlooked aspects of game design is the way doors work in any given video game. Recently an indie developer kicked off a large Twitter discussion about how many game developers have to put a lot of effort into making doors work right in games.
Through the discourse, an old blog by Liz England called “The Door Problem” was evoked and it was also revealed that many AAA games like Assassin’s Creed avoided incorporating dynamic doors for multiple games.
Naughty Dog, Remedy, and Obsidian all jumped in to break down or commiserate just how much work it is to make a video game door work the way you want it to.
In today’s video were pulling some highlights from the original Twitter, thread and The Door Problem Blog to explain why video game doors are actually the worst.
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SOURCES
[Twitter] - Original Thread
ta...
[Liz England] - The Door Problem
www.lizengland....
[Twitter] - TLOU2 Doors Thread
ku...
[Steam] - AC Odyssey doors
steamcommunity...

[@NIVIANA]

Never thought about this. It must really suck when a reviewer fails to mention how well your doors work

[@nobaccos]

i like doors

[@zolniu]

It's one of those things that you only notice when it's wrong. Like camera movement - if it's good, you just don't think about it. But if freaks out and you can't see your character then you notice.

[@anonamarth4291]

Surely it can only be considered good if it's not mentioned at all? Obviously there was nothing about the doors that seemed wrong, or out of place if they've failed to mention them.

[@jessicawilson8240]

I’ve just always assumed doors must be difficult to nail because they’re pretty much always at least a bit janky lol

[@PJMack068]

Splinter cell did doors well. Obviously you can open them like normal using a button prompt. But if you’re trying to be cautious, you can press a different button and open it ‘manually’ based on how hard you push the stick. It allows you to gently tilt the stick and look through the crack as it widens, without completely revealing yourself. If you decide you don’t want to proceed or open the door all the way, you can pull the stick back and close the door again. You can also completely circumvent opening the door by using a little camera to slip underneath and look first. Lastly, if youre in a hurry or if you want incapacitate someone on the other side, you can choose to bash the door open. So many options with doors, awesome design.

[@Zack_Wester]

recall what game was it they had doors. you had a use key. if you was over a weapon you picked said weapon up and also dropped your current one if you had to many weapons. if you was looking at the mission computer you interacted whit it be it smashing it whit your fist/weapon, or type something on it. if you looked near a door you open or closed it. everything whent fine for the most part. nothing was placed such that you know there was two interaction at the same place. this was back in 1995ish. exept if you killed a enemy near a door he/she would drop there gun, a gun you could pick up. problem was your gun would switch place whit the gun on the ground meaning it did not move. and you could not interact whit the door. or you could not interact whit the gun.

[@PJMack068]

@@Zack_Wester I can't say I can recall anything like that from memory, I was only born a couple years before that. Seems like it handled door mechanics pretty well though-- especially for a game from the mid 90s

[@Zack_Wester]

@@PJMack068 no it was not splinter cell it was some other supper old game. going on a limb and say it was around Hl1.

[@byrnethebear]

First thing I thought of when watching this video was the "Doors" training video from one of the splinter cell games, either the first one or chaos theory. Great games.

[@ArchOfWinter]

Any regular door opening animation are pretty standard every time, but they cleverly zoom in to peak when stealthily opening doors, avoiding having to properly time and animate the character model to the player's action.

[@christopherballero866]

Doors are odd in games as they often require: a key, a puzzle to be solved, beating a particular enemy, or reaching a certain point to open it. Even Kratos can't open doors or destroy locks though he kills gods and can lift up all of reality but can't break a door

[@Gamer88334]

Maybe it’s less that he can’t do it and more that he doesn’t feel like doing it? Like this one game that came out years ago where your character says something like “I could break this door open. But I don’t feel like doing that.” upon examining a locked door.

[@pe4enie401]

Yeah, but gods are nothing when compared to plot lock

[@thegk-verse4216]

@@Gamer88334 Make 0 sense to 100% of the time not wanting to bust a lock open, only to make things more tedious.

[@igallagher4]

It always kind of of breaks the immersion for me when you have to find a key for a wooden door but you're carrying a rocket launcher around...

[@fOk0dAzZ]

"How do you know if you can use that door?" Outlast dev: You just have to give it a try and be brave.

[@Epiousios18]

Witcher 3 doors, Geralt opens them all like he's a man on a mission (which he is.)

[@jessicawilson8240]

And god help him if he stands in a doorway in the wrong spot lol

[@camryncain-pierce5467]

@@jessicawilson8240 Or if he's jumping around like a spaz lol

[@nousername2942]

If it was any more realistic he'd be slamming the shit out of every single door lol

[@drewbrew444]

i actually appreciated the first time i played through Control the way the doors slam open in front of you as you’re running through the game. And then re-discovered how bad doors can be when it came to Cyberpunk and the weird tiny elevator controls u have to find and decipher

[@RicardoNecrofear]

01:48 "I created a theme song for the door" xD

[@christophermarcantel2759]

Tried to sneak throught the door man. Can't make it. The shits stuck

[@razbraz9745]

PLEASE! I BEG YOU!

[@jonathanmeisel]

I’m surprised you didn’t include “door stuck” in the video, missed a chance.

[@lonewolffang]

Video game doors, the most complicated thing developers have to work on.

[@Bloodredtyrant]

My favorite door is the Portal 2 door. The one that's a normal-sized door behind a gigantic vault door, for no other reason besides just to be funny.

[@CuongTheAsian]

I'll take a moment of appreciation before I kick down a door in Apex Legends

[@2011Kestrel]

This falls into the category of “incredibly difficult yet everyday stuff that no one notices in the background”. Like special effects in movies - great effects go unnoticed, good effects are cheered, and bad effects are mocked.

[@6JordanSchmidt]

When the character closed the car door from cover in the first E3 gameplay trailer for The Division.

[@1995pieter]

first shit I thought about. because I immediately thought: wait why exactly am I almost screaming of hype for a car door getting closed. was the thing I felt the most for in the trailer.

[@BraveRock]

I was recently looking at installing a Dutch door, and oh boy there are a lot of variables in real life doors as well. Which way the door opens(in, out, both?), which hand you use to open when you put yourself back towards the hinge. How many hinges. And that’s before you talk about what the door looks like or what it is made of. I never ~co spidered~ (edit:considered) how much of a pain they would be for video games until this video.

[@ZecVal]

Hey, I'd just like to point out you wrote "Co spidered" I'm pretty sure that's a typo hehe

[@THANATOSIXU]

dont forget lock size, holes for deadbolts and locks, height of locks and deadbolts especially in relation to the rails and stiles of the doors, reveals, weatherproofing.... etc. doors... yeah

[@BraveRock]

@@ZecVal lol, yup, I meant “considered.”

[@thanosmetaxas8309]

Gotta hand it to Warzone. The door mechanics are pretty great from run and gun to sneaking.

[@listofromantics]

I miss Inside Gaming Daily and the podcast.

[@Burnthehive]

Same. It’s a bummer what’s happening to rooster teeth.

[@Evan_Campbell]

rip

[@archvaldor]

@@Burnthehive Could you give us a tldr on what happened? Or perhaps link to a source if that's too much to ask?

[@Burnthehive]

@@archvaldor to be honest it’s like official but just speculation. It’s more after their new corporate over lords the change of quality all of their channels have put out (not just due to Covid), long time employees quitting, lay offs, and even though it wasn’t their fault but the controversies around two of their employees, they just don’t seem to be best place to work now.

[@alexixeno4223]

@@Burnthehive wait, controversies?

[@willhuey4891]

the resident evil games the older games required alot of backtracking i mean going back and getting keys required for a certain door.

[@chrismichaelis7259]

True. Don't mind it so much in those games as much as, of course, modern warfare. But resident evil 1 is unforgiving with it's doors and loading

[@ItsJustMe0585]

Working in game dev myself, I can also admit that doors are hell... and thankless. No one notices if they're there or not, unless they are poorly made. So when no one bitches about them, that is the best thanks you'll ever get.

[@immediateegret2120]

Thank you for your service.

[@coreycasciano3255]

I always appreciate a door opening mechanic, I swear first time I played La Noire and Cole Phelps actually grabbed the doorknob to open the door I was blown away

[@adamgauvreau4262]

Miss the whole crew but videos like these keep me coming back! Probably going to notice everytime a game doesn't have doors now

[@LikaLaruku]

I remember putting corpses in doors in any & all Elder Scrolls games & watching the bodies get up & dance like a whacky inflatable windsock man.

[@SiBebok]

Omg now that they mentioned it.i couldn't remember any usable door in AC!

[@Zx7o.]

I can't stand when the same contextual button press for a door is the same button pressed for like a Dodge roll or the attack button so you sit there and break your immersion by trying to smash your head into the wall or attack it like it said something about your mother

[@ofAwxen]

Insightful video. More please. How about one on ladders? They seem to have taken a surprisingly long time to get right in games.

[@TheWtfanime]

Doors in Fallout and Elder Scrolls, old school loading times when you enter one. Won’t miss that.

[@quinnmarchese6313]

i think it was breath of the wild that really surprised me with the fact that no building had to load an interior.

[@alisoncircus]

Newsflash: doors are hard for architects, too. And for MANY of the same reasons.

[@MissHeathen]

I do often clip through a door in real life. It’s weird.

[@craigwilde2162]

One memory I have of doors in games is using the large doors that raised and lowered in Duke Nukem 3D to crush enemies. Killed them instantly and when you opened it again there was gore stretching from the bottom of the door to the ground

[@ye6942]

I miss IGDaily 🥺

[@corywilson2007]

I know the do you have a favorite door question is tongue in cheek but legit the new modern warfare doors are pretty sweet with their peak push mechanic

[@ebug64]

I always noticed that in most games doors opened both ways which has always been weird to me. Especially in VR games like Half Life Alyx cause you expect a door to only open one way, push or pull, but instead you can do both like a bar counter half door. It's a little jarring since in real life most doors don't work that way. I wish my bedroom door opened either way I wanted. I'd have much more space lol

[@SnackersPrime]

i never thought about this but love this

[@nerowolf1234]

i dont normally watch your guys channel< but if i did regularly this is the kind of content i want to see.

[@ArchOfWinter]

The Splinter Cell games probably has the best door of them all. When opening them stealthily, the camera zoom in so you can peak through, but cleverly hide Sam Fisher's body. Opening them without peaking or just slamming them can still be a little weird, but in most cases, the animation would just snap you to the proper place before the actual opening door animation plays.

[@funnypsn]

Thinking about it, Ghost of Tsushima’s paper door(not sure r those doors) but they could be destroy and kill enemy behind it.

[@fletch-a-sketch9250]

Another cool thing about them is fully intact doors completely block enemy line of sight, but you can be spotted through tattered doors

[@KingOfDoma]

I like the doors in the Mechanist's Lair in Fallout 4. So extra...

[@hybrid_grizzly]

Lol “what if we had the wait time of a load screen but none of the performance gain of breaking it up into separate cells”

[@HeinerGunnar]

Fun Fact: Those are actually modeled after the doors of the mechanist lair in Fallout 3

[@treehugers1000]

My first job I worked teaching kids to code and one of the hardest projects we had the kids do was to have them create a game in which they have to collect keys and open doors in a specific order while enemies constantly spawn. For an experienced coder the solution is pretty simple, but for the kids it was a monster of a project that crushed many young souls.

[@jonnyboy1925]

Due to an overlapping sector glitch in early builds of Duke 3D, swing doors were the most lethal enemies in the game. They would one hit kill anything.

[@takemetoyonk]

I'm not lucid enough to remember a niche door so: Breath of of the Wild doors feel so real and beautiful in my memory that, although I can't remember exactly how the animation or transition looked, I remembered opening up into a new atmosphere with a beautiful change of lighting.

[@genki23]

Remember when you opened that one door in that one game? Omg I remember that other door that I opened in that other game, mastahpiece!!

[@RoboticMagus]

In the recent Hitman games, you can throw items at people through closing doors. Weird, but pretty helpful when trying to not be seen.

[@zacharytwitty3341]

The first Paper Mario had a cool door system that would open up the sides of houses when you entered them like opening a micro machines playset. Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door based its campaign around a door.

[@Evan_Campbell]

Yeah I was trying to get that or the Kingdom Hearts door of darkness in there somewhere.

[@jon8021]

The doors in the original Resident Evil **shudders**

[@igallagher4]

Always the first doors I think of when I think about game doors.

[@SkellyAa]

I remember playing Counterstrike over 10 years ago and I was jamming to Drop it Like it's Hot by Snoop Dogg but a player kept following me and kept griefing me by continuously closing a door I was trying to open and getting it stuck

[@frenchii111]

I really enjoy these little fun facts! Not forced, not milked endlessly, but just occasional fun and interesting facts!

[@DLinton]

Kirby's press up to go through the door really confused me as a twerp.

[@UBCS98]

You laugh, but I DO have a favorite door! In the original RE2, in the B4F east area passage of the underground lab, there is a set of heavy double doors that lead to a low temperature laboratory that are memorable because they're super industrial looking: all rusted over and covered in a layer of white frost. They unlock through turning a valve on the left hand door, where there's a satisfying hiss of escaping air as the temperature seal gets broken. The door groans as you push it open in a way that sounds more like stone scraping on stone rather than old metal. They're as weird and unique as the room they lead to, which is filled with frozen machines, cold metal ceiling grates dripping with icicles, a thick fog, and an icy crane arm that gets its own little animation for some reason. They're the pinnacle of late-game-lab-door design in the series, so put some respect on their name :p

[@SJITZ]

I wouldn't call this video one that "explores how games are made". You say "doors are an issue when A, B, C and they also have to consider factors X, Y and Z when planning one", but then you don't explain why these are issues and how they're solved. The contents of this video hardly expand on its title.

[@Johnny_Big_Thumbs]

Now I fully understand why my copy of Metal Gear Solid on PC never let me open the door to go fight Rex for the final showdowns. Still does not make up for the disappointment of having to look up the ending instead of playing it...

[@melissalayton213]

The frustration when an NPC will stand in the doorway blocking your exit effectively trapping you. 🤣

[@anonamarth4291]

Looking at you, Bethesda.

[@lordbrobert1884]

In 5 years, I'll take a look at the game with the best doors from that year and write a lengthy steam review about how life-changing that door experience was.

[@simba993]

as a player doors frustrate me so much. i want to explore stuff and be immersed then something like small fence blocks your progress. even more some rpgs without doors like old legend of zelda and final fantasy where you need to struggle with the south walls for a minute just to find the entrance,

[@TheCreepypro]

its one of those things that if done right you don't notice at all but if done wrong it can be the worst thing

[@nelsonpena5185]

Doors always seem odd in games. Its either fully open or close. Some might give you the option to peek but not many. Doors, like in most recently Valheim, will push things to close or open so there is no clipping going on. Other games will just let the door go through a player just to let the door animation happen. It is interesting to see after all this time of doors in games that no standard has been made for it. In games that let you build, i wish you could use a door like a hinge. So you could make a bigger door or gate. Very few games would do such a thing. Only one I can think of that you could mimic that is Scrap Mechanic. In that game you have pieces that let you rotate and limit degree of moment then attach blocks to it. I think more games should use those hinge pieces and maybe use the analog stick or mouse wheel to let you control how much/fast a door opens. Then add in if the door is ajar a player / character model can just push/bump it closed.

[@majorasmask5523]

I enjoyed opening the boss door in the Water Dragon’s temple in Skyward Sword to fight Koloktos. The boss doors in that game had delightful Boss Key mechanics.

[@chokoon21]

no wonder infinity ward mentions the doors so much in modern warfare 2019 lmao

[@sonichero7]

Dang. I never thought about how much of a hassle doors must be, but it makes sense if you think about it.

[@kelerews]

I see a door, I expect a loading screen. the skyrim effect

[@ruben_santos]

Love this kind of videos! 🤘

[@CIoudStriker]

I loved those needlessly complicated sequence doors in Fallout 4's Mechanist DLC.

[@Sweenus987]

It was GTA IV I think it was had the only way of telling if you could open a door or not is if it had a proper door handle as fake doors were all flat. It's crazy though how much has to go into one thing

[@wii58739]

I think doors/blockades are super interesting from a design perspective in how it direct and pace the player forward.

[@OmegaInfernox]

Metroid Prime 3 doors. You shoot the energy shield to open them, but sometimes you still have to wait for the game to load the next area.

[@fergusofdalibor4264]

I remember being angry as an 8 year old when a door in fallout 3 was labeled as [INACCESSIBLE], but I've never thought about doors like this

[@RomnysGonzalez]

Great content IG. Pretty good video.

[@WeissM89]

The doors in GTA V are pretty good.

[@simonhatch9333]

Really enjoyed this one. Very interesting

[@dauhloweme8127]

I miss old inside gaming but definitely like this new almost polygon style of quick behind the gaming developer scene episodes

[@mattyhowse4255]

Re 1 doors where the first I remember me actually thinking about doors and how creepy they can be.

[@Roman-ji7iu]

There's almost always a way to manipulate doors in games in one way or another. That told me how much of pain in the ass they probably were, but now I'm just imaging a big office building with like 100+ devs all in a bad mood because it's "door time", and everything is going wrong & overlapping.

[@ArmadilloZero]

Didn't even mention how most doors in videogames swing both ways. They will always swing away from the player depending which side of the doorway the player is on. It's helpful in modern settings like CoD Warzone to determine enemy movements, but it's distracting to me in low tech setting where doors clearly shouldn't do that.

[@RedAugust08]

Resident Evil 7s doors are just so goddamn good. The fact that they move with me and can add to how terrifying the game is when you go through a door slowly puts that game on an entirely different level.

[@ZeeJohansen]

I looked at this title and thought, "How can this be interesting?" And now I'm thinking about turning on Unity and playing around with doors xD

[@AceChampElite]

How does scale affect playability in games?

[@billc5557]

Doors are also comically large in most games proportionally to the character's size compared to IRL doors.

[@Adawg5353]

I appteciate these article-videos. Good stuff

[@jimmy7434]

As one door closes, another game developer kills themselves

[@jaredbarrett9793]

Warzone doors with sprinting and damaging people on the other side are pretty impressive now that I think abou it

[@ChadWSmith]

PLAYER CHARACTER: Has a gun that shoots nuclear weapons DOOR: You need a key to open me PC: Nukes door DOOR: Like I said, you need a key to open me. LOL

[@rossedwardmiller]

Shut the front door! I had no idea how complex game doors were!!!

[@MrHaydnSir]

i’ve thought about how well the door system works in warzone quite often

[@JorgeRomero7]

They need to create a new digital locksmith trade to solve this problem. Seriously why not get developers who specialize in programming just doors and locks.

[@wacojitsu]

Coming from path of exile, this only further frustrates me that they keep adding doors that the player base HATES!!!!

[@Oh_Hey_Kyle]

Rainbow 6 siege has no doors, just doorways.

[@TMV420]

I never would have guessed that doors were such technical trouble! thanks again for another informative look inside the industry, evan! IG FOREVER!

[@Evan_Campbell]

Thanks for watching.

[@wilbo_baggins]

Who remembers the doors/gates in gtav that you could launch off from. Ahh good times.

[@HughMungoose]

The sound of DOOM doors. Always hits me right in the nostalgia glands.

[@devinlupei5071]

So, that's why destructible doors aren't more of a thing, just getting the things to work is a hassle in and of itself.

[@Matthew-vt3kx]

I enjoy learning how games are made and/but miss the wednesday hump/friday yes!

[@DK-Samz]

Watchdog legion was some of the worst in recent times. Door always opens outward pushing the player away and to the side

[@CrossXaberS]

Watch out. The gap in the door... It's a separate reality. The only me is me. Are you sure the only you is you?

[@Tuntira]

Love this new direction for Inside Gaming.

[@TheLateral18]

1:30 whats the name of that game. That's the first time i see in a FPS the hand pressing the button! I can't handle anynore in shooters the point and click system

[@PerunaMuayThai]

Shout out to the Top Dog of doors: The Thousand Year Door

[@fannydelgadillo2974]

Only 5 days after ign nice

[@Evan_Campbell]

Same day as Kotaku though ; )

[@navzy6211]

more of a skyrim thing and not doors in particular, but once i was lockpicking a door to rob a house and there was a guard in the house who just looked at me as he walked out, apparently he was stuck there lol

[@bak8823]

Try being a door to door salesmen Bing bong. Hello I can interest you in .... Oh shit you've already got one

[@yorutamashi]

doors in TW3 that flap like crazy when you open them and and NPC is close on the other side