How do you name your maps/wads?

[iUsuallyDie]

When I released Corridors of Power, it took me a good hour (and several rejected ideas) to come up with a title. I can't be the only one who has trouble deciding on a name, right? How do you folks come up with a name for each map?

[ViolentBeetle]

I started naming my maps as puns (Bad Reception, which I will probably rename after discovering Valiant; Crate Expectations; Checkpoint Charon qualifies though is a bit esotheric). Then it got descriptive titles like Bridge World and Flesh Mines. Then I ran out of map names ideas entirely and might settle on esotheric references to development process like U.D.S.E.M. Complex.

[Kam Tovalski]

So far, all my names are references to other games ("Door to Door" - ROTT's "Wall to Wall") or to the culture and art in general (Careless Screams - George Michael's "Careless Whispers")

[kalaeth]

I don't map so I don't name maps, but I do love me some punny map names.

 

[Deadwing]

Generally its based on the levels theme or something related to that

[HAK3180]

I often use real/normal phrases that apply to the map's overall theme or plot in the story. For example, in a community project I had the opener for the episode whose theme was something like "weapons manufacturing," so I named the map "Inventive Prowess" and included a kinda ceremonial BFG. Super shotgun was also sorta on display.

 

I've also alluded to/stolen metal lyrics/song titles:

• "Obscure Alliance" was a map in which every encounter included both humans and "proper" demons.

and biblical phrases

• "Slain on Your Heights" was a map with some mountainous scenery and a tougher fight kinda up in them.

I don't usually do Doom style names, i.e. "here's what this is," such as "Hangar" or "Unholy Cathedral" or "Nuclear Plant" or "Mill," not because I don't like them, but because I'm not very good at it. 

 

I usually name my maps midway, give or take, through the process.

[Soulless]

I normally start thinking in the name of the map after finished, I usually just get a couple of words to reflect the location of the map; here some examples:

Molten Yard (the outdoors of the map has some lava on it), Campsite Aborted (map starts with a little doomguy picnic kind of place), Arcade Station (map has a train and a room totally dedicated to arcade videogame machines), Riphean Mountains (Just a real/legendary place) etc..

[Archanhell]

The naming of a map really depends on various factors.

•General theme of the map

•General theme of the WAD/Mod

•Music used as inspiration/In-game music

•Any possible Lore from the present or past level.

 

I'll use my First WAD ever, Entering The Impending Chaos (ETIC) as an example for this.

 

The Lore was simple, you are a dude from a foreign UAC Station sent to a Station settled on Saturn by distress signals, so you fight Demons for the first time while slowly getting insane by the traumas of seeing your comrades dead/undead, that's simple enough right?

 

So the first map had a very generic name, "UAC Techbase" If I remember correctly, but the gimmick on this name was to hide the fact that ETIC was not a "normal first WAD" or overall, just a "normal WAD", it hid the fact that there was a "descent into madness" part inside the first WAD, so the player would think the level was simple and with some newbie errors here and there.

 

At the end of the map you get "caught" by Commandos, you get gunned down and arrested, MAP02 starts afterwards.

 

Condemned into Isolation, the name of the map tells you from the start what is happening and why you are there.

You got sent into a prison in the middle of nowhere within Saturn, completely alone as there are no people like you anymore, you later find out a moribund UAC Major that helps you with one last intel, he dies and you are now completely alone for real.

 

You escape the prison through the sewers get to the outside, find a temple, and enter a damn portal because why not?

This is where the thrid map starts.

 

Relinquish to your Humanity, in-game any sane or humane being that enters Hell through any means, even if it was accidentally, will slowly descend into utter madness and corruption, being forced to relinquish or abandon what they were on first place: Humans, and you, the protagonist, are no exception to this.

 

The last three levels were going to be named The Infinite Void of Yog-Sothoth, The Ten Circles of Insanity and Entering the Impending Chaos, the first because you had to travel The Void, the second was basically the same concept of going downstairs into insanity and the last level was this trope whose name I don't know (If someone knows please tell me) where the theme is basically the name of the WAD and you had to beat the core of all you went through.

 

So that's basically how you name Maps, any question?

WADs is actually the same, but you take all maps or content (This specially with Mods) into account.

 

[baja blast rd.]

Some extra ideas if you're struggling...

 

Insults: "Go Fuck Yourself"

Strained puns: "On the Origin of Spacies"

STRAINed puns: "Colander" 

minimalist ASCII representation of body parts: "<|>" 

Doom place... in pun form.

Random food 

Something dumb that Tarnsman laughs at.

..."Big Durst Energy" 

 

and finally

 

the secret ancient naming technique that Cacoward mappers use to win awards 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by ‹rd›

[VanaheimRanger]

I just steal names of guns from Destiny and Destiny 2, lmao, lots of great names for maps in there.

 

https://db.planetdestiny.com/items/weapons

[boris]

With a name generator like http://www.teamhellspawn.com/exl/name_gen/

[Doom_Dude]

I just pick one from whatever is floating about in my head. I'll pick a name at the start and will sometimes change it later. When I'm starting a new project with multiple levels, I'll start a text file and write down name ideas for all the levels.

 

Here is a sample. All names are of levels not even started yet.. Of course I may shift them around later or completely change them.

Quote

• Map 26: Well Of Ashes
• Map 27: Icestone Fireflow
• Map 28: Deserted Wayshrine
• Map 29: Skull Crusher

 

For main project names, I'll do a google and a /idgames search and see if it's already been used or not. Don't want to be all happy with my Hellbone name I picked out and then later find out it's already been used. heh.

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Doom_Dude

[Vorpal]

joke names / random generator names for serious-effort maps are actually disheartening from a player's perspective. I know it's lame but fuck off I like some degree of immersion in my cartoon violence game in 2020

Edited July 11, 2020 by Vorpal

[MAN_WITH_GUN]

In general, before starting mapping, I always ask about two things: What will be the name of the map and the music for it?
And as you can understand from the question - I name them based on the selected music, what I imagine when I listen to it. But not always, sometimes the names can describe the occurring moments in the map or are a reference to something. (For example, I have speedmap called: “Cyber-Panic”, this is called because of the pressure from the Cyberdemons scattered around the map)
But I will say that the name of the map does not affect the perception of the map at all, because the players are more interested in the map itself, rather than the name.

Edited July 11, 2020 by MAN_WITH_GUN

[esselfortium]

Good topic/username combination that pretty much sums up my answer.

"How do you name your maps/wads?" "I usually die."

[Doomkid]

I try to strike a balance between absurdity and practicality, idk how else to put it. For years I liked generic techy or helly names for my maps, but it got old after a while. You can only make so many complexes that you then call “Nukage Complex”. I have a complex over using the word complex you might say..
 

Operation Pump and Dump for Akeldama was a pretty good name I thought. It’s silly on the face of it, but it reflects (or I guess reflected) the map pretty well. The map was originally meant to have a big pump in the nukage area but VPOs ruined my fun. I liked it too much to change it though! It’s a good example of how many of my maps for the last 5 years or so have been named. Gotta avoid that “generic Doom name” trap but also can’t fall into “Haha Doomguy Pooped his Pants in Hell” levels of absurdity either.

[Major Arlene]

Often it'll depend on the theme, for me. For Dancing in the Abyss, all map names are plays on the names of musical numbers in Lord of the Dance, while Technicolor Antichrist Box is based on a very obvious piece of architecture in the beginning of the map (while I didn't actually come up with that name, TheMisterCat did). Speedmap names are usually just memes.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Depends.  If it's a one-off map, I'll likely come up with a silly name.  This was the case with Freaky Panties and Freaky Panties 2.  But for multi-level maps, I try to put a lot more effort into my naming schemes.  I'll start by thinking about the theme, or the emotional feel of it.  This is how I got "Shadows of The Nightmare Realm" and "Umbra of Fate".  Both dealt with a darker theme, and the first one specifically took place in the Doomguy's nightmares.  Umbra of Fate continued on with the shadow theme, and added in "Fate" because the Doomguys' dad basically screwed everything up for his son.  I also wanted to make sure the abbreviation for these could roll off the tongue.

 

The map names in SoTNR were much more straight-forward, though.  I seem to simply be bad at naming individual maps.

[spineapple tea]

Usually just a random thought that comes to mind while making the map. 

[Impie]

I approach titling wads the same as books and other projects: either named for the central location, object, character, or theme, sometimes in a playful way the more abstract that central thing is.

[Grain of Salt]

The process of naming has as many detours and abstractions as mapping

[RonnieJamesDiner]

19 hours ago, ‹rd› said:

the secret ancient naming technique that Cacoward mappers use to win awards 

 

I hated it until the end, when I realized that the whole thing rhymed with the map maker's name.

Edited July 12, 2020 by RonnieJamesDiner

[Bridgeburner56]

Metal songs

[NeedHealth]

Super secret list of name ideas I collected over the last 5 years or so.

[Pokeblue]

My first level was originally called Very_Cool.wad until I renamed it to a (kinda boring) Warehouse Base.wad.

[ViolentBeetle]

Since I'm preparing an official release of the first batch of maps, I had to finalize names of my first 7 maps. So currently my WAD progression is like this:

• Special Deliverance (Pun, warehouse-like level. Used to be called Bad Reception, because originally the level was supposed to be motel-themed, changed because I discovered Valiant)
• Crate Expectations (Pun, significantly more warehouse-themed)
• Checkpoint Charon (Pun, map split between techbase and hell castle)
• Bridge World (Not pun, doesn't really overtly refer to anything, but there's a teleporter bridge that takes you to different places depending on how you walk on it)
• Flesh Mines (Simply descriptive, lots of flesh behind the walls)
• Deeply and Greedily (Reference to how you are in a ruined underground temple of a sort)
• Orphean Operations (Not a pun, but bookends our trip to hell started in Checkpoint Charon)

Planned titles for the next batch of maps:

• The Crossing (Simply describing how you need to cross the river)
• Fail Safe (Roundabout reference to the gimmick of the level)
• Beheadquarters (An obvious pun)
• Second Verse (Refernce to map's gimmick through pop-cultural reference)
• Sacred Darkness (Reference to main gimmick)
• Dis-Topia (Pun)

[abandoned account]

The ones i'm doing now are probably going to be named something related to ghost towns.

 

The one i did last month is all named after the little storyline i made for it, all having something to do with confusion, deception, illusion, etc.

[spd7693]

With me it's on the story progression at first. Later may come on different causes. At Home (map 1) was because the game starts in the character's home. Later he goes through the Military Base (planned map 4, work not started) and finds its Control Center (map 5) and later its Communications Tower (planned map 7, work not started). On the way he goes through the area where some of the soldiers have their boot camp (map 6).

 

Homerun (map 9) is named after the baseball term, because you have to gather the three keys from the three bases and then exit. But unlike in baseball, here you can take the bases in any way you want. The Monastery (map 15) is called like that, because the map is based on a monastery - thus you see living quarters, a crypt, a church, a paraclyse, a courtyard with a fountain, a gate, etc. Just abstract thinking. The secret maps are named after two songs from Bulgarian heavy metal bands. Well, 31 is rather the location the story in the song takes place at, but anyways. Map 24 is planned to be called Machina del Diablo, but I don't know when it would be ready. The name is after the track I'm planning to use on it. (Originally an Age Of Empires track. Yeah, most maps use music from Age Of Empires.) 29 (work in progress) is named Shackled By The Master, after a fragment of a song by a Bulgarian heavy metal band again. And 30 is Crime And Punishment, named after Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel. 

 

As for Hexadeca, it's literally its number in Latin. That's something never seen in Doom I think, a map named after its number. It was the first map I had as an idea and that's why it's such a mixbag of rooms and seems to have nothing of a general idea, but at least fits to its name. It says simply 16. Which says nothing.