[WIP/Announce] Eschatology

[Remilia Scarlet]

Basic Info

• NOT YET RELEASED - This is just the announcement for now.  This should be ready in 2022.
• One hub, 5-7 levels, pistol start automatically enforced
• Mode: Single player only
• Engine: K8Vavoom required
• IWAD: doom2.wad
• Only the original Doom and Doom 2 are considered cannon story-wise

Eschatology is a mini episode where you play as a space marine stuck in Hell.  The set will consist of 5-7 maps, playable in any order, plus a hub.  Most of the maps will be done by me, but I'm accepting a few guest mappers as well.  So far Elma-K is helping out with the project, and I am super excited to have them making a map for it, though I'm open to having a few other guest mappers as well!  DM me if you're interested.

 

This project abandons the traditional concept of "make maps, release project, go to next project, repeat" and instead embraces a sort of rolling release.  As such, you can expect additional maps and content to (slowly) be added as add-on packs as I complete them - probably once every year or two.  But each release should be considered separate.  So, once finished, this will be the first v1.0 release (the next release with new maps will be v2.0).

 

The gameplay is very Doom-like, with some Quake flavor thrown in for good measure.  There's a few new monsters and power-ups to keep things interesting, however.  One of the levels is an updated and remixed version of my Halls of The Goat Child level.  This new version is more difficult, has some new areas, and has redone visuals to take advantage of K8Vavoom.  So don't expect the same experience as the original version ^_^.  The rest of the levels are totally new.

 

Story

We all know about the space marine who fought against the demons and stopped the invasion by Hell.  But what most people don't know is that isn't the entire story...

Spoiler

To think that the invasion of Earth was all that Hell could muster was idealistic at best.  Yet that's what everyone believed.  Unbeknownst to them, however, legions of demons, uncountable in number, still gathered around their leaders across the various planes of Hell.  All of them waited with bated breath for their next chance to strike and bring about the End of Days upon Earth.  However, their plans did not account for one other lone marine that was still stuck in Hell.

 

Evelyn Walsh, a sergeant in the US Space Marine Corps, was stationed on Deimos when the demons first invaded.  The carnage she saw was unreal, with friends and teammates slaughtered like lambs.  During one particularly vicious attack wave, she was knocked unconscious.  Days later she awoke inside of a strange temple to the sound of a disembodied voice, inhuman and echoing against the walls.

"You are arrogant to think that you kind can survive our invasion, mortal.  We are Legion, innumerable and all powerful.  Neither your weapons nor your beliefs in false idols have any power to stop us from bringing about the End of Days on your pitiful planet!  Brimstone will rain down from the heavens as we approach and kill, torture, and mutilate every last one of your kind, and all other life!"

 

Evelyn stood up and squinted her eyes in anger, her black hair sticking to her blood-stained face.  How she was still alive was a mystery, yet here she was, a living mortal standing in Hell.  She knew what she had to do.  With a clenched fist, she responded to the voice, "Then I guess I'll just have to stay here until every last one of you is dead."

 

And so, with relentless determination, Evelyn decided to stay and fight.  She didn't know how long it would take, but she didn't care.  Demon-kind would never reach Earth as long as she had something to say about it.

 

WIP Screenshots

Spoiler

 

 

 

Join my Discord server, where I post about this a lot more often!

Other Things By Me

• Umbra of Fate
• Shadows of The Nightmare Realm
• The Unending
• Freaky Panties 1 and 2
• Oops! All Greyboxes! (community project)
• Halls of The Goat Child
• Extreme Terror
• One Doomed Marine
• Kill
• Some levels for other people that are not yet released

Nearly all of these are on my website.

Edited September 11, 2021 by Remilia Scarlet

[MFG38]

*makes note to download k8Vavoom*

[Gez]

14 minutes ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

All of them waited with baited breath

 

Quote

Sally, having swallowed cheese
Directs down holes the scented breeze
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.

--Geoffrey Taylor, Cruel Clever Cat

 

:p

[Peccatum Mihzamiz]

I can already imagine part of the introduction of this year's Cacowards: "This year saw mappers giving players that finale nudge to download a whole flurry of source ports new to them. We can only hope that with projects like Heartland and Eschatology, ports like Eternity and K8Vavoom have reached a bigger community of people wanting to work with their specific features. Will 2021 be remembered as the year that...". :p

[Remilia Scarlet]

20 minutes ago, Gez said:

:p

LOL wow I missed that.  You see... she was uhh... fishing.  Yeah, fishing.  On Mars.  And the demons, they had been eating a lot of her bait, so their breath smelled like bait.  *cough* Yeah... >_>

[MattFright]

I think i've retweeted your screenies enough to show it, but i absolutely love the look of your k8vavoom maps, can't wait for the release of this one :D

 

40 minutes ago, Peccatum Mihzamiz said:

I can already imagine part of the introduction of this year's Cacowards: "This year saw mappers giving players that finale nudge to download a whole flurry of source ports new to them. We can only hope that with projects like Heartland and Eschatology, ports like Eternity and K8Vavoom have reached a bigger community of people wanting to work with their specific features. Will 2021 be remembered as the year that...". :p

 

Oh man i really hope so. EE and k8vavoom deserve a lot more high quality beautiful maps like these. I know for a fact they've singlehandedly made me test out both ports, and i hope the same goes for a lot more people. I'm already certain i'll either make a map or organize a community project, i just don't know for which port just yet...

[holaareola]

I love the atmosphere of Quake (particularly the lighting) but prefer Doom's gameplay - so this is right up my alley.  You've captured Quake's oppressive and austere look perfectly here, nay, outdone it even.  Beautiful stuff.

[roadworx]

omg this looks absolutely gorgeous, i can't wait for these to come out!!

 

2 hours ago, Peccatum Mihzamiz said:

I can already imagine part of the introduction of this year's Cacowards: "This year saw mappers giving players that finale nudge to download a whole flurry of source ports new to them. We can only hope that with projects like Heartland and Eschatology, ports like Eternity and K8Vavoom have reached a bigger community of people wanting to work with their specific features. Will 2021 be remembered as the year that...". :p

let the port wars begin

 

no but srsly, it's about time. these source ports need more love than they get

[ketmar]

1 hour ago, roadworx said:

let the port wars begin

it's hard to start a war when there is no enemy. also, cooperation always worked much better than fighting. ;-)

[ketmar]

1 hour ago, holaareola said:

I love the atmosphere of Quake (particularly the lighting)

then why you aren't Vavoom yet?! ;-) no, really, Janis used Quake as an inspiration, and implemented the same lightmapped lighting as in Quake. k8vavoom still have lighmapped mode (and with the upcoming build it should be mostly free of Space Ants), and that mode is the only one that has overbrighting implemented. and it is colored. the best of Quake + the best of Doom, in one port! ;-)

[BlooDaBeast_OG]

literally eye orgasm. once i figure out how to setup k8 imma be rolling in delicious content

[Turin Turambar]

One of those days you will be able to compile all in a megawad!

[Remilia Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Turin Turambar said:

One of those days you will be able to compile all in a megawad!

hah, I suppose that would be an unintended side-effect of this project, yeah.

 

10 hours ago, ketmar said:

the best of Quake + the best of Doom, in one port!

Hmm, maybe I picked up on this subconsciously.  I was wanting something that was a nice blend between Quake and Doom, since I play the former more yet map for the latter more.  And both have their own strengths engine-wise.  Maybe that's why this feels like a good fit.

rofl space ants XD

[ketmar]

Quake feels slower than Doom for me (because, afair, player speed in Quake was really reduced), and i miss my Doom demonic friends. ;-) that's why i never really liked Quake. of course, i played it alot when it was fresh, but then stopped. so "Quake-in-Doom" is really the best of both worlds for me. ;-)

 

p.s.: "Quake inspiration" in Vavoom often means "god bless GPL, let's take this Quake code!" ;-)

[Remilia Scarlet]

 

Just a small update with some new screenshots from what I'm calling my "rotten temple" map.

I also recently added a new powerup that acts as a slight damage increase for the shotguns, as well as greatly narrows their spread.  The idea is that you can use them to fight a lot of beefy  far off or sniper-like enemies.  Mapping-wise, it's meant to be used when the player only has shotguns, or shotguns + chaingun, providing a much more useful (though temporary) far-off sniping tool than the chaingun.

Lastly, the original post was slightly updated with some basic information, and also a link to my Discord server, where I tend to post more often about this project.

[Bucket]

Looks neat.

Need any music?

[Remilia Scarlet]

20 minutes ago, Bucket said:

Looks neat.

Need any music?

I was planning to do it all myself, but... yeah, if you want to contribute some, that would be aweseome :D  I'm hoping for mp3/ogg/opus or a module format is all.

[Biodegradable]

1 hour ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

 

Holy crap, it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

[Bucket]

1 hour ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

I was planning to do it all myself, but... yeah, if you want to contribute some, that would be aweseome :D  I'm hoping for mp3/ogg/opus or a module format is all.

 

What genre are you looking for?

[Remilia Scarlet]

1 hour ago, Biodegradable said:

Holy crap, it's huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!

lol it isn't that huge.  That takes about 12 minutes to play so far.

 

58 minutes ago, Bucket said:

What genre are you looking for?

Ambient, dark ambient, gothic, demoscene-style, industrial... all of those would work.

[Bucket]

There's a lot of room in those genres, so I threw something together. This is before any mixing or major production. Maybe it's a little too clean for your tastes, I don't know. I can definitely try something with more distortion and manipulated samples of pigs being slaughtered.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xkaHoqKLCcfVX8OeIbp7jFsyv8-RGLT_/view?usp=sharing

 

EDIT: For some stupid reason, Google Drive renames the OGG file to OGV. You should be able to just change it back.

Edited April 29, 2021 by Bucket

[Murdoch]

Looking dead sexy.

[Teo Slayer]

Hehe, time to destroy an another castle of Hell
😎

[Bucket]

I talked myself into submitting this song for this project, even though it wasn't intended for Doom use. I'd most likely put some tweaks on it first.

 

 

[Bucket]

I sure do love contributing to projects wherein I'm the only one posting updates.

Anyway, here's another song submission.

 

"Thriving Industry"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ml10xSsJ5a7t1DwL88Q003JohSylb08x/view?usp=sharing

[Remilia Scarlet]

5 minutes ago, Bucket said:

I sure do love contributing to projects wherein I'm the only one posting updates.

You know what, you should probably be DMing me so that I don't loose track of when someone posts here.  Especially since I haven't officially added you to the project yet.

 

Also, nearly all of the actual development work is happening on Discord.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Remilia Scarlet

[Bucket]

Weird. DW automatically notifies me about every thread I've stuck my nose in in the past year.

[Remilia Scarlet]

Same, but when you get as many notifications as I do, loosing track of them is a possibility.

 

Regardless, this is not the place for submissions for the project.  I'm also not sure if your music will fit with what I have envisioned.  I appreciate the effort and thought, though! 

[VanaheimRanger]

4 minutes ago, Bucket said:

Weird. DW automatically notifies me about every thread I've stuck my nose in in the past year.

I wake up to about 60 notifications on here every day, there's no way I'm looking to see what all of them are.  I assume many people here are the same.

 

EDIT: It might also be worth pointing out that this isn't the only project Scarlet has going right now and might be busy overseeing those as well.

Edited June 15, 2021 by VanaheimRanger

[Remilia Scarlet]

Indeed.  I try to make sure I hit them all, but I'm sure I inevitably miss some.