Three Is A Crowd (Anniversary Edition on idgames)

[Scypek2]

A new version with an extra level, better deathmatch and lots of small improvements is now available! See here.

 

* * *

 

It's done. During the course of NaNoWADMo 2019 last October, I made 19 levels. The rest of the project took considerably longer to finish, but it was all worth it, and now my second ever megawad is finally finished.

 

 

Three Is A Crowd tells a story of three people, facing different challenges as they set off on separate yet intertwined paths. It also shakes up the usual techbase-hell progression a bit. Overall, it's considerably vanilla, with just a few new textures, but it has its own unique feel and features plenty of variety and surprises among the levels... if you're playing in a port that supports demo playback, just stay on the title screen for a while and you'll see what I mean.

 

In addition, I had my creativity spurred by a friend, who (without knowing much about Doom) challenged me to implement a few specific themes within the levels:

 

1. Unexpectedly long corridor.
2. A room with seven doors in one wall, and exactly one other exit.
3. Make the player feel sorry for an enemy.
4. A least seven arrow shapes that indicate the direction of something, at least one of which the player walks through.
5. 37 chaingunners in a single level!  Precede their appearance with an image of the number 37... and include at least one other reference to the number 37 somewhere in the level.
6. A lift that you keep encountering, but ████ ██ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███.
7. approximate the feel of a store with a storekeeper from which you can buy things... but maybe ███ █████ █████ ██ ██ ████?!
8. Include a key whose location is very hard to find by chance... but for which there are multiple clues indicating where the player should look, scattered around the map.

 

I did manage to implement every single one of these themes... see if you can recognize them all as you play!

 

Here are some extra screenshots:

 

Special thanks to: @Ribbiks, @Crunchynut44 and @Doomkid for the music, @valkiriforce, @Chaingunner, @MTX1996, OSJCLatchford, @Doom_Dude, @Solmyr, @EarthQuake, @129thVisplane and @Eradrop for the textures, @Ryath for some playtesting... and for hosting NaNoWADMo of course!

 

I've written down some thoughts about the maps, detailing the gimmicks and mapping tricks I used, as well as any other background info I could think of. I shared them during the Doomworld Megawad Club playthrough, and later compiled them on Tumblr.

 

 * * *

3IAC_1.1.zip (original release)

Anniversary Edition (better deathmatch, new level, various improvements)

Edited July 19, 2023 by Scypek2

[galileo31dos01]

Beautiful!

 

Though may I ask why is this in Doom General?

[Scypek2]

Because it was my prophesied fate to immediately screw up something about this release, so I guess choosing the proper subforum for my thread might as well be it.

[Doom_Dude]

Nice looking screenshots. :D I like that upside-down cross that opens up in the video. Time to downgrab..

[Doomkid]

Just played through about 5 maps of this and turned on cheats to peruse the rest (just to save time, I like doing some recon before having my proper playthrough.)

 

This set is fantastic! Great use of the stock assets and just enough custom graphics to give it a personalized, unique feel while still being 100% 'true to Doom'. The setting of themes for each chunk through not only texturing and design but also music placement was really nice.

 

I have to say I found it hilarious that the game of Scribble hadn't progressed at all each time I got to it - In other words, true to life.

 

 

There are some extremely clever tricks being used here considering this is vanilla format. The way this floor with a crack in it only "breaks away" and lowers you into the cave after you've progressed to a certain point in the map is really cool (also this screenshot was 666kb before compression..)

 

 

The way this cross opens up looks very badass, but for some reason on my first playthrough, I entered it, died and didn't progress... just sat there. Every other time I played it worked as intended, so did I do something in the wrong order or was this just a one in a million bug?

 

 

This shot really reminded me of MarsWar or perhaps a similar classic-era wad in all the right ways. The whole set captures the vibe perfectly, really:

 

 

My gut instinct is that this use of a tile texture out-of-place was to capture that 90's mapping oddness essence and I don't need to tell you that better fitting tan rock flats are in the iwad. Because this made me feel right at home in a dwango-esque kind of way:

 

 

Fantastic stuff, I will do a proper playthrough of this in Choco or DosBox soon with no cheats or anything (ofc) and I'll be looking for all the little easter egg thingies you mentioned in the OP. If this sweet little one-man megawad doesn't deserve a Cacoward, I don't know what does. As for the big vanilla pack? This is going in right away. Well, once you're sure it's the final version, anyway.

 

tenattaten!

Edited June 18, 2020 by Doomkid

[random_soldier1337]

I really like the hell skybox. Shakes things up and looks very creepy and surreal the first time around.

[taufan99]

Yet another vanilla megawad insanity that blows people's mind. Definitely a Cacoward bait!

[Dopaminecloud]

I beat the first episode. Really enjoying it so far. The texture-less section is definitely a little disorienting but because I got through it without dying on the first try it's probably fine. People ought to play this.

[Scypek2]

Well, that's reassuring! Or it would be, if you haven't watched a stream of someone beating it with IDDT enabled.

 

anyway, I promise map29 is extremely fair, uncontroversial and enjoyable

Edited June 19, 2020 by Scypek2

[ironicmoustache]

Looks amazing, immediately slotted this pretty high up in my "to play" queue. Excited to give it a whirl!

Edited June 20, 2020 by ironicmoustache

[scwiba]

Huge congrats on the release! It's such a unique WAD and I'm so happy to see stuff like this come out of NaNoWADMo. 

[Scypek2]

I'm happy to see everyone liking it! Big thanks to @joe-ilya for the playthrough! I'm now halfway through a bunch of fixes and touch-ups (no major changes, but plenty of them) and I'll release an updated version soon. Most of the stuff in need of tweaking was spotted by Joe during his streams, so thanks again!

[Dopaminecloud]

Now that my UVmax playthrough is completed I can give my final thoughts, so spoilers ahead I guess. I really, really like this. You could call it gimmick-y, but if the gimmicks are never painful (not more so than any difficult fight would be at least), that just means there's a ton of variety. The difficulty and visual interest dipped a little in the middle of the wad, but even there there's a couple of memorable levels (obviously the light switch one for example). The general design is always super tight, there's only one or two moments where the intended progression isn't immediately obvious, but it's never obscure. The story works well too. I don't really care for story with my doom, but getting to play the first lad again after all the self sacrifice gives strong motivation.

Favorite gameplay: Maps 2, 11, 16, 29 and 30 for sure. Plenty of other more standard ones that were fun too, but these ones I'll remember.

Favorite visuals: Maps 8 (lol), 18, 20 and 25. 25 being my absolute favorite.

Last shout out to some straight up fun nonsense design like including shops, treasure hunting and an imp friend.

[Scypek2]

On 6/18/2020 at 10:51 PM, Doomkid said:

My gut instinct is that this use of a tile texture out-of-place was to capture that 90's mapping oddness essence and I don't need to tell you that better fitting tan rock flats are in the iwad. Because this made me feel right at home in a dwango-esque kind of way:

 

There's plenty of "tan rock flats" that go well with ROCK5 (and I use them all the time). But with the yellow ROCK4? It'd be an eyesore! I'd rather use something high-contrasty like dark brown FLOOR10. What even is FLOOR0_2 anyway? iwads use them as floor tiles, and it looks kinda like tiles, but weird and irregular. It only takes some imaginations to imagine it as pointy rocks. ROCK4 is already pointy rocks, just less flat and diagonal.

 

In any case, using flats wrong is a time-honored tradition ever since the green marble ceilings on E1M1. Now I just wish I used the grass texture in a similar way throughout the wad. I already did once or twice (see the Scribble game board) but I could've done it more.

 

Thank you for the glowing review!

 

PS:

The new version with fixes and tweaks is now complete, and I'll upload it as soon as I double-check I haven't accidentally broken something ever more in the process.

Edited June 25, 2020 by Scypek2

[Revenant]

Just finished playing through this last night. Really great stuff! All the continuity between maps was a really nice touch on top of all the individual maps' creative tricks.

 

Looking forward to the updated version!

[Redneckerz]

Looks totally unique and it instantly floored me. This looks badass! Check back on a certain site next Sunday (so in a week) for some coverage. :)

[666shooter]

Okay, you sold me on this with that video and that really awesome hellish/flesh skybox. This looks really unique and exciting, so I think I'll give it a try.

[TheNoob_Gamer]

Story-focused wads are my jam, so I'm pleased to say that I'm having a blast with this so far - the details you put in some maps are very well (and thematically correct), especially in story-focused maps and I like how you still give linedef actions on inaccessible key-based doors. (MAP10's red door). I liked the gimmicks revolving around some maps as well - the central enemy of MAP02 certainly required me to have a good sense of direction and movement.

 

Have a question though, was MAP05 inspired by or a tribute to Scythe's MAP05? The layout (especially the drop-down pit) and detailing really remind me of that.

Edited June 28, 2020 by TheNoob_Gamer

[P41R47]

Alright!!!

I'm gonna give this mapset a full playthrough.

It got me hooked since i view it a few weeks back.

EDIT: @Scypek2 would you like a new status bar?

I usually made one for myself for every megawad that i play that doesn't have one.
PM me if you like ;)

Edited July 9, 2020 by P41R47

[BabyGiggles]

It's hard at times and sometimes difficult to traverse but overall a really good mega wad

[P41R47]

I found some bugs.
In map03 after climbing the stairs in the darkness, there is a possibility that one of the lost souls in the room behind the yellow door sees you if you take the rockets on the ground. I found that the Lost Soul can open the yellow doors from the other side, thus making the map far more difficult than intended as the hell knight will teleport to the dark room sooner than expected.

Another one, is map13 automap name is wrong, it reads ''area zone'' when it patch name is ''Outpost Facility'', but this name is one letter off the limit of dehacked.
Map12 automap name is also wrong, as it read ''diode'' and the patch name is ''Adjustable Diode''.

So far... its perfect!
Challenging, alien, oppresive, funny, and really imaginative.
Some vanilla tricks here implemented amazingly to play with your mind.
Love it!
I'm in map26, i will left the 4 remaining maps for tomorrow as i am very sleepy now.

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by P41R47

[Scypek2]

16 hours ago, P41R47 said:

I found some bugs.
In map03 after climbing the stairs in the darkness, there is a possibility that one of the lost souls in the room behind the yellow door sees you if you take the rockets on the ground. I found that the Lost Soul can open the yellow doors from the other side, thus making the map far more difficult than intended as the hell knight will teleport to the dark room sooner than expected.

 

I think I had it happen before but couldn't figure out why, I'll try to figure it out!

 

16 hours ago, P41R47 said:

Another one, is map13 automap name is wrong, it reads ''area zone'' when it patch name is ''Outpost Facility'', but this name is one letter off the limit of dehacked.
Map12 automap name is also wrong, as it read ''diode'' and the patch name is ''Adjustable Diode''.

 

Well, yeah! Not much I could do about it, so I made do with whatever available length I had! The patch names are the official ones though.

 

I'm glad to hear your experiences, and thanks again for the status bar!

[P41R47]

1 hour ago, Scypek2 said:

 

I think I had it happen before but couldn't figure out why, I'll try to figure it out!

 

 

Well, yeah! Not much I could do about it, so I made do with whatever available length I had! The patch names are the official ones though.

 

I'm glad to hear your experiences, and thanks again for the status bar!

I just completed it, pal!
What an amazing experience!

 

You really made me sweat in map29: Sheer Poison.
I almost hate you on the endless cycle until i figure it out.

This is the best experience i had in Doom in really long time.

And in vanilla no less! And you didn't made any dehacked change!!
This makes me wonder how much the vanilla mechanics can still be exploited.
This goes into my favorite list for sure!

 

You are welcome! :D

 

Edited July 13, 2020 by P41R47

[Scypek2]

I finished a new release!
 

It includes over 50 bugfixes, visual tweaks and gameplay tweaks mostly inspired by @joe-ilya's playthrough, and a sexy new status bar by @P41R47.

3IAC_1.1.zip

[taufan99]

Oh wow! Didn't notice there's a new release.

[Chip]

This was released to idgames a few days ago. I wonder why nobody said anything? well, here it is! 

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/3iac

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I still haven't played this yet, but it looks fucking great and I hear a lot of good things about it. I'm moving this to the top of my list. Congratulations on the release!

[Scypek2]

(double post)

Edited October 2, 2020 by Scypek2

[Scypek2]

12 hours ago, LiT_gam3r said:

This was released to idgames a few days ago. I wonder why nobody said anything? well, here it is! 

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/3iac

 

I've been wondering when it was gonna get accepted, but I didn't check very often. Thanks for the heads up! And it looks like it made it in just in time before NaNoWadMo 2020...

 

So here it is! The finalest, officialest release! Not a lot of changes from the previous release... the biggest difference is that now, ZDoom offers an episode selection, letting you choose which protagonist's story you want to see first. This wad's difficulty curve is not very linear, so this may be a nice alternative!

Edited October 2, 2020 by Scypek2

[Not Jabba]

Hey, just wanted to report that the map 32 intermission text doesn't work in the final version (at least not in GZDoom). It just shows the stock "you've found the super secret level" text. I'm not sure what's going on there. I remember it worked correctly in the earlier version of 3IaC that I played (must have been 1.0?).