THEME-GAWAD PROJECT #1

[Ofisil]

@Dragonfly thanx for the offer. I'll surely chek it out.

[Tanksy]

I'd like to join the project. Can I do MAP31? I love a limited ammo challenge map ;)

[Ofisil]

5 minutes ago, Tanksy said:

I'd like to join the project. Can I do MAP31? I love a limited ammo challenge map ;)

 

Great!

Read the rules and send over any questions.

 

Remember to add a Super Secret Exit, as well.

[Tanksy]

Awesome, will do!

 

I'll keep you posted with my progress and to get any pointers from yourself on what you'd like to see. I'll just say now that I'm no speed mapper, and part of the reason I wanted to join this project was the generous deadline that works well with my busy schedule. I doubt anything will get in the way of finishing in time but I'll let you know if anything comes up.

 

I typically use UDMF because I'm a filthy GZDoomer casual but I welcome the challenge of the older formats. One question I have in regards to the rules is; by 'limit-removing ports' does that mean I can use Boom format, or should I just stick with good ol' Doom 2 format?

[Ofisil]

@Tanksy plain ol' Doom wad. Limit-free means u r not bound by sector/linedef limitations.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Ofisil

[Ofisil]

9 hours ago, E.M. said:

Here's my contribution. I normally fill my maps with lots of monsters, but I knew I couldn't do that this time around, so I had to make my map hard in other ways. Namely, I made the ammo scarce. Tested with Crispy Doom and GZDoom. It all fits nicely within the specified 3072^2 area. I had to delete the measurement lines after I finished laying out the map because GZDoom was acting up about it.

 

Ok, that was really good, appropriately challenging, with ammo feeling scarce in pistol start, but still doable / excellent for those who'll come better equiped from the prevous map. Neat "hidden credits" secret ;)

 

Some thoughts:

 

#1 Maybe have the Cyber begin with his back turned? He'll still manage to "surprise" players the moment they'll enter the map, and upon trying to move they'll inevitably awaken the rest of the baddies + Cyber.

 

#2 I don't know what to think about the damaging blood (any other testers, plz share your thoughts). Maybe try to add a few more health items, even if they are simple health potions/stimpaks, if you don't won't to completely ditch the idea.

 

When u feel your map is 100% ready, send it over for me to store.

[Dwimepon]

9 hours ago, E.M. said:

Here's my contribution. I normally fill my maps with lots of monsters, but I knew I couldn't do that this time around, so I had to make my map hard in other ways. Namely, I made the ammo scarce. Tested with Crispy Doom and GZDoom. It all fits nicely within the specified 3072^2 area. I had to delete the measurement lines after I finished laying out the map because GZDoom was acting up about it.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/ekbjbvjakjcfrk4/THEME-GAWAD-EM-MAP23-V01.zip/file

 

Pretty good! The architecture looks great, and I love how it's constructed around one big room and its surrondings. I would probably reduce the number of enemies juuuust a little bit, though - it tips a bit more towards "Plutonia" than "Doom 2" when it comes to difficulty here, at least to me. The main room is also very big, but the blood pools everywhere makes it pretty hard to navigate and that doesn't mesh well with such a hectic and adrenaline-fueled map.

 

I would also recommend adding a little more ammo here and there - enough for someone who doesn't know the map to scrape by while still keeping the resources limited. Still really liked it, though! I think it does a cool contrast with my MAP22.

[Ofisil]

@Dwimepon the challenge is actually alright for a Chapter 5 map - as said in the start of the thread: Very Hard (A bit harder than DOOM II)

 

...But yeah, the map's damaging blood is the thing I have the biggest issue with.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Ofisil

[Dwimepon]

1 minute ago, Ofisil said:

@Dwimepon the challenge is actually alright for a Chapter 5 map - as said in the start of the thread: Very Hard (A bit harder than DOOM II)

 

...But yeah, the map's damaging blood is the thing I have the biggest issue with.

 

You're the boss! I found it harder than "a bit harder", but then again I'm not exactly a great Doom player, haha.

 

I'll upload my MAP22 later today, after adjusting a few things to make it flow better with E.M's map.

[ViolentBeetle]

Do you think it would be ok for me to do what TNT did and use blood for molten metal? Because Doom 2's idea on lava waterfall isn't so great.

[Ofisil]

6 minutes ago, ViolentBeetle said:

Do you think it would be ok for me to do what TNT did and use blood for molten metal? Because Doom 2's idea on lava waterfall isn't so great.

 

Yeah, I've seen blood used in that way plenty of times and in a very good way.

[E.M.]

39 minutes ago, Ofisil said:

 

Ok, that was really good, appropriately challenging, with ammo feeling scarce in pistol start, but still doable / excellent for those who'll come better equiped from the prevous map. Neat "hidden credits" secret ;)

 

Some thoughts:

 

#1 Maybe have the Cyber begin with his back turned? He'll still manage to "surprise" players the moment they'll enter the map, and upon trying to move they'll inevitably awaken the rest of the baddies + Cyber.

 

#2 I don't know what to think about the damaging blood (any other testers, plz share your thoughts). Maybe try to add a few more health items, even if they are simple health potions/stimpaks, if you don't won't to completely ditch the idea.

 

When u feel your map is 100% ready, send it over for me to store.

 

The reason why I put those damaging floors there was because I felt the map wasn't hard enough. I'll go ahead and put down some health bonuses so the level isn't as sadistic.

[Dwimepon]

One MAP22, coming right up! Again, this is meant as a small, linear transition piece between MAP21 and MAP23, with a (VERY) low enemy count and more horror-esque elements. I feel like it could definitely use some improvement, though, so I'd love to get feedback on it.

 

I also put a Blood midi as a placeholder because the original music didn't quite fit.

 

Theme-gawad MAP 22 (The Mouth of Madness) v1.zip

 

Screenshots:

 

Spoiler

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by Dwimepon

[Ofisil]

I'm a sucker for horror-themed Doom wads, and I surely want some of those in this project.

Mechanically it's simple, but that's the idea. A linear transition as you say (with a neat, classic-y DOOM II feel, imo) - love the Mouth of Madness area :)

All the tips I can give you, are mainly about enhancing that horror feel

 

#1 Make ALL encounters be a surprise. In other words, don't let the player just discover the baron and the Revs just by walking.
#2 Make the second archvile teleport the moment it sees you. This way it will make this battle easier, but also make the player feel "afraid" from not knowing where this guy now is (place him in the NUKAGE neat the exit maybe?)
#3 The biggest issue with your map, right now, is the brightness. This is way, WAY too bright for what it is. Make the map get darker the more you move away from a light source (gradient-style), especially in the beginning and the area with the blood waterfall, where the brightness feels totally out of place / you can even add some pitch black spots.

 

Now for some quality adjustments:

 

#1 Fix the alignment of the textures that border the Big skull switches on the area with the P.Elements
#2 Don't be afraid to add more detail, as there is no sector limit here. Support columns in the first corridor; holes in the red skin walls in the exit area; lots of player corpses - go nuts!

[continuum.mid]

44 minutes ago, Dwimepon said:

One MAP22, coming right up! Again, this is meant as a small, linear transition piece between MAP21 and MAP23, with a (VERY) low enemy count and more horror-esque elements. I feel like it could definitely use some improvement, though, so I'd love to get feedback on it.

 

I also put a Blood midi as a placeholder because the original music didn't quite fit.

 

Theme-gawad MAP 22 (The Mouth of Madness) v1.zip

 

Screenshots:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Great horror map!

 

By the way, I'm testing all of these on Freedoom (no reason, just because I can) and it makes the Archvile teleportation at the beginning of the map a whole lot scarier, because the Necromancer's (Arch-Vile's) activation sound is a low-pitched evil laugh. That, combined with the rock opening up to reveal a hanging body, is a nightmare.

 

 

I'll just echo Ofisil's suggestion to make it a little bit darker. That would make it an even scarier nightmare.

Edited March 21, 2021 by northivanastan

[E.M.]

Here's version 2 of my map.

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/c1d78efjrtna0z6/THEME-GAWAD-EM-MAP23-V02.zip/file

 

List of changes:

>Got rid of the 3 border blood floors in the starting area because I ultimately decided that they bogged down the pace of the map. I kept the blood floors in the center and eastern areas because I think they look cool.

>Got rid of 2 pinkies in the starting area for the same reason.

>Cyberdemon now faces away from the player at the start.

>Changed 2 revenants into chaingunners in the eastern area.

>Added monster teleport linedefs in the super shotgun room because I didn't want the imps to get stuck in there.

>Also added monster teleport linedefs in the southern room for the same reason.

>Added some health and armor bonuses.

>Also put down a bit more ammo.

Edited March 21, 2021 by E.M.

[Dwimepon]

Thank you for the feedback, @Ofisil and @northivanastan! Glad to know you've liked it :)

 

Yeah, the map was wayyy too bright overall. Reducing brightness a LOT in pretty much every area makes a world's worth of difference, the whole thing feels much moodier and scarier. It's HEAPS better now! I also turned the revenant and baron fights into monster closets to take the player by surprise.

 

Not sure if I should do the teleport trick for one of the arch-viles, though. Considering they're already awake when you meet them proper, bringing one of them to a teleporter line might be tricky. I also really like that "oh shit" moment you get when you try to interact with the door only for the 2 archviles at the start to pop up. Eh, I'll think about it!

I won't have power tomorrow so I figured I should upload v2 right now. Not much changed detail / decoration-wise, but it's definitely planned, don't worry! Ofisil gave me great ideas :)

 

Theme-gawad MAP 22 (The Mouth of Madness) v2.zip

 

And E.M, I'll test your map again ASAP! I'm sure it's going to be fantastic with those changes.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Dwimepon

[StarSpun5000]

I had an idea of putting a teleporter that leads the player to a hellish corrupted version of the Sewers that uses the blood and other hell textures. Is that stretching the sewer level theme a bit to much?   

[forgettable pyromaniac]

Hey! I'm working on the level, I want opinions if that's okay.
I'm still working on the Commander Keen Mechanic, and not all the buildings are done, but ye!

It's not supposed to be a looker right now, just meant to play well. Will be adding more details later.

There are 4 Commander Keens right now.

MAP12.zip

EDIT: Before I forget, you can't beat it right now, but killing all commander keens would normally end the level.

Edited March 22, 2021 by forgettablepyromaniac
edit:

[continuum.mid]

18 minutes ago, forgettablepyromaniac said:

Hey! I'm working on the level, I want opinions if that's okay.
I'm still working on the Commander Keen Mechanic, and not all the buildings are done, but ye!

It's not supposed to be a looker right now, just meant to play well. Will be adding more details later.

There are 4 Commander Keens right now.

MAP12.zip

Decent map, and I'm sure I'll like it more once there's more detailing. The use of Commander Keens reminds me of a couple of maps from the Japanese Community Project. With how many enemies there are outside it feels a bit like a "city arena fight" - is that intended?

 

I couldn't find any of the keys, and only managed to find one Commander Keen - where are they?

Edited March 22, 2021 by northivanastan

[forgettable pyromaniac]

3 minutes ago, northivanastan said:

Decent map, and I'm sure I'll like it more once there's more detailing. The use of Commander Keens reminds me of a couple of maps from the Japanese Community Project. With how many enemies there are outside it feels a bit like a "city arena fight" - is that intended?

 

I couldn't find any of the keys, and only managed to find one Commander Keen - where are they?

Yea! The start has you running around looking for more ammo and stuff :) I think it's cool

Spoilers for keys and keens:

Spoiler

Some Keens require Keys, The Red Key requires a teleport from the Sewer Corner (The Left Tele Takes you to the Red Key, the right one gets you the rocket launcher)

Red gives you the Blue one From the Center Red Building.
The Yellow Key is in the bank, requires a tele I haven't made yet :p

One Keen is in the Red Building That requires the Red Key
One Keen is in the Building with the window cleaning platform that requires the Blue Key
One Keen is in the Bank (Behind the Yellow Door, but you can shoot it through the bars the teller is behind)
One Keen is in the Sewer.

I'm Planning on having the Cement Building be a building-in-progress (empty rooms, some rooms with no wallpaper you can see into other rooms from, ect)
and the Gray Building be an office (With Cubicles with monsters inside!)

[continuum.mid]

3 minutes ago, forgettablepyromaniac said:

Yea! The start has you running around looking for more ammo and stuff :) I think it's cool

Spoilers for keys and keens:

  Hide contents

Some Keens require Keys, The Red Key requires a teleport from the Sewer Corner (The Left Tele Takes you to the Red Key, the right one gets you the rocket launcher)

Red gives you the Blue one From the Center Red Building.
The Yellow Key is in the bank, requires a tele I haven't made yet :p

One Keen is in the Red Building That requires the Red Key
One Keen is in the Building with the window cleaning platform that requires the Blue Key
One Keen is in the Bank (Behind the Yellow Door, but you can shoot it through the bars the teller is behind)
One Keen is in the Sewer.

I'm Planning on having the Cement Building be a building-in-progress (empty rooms, some rooms with no wallpaper you can see into other rooms from, ect)
and the Gray Building be an office (With Cubicles with monsters inside!)

Cool, managed to find everything (actually found blue key and another Keen on my own before you posted). Looks like this level is not possible to complete in its current state (nothing seems to happen when the fourth Keen dies), but that's fine, it's just a prototype.

 

Is the MIDI yours, by the way?

[StarSpun5000]

Alright pretty decent so far but with some issues that could be worked out. kill all commander Keens has a misspelling, and I feel that some of the door frames are too thin. Specifically with the locked doors where you can clearly tell that the colored markers don't fit. Aside from that it seems to be pretty good so far. (Also is that a Going Down homage with the yellow key in a room locked by a yellow key?)

[forgettable pyromaniac]

1 minute ago, northivanastan said:

Cool, managed to find everything (actually found blue key and another Keen on my own before you posted). Looks like this level is not possible to complete in its current state (nothing seems to happen when the fourth Keen dies), but that's fine, it's just a prototype.

 

Is the MIDI yours, by the way?

No, it's not. I just have it there to listen to while I'm working on the level lmao.

It's from Community Chest 2, Map 15 :D

[forgettable pyromaniac]

1 minute ago, StarSpun5000 said:

Alright pretty decent so far but with some issues that could be worked out. kill all commander Keens has a misspelling, and I feel that some of the door frames are too thin. Specifically with the locked doors where you can clearly tell that the colored markers don't fit. Aside from that it seems to be pretty good so far. (Also is that a Going Down homage with the yellow key in a room locked by a yellow key?)

Yea! I really liked the idea, so I took it as a combination of that and also it's an optional secret! I like secret keys that aren't required (The only one that comes to mind right now is E2M1 from the iwad.)

[continuum.mid]

10 minutes ago, forgettablepyromaniac said:

No, it's not. I just have it there to listen to while I'm working on the level lmao.

It's from Community Chest 2, Map 15 :D

Didn't think so. I asked because I had a MIDI I was working on with MAP01 in mind, but the mapper never said they were interested in it, so in case they aren't I thought I'd submit it for another map, and this one kinda fits. Then again, I could also make an original MIDI for this map, though I'm not going to commit to either course of action.

Edited March 22, 2021 by northivanastan

[forgettable pyromaniac]

Just now, northivanastan said:

Didn't think so. I asked because I had a MIDI I was working on with MAP01 in mind, but the mapper never said they were interested in it, so in case they aren't I thought I'd submit it for another map, and this one kinda fits. Then again, I could also make an original MIDI for this map, though I'm not going to commit to either course of action.

that's fair :p

[forgettable pyromaniac]

Spoiler

Instead of using the sides to tell which key is required, I'll do this more maybe :)

[Jakub Majewski]

If MAP27's slot is still free, I'll gladly take it.

[Ofisil]

2 hours ago, KUBA18i said:

If MAP27's slot is still free, I'll gladly take it.

 

It's yours!

 

Read the rules to see if sth is unclear, and ask the team away any questions.