Hi, I'm making a 2D, ascii art Doom game.

[verrasev]

It's not finished yet but I'll attach some screenshots to this post. It may remind you a little of DoomRL but this is an action game, not a turn based roguelike. There are no rpg elements, although there is a simple cash based weapon upgrade system. I'm making it with Megazeux, if you've heard of that. I will be releasing it in three episodes, each episode containing five main levels and one or two secret levels. I'm working on the last level of the first episode now so I should release the first episode by the end of this month, hopefully. Questions/comments?

 

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Interesting concept!

[elend]

Intriguing! I really like the look of that office / techbase area. Amazing what you can do with ASCII.

[Doge Sword]

cool but it has been done before

[scifista42]

I suggest you to stop associating this game with the name "Doom", firstly because of copyright, secondly because the only apparent elements reminiscent of Doom are the text and the head in the right 1/3 of the screen.

[elarmadillo3]

1 hour ago, Doge Sword said:

cool but it has been done before

 "It may remind you a little of DoomRL but this is an action game, not a turn based roguelike. There are no rpg elements"

[verrasev]

2 hours ago, scifista42 said:

I suggest you to stop associating this game with the name "Doom", firstly because of copyright, secondly because the only apparent elements reminiscent of Doom are the text and the head in the right 1/3 of the screen.

The name might get changed if Id or Bethesda stoop to notice my little game.  As far as it lacking Doom-like elements go, fair, although it uses all the Doom enemies, weapons, and power-ups.  In addition, fan created wads are allowed to stretch the elements of what is considered Doom-like with less complaint.

 

What would you name a fan project that uses Doom's enemies and what not but diverges a bit on level aesthetics?

[scifista42]

41 minutes ago, verrasev said:

What would you name a fan project that uses Doom's enemies and what not but diverges a bit on level aesthetics?

 

The name could be anything, it doesn't matter. Ultimately, people will want to play your game for how good it is on its own, not for its references to another game. Presumably, the game will be accompanied by some description, so describe the game's style and gameplay there and that should do the trick even without mentioning copyrighted names. Consider using a phrase such as "inspired by game mechanics of first person shooters from 1990s".

Edited August 13, 2018 by scifista42

[Revae]

5 hours ago, elarmadillo3 said:

 "It may remind you a little of DoomRL but this is an action game, not a turn based roguelike. There are no rpg elements"

He might have been referring to this:

https://archive.org/details/zzt_doom

[andrewj]

Does it have sound effects?

[Bridgeburner56]

Looks a bit like the old top down shooter Catacombs (this is a good thing. Loved that game)

[verrasev]

10 hours ago, andrewj said:

Does it have sound effects?

Yes, standard Doom sound effects.

[verrasev]

13 hours ago, Revae said:

He might have been referring to this:

https://archive.org/details/zzt_doom

Unlike ZZT Doom, this has weapons and enemies that approximate the real thing instead of just more or less using the built in elements that came with the GCS.

[Solmyr]

Interesting concept, it looks somewhat similar to dwarf fortress but at the same time more colorful, and less confusing. I like the Me-109 planes in the nazi base.

[verrasev]

20 hours ago, Solmyr said:

Interesting concept, it looks somewhat similar to dwarf fortress but at the same time more colorful, and less confusing. I like the Me-109 planes in the nazi base.

That's from a Wolfenstein secret level, as is traditional for Doom.

[MegaZzZeux]

Pretty cool seeing something like this being done in Megazeux (points to username...). I wish you the best of luck on this!!

[kb1]

On 8/13/2018 at 11:01 AM, verrasev said:

It's not finished yet but I'll attach some screenshots to this post. It may remind you a little of DoomRL but this is an action game, not a turn based roguelike. There are no rpg elements, although there is a simple cash based weapon upgrade system. I'm making it with Megazeux, if you've heard of that. I will be releasing it in three episodes, each episode containing five main levels and one or two secret levels. I'm working on the last level of the first episode now so I should release the first episode by the end of this month, hopefully. Questions/comments?

 

This is very nice looking! You're getting a lot of miles out of your text graphics!

 

A suggestion or two:

• Does it have to be a "Doom" game? Here's what I was thinking:

If you put all of your config stuff into external files, read at startup, the game could be modded to be "Doom", or "Dark Dungeon", or whatever. Imps become "ghouls" or whatever. If all the sounds are external .WAVs, they could be replaced. The goal here is to avoid any legal nonsense. Besides, if all the config was external, you could mod the game back into a Doom game, with a config package!

 

If you absolutely need it to be a Doom game, you could always check for the existance and completeness of a Doom2.wad file, which might just make the whole thing legal. In other words, if your game requires the user to buy a copy of Doom 2 (because you don't distribute that file), I don't think there can be many legal issues (but don't quote me on that - please read the user agreement yourself).

 

• I'd like to see a little more happening on the right side. That's a whole lot of screen real estate, and the left side looks so good that the right side needs a little more love, I think.

Overall, this is neat, and I'd love to check it out! Good luck.

 

 

On 8/13/2018 at 12:17 PM, Doge Sword said:

cool but it has been done before

Was that necessary? Many thousands of top-down 2D actions games have been built...because they're cool. And, no, *this* game has not been done before. Geez. A lot of work has been put into this. You didn't even use enough energy to provide punctuation.

[verrasev]

2 hours ago, kb1 said:

If you absolutely need it to be a Doom game, you could always check for the existance and completeness of a Doom2.wad file, which might just make the whole thing legal. In other words, if your game requires the user to buy a copy of Doom 2 (because you don't distribute that file), I don't think there can be many legal issues (but don't quote me on that - please read the user agreement yourself).

 

This is a possibility.  It's what Kornel Kisielewicz did with DiabloRL.  I suppose if that doesn't work out and the legality is still an issue i could always use the FreeDoom stuff in place of Doom's enemies and items.  I'm not sure any of that will be necessary, though.  When Bethesda hit Kornel with a cease and desist, he got away with using all of Doom's stuff just by changing the name from DoomRL to DRL.  I figure as long as I do something similar, I should have no problem.

Edited August 16, 2018 by verrasev
spelling

[SoulSphere]

That is pretty cool man I want to play it lol

[verrasev]

The last levels are done and the game is being play tested.  I've also added in a mini game that you can play on an arcade machine on one of the secret levels.  I'm waiting for someone to get back to me on some artwork i asked for and then the game will be released.  Here's a shot of the minigame.  Sort of a mario/megaman hybrid.

[cardboard42]

Please tell me the doomguy face is animated like on the statusbar.

[verrasev]

The eyes move and the face gets bloodier the more you get damaged.

[kb1]

It amazes me how much you're getting out of the text as graphics! You've really got an artistic skill! How big is the game? What I'm asking is, how many screens are there? Is it a huge game, with tons and tons to see, or medium size, or will it be something that can be finished in a few hours?

[verrasev]

There are 5 main levels and 2 secret levels in episode 1.  Each level is around 16 screens, except for level 5, which is 1 (very intense) screen.  The minigame consists of 3 levels of 12 screens worth of a continuous area each.  It's a short game, but there are two more episodes coming.  It's challenging, though, so that increases the amount of time it'll take to beat it.

[verrasev]

Episode 1 is done!  Get it here.  Download link is near the bottom left.  If you want to cheat, the C key gives you max health, max armor, all weapons, and all keys.  The L key ends the current level.

Edited August 27, 2018 by verrasev