The Making of RAMP

[DavidN]

With RAMP 2022 now complete, here's a look back at the details behind the first RAMP project in 2021! I put this little book together as I was assembling the project, taking notes as it evolved from a small idea to the 200-map behemoth it turned into, as a journal of creating a Doom community project.

 

Included are:

• How the idea for RAMP came into being - inspired by a history of game editing, the Doom community and a regrettable furniture shipment
• The development of RAMPART, the frontend that made it possible to automatically compile the project from individual maps
• The scripting behind the hub map and how progress is tracked as a player explores
• My first steps in ZScript and using data beyond what ACS and DECORATE allow you to access
• How and why RAMP contains a gardening minigame
• Thoughts on the experience of moderating an online community

 

I wouldn't exactly recommend people use this as a guide to scripting in ZDoom or anything, as I only started exploring ZScript during the project and a lot of it uses a ton of clunky ACS and DECORATE workarounds - but I hope you enjoy reading about the process!

 

 

Download THE MAKING OF RAMP

Edited July 15, 2022 by DavidN

[Doomkid]

Good lord, this is so extensive and well documented.. It even has pretty pictures!

 

Well done on this David, must have been a fair amount of effort!

[Redneckerz]

Posting in a thread that needs more visibility (And this and RAMPART itself should be on the Wiki. Ill do some basic referrential linking to this and RAMPART) because holy shit this is a write up. Very interesting to read about the workflow required to get this working, along with the challenges that it brought up too. @DavidN, this is amazing.

 

I like that RAMPART is essentially project-independent and it reminds me of making of Icarus: Alien Vanguard. The late Ty Halderman crafted a primitive (but effective!) build system using .bat files and tooling by the late Jim Flynn to offer functionality broadly similar to what RAMPART is pulling off, just without using PHP and relying on FTP, i believe.

 

Its nice to see a spirtual successor to that build system in concept and philosophy.

[DavidN]

Thank you so much :) The two projects emerged in perfect relationship to each other - to compile a community project of that size, you really need some automated help, and to make a compiler for community projects, you really need as large a variety of maps to throw at it as possible. RAMPART was extended a massive amount during the second round of RAMP, and I'll have to write a second volume (and new tutorial videos) describing what it can do now!

 

Does any of Ty/Jim's code survive? I'd love to see how it was put together :)

[Redneckerz]

2 hours ago, DavidN said:

Does any of Ty/Jim's code survive? I'd love to see how it was put together :)

Yep!

 

Actually i made an error: I was referring to Icarus: Alien Vanguard, when i actually meant Daedalus: Alien Defense. The link has a link to the Daedalus Development Package, that shows you what was done and how it used a mixture of clever batch files and Flynn's Patcher utility to get a rudimentary build system going. The Patcher is here.

 

Semi-related, but the Boom Editing Utilities, also by Jim Flynn were modernized and now run on Windows.

 

 

[The Royal We]

@DavidN

 

First of all, congratulations and thank you so much, not only for this fantastic material, but also for the opportunity to have a map of mine published in such an amazing project. As I said in the comments on your “Hunted Forest” gameplay, my map is a thank you letter for everything I learned from you so far.

 

Finally, I would like to ask you a request: is it possible for you to publish your text in a PDF file? It will be useful for my undergraduate thesis project which is in the early stages of development, and there are excerpts from your text that I would like to quote and translate into Portuguese (the language in which my work will be written).

 

Once again, thank you so much for everything!

 

 

[The Royal We]

Oh. When I opened the link on my cell phone I thought I couldn't download directly via PDF. What an interesting thing, isn't it? Sorry... 😁

Below is an undoubtedly real photo of me during my reaction discovering this fact:

 

 

 

[DavidN]

Good that you found it :) And yes, I’d be delighted for you to use anything you’d like from it!