Doomguy Goes North

[Stupid Bunny]

I got thinking, for some reason, about the directions that I have the player start in the maps I’ve made, wondering what the most common overall would be. What I realized is that, overwhelmingly, the player starts looking either north or 45° offset from north—only in like 3 maps I’ve ever made is Doomguy facing due west/east or southerly, and one of those doesn’t really count because I much later rotated the entire map for reasons that now elude me.

 

What I realized next, though, is that Doomguy also begins facing north in the vast majority of IWAD maps, at least in Doom and Doom II. What this makes me wonder, then, is is there any special reason, logical or psychological, why this might be? And more to the point is this true for all of you? I’m wondering if everyone has their own favorite start direction, if some have none at all, or if there’s some special reason why starting Doomguy looking north makes sense. 

 

And don’t say it’s because that’s the default in the map editor you smart alecks 

[DuckReconMajor]

The only thing that comes to mind outside of the obvious one you noted, is seeing a doom map as an uphill battle, something you climb and overcome.
if doomguy starts at the top and falls 'down' the map that's just not the feel most maps go for

[Nefelibeta]

1 hour ago, Stupid Bunny said:

What I realized next, though, is that Doomguy also begins facing north in the vast majority of IWAD maps, at least in Doom and Doom II. What this makes me wonder, then, is is there any special reason, logical or psychological, why this might be? And more to the point is this true for all of you? I’m wondering if everyone has their own favorite start direction, if some have none at all, or if there’s some special reason why starting Doomguy looking north makes sense. 

Think it's more of a habit that a lot people happened to have, you can check out PWADs and a lot of maps have starts facing west/east, usually not south though.

Can't say anything about IWADs.

 

4 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

The only thing that comes to mind outside of the obvious one you noted, is seeing a doom map as an uphill battle, something you climb and overcome.
if doomguy starts at the top and falls 'down' the map that's just not the feel most maps go for

Doomguy is so fucking fast that it's nearly impossible to limit player's movement when you can just say fuck it and drop down 200ft and escape everything. So most of the time it's done with lifts/drop-down tunnels or something else.

[Shepardus]

If you look at it from the perspective of the automap, a north-facing player start means that pressing forward moves you up on the screen, which aligns nicely with the button you're probably using to do so.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

It's supposed to be subtle social commentary. The prescription he needs is much cheaper up there. The dumbass should go south where he doesn't even need a prescription.

Edited August 27, 2022 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[MFG38]

Thinking back to my own maps, I just made the realization that I do tend to have the player start(s) facing north in most cases. Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I see it as sort of an orientation thing - I find it easier to orientate myself around the map (while mapping) with the player start facing either north or east. Anything else just feels "crooked" or backwards.

[NinjaDelphox]

I don't think Ultimate Doom or Doom II's starts being overwhelmingly north goes any deeper than the same reason platformers like Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, etc. go right a majority of the time, it's just the simplest and comes to mind first.

[Kyka]

I think it is cultural. We read and write left to right. Games scroll left to right. And a lot of arcade games do the same thing. Pinball machines for example: if the ball goes south, (relative to your viewpoint,) you are doing it wrong. North is good. Heaven is upwards. Hell is downwards, at the centre of the earth, obviously. When we are depressed we look down. We look up as an expresssion of joy.

 

Enough rambling. Travelling upwards, mapwise, adds to the players sense of progression. And as @Shepardus said. moving up the map aligns nicely with control setups. 

 

That said, looking at my own maps over the last few years, specifically the ones for tntf, 5 south, 5 east, 1 west, and 3 north. So statistically nothing too startling there.

 

@Stupid Bunny Did you rotate that map to better align certain features in the map with the skybox. I rotated one of the maps from tntf to better line up with the skybox features.

[Nevander]

I'd say north and east are the most common start angles. Starting west feels weird.

[Ayeloo]

The Doom Marine has evolved a biological compass for ease in migration, like a bird
Helps him forage little juice bottles and green helmets in the wild

Spoiler

words words words

Spoiler

<- all the big stuff doomguy's wearing on his head is whatever this is

TL;DR having map progression be easily readable from the automap and easily drawn in a map editor is probably why most people "map north"

[out_of_service]

Good observation! There's no real reason why the player has to face north. From now on I'm going to have the player start facing southwest.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Piper Maru

[Azuris]

14 hours ago, Kyka said:

I think it is cultural. We read and write left to right. Games scroll left to right.

 

But most of the Games that defined that are made by Japanese and they read their Books vice versa ;)

I am not conviced they had the international Market in Mind from the Beginning.

 

I think it is more that someone started it like that and others just made it the same Way.

 

Btw. ancient Latin was written from left to right and the next Sentence from right to left, than again left to right etc.

I've seen some Texts and it is not very intuitive.

[Wyrmwood]

Real life maps are always oriented with North at the top, if you've rough drafted a level on graph paper (which I'm beginning to realize is a must as things are not easy to heavily edit later) you'd be looking at it the same way and so I guess it natural to start with moving forward or up.

 

Honestly though, I wouldn't be surprised if it is because that's the default start orientation, as it's a computer game your not really going north so I guess it makes no real difference. Interesting point though, maybe my next map I'll go South.

[Lucius Wooding]

10 minutes ago, Wyrmwood said:

Real life maps are always oriented with North at the top, if you've rough drafted a level on graph paper (which I'm beginning to realize is a must as things are not easy to heavily edit later) you'd be looking at it the same way and so I guess it natural to start with moving forward or up.

 

Honestly though, I wouldn't be surprised if it is because that's the default start orientation, as it's a computer game your not really going north so I guess it makes no real difference. Interesting point though, maybe my next map I'll go South.

Funny thing about that, it's not true necessarily. Magnetic compasses didn't always exist, so it was common to use other points of reference for maps. Many from before the renaissance period had Asia on top, and the term "Orient" can refer to east lying areas from Europe's perspective. Orienting a map could literally mean making sure it's pointed the proper way up before using it.

 

Many maps would also center around Jerusalem due to its religious significance. It was only around the 1100s that magnetic compasses and more modern navigation techniques (crucially using reference points such as stars) were developed. Until then it was all bullshit and arbitrary depending on where the cartographer came from. Until 1993 there was no IDDT and it's a miracle any land was discovered at all.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

On 8/27/2022 at 12:31 AM, NinjaDelphox said:

I don't think Ultimate Doom or Doom II's starts being overwhelmingly north goes any deeper than the same reason platformers like Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, etc. go right a majority of the time, it's just the simplest and comes to mind first.

 

On 8/27/2022 at 1:54 AM, Kyka said:

I think it is cultural. We read and write left to right. Games scroll left to right. And a lot of arcade games do the same thing. Pinball machines for example: if the ball goes south, (relative to your viewpoint,) you are doing it wrong. North is good. Heaven is upwards. Hell is downwards, at the centre of the earth, obviously. When we are depressed we look down. We look up as an expresssion of joy.

 

Enough rambling. Travelling upwards, mapwise, adds to the players sense of progression. And as @Shepardus said. moving up the map aligns nicely with control setups. 

 

That said, looking at my own maps over the last few years, specifically the ones for tntf, 5 south, 5 east, 1 west, and 3 north. So statistically nothing too startling there.

 

@Stupid Bunny Did you rotate that map to better align certain features in the map with the skybox. I rotated one of the maps from tntf to better line up with the skybox features.

These seem to be the most obvious answer. It feels intuitive to start with the room Doomguy starts in. So when building around that room I want Doomguy to push forward, which is north. To me it doesn't make much sense to have the player have to look around to find where to go, the progress should be smooth.

[slugger]

I put my start locations facing all manner of directions, even arbitrary angles. I start with a room and decide doomguy's position afterward to give players the best introductory view.

[HorseJockey]

I usually have my player start pointing south, probably because allot of the maps that I create end up moving the player downward instead of up. I think it adds tension to the map as the player moves lower and lower away from the "surface". Either by using lifts or stairs, almost all of my maps move to the south and down. I think even when I have started with a north facing player start I still always have the player moving lower into the level, so I just adopted a south facing player start because it felt like a natural beginning point if the level was going to be going downwards anyways.