PLAYERS: Do you actively look for secret maps? If so, what do you like to see in secret levels? Which one(s) is/are your favorite? What are some of the weirdest or most memorable secret maps you've ever found/played? Are there any you really enjoyed that you don't think get enough attention? MAPPERS: How do you like to use secret levels, if at all? How rigorously do you try to hide them? What existing secret maps, if any, have inspired you or informed your own work in some way? Of the categories I laid out above (gimmicky/experimental/challenging/etc.), do you see yourself gravitating towards any particular school of thought? I'm very curious to see what the community's players and designers think about secret maps, so here are few questions to guide the discussion: Final Doom's secret maps added two new categories: the mysterious/artsy/off-theme Caribbean and Pharaoh, and the 'hardest maps we had ready for ya,' Cyberden and Go 2 It. Id Software's original six are usually said to run the gambit (mostly) when it comes to the major categories most people think about when they think about secret maps: E2M9 was experimental/gimmicky, in that it encouraged the player to use infighting, E3M9 was the first 'more dangerous, slightly altered replica of another familiar level,' Doom 2's MAP 31 & 32 were humorous and referential in nature, rewarding the player with a ton of supplies and special items, and E1M9 and E4M9 were essentially bonus levels that, it could be argued, were just included as extras. With so many approaches to hiding them, calibrating them, and making them useful, fun, and/or worth exploring, I think it would be fun to talk about them in detail, and I hope you will all agree!

Secret maps are a fascinating and, I believe, underexamined topic in Doom mapping.

Doom 1 secret levels