PENELOPE.WAD - celebrate my first mapping anniversary with a large, unusual Boom map [/idgames]

[Thelokk]

 

"Dawn rises on a strange landscape, and the threads of reality itself are undone. You close your eyes and breath in the cool, saline sea breeze. You steel for action against the relentless invading forces of Hell, yet your thoughts run elsewhere. The shimmer of concrete and metal in the early morning's sun. The rough embrace of brutalist towers against a landscape of stillness. The dank, cold nook and crannies of a facility where you feel like you might have spent the whole of your existence. Penelope loves you." 

 

Exactly one year ago today, after watching a few decino videos and a tutorial by LazyGamer, I plopped down my (almost*) first vertex, obviously in UDMF format. Not a whole lot of time, especially by this community's standards, but it still feels like a whole lot of road behind me. And far more ahead!

 

This said, what better way to celebrate this first, small milestone... than with a map? Penelope.wad is a sort of bookend to my first year of mapping, and a distilled extract of everything I like in my mapping soup: complex architecture, out-there texturing, strange progression and a whole lot of atmosphere. There are also a few demons to kill, but nothing worrisome - little more than a nuisance. Only a few are archviles, and even fewer are cyberdemons and spider masterminds. Most combat is optional, and the exit can be reached in only a few minutes, though I'd invite you to stay for the whole experience if you will...

 

PENELOPE.WAD

IWAD: Doom2

Format: Boom, -cl9

Build time: longer than usual, I'd say

MIDI: an untitled, moody MIDI by yours truly

Resources: mostly 32in24 and DBP53, with a couple custom-made textures thrown in, and a slightly modified PLAYPAL, also by yours truly. 

Coop: starts, untested, there are a couple lock in fights so probably a nope

DM: starts, items and a little arena to the side

Difficulties: implemented

No jumping or crouching required, freelook optional for some eye candy

Tested in: DSDA-Doom. Thanks to @finnks13 for extra testing!

 

The map's visuals have been specifically developed for software mode. I give no guarantees that OpenGL will provide the desired experience. 

 

*^{according to an old external drive of mine, I did in fact make a few STARTAN rooms over 15 years ago. No, you can't see them.}

 

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by Thelokk

[Decay]

I like the lighting in this, gives a cool vibe. Blue sky goes great against the grey.

[TheHambourgeois]

you've only been mapping a year? your style is really cool

this will go on my shortlist whenever i get free time which will be well after the holidays

[LadyMistDragon]

Well, I think this is the last time I demo a wad with an emphasis on platforming because constant rewinding is annoying. But really nice!

lmd_pnelope.zip

[Thelokk]

4 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Well, I think this is the last time I demo a wad with an emphasis on platforming because constant rewinding is annoying. But really nice!

lmd_pnelope.zip

 

Thanks for the kind words, hopefully it might persuade more to give it a shot. It ain't vanilla but it doesn't bite, I promise.

 

Personally I've also grown a bit cold to platforming, which is why this map has probably my easiest platforming ever, relatively speaking. I don't see myself carrying on with that a lot in 2023 mapping. 

 

 

[knifeworld]

Played this yesterday, nice new map and a neat way to end a year of mapping!
I can see elements of your earlier stuff in there, but I agree the platforms here are more forgiving, which is nice, although I like a bit of platforming from time to time.
Edit: forgot to say, the midi is nice too!
I want to try making midis for my own maps again but sekaiju is annoying and clunky sometimes so I never properly finished anything lol.

Didn't spot any major issues, but i did find one HOM, and one random wild metal flat:

Edited December 21, 2022 by knifeworld

[Thelokk]

3 hours ago, knifeworld said:

Played this yesterday, nice new map and a neat way to end a year of mapping!
I can see elements of your earlier stuff in there, but I agree the platforms here are more forgiving, which is nice, although I like a bit of platforming from time to time.
Edit: forgot to say, the midi is nice too!
I want to try making midis for my own maps again but sekaiju is annoying and clunky sometimes so I never properly finished anything lol.

Didn't spot any major issues, but i did find one HOM, and one random wild metal flat:

 

Thanks for the heads up! Will fix for the upcoming idgames release.

[United VirusX]

I'll be playing this soon! will update with what I think about it 

[thelamp]

The somber, eerie aesthetics are a great fit for this convoluted, sadistic map. I did not understand what I was doing or why for most of this level, but (until the very end) I didn't get stuck too badly :) This map shows you've developed a lot as a mapper in just one year!

 

 

[Endless]

The visuals alone are incredible. It feels like relieving a forgotten lucid dream.

[Lucius Wooding]

I do like the visuals, the architecture is pretty dramatic and strange.  Being able to make this kind of complex architecture, as abstract as it is, must have taken a lot of work and certainly not just anyone could pull it off. I also like how much of the level is visible from almost everywhere, so you always have an open view and you get your money's worth out of your hard linedef-smithing work. It can also cause a slight bit of stutter but my laptop is pretty low spec and old, my PC would undoubtedly not struggle. Any map of this size that's this open will usually lag for me however. 

 

I think the platforming is made a little tougher by both the muted colors making it tough to see (item pickups do help the first time hopping though, as would freelook if I used it) as well as the huge scale and heights involved. The movement itself isn't hard though and it's basically impossible to create these kinds of structures in Doom without pillars to space out the different areas. It's purely a consequence of the scale and it'd lose a lot of the looks if you shrinkified or condensed it, so the platforming is certainly an acceptable design decision.

 

However I'm not really planning on trying to max this thing at this time so falling down mid run doesn't cost me anything, it was more worth it to just explore a bit. I enjoyed finding the area with the note, and that templeish area off the main part of the map. Those kinds of strange and interesting kinda out of place areas are always welcome in pretty much any game IMO. I'm sure I didn't find everything but it certainly uses some underutilized textures and looks distinctive while not being ultra detailed. Brutalist architecture shouldn't be manicured or have lots of ornamental stuff after all. Anyway, thanks for this cool thing, you've certainly accomplished a fair bit on your mapping journey so far. I believe Odysseus spent 10 years fighting and 10 more wandering before he came home to Penelope, so a single year is only a small part of that span.

[Thelokk]

@thelamp @Endless @Lucius Wooding Thanks for the kind words!

Part of the map's strange progression stems from its early concept - it was to be a map with no exit, just sort of a sandbox where one would poke around until they were simply done with it. I realized soon the concept wouldn't fly even in a ThelokkMap™, so I put an exit but kept most of the sandboxy playing. Not maxing the map is not an incorrect way to approach it at all, just like maxit it isn't!

Edited December 22, 2022 by Thelokk

[Thelokk]

On /idgames

[Ravendesk]

Great map, I enjoyed this adventure a lot, especially the outer rooms with different themes, works really well to contrast the main area.

 

Whoever wants a moody exploration experience - check out Penelope for sure.

 

A few issues that I want to mention. Even though the wad is finalized and on idgames and they won't be fixed, might be useful fyi idk.

Spoiler

1. I managed to skip both linedefs by running diagonally because I wanted to save the invuln lol. Got very confused what the intended progression was until I crossed these again.

2. There is a HOM if you walk up the revs platforms before initiating the fight.

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Ravendesk

[Thelokk]

14 minutes ago, Ravendesk said:

Great map, I enjoyed this adventure a lot, especially the outer rooms with different themes, works really well to contrast the main area.

 

Whoever wants a moody exploration experience - check out Penelope for sure.

 

A few issues that I want to mention. Even though the wad is finalized and on idgames and they won't be fixed, might be useful fyi idk.

  Hide contents

1. I managed to skip both linedefs by running diagonally because I wanted to save the invuln lol. God very confused what the intended progression was until I crossed these again.

2. There is a HOM if you walk up the revs platforms before initiating the fight.

 

Glad you enjoyed the map, and thanks for the report! I periodically update my /idgames releases with non demo-breaking improvements, so all pointers are useful.