1995 called. They want their Doom levels back.

Boy howdy.

Only a month after E1M4 (a new record! don't mind that I said it would only take a week or two xD), here it is.

E1M5.

Download it now! If.. if you want.

M5-compare.zip

So.. what did you do all this time?: 2020

^{Yeah it's dark. And there's a Sergeant coming at you (E1M5)}

It was all so much brighter back then: 1997

^{Brighter ≠ Better (retro version: E2M5)}

I ended up not putting the full amount of effort into the area in the lower right of the map (you need the blue key to get to it).. because it rather.. noisily scraped along the Vanilla limits the whole way through, as it was. I simplified a few bits of it in order to be able to add a bit of detail in others.

It's best to take a look at the level yourself but here are some samples:

One small step for man..

^{I like what you did with the place!}

^{You'll see a lot of this.}

^Tomatoes!

Please enjoy!

And tell me how you like it :)

I have to say, the 1st and 3rd screenshot of your last post are really enticing me to play it now.

Congratulations on getting E1M5 done, now onto E1M6. You can almost taste the full episode.

4 minutes ago, Final Verdict said:

I have to say, the 1st and 3rd screenshot of your last post are really enticing me to play it now.

 

Congratulations on getting E1M5 done, now onto E1M6. You can almost taste the full episode.

Thank you, @Final Verdict! 

I hope you'll enjoy playing it, either now or when it's "done done" as a full episode.

I actually already looked into E1M6 about an hour ago and noticed two things:

1. I recalled some of the adjustments that I had done in 2010 (the changes that were lost).. which reminded me of how that sucked ^^;
2. That map will need A LOT of "mapping love" to meet my own raised 2020 standards. But that's what this project is all about anyways.

I'll start working on it tomorrow- for now it's time to sleep!

Goodnight~

4 minutes ago, Zylinderkatze said:

 

Thank you, @Final Verdict! 

 

I hope you'll enjoy playing it, either now or when it's "done done" as a full episode.

 

I actually already looked into E1M6 about an hour ago and noticed two things:

1. I recalled some of the adjustments that I had done in 2010 (the changes that were lost).. which reminded me of how that sucked ^^;
2. That map will need A LOT of "mapping love" to meet my own raised 2020 standards. But that's what this project is all about anyways.

I'll start working on it tomorrow- for now it's time to sleep!

 

Goodnight~

No worries, credit where it's due. A little encouragement helps to fuel the passion and I'm genuinely interested in these maps. 

I'll definitely play it when it's "done-done", but if I get a chance I might have a look-see before that. 

just to make you know: i'm still watching from the shadows. you may not see me, but i'm here.

4 hours ago, ketmar said:

just to make you know: i'm still watching from the shadows. you may not see me, but i'm here.

Lurking ketmar.

Good to know you're still around :)

[[END OF E1M5]] (for now)

8<--------------------------------------- cut here

[[BEGINNING OF E1M6]]

This is the big one. Another "maybe keep the concept but ditch just about anything else" case. I do hope it won't be as extensive (effort-wise, I mean) as E1M1 was.

I'll just tell you the concept because it's not really as smart as I might've thought back in the day, anyways. And there's no point in keeping it a secret xD

Also, it was poorly executed. Back then I might've had a novelty bonus but now I'll need to actually try and convince with quality. No pressure!

The concept is that you start in front of the exit door and when you open it there's another door right behind it. Whoops. Red Door. Let's go look for the key. Come back with the Red Key, open the door.. Blur Door. Of course. Only way forward is back, go through the level again- which by then will have changed (in fact changing with every pass back and forth between locked doors and keys) until you finally get to the exit room which has a little surprise.. which may not make it to the 2020 version because it's mean. And not in a fun way.

But like I said, execution (of the concept, I mean.. not of the player) was poor. Aside from one part that actually opens up more and more (from a narrow passage to a lava-lined bridge) the "changes" were mostly just monster closets that opened. Also there were two alternate paths but they were mirrored and you'd be tempted to stick to one side once you chose it. Not very thrilling.

I already have ideas on how to remedy the whole thing but it'll be some work ^^;

Anyways.. here's the map:

^{"The 2020 version will look nothing like this."}

So let's dive in, shall we?

Also, here's a first look at 1997.. but.. it's not much to look at.

^{I told you.}

Three hours 'til midnight.

Let's make it count :)

Aaand..

..here's a slightly retouched version of the same start scene. Still very much in progress though:

^{It's right there.}

I think the textures may change soon ^^;

coincidentally, i am rewriting ZX Spectrum Forth system right now. "the 2020 version will be nothing like 2005". now i can see this thread from a slightly different PoV. ;-)

Update of sorts

Actually I ended up only spending about an hour (out of the available three) on "fixing" E1M6 yesterday. I seem to have a sort of.. transitional reluctance each time I go from a finished level to the next.. and I think that inspiration will have to build up a bit more until I get into full swing again. I know it's coming, though.

On the plus size.. uhm.. plus side, I already have a few ideas how I'll have the starting room change (which used to be a constant, in the previous version). Maybe I'll wait with changing it until the last time the player returns to it.. so they aren't expecting it to be changed since it was the same twice before }:3

We'll see. I'm just glad that I honed my skills (a bit) by now on how to use joined helper sectors to allow floors and ceilings to raise and lower to otherwise unatainable positions ^^;

I'm somewhere between excited and exhausted. Exhisted? >_> 

I'll check back on E1M6 a little later today and see where my motivation level is at, then xD

Take care everyone!

15 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

I'm somewhere between excited and exhausted. Exhisted? >_>

what a great word. we need a new dictionary, 2020 versi... oh, nope, i retract my wish. rebuilding dictionary can take forever, and Doom maps won't rebuild themselves.

anyway, this topic is prolly the only "blog" i love to read. so take you time, but do not even dare to think about stopping writing here! ;-) (or is it "stop writing"? or "stopping write"? English is so hard...)

35 minutes ago, ketmar said:

what a great word. we need a new dictionary, 2020 versi... oh, nope, i retract my wish. rebuilding dictionary can take forever, and Doom maps won't rebuild themselves.

 

anyway, this topic is prolly the only "blog" i love to read. so take you time, but do not even dare to think about stopping writing here! ;-) (or is it "stop writing"? or "stopping write"? English is so hard...)

Haha. Don't worry, my focus is still on Doom- the new dictionary will have to come after ^^;

Thanks for the appreciation- it's very.. appreciated :) I don't want to give myself too much time, though. At least not for this episode- I am probably not the only person who would like for it to still come out in 2020 xD

And don't worry- even after I'm done with this, I have enough (actual oldschool) ideas from "way back when". I remember writing / scribbling them down in the past. Little things on how to build outside street lanterns.. or looming architecture- and how to light it.. to whole concepts of playing with your perception of scale and direction. I am actually kind of curious whether I can find the old binder that I collected them all in, back then.

It's still.. somewhere.

Like you, when you lurk xD

PS: In this context (preceded by "do not even dare to think about..") I would probably use "..stopping to write". But English isn't my main language either ^^; Also, I like the appeal and charme of having some personal touch when using a foreign language.. so "stopping writing" works just as well for me :)

4 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

I am actually kind of curious whether I can find the old binder that I collected them all in, back then.

Look at what the Catcodemon dragged in:

^{Many of them are double-sided ^^;}

I think there's another episode in there somewhere~

And I know there has to be another binder somewhere, too- because I remember I had a handwritten list with all the line types (triggers) and sector types (which blinking lights were reliably in sync with which other types, etc) and I haven't found that list yet.

Also, there's comments on some of those pages that say something to the effect of "where's the original layout I had written for this level?"

Maybe I'll find those, too.

This is like a time capsule from.. well I actually don't know- I think many of these are from 2010, when I was getting into the "make these levels better" mood the first time.. but some are older.

I'll look into them more once I am done with this episode ^^

3 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

I'll look into them more once I am done with this episode ^^

I lied. I looked into them almost immediately after I submitted that post xD

It's a lot of small details and ideas and fixes, and yes, a lot of it seems to be from 2010, directly referring to stuff that could be improved in the original levels. But over half of the 25-ish pages (counting double-sided pages as 2 pages) are new material and visual (or environmental / interactive) concepts :)

One of them is a concept to recreate the "whitehouse scene" from ID:4 (Independence Day) in DOOM. Complete with triggering laser blast and explosions.. and all done with standard DOOM actions. A very 90's idea from a very 90's movie for a very 90's game xD

It never went beyond that initial concept, though, because I wanted to finish the Episode-remodeling first ^^;

Maybe I'll dabble in it again once I am done with this episode.

5 hours ago, Zylinderkatze said:

 

Maybe I'll find those, too.

Who would've thought!

^{Yep. Found 'em.}

That mix of English and German in the sidenotes.. well I still do that ^^;

Also, there's the mentioned line action list on the dark page at the top.

Look at the manual pixel-counting analysis of COMPSTA1..

I pinned down ideas on any surface I could find, it seems.

How much have those pages aged? Yellow edges much?

These are actually from 1995 - 1997.

I'm a little emotional right now xD

More, at a glance:

• In the top left corner, mostly cropped: The idea to make a flight of stairs reverse from going up to going down. 
• Pretty much in the middle, with a little frontal scribble: Mentioning how cool it would be to replace the Spider Mastermind with ED-209 (not that I could've done it though).
• Paperclips.

I wonder where I'd be now if I had stuck with mapping, then. But I know where  I am now and it's a pretty neat place. With pretty neat people :)

Okay. So.

I am working my way through the level and I realized that I haven't yet found the "mood" yet that I want to set for it.

Meaning I went from this:

^{1995 called. They want.. less brown, please.}

To this:

^{Just trying things out here.}

Sure, it's more detailed. Sure, the textures are aligned. Yeah, it looks nice when you arrive on that teleporter.

But why is there blood? What's the purpose of that basin? Why the METAL1? I want ANSWERS!

This level doesn't have an answer yet. But I'll keep asking :)

Maybe the answer is "brown".

Just for wholeness' sake~

Since I just said "it looks nice when you arrive on that teleporter" -implying that you leave from somewhere else- I didn't want to leave this info out.

This is the "somewhere else":

^{Basically the first teleporter after the starting room.}

So.. there is a visual connection with the blood.. and the green / marble. 

But then this only shifts the question: Why is there blood here, then?

Although that said, I might just have gotten an idea.. x3

You arrive in this level from a rather bloody sort of processing.. thingie.. and it looks as though this processing is being furthered in this level / map. I might be on to a concept of.. blood powered teleporters? >_>

Maybe I should sleep on it.

Not the blood powered teleporter. I mean.. sleep on the idea.

You freak.

Out with the old, in with the.. old?

So for some parts in the beginning (like this one right here) I am keeping the original layout. "Don't fix what isn't broken" ^^ But I might have adjusted things slightly.

It's like a tradition by now. Here's a "before" and "current":

 > 

^{How I enjoy a visual editor running on a computer that can handle it :3}

This part in particular has a nice rhythm of stuff opening up in your back and at your sides.. so I wanted to keep it intact. I did remove excess ammunition, though. There used to be two Cell Charge Packs up there. Total overkill.

That would be such a cool transition to some big news ("speaking of overkill..") but I've got nothing xD

Oh- would anyone be interested in a closer look at the old notes that I found?

Some more "beautifications"~

We went from this:

^{Don't say it. I know.}

To this:

^{And it's not even that many more vertexes or lines, either!}

Again, this (the massively blunt use of REDWALL1) is something I had already made a little less obtrusive in my 2010 renewal pass.. but (as the very first message in this thread notes) that progress was lost. Every time I run into something like that (where I know I had already fixed it once), it reminds me why I stopped in 2010.. because even now that's kind of a punch in the gut ^^;

Also, on a lighter note.. I think this Shotgun is a little nervous.. or it might have an identity crisis.. or it's blinking in and out of existence.. I don't know what happened! O_o

Check out the video: https://streamable.com/r6nbg5

^{(I do know what happened but I thought it's mildly amusing and wanted to share ^^)}

Litte by little..

So I decided on an approach after adjusting a few rooms at the beginning of the level.. and that's.. what I've already been doing with some other levels before:

Keep the starting area intact and "fix" the textures and detail of the subsequent parts until I get to a part that isn't "fun" enough (as in: not visually atteractive.. or playful or surprising).

Because of that rule, this is one of the last areas that will have a "before" and "current" because from here on out there's a lot of.. junk.

Before:

^{Was I even trying? (there's more to this than is seems like.. but still. ugh)}

Current:

^{It's still brown but it's a nice brown! This is where I'd like DOOM2 textures.}

Also in this picture: Marble-ish stuff coming up in the background, which is already an indicator for stuff I've started to change around.

More soon!

Last update before bed!

Hi you. Yes you. No.. no not you. You. Yes. Hi!

I'm currently running an "Everything has opened up, can Vanilla still handle that?" test (for that one last "old" area that I am keeping in the level).

^{That's only one angle but the others look good, too.}

So far it looks good but I am far from done with it. I mean.. just look at it. Such an alignment mess. Disastrously under-detailed and -aligned. 

We'll see where this goes once I am done with more parts of this but so far it's on a good track, I'd say. Also, I have already accumulated a few ideas on how I will make the level loop back on itself more, in organic ways.. instead of the old approach of simply opening more and more monster closets ^^;

Let's hope that the "looping back" won't collide with the Vanilla limits.

Fingers crossed!

Goodnight x3

Heh.

Guess which version of the level this is from ^^;

^{Hot weapon. Get it? Hot? Because of the.. lava..  hey.. where are you going?}

Hint: It's from the old version. Though I am tempted to keep in the weapon location and the general "hot environment" concept.. We'll see ^^

"Furthermore"..

I adjusted some bits and pieces of the level. But I think I got a bit lost in the details because I only went from this (1997):

^{So many octagons.}

To this (5 minutes ago):

^{Still octagons.. but less of them? but also generally less? Huh?}

And yea.. I basically only cleaned up what's in the green rectangle. The stuff to the right of it was done yesterday.

Here's what some of those adjustments look like:

^{I wonder what this button does.}

^{Wooden beams? Neat.}

I'm still not satisfied with how the different "marble-like" textures meet each other.. It's also a bit too.. compact? I'll see where this goes. Also the wooden beams feel a bit odd, the way I played them.

Basically, I just barely scraped past a "to hell with this, I'll scrap this new part again and restart" with this bit.. because it didn't feel good enough. But by now (after I played through it and tested it a bit with monsters) I am okay with it. 

I say that now. You never know what will happen to this part later xD

Well.. not "never" know. We'll know once I worked on this some more.. maybe later today but I have to step away from the computer for a bit.

See you later!

Daily update :)

Okay a little more progress today, I playtested this section a bit more and it's surprisingly fun. Even the old parts of it.

^{The room in the rectangle leads to a teleporter (on the left) which then leads to even more fun*!}

So I am leaving that bit intact and just brushing it up. For a more palpable impression, let me show you (the left part of) the rectable area in editor.

It went from this:

^{Already a decent interplay between green and brown..}

To this:

^{Disclaimer: Still heavily in progress but I'm done for today ^^;}

That wood thing on the right is a door (you come in from the other side where it's more obviously a door).. but as you may be able to see from the map overview at the top, I am building one side first (and then, if I like it, I'll copy it over) so the other door isn't there yet. But it would be behind that pllar from this angle anyways ^^;

Also, the way that you walk around this room (the "arrow" route) is only a quick attempt to connect the "in progress" bit to the old part of the level.. don't give it too much attention. Seriously. It feeds off of that attention and I don't want to have to take out the chainsaw again to cut it down to size again.

I'm off to bed for now- I did a lot more than just this room (you might be able to tell if you compare today's map view with the one from yesterday). Those bits I worked on are very dependent on switches / triggers, though, so you can't really see my work unless you play the level.. so that will have to wait xD

Goodnight for now!

^{* Personal definitions of "fun" may vary}

No update today (aside from this)..

..because I fell prey to a friend's suggestion to take part in one of those "one song a day following a different theme each day" social thing.. and I am taking it too serious and spent over two hours trying to come up with a worthwhile song that "has to be played loud", by going through my loved tracks on last.fm. 

There's way too much music that sounds better loud. How do I pick the song that incorporates that concept perfectly?

I ended up with a song that doesn't "beg" to be played loud.. and I am already dissatisfied with my choice xD

[end of rant]

Okay.. since this is thread about DOOM and the progress on the levels.. I had an minor "visual idea" today:

^{I said it's a minor idea. What did you expect? ^^;}

So yeah.. I don't know what I was thinking. I just though that the COMPBLUE would look good behind such a cutout.. but it's not something that will end up in the current level. It's really just to pin down the idea.

Well.. Goodnight!

Some progress!

Yeah it's going slow, it seems.. But! The more I play this to test the level, the more I realize that a bunch of stuff can be redeemed and I might not actually "need" to create too much new stuff. Not that I would mind building new stuff, though- sometimes that's actually faster than fixing old stuff ^^; But we'll see.

Here's the overview with some new rooms:

^{Still so much to do~} 

Also, I am contemplating to not make the player go through two mirrored parts of the level (for 100% completion).. instead I might just close off whichever path they don't take (and kill the monster in that part with presses, so you still get a 100% rating if you kill the ones you can get to).

Then again, the part that's duplicated isn't that big.. orrr.. I might make it so that it's actually two different parts, for diversity. More thought will go into this ^^;

Meanwhile, if you want to look at that new room.. well- it's not that spectacular but I still like it. Here:

^{That's an unsettling low number of monsters there, bub.}

Spot the misaligned texture(s)! xD

Goodnight for now :)

Small update without a screenshot for now~

So as it stands now, I will likely make it so that if you go in one way, it will close down after you leave it.. and then you will have to go back the other way. If I can pull it off in a fun way :)

I'll show what I mean when I.. can actually show it.

Glad to see you still consistently update. Would be a pleasure to learn more about keeping your passion for a prolonged time, if not forever.

3 hours ago, InDOOMnesia said:

Would be a pleasure to learn more about keeping your passion for a prolonged time, if not forever.

I don't know how I do it, to be honest. I think it might be all the pent up desire to finish this stuff up.. that had been held back from years of assuming that the original levels were lost. And during that time I never really stopped gathering / accumulating ideas (mostly in my head, after 2010, because that's where the scribbles on paper end, more or less).

I think it's a setting that can not be recreated easily or applied to too many other people xD 

I've just always been into level- and even game-making (even before DOOM) but that "shock" of losing my progress in 2010 (and, as I assumed, the actual levels, too) had put a tight seal on my creativity.

So now that I got back into it, it's basically 10+ years worth of creativity.. and that's what's fueling me.

I do get dips in motivation sometimes.. usually when I go from one level to the next.. but here it can help to have an ongoing theme and levels that lead into one another (like my E1M2 and E1M3), to "trick" myself into maintaining momentum.

I'm also running a little low on spare time right now because that "daily music challenge" thing I mentioned eats into it.. claiming 1 - 3 hours each day because I take that thing a bit too seriously ^^; I don't want to "half-ass" it, I guess- but that leaves me with less time for the level.

Okay I wrote way too much.. 

I guess to summarize- my secret to staying motivated and passionate is to have a vision, a goal of what I want to achive.. and a whole pile of ideas that I scribbled down (so that they aren't blocking my conscious mind too much). I guess it helps (me) to get ideas out quickly, even if I just write down a sentence to describe it in a way that I will still understand a week from now xD

Here's what I mean..

^{(So sneaky to just go ahead and post excerpts from my old scribbles)}

It could be anything from a quick written idea:

^{"try if it works to switch off all lights by using sector id 0"}

To a general "look and feel" of a building (without actually going into detail or even adhering to DOOM limitations):

^{Yes that's from 2001. Never went anywhere.}

To tiny scribbles like this one for a (more or less) convincing camp fire:

^{It's a top-down view. "Lagerfeuer" = literally "camp-fire"}

Or even (semi-) complex and moderately detailed building blueprints:

^{This is totally out of context. It's only a small section of a whole page ^^;}

..sometimes even in (pseudo-) 3D for scale:

^{This kind of went into the renewal of E1M9 in 2010 which was then lost.}

Or just a concept on how to stall the player by requiring them to "jump" between moving floors:

^{"Fabrik"  = "Factory", "Kolben" (in this context) = "pistons"}

Once I pinned stuff like that down it doesn't block my creative mind anymore and I can instead focus on the level I am currently working on ^^;

Okay but now I really need to go to bed.

Catching up

Yesterday was one of those "lose track of time" days.. I went to bed at 1:30am and it was too late to post any pictures.

Let's remedy that!

Here's a few sneak peeks at the "glow-up":

 > 

^{It's just a one-track stairway.. the new version might look good in an old mansion or such :3}

 > 

^{It's a lift.. but now it has a tempting(?) wood-plated outcrop! With a secret!}

I am back at work now but I might not go at it quite as long as yesterday because sleep.

More soon (or tomorrow)

Been away for a while, and skimmed over this thread. Glad to see the fire is still burning! I played through E1M1; I like the compact, intricate layout. And it's clear you put a lot of love into these.

One thing I noticed is that you often seem to be caught off-guard by Drawsegs overflows (the "HOM" effects). Recall the Visplane Explorer mode in UDB: you can also have it show Drawsegs and other information, not just visplanes, although it's a little obscure where to find how to change that. 💁🏻‍♀️