What stresses you out about being a mapper?

[Kwisior]

Since I'm a new mapper with no published maps and no fame I don't have anything to be worried about yet. Do you? Let it off your chest.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Kwisior

[HorseJockey]

I only have two released maps, both of which have middling reviews. They only got released because there was a timeline. I'm a perfectionist and will tinker with the map forever and never release it unless I give myself a time frame. The unfortunate side to that is I released those maps in pretty janky states because I didn't allot myself enough time to fix and tweak things. Also depression will sap the creativity right the hell out of me for months on end, and then I'm left sitting there with half finished projects, wanting to work on them and not really being able too. It's not for a want to try, but it's difficult to really get anything accomplished when your in that head space.

[Somniac]

I guess the main thing is momentum, as I'm more interested in doing multi-map WADs right now as opposed to just single maps, so I occasionally worry if I can keep up a theme and not run out of ideas, hopefully not repeat myself too much etc - I feel like the line between inconsistent and overly consistent is a fine one to tread sometimes. Its much more rewarding to watch a more ambitious work slowly take shape in front of your eyes, but that comes with its own set of challenges. 

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

Compiling textures is a royal pain. I've got a map finished that's just sitting on my drive because nothing I tried works and I'm tired of it. So I just started a new map lol. I'll get it sorted eventually. 

That's it, though. I make maps to relax. Don't care about upholding some persona or whatever. The next release don't need to be better than the last, that's a spiral to madness. 

What worries me are things entirely outside mapping. Having the editor open, I'm in my happy place. If mapping start getting me worried, I need to seriously rethink my situation. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Sneezy McGlassFace

[D0M0]

Actually releasing a map is really where I get stressed the most.

It's not necessarily the process but more the fact my brain overthinks. Sometimes I like to make my maps detailed and if I don't like it, I get a bit confused as to how to make it better. It's the whole reason i scrap so many map ideas, because I can't really seem to stick with one. It becomes stressful especially if there's deadlines in some sort of community project, because then at that point, I have a time limit and if I end up constantly scrapping ideas, then I end up rushing the map. 

I suppose you could say it helps, but nevertheless it's one more condition to burden on my shoulders whilst trying to think of good ideas.

[Klear]

Watching replays. It's like watching a horror movie. "Don't go there! You'll get ambushed!", "Behind you! Look behind you!", "Nooo! Don't examine that corner! I meant to align that texture but I forgot!"

[thiccyosh]

I tend to panic inside whenever I run out of creativity juice. Then I just sit there and go: Now what? Do I add another pointless hallway with extreme detailing?

 

I sometimes wish to have the ability to map like a guy from the 90s' with the only goal in mind to kill demons. Not to impress others or to innovate with sector art, Doomcute or very specific texture usage.

[Bri]

Releasing stuff and later not being happy with it.

[Solmyr]

Not knowing how to end a map and spend hours or days tweaking, redrawing, adding new textures, or adding new areas trying to mentally brute force my way through that case of mapper's block. It doesn't help that i don't have much time to map.

[Kwisior]

39 minutes ago, Solmyr said:

Not knowing how to end a map and spend hours or days tweaking, redrawing, adding new textures, or adding new areas trying to mentally brute force my way through that case of mapper's block. It doesn't help that i don't have much time to map.

It should depend on the map's placement in a WAD imo. If you think the map is getting too long you can maybe save your ideas for later ones or split a map in two (unless your goal is to make something long).

Edited April 17, 2023 by Kwisior

[Bloodbath Giraffe]

for me its ceilings and health balancing. I find it pretty easy to make the floor and walls of a room interesting, but find it hard to make the ceiling of room just as interesting. Its hard for me to not just add a few lights and maybe a hole for a sky box in every room. I'm not the best doom player and I mostly just map and not play wads so its hard to balance health on the higher difficulty's. Its also hard because one hit here or their can make a big difference in how much health a player need or perceive they need.

[volleyvalley]

Someone else finding a map bug after rigorous testing the level by yourself for hours.

[Treehouseminis]

Finding the right balance between difficulty and fun.  I'm not an amazing player so that is subjective but I do make slaughter type stuff, but it's not close to Sunder type difficulty.  I call it mild slaughter in most cases.  I like big fights but I also like knowing from the get go it feels possible. Not banging my head agaisnt the walls for 30 mins on trying to figure it out.

 

  For example I'm trying to play through Profane Promiseland atm and boy are those fights above me.  I'm like 1200/40001 monsters killed and I dont feel like grinding it anymore lol

 

My other problem is just coming up with geometry ideas.  For some reason the randomness that doom can be can is overwhelming.  I often look to other wads for ideas or other video games or real life examples of geometric patterns that can make a room feel interesting.  

[MemeMind]

I should be mapping more.

[Kwisior]

11 minutes ago, Bloodbath Giraffe said:

for me its ceilings and health balancing. I find it pretty easy to make the floor and walls of a room interesting, but find it hard to make the ceiling of room just as interesting. Its hard for me to not just add a few lights and maybe a hole for a sky box in every room. I'm not the best doom player and I mostly just map and not play wads so its hard to balance health on the higher difficulty's. Its also hard because one hit here or their can make a big difference in how much health a player need or perceive they need.

For your health balancing problem I'd suggest getting playtesters of varying skill levels and keeping to your vision of how difficult the map should be.

If it's supposed to be easy put some health in every room or so. If not, you can starve the player of health for some periods. Remember these are just suggestions.

 

For ceilings you can add beams, small nudges on the sides or procedural elevation changes like in this screenshot of Alien Vendetta's Map20:

[TheMightyWhoosh]

My first project, I had zero worries and concerns, as it wasn’t even planned for public release until much later into the mapping timeline. 
 

my second project, I am worrying a lot more due to feedback with the previous one. I’ve taken onboard a lot of advice and criticism and trying to incorporate improvements as much as I can; however it ends up with me trying to tick as many boxes as possible - I need to think back to my initial project and just have fun creating. 
 

Still, as frustrating as mapping can be, it’s still fun and quite an addictive hobby. 

[Nikku4211]

What stresses me out is making 'good enough' maps that won't get confused for troll WADs or joke WADs.

 

I don't have the drive to try to improve my maps to make them not only playable, but also remotely fun.

[Solmyr]

1 hour ago, Kwisior said:

It should depend on the map's placement in a WAD imo. If you think the map is getting too long you can maybe save your ideas for later ones or split a map in two (unless your goal is to make something long).

No it's not a matter of length or size, most of my (few) maps are medium sized and takes like less than ~15 minutes to play. It has more to do with overthinking about encounters, combat flow, and the map's purpouse in the wad. I'm  currently working on a vanilla 11 map mapset, and I'm stuck at a map that i intend the player to "revisit" 2 or 3 times (map 02, map 06, map 10), just to give the illusion that is a techbase hub. 

 

Good advice, i should follow on that and save some ideas for the rest of the mapset, besides i want to work on map 03 cuz I'm growing tired.

[Tactical Burger (Old acc)]

I'm fairly new to mapping (been doing it for almost 2 years) and i guess it would be not being confident in my maps. But usually i'm not confident about anything i do or make so that's not just a problem with mapping. Otherwise it would be not being able to make the map in time for a community project.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

EVERYTHING.

 

Nah but for real, the main stresses of mapping for me is either A: The editor freaks out and breaks or B: IRL getting in the way.

[Doom_Dude]

Nothing about mapping stresses me out. Real life crap stresses me out sometimes, I don't need that in my hobby. haha.

 

Having way too many projects going at once is something of a weirdness but it's not stressful. Three megawads in the works, two of them on the backburner while a remaster gets worked on. Various other smaller projects. It should stress me out but it doesn't.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Doom_Dude

[Kwisior]

33 minutes ago, Solmyr said:

I'm  currently working on a vanilla 11 map mapset, and I'm stuck at a map that i intend the player to "revisit" 2 or 3 times (map 02, map 06, map 10), just to give the illusion that is a techbase hub. 

There are good examples of that idea in Equinox and The Classic Episode, Part 2. Consider playing those (Equinox continuously, no pistol starts) and get some inspiration!

[Kwisior]

1 hour ago, Doom_Dude said:

Nothing about mapping stresses me out. Real life crap stresses me out sometimes, I don't need that in my hobby. haha.

 

Having way too many projects going at once is something of a weirdness but it's not stressful. Three megawads in the works, two of them on the backburner while a remaster gets worked on. Various other smaller projects. It should stress me out but it doesn't.

Interesting, just remember not to fill out your megawads with filler maps "to finish the project".

1 hour ago, LuzRoja29 said:

open sectors. i dont know what put in there

Do you mean outdoor areas? You can put tons of stuff in there: rock formations and cliffs to walk on, small inaccessible buildings on those rock formations, big inaccesible buildings on the horizon, waterfalls (which you can put secrets behind), cliff imps to blast with the rocket launcher, pads with powerups or weapons on them which instigate a fight, big fights, entrances to caves etc.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Kwisior

[Majin]

i want to map but don't feel motivated either

[TheDanMarine]

not stressful exactly, but every time I get to the part where I have to make the map look good by adding and aligning textures that aren't STARTAN2 and adding details to things I think "ugh it's time for the boring part". I'm more of a game designer at heart than an interior designer. I know it's gotta be done though, I don't like playing all-brown levels either. 

[AD_79]

Going to be completely honest here. As impossible as it is to avoid as you can't please everyone, I worry about people playing my work and ending up feeling negatively about it. If I hear or see that someone isn't having a good time with something I made, I end up getting kind of depressed about it, as if I have failed in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a primary reason as to why my output has slowed over the years; I'm too worried about making something for others to enjoy that I barely end up creating at all. There are some who would respond with "map for yourself first and foremost", and to an extent I agree, but it is not enough. If I'm not creating with the intent of being able to share it and have people enjoy it, I can't seem to find much purpose in doing so.

[Zero the Red]

• Real life commitments get in the way often, and I find myself busy in them. Sure, I'd love to really budget time out for mapping and such (and learning as much as there is to learn with regards to Doom), but something or the other diverts my attention away and I don't really get back to Doom for a while. And of course, being a STEM grad student is not easy (at least for me). :p
• I often wind up not being satisfied with my maps. It might be my inner perfectionist screaming hard but this is a constant internal conflict I can't just easily remove. I'm not even sure about the threshold for when I can happily consider a level made by me to be a good one. Most likely, there is no upper limit. Almost like I feel I have limitless potential but it's all either going to waste or that I cannot meet a self-imposed objective as said objective is quite ambitious. I'm trying to control that but it's easier said than done. That perfection-paralysis feeling is exacerbated by me somehow stumbling upon someone who writes a scathing critique of a map, or someone who's rude, which subsquently turns me off -- That's just my personality, I guess. Something like: Oh god, someone's going to trash my map in front of everyone! I can't even be happy with my own maps, what hopes have I got? I want this map of mine to be perfect in all levels but sigh, that's difficult.
• How do people even come up with super-intricate reviews for doom maps? Imagine if someone were to review mine, they'd rip me into shreds. Sometimes, I get the thought that if I submit a map, someone (heck, many people) would obliterate through it with ease using some technique or the other, write down a book of a review telling me why it's an example of a bad map (well, the idea that someone would actually spend a few minutes of their life writing a review of my map would be a pipe dream lol but hey). It's worse when I start to overthink about what other people would be talking about me or my maps behind my back or somewhere else in a hidden channel/forum etc. -- Meh, not their problem but my hyper-sensitive self can't make peace with it.

At the end of the day, all of this is pretty much the devil dancing inside my brain. I just wish I could figure out a way to come to terms with these thoughts

[Gifty]

having a 30 level megawad you've had been working on for 10 years that just needs one more level and never getting around to finishing it

[Kwisior]

On 4/17/2023 at 7:34 PM, AD_79 said:

Going to be completely honest here. As impossible as it is to avoid as you can't please everyone, I worry about people playing my work and ending up feeling negatively about it. If I hear or see that someone isn't having a good time with something I made, I end up getting kind of depressed about it, as if I have failed in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a primary reason as to why my output has slowed over the years; I'm too worried about making something for others to enjoy that I barely end up creating at all. There are some who would respond with "map for yourself first and foremost", and to an extent I agree, but it is not enough. If I'm not creating with the intent of being able to share it and have people enjoy it, I can't seem to find much purpose in doing so.

Don't forget that many people really enjoy your work and can't wait for you to release something new. Someone even said they looked up to you in another thread here.

P.S. Violence is awesome :) (the WAD of course).

On 4/17/2023 at 8:06 PM, Zero the Red said:

• Real life commitments get in the way.............

I say you should focus on making a solid, consistent project, not a "perfect map", since you'll be moving goalposts forever and you can't please everyone anyway, especially yourself.

Also long, intricate reviews are mostly from nerds showing off their writing skills (no offense to anyone). If some criticisms are frequently repeated throughout them you might've made a bad design decision, otherwise it's probably just some guy who has different preferences. Don't take it to heart.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Kwisior

[PsychEyeball]

6 minutes ago, AD_79 said:

Going to be completely honest here. As impossible as it is to avoid as you can't please everyone, I worry about people playing my work and ending up feeling negatively about it. If I hear or see that someone isn't having a good time with something I made, I end up getting kind of depressed about it, as if I have failed in some way. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a primary reason as to why my output has slowed over the years; I'm too worried about making something for others to enjoy that I barely end up creating at all. There are some who would respond with "map for yourself first and foremost", and to an extent I agree, but it is not enough. If I'm not creating with the intent of being able to share it and have people enjoy it, I can't seem to find much purpose in doing so.

I am truly sorry to hear about your woes. Such periods are always awful for creators.

 

The one thing I have learned is that no matter what you do, there will be people out there who will not like you or the things you make. Sometimes people will have legit reasons for disliking your work, other times... not. It just happens sometimes that we humans can be complete dickbags to other people without a reason, which can make us awful people.

 

But on the other hand, we also have the power to comfort, support and help people even without being directly linked to them. We can be awful the same way we can also be kind.

 

Even with the noblest of all intentions, you will never succeed in pleasing the whole world. You can't create just in the hopes to please the crowd of people who do not like you because out there, there will always be a group of people who probably won't bat an eye or care you're trying to please them. Maybe they'll come and see what you're doing out of curiosity, but often they won't.

 

One group however that will 100% care are the people who are your friends or who like you or follow your work. If you stop working on projects out of the fear to disappoint either yourself or others, these people will feel it the most. Not to say you must never let down your audience no matter what because this expectation is absolutely impossible to fulfill as well, but I'd say that as a creator, the people who look up to you should be the main people you should keep in contact with and try to create for. These people won't have a shortage of things to say about it, whether it's praise or constructive criticism that will help you grow as a person and creator.

 

Stopping all possible dialogue in the sole intent to keep a few bad people away might stop possible a little bad criticism that will be of no use to you, but it will also rob you of many more positive interactions. And from someone who has been in a creative hole for many years, I don't wish the same to happen to you.

 

Don't make art for the haters. Make for those who love.