Whether you’re searching Reddit or checking out news on numerous gaming sites, it would be hard to miss this amazing, spot-on LEGO tribute to DOOM. After sharing this Flickr page and YouTube video shown above, there have been plenty of “that’s [expletive] awesome” said this week.

This week we had a chance to catch up with the creator, Iain Heath — a.k.a. Ochre Jelly. Originally from the UK, Iain’s lived in Seattle the past 17 years, where he’s worked as a software engineer, aspired to be a wannabe stand-up comedian, and become a full-time LEGO artist and blogger for The Brother’s Brick. This weekend Iain will be proudly displaying his DOOM homage and other works at BrickCon — a celebration of all things LEGO taking place in Seattle.

Check out our interview below…

You’ve worked on a numerous LEGO projects, what led you to DOOM?

I played DOOM and DOOM II way back when they first came out, and was a huge fan, played loads of mod levels, and still play it to this day. And since my LEGO art generally focuses on popular culture, it was a natural fit. Since I usually build stuff that is in the public consciousness, I thought I’d built something just for myself for a change, for purely nostalgic reasons. To be honest, I had no idea anyone else really remembered the game, so the popularity of my DOOM layout came as something of a surprise!

You’ve been posting about the project for some time on Facebook, how long did the project take?

I started it at the very start of the summer, and it’s basically consumed all my free time. By my reckoning it required about 15,000 bricks to construct – most of which had to be special ordered, as my existing LEGO collection is relatively small (as are most of my previous models, compared to this one). I also ran out of time to add everything I wanted to, and had to scale it back a bit in order to be done in time for BrickCon. For example, I wanted to include an Arachnotron and Hell Baron.

What was the most challenging aspect of the project?

The scale of the background, definitely. I normally just build small characters. But with DOOM, the environment is a big part of the experience, so I decided to just bite the bullet and attempt a diorama at the same scale as the characters. I haven’t done much architecture before, so that was hard to figure out. With characters, I’m trying to emulate a very specific image. But for these backgrounds, there wasn’t a template to work from, I had to design the layout from scratch, which required greater imagination and planning on my part.

In terms of recreating settings/characters from a game, does it help when the game uses sprites than can be looked at as little blocks?

It doesn’t really help, in fact it makes it harder! I’m not matching LEGO blocks to game pixels, its a more re-interpretative process. So when the source material is lower res, its hard to figure out what you’re actually looking at, esp. with the small details.

What other game-related LEGO projects have you done?

I’ve not done that many characters from games – I tend to leave that to the younger builders in the LEGO community! I did the Angry Birds a while back, and also a couple of characters from Dragon’s Lair (more gaming nostalgia there!). I also recently built some characters from the mobile game Monument Valley, which I enjoyed playing immensely.

Any other Bethesda/id projects you’d consider doing?

This was really a one-off, based on my own love for DOOM. My teenage son is on at me to do characters from Half Life, so maybe I’ll take a crack at Gordon Freeman some time! If I do any game-based work in the future, it’ll be because some game has gotten big in the public eye, and also has very iconic characters. I’m open to suggestions. Or bribes.

This month you’re heading to BrickCon where the DOOM setup will be on display. Are you planning on showing anything else?

I usually bring along any new characters I’ve created over the course of the year. I’ll definitely be bringing my new MLP Fluttershy and Discord models (which I got signed by the voice actors back at ComicCon). Plus Bilbo, Gollum, Grumpy Cat, Totoro and Mystique will be there too.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I’m used to my creations getting some notoriety and virality, but have been totally blown away by the response to this DOOM layout. Several people have suggested I release building instructions – for my Doomguy and Imp designs. So after BrickCon I will look into doing that. Thanks for all the love, everybody!

Thank you, Iain. Good luck at BrickCon!