Why do people make Doom maps?

[DoktorDeth]

It's pretty fun, and it's great seeing something that YOU created grow into something so magical. It also helps me release my creativity and stress. And when you get feedback from anyone, it shows an understanding in the community that really can't be understated. I always have this game in my heart, even when I take breaks from it. This game is simply...more than magical.

[bunnytummy]

I've always liked the idea of putting a world that's in my mind into something that I can play and explore, the doom engine allows me to do that and it's just super fun to do. I also like to share things with my friends and see their reactions of the traps I put or the map layout, or the feedback they give, etc.

[The BMFG]

its just a fun thing to do, and a great outlet for a bunch of cool ideas i get every now and then

[Ludi]

Shit's fun, 'nuff said. 

 

I usually do projects with @Korp and working with him has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my young life.

[msx2plus]

since i've been playing doom for just about 30 years, it's more or less in my DNA. between the great tools and wealth of resources available, it's a rewarding framework to build around and branch off of. i love gamedev but don't have the brain to keep up with a "from scratch" project, especially anything ambitious. so just being able to make a map here, a dehacked mod there, a piece of music at some other point, and then bring it all together - that's a nice feeling. i'm a very "places" person when it comes to creating things, so the fact that these tools let you make said places so rapidly is just a treat.

[slowfade]

I love the simplicity of the engine, its design: walls and sector heights. Limitless variation from the simplest components. It's accessible to almost everyone but mastered only by the dedicated. The game is also a very interesting historic artifact; the first truly smooth and immersive 3d world (at least in my opinion). Whenever I start to obsess about something it usually means that that thing is covering some - often unconscious - need I have. What that is here with Doom, I'm not sure yet. Mapping ticks so many boxes!

[OpenRift]

The manner in which I do maps/mapping projects (specifically TWANGO) is more in the mindset of "hey, does this kind of WAD/mapset exist yet? No? Okay let's do that then."

[Pezl]

I loved playing doom back and loved the map designs of doom 2 and more and many years later I found that there are actually community maps and mods which was real gold for me. Then I was searching around youtube how to make my own maps / mods and learnt some stuff in doom builder, about the engine, actions physics and these. So I made my first map and thats how I started mapping and like it to this day!

[Kor]

I got into it as a 13 year old who basically thought it'd be awesome fun to basically "make my own game." I remember when I was younger than that and was playing Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES. My brother and I actually drew out our own levels, as if we could make them for SMB3. So the interest was already there when I discovered Doom mapping at the end of 1995, and was downright obsessed with it til the end of the century. These days I'm not nearly as into it as much as I was due to a couple of things.

["JL" was too short]

A. I like Doom.

B. I have something I want to share with the world in terms of an exploration and gameplay experience, and thanks to almost thirty years' worth of collective effort on the part of the community, there's a lot less friction in using (GZ)Doom to do that than in trying to start game-dev from the ground up (though I still hold out hope that I might transition into more general hobby gamedev someday).

[RataUnderground]

Provoking emotions in other people and seeing them react to your creation is the best feeling in the world. I will never tire of the act of creating and sharing.

[xScavengerWolfx]

I guess i'll throw my hat in this ring: For me the reason why i got into mapping was because when i was younger i wanted to get into making levels for video games since i was blown away with the graphic of Halo 1 (yes i know now a days they look funny but i don't care).

 

But after giving up on the idea (at the time) i moved on to other things, but when that failed i found my foothold in woodworking (which i still do when not mapping). When Doom 2016 was rolling around i decided to look into the series and that's how i discovered doomworld and the mapping scene, once doom 2016 came about i did four maps in the snap map editor but in the end i felt like they we're not good only because they put a limit on how much you can cramp in before hitting the limit.

 

Once i got my PC in 2021 i start mapping and i made a few shitty maps (which are no longer around since i had to get rid of them) i joined a community project to get better at mapping and now i am currently working on the second ep. of my Ultimate Doom wad i got inspiration from Snaxalotl's Stickey Installation. Do i enjoy mapping? Yes but. 

 

Yes). I love mapping because it make me feel like i'm making levels for people that love the series as a whole and having people enjoy my content as a map maker.

 

But). It can be mentally draining since there's a lot of stuff that can go wrong, meaning if you misplace a enemy or forget to add health it can be a cluster fuck of a time for the player. Trying to balance out the level as a whole is really hard but can be rewarding at the same time.

 

Finally the question i always ask myself is this: "Will i be mapping forever?" The answer to that is yes and no. Yes i want to map forever, but there will be a time where i will either give up for good or make one final map as a farewell to the community in the future. Until then i will be doing this and keep mapping until it happens. I always wanted to this kind of stuff as a kid, but since now i'm an adult and i got the tools to do it, i will keep striving and keep making content for a 30+ year old game until it either dies or the community turns into dust.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Edit: In case you we're wondering what my title is "A mapper that dose modern 90's style maps" i had Sandwedge play my Ep. 1 of my Ultimate doom and one of his co hosts said "Man, i feel like Scavenger is doing like a retro style of mapping you would see back in the old days of mapping with how the architecture looks and the lay out of the maps". That and also i've been playing a lot of old 90's wads manly the Doom 1 wads because i'm getting burnt out on the doom 2 wads. So think of this as a fun fact behind my member title.

Edited May 5, 2023 by xScavengerWolfx

[Maribo]

Making things is fun and cathartic. As for why I like making Doom maps specifically:
I also do other artistic stuff like making visual art and writing poetry. However, in these other mediums, I feel a significantly high fear of "failing to perform well", embarrassment about my work, and generally am much more hesitant to show anybody anything that I make. I don't have any of those fears in regards to making Doom maps. I make things that I like to play, for myself, and submit to community projects or post the maps myself in case other people might get something out of them as well. It's nice when someone says "cool map" or "this fight was fun", but it's not my driving force, and when the inverse happens ie: "this map is garbage" or "terrible wad", I find myself not really caring at all. So, for me, mapping in Doom is my one outlet for self-expression that isn't accompanied by a ton of personal anxieties over being "good enough". I get to make things without any inhibitions.

 

7 hours ago, Andrea Rovenski said:

as a demo player, i consider playing the game to be art as well, each part of a doom experience to me is extremely creative. 

It is definitely a performance art, as much as dancing, acting, playing basketball, the list goes on.

[Chookum]

The first time I saw Doom was a time I probably shouldn't have been - watching someone else play with the cheats turned on as a kid. Since then I've always come back to Doom throughout life. It's a game for when you're not playing anything else, and there's always new maps coming out that twist the gameplay and build on everything the original provided.

 

Eventually I figured two things:

• "I've played enough vanilla Doom and enough megawads to know what makes a good map, how hard can it be?" If only I knew.
• "If those cool wad authors can make an engine old enough to vote behave in ways unimagined, what could I get away with once I get the hang of it?"

I have some background in wanting to do game dev/design of some sort, but job-wise that didn't quite pan out how I'd liked. I like to keep the skills sharp as a hobby.

 

I decided to try Doom mapping in 2016, but things happened in the background and I dropped the hobby for a long time - my released maps then were quite gawky. I picked it back up at the very tail end of 2020 and begun mapping again in earnest in 2021, older, wiser, and weirder. It was discovering and playing Lost Civilisation and watching everything it made the engine do that pushed me into giving mapping a go.

 

After hurling Doomguy out of a plane for MAP01 for my own project, I realised I could get away with anything. What keeps me hooked on mapping is the process. Sometimes it starts with a sketch on paper or MS Paint, then I block it out in Doombuilder with placeholder textures, then steadily build up, detail, place things, and test test test. I get immense joy from making the engine and old school map formats do things the original was never meant to, especially if it takes a few tries to get it to work.

 

Between working on maps for my own project I also like to do community project mapping as well as a palette cleanser and an opportunity to try something different.

[EduardoAndFriends]

2 hours ago, Chookum said:

The first time I saw Doom was a time I probably shouldn't have been - watching someone else play with the cheats turned on as a kid. Since then I've always come back to Doom throughout life. It's a game for when you're not playing anything else, and there's always new maps coming out that twist the gameplay and build on everything the original provided.

 

Eventually I figured two things:

• "I've played enough vanilla Doom and enough megawads to know what makes a good map, how hard can it be?" If only I knew.
• "If those cool wad authors can make an engine old enough to vote behave in ways unimagined, what could I get away with once I get the hang of it?"

I have some background in wanting to do game dev/design of some sort, but job-wise that didn't quite pan out how I'd liked. I like to keep the skills sharp as a hobby.

 

I decided to try Doom mapping in 2016, but things happened in the background and I dropped the hobby for a long time - my released maps then were quite gawky. I picked it back up at the very tail end of 2020 and begun mapping again in earnest in 2021, older, wiser, and weirder. It was discovering and playing Lost Civilisation and watching everything it made the engine do that pushed me into giving mapping a go.

 

After hurling Doomguy out of a plane for MAP01 for my own project, I realised I could get away with anything. What keeps me hooked on mapping is the process. Sometimes it starts with a sketch on paper or MS Paint, then I block it out in Doombuilder with placeholder textures, then steadily build up, detail, place things, and test test test. I get immense joy from making the engine and old school map formats do things the original was never meant to, especially if it takes a few tries to get it to work.

 

Between working on maps for my own project I also like to do community project mapping as well as a palette cleanser and an opportunity to try something different.

Thanks for sharing, Chookum, that was awesome to read. :)

[ZeMystic]

My first introduction to mapping was from my dad setting a laptop in front of me with a download link to the first doom builder and an article talking about how game devs are learning level design by creating doom levels. I didn't play with it much because I was like ten or something and anything that uses more than six buttons was confusing. It wasn't until the eighth grade that I took more interest in mapping, after discovering my dad's old copy of Doom '95 in the basement and beating the first two games through the Doomsday source port. With a copy of Zandronum and Doom Builder I attempted to make my first map after skimming through Sublimely Elegant's Doom Builder 2 tutorial. It was obviously steaming dogshit the best map ever made of all time with no flaws what so ever.

 

I spent plenty of free time placing blocks in Minecraft and smacking my sister with tanks in Halo: Reach's Forge mode but nothing was ever this complex; especially since I started with ZDoom in Doom 2 format like the tutorial told me to. In spite of my initial frustrations, something about placing my own linedefs and monsters really grabbed a hold of me. I never had this level of creative freedom before and I felt like I could create whatever the fuck I wanted to make. For the formative years of Middle School and early High School, I wasn't exactly in a good place both at home and in the classroom but I was able to find joy in placing imps in a closet and drawing shapes coated in STARTAN (the best texture of all time). It wasn't until 2017 that I started interacting with the community here on Doomworld and downloading buckets of custom content. I remember being blown away by the mods such as Complex Doom or Brutal Doom, and whatever level set the Zandronum server was using (usually Alien Vendetta). I finally created a Doomworld Account in 2017 (a little over six years ago jfc) and released my first doom map, a pretty generic techbase set on Europa. It got some positive feedback and I ate that shit up. I mapped off-and-on for a few years until I decided that it would be a good idea to host a community project, which you should always do and is always a smart idea. Some how, the project turned out to be a success and through it I met some important people that kept me tied to the community.

 

I can boil down the reason I map into three distinct reasons. First, I have always been a creative spirit and Doom mapping was my first experience of full-blown creativity, the ability to receive feedback, and to have my work acknowledged. Even better, if that work has the slightest bit of an impression as many wads before have had an impression on me. If I die and all I have to show for who I am are the maps I have created, then I will be a happy box of bones. Second, is the connection I have between my hobbies and my dad. My dad was a pretty avid gamer as I grew up and the majority of the hobbies I have now were once held by my dad. He would talk about rocking my rocking chair with his foot while he played Halo: Combat Evolved, or how he and his friend would play the first Team Fortress together with the classic Medic and Heavy Duo. I vividly remember him playing Trick And Traps while using a flight stick like a dumbass and struggling to make the turn because it handled like a tank. I don't think I've ever heard my dad say so many heinous things in such a short timeframe. If it wasn't for him setting the laptop in front of me, I don't think I would be making maps. Third and I think most importantly, is the friends I've met through mapping. I managed to carve a small way into this community and through it, I have met some fantastic people who I look up to and can call my friends. Not just people who I meet occasionally and make maps for, but actual friends who dick around on cowboy game and procrastinate the ever loving shit of their maps. I'm really thankful for the time I've put into mapping and the community I've been a part of for the past six years and I am thankful for the friends I've made and the thing's we've created.

Edited May 6, 2023 by ZeMystic

[Egg Boy]

3 minutes ago, ZeMystic said:

[novel]

I'm not crying, you're crying

[EduardoAndFriends]

4 hours ago, ZeMystic said:

My first introduction to mapping was from my dad setting a laptop in front of me with a download link to the first doom builder and an article talking about how game devs are learning level design by creating doom levels. I didn't play with it much because I was like ten or something and anything that uses more than six buttons was confusing. It wasn't until the eighth grade that I took more interest in mapping, after discovering my dad's old copy of Doom '95 in the basement and beating the first two games through the Doomsday source port. With a copy of Zandronum and Doom Builder I attempted to make my first map after skimming through Sublimely Elegant's Doom Builder 2 tutorial. It was obviously steaming dogshit the best map ever made of all time with no flaws what so ever.

 

I spent plenty of free time placing blocks in Minecraft and smacking my sister with tanks in Halo: Reach's Forge mode but nothing was ever this complex; especially since I started with ZDoom in Doom 2 format like the tutorial told me to. In spite of my initial frustrations, something about placing my own linedefs and monsters really grabbed a hold of me. I never had this level of creative freedom before and I felt like I could create whatever the fuck I wanted to make. For the formative years of Middle School and early High School, I wasn't exactly in a good place both at home and in the classroom but I was able to find joy in placing imps in a closet and drawing shapes coated in STARTAN (the best texture of all time). It wasn't until 2017 that I started interacting with the community here on Doomworld and downloading buckets of custom content. I remember being blown away by the mods such as Complex Doom or Brutal Doom, and whatever level set the Zandronum server was using (usually Alien Vendetta). I finally created a Doomworld Account in 2017 (a little over six years ago jfc) and released my first doom map, a pretty generic techbase set on Europa. It got some positive feedback and I ate that shit up. I mapped off-and-on for a few years until I decided that it would be a good idea to host a community project, which you should always do and is always a smart idea. Some how, the project turned out to be a success and through it I met some important people that kept me tied to the community.

 

I can boil down the reason I map into three distinct reasons. First, I have always been a creative spirit and Doom mapping was my first experience of full-blown creativity, the ability to receive feedback, and to have my work acknowledged. Even better, if that work has the slightest bit of an impression as many wads before have had an impression on me. If I die and all I have to show for who I am are the maps I have created, then I will be a happy box of bones. Second, is the connection I have between my hobbies and my dad. My dad was a pretty avid gamer as I grew up and the majority of the hobbies I have now were once held by my dad. He would talk about rocking my rocking chair with his foot while he played Halo: Combat Evolved, or how he and his friend would play the first Team Fortress together with the classic Medic and Heavy Duo. I vividly remember him playing Trick And Traps while using a flight stick like a dumbass and struggling to make the turn because it handled like a tank. I don't think I've ever heard my dad say so many heinous things in such a short timeframe. If it wasn't for him setting the laptop in front of me, I don't think I would be making maps. Third and I think most importantly, is the friends I've met through mapping. I managed to carve a small way into this community and through it, I have met some fantastic people who I look up to and can call my friends. Not just people who I meet occasionally and make maps for, but actual friends who dick around on cowboy game and procrastinate the ever loving shit of their maps. I'm really thankful for the time I've put into mapping and the community I've been a part of for the past six years and I am thankful for the friends I've made and the thing's we've created.

Damn that was a ripping read, man. Thank you so much for sharing, as EB said, I’m not crying. Promise.

[Borax Man]

I started making levels in 1994 for two reasons.  First, I wanted to see how it was done, and secondly, Doom was such a cool game that I wanted to be part of it, and to be able to imagine and sculpt my own environments.  I had dabbled with Wolf3D map editing, but this offered a lot more freedom.  So part is that is was a creative outlet, part just wanting to be able to mould the technology and see the engine render something that *I* created.  Most of why I do it really just comes down to the fact that it can be done and you can create new areas.

 

It's also cool to just be able to create your own worlds, your own places.

 

Lastly, ideas come to you.  You see things, you go to places, ideas pop into your head and it would be a shame to let those go to waste.

[TheMightyWhoosh]

The ‘creating something from nothing’ concept has always intrigued me, from game creation to music. So, creating new spaces and challenges for my favourite game during the early days of Covid lockdowns was a natural draw. 
 

I did also really enjoy watching other members play through my maps, so that has given me extra inspiration and drive to create a load more…