World of Confusion (Demo)

[Chocolate_Doomer]

Hello, so I've created a WAD project that I'm calling "World of Confusion". 

If all goes according to plan, then this will become a full replacement for the first chapter of Doom 1, these are the first two levels of that WAD.

Some constructive criticism of my WAD would be nice, I would like to know what works and what dosen't in these levels before I release a full episode 1 replacement.

Vanilla compatible, tested in Chocolate Doom and GZDoom

Screenshots:

World of Confusion (demo).zip

Edited May 6, 2023 by Chocolate_Doomer
To make title more clear

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

Just a few notes:

 

What works: Keeping the maps short and tight rather than huge sprawling epics is a good idea when learning the ropes of mapping. Clearly labeled doors and switches and easy to find keys keep the gameplay from being frustrating. All map functions(doors teleporters etc.) work as intended.

 

What doesn't work: Placing advanced weapons and powerups at the very start of the map(even secret ones) trivializes the difficulty. The maps don't need to be balls-hard, but most players want to feel at least a little bit of danger. In the second map, the player can simply wake up the monsters in the second room from the upper ledge, and wait for them to mostly kill each other off, making this section much easier than(probably) intended. I would suggest having the monsters teleport in after the player drops off the ledge, or have a closet open to reveal them.

 

Hope this helps!

[Chocolate_Doomer]

1 minute ago, ScrappyMcDoogerton said:

Just a few notes:

 

What works: Keeping the maps short and tight rather than huge sprawling epics is a good idea when learning the ropes of mapping. Clearly labeled doors and switches and easy to find keys keep the gameplay from being frustrating. All map functions(doors teleporters etc.) work as intended.

 

What doesn't work: Placing advanced weapons and powerups at the very start of the map(even secret ones) trivializes the difficulty. The maps don't need to be balls-hard, but most players want to feel at least a little bit of danger. In the second map, the player can simply wake up the monsters in the second room from the upper ledge, and wait for them to mostly kill each other off, making this section much easier than(probably) intended. I would suggest having the monsters teleport in after the player drops off the ledge, or have a closet open to reveal them.

 

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the feedback

[Chocolate_Doomer]

Update 5/6/23:

I've changed the "blood room" as I call it to have multiple sectors with teleporters in it that start teleporting monsters when they hear the player's gunfire.

The monsters came out of the teleporter kinda slow, so I added multiple teleporters and upped the total monster count to compensate, this did however make the level much harder than origonally intended, so to be a little more fair on the player, I added a few extra health pickups.

Also got rid of a hidden BFG that trivialized an encounter meant to be challenging. Looking back, I was a little too generous with that secret.

Good secrets should make a level easier, but not to the point where a player can beat it with their eyes closed.

There are a few more edits I'd like to make to the two levels I have before releasing Demo 2.0., but hopefully these new changes make the WAD more interesting to play.

Edited May 6, 2023 by Chocolate_Doomer

[TheDanMarine]

wocrecordings.zip

demo recordings for level 1 and 2 on UV-MAX ^

 

that first level seems a bit too short to me, even hangar is twice the length. the overall flow of it is great though, my biggest complaint is that there's just not enough of it. 

second level I have a bit of a tip? complaint? the blood room's biggest problem is that you can cheese it with the door. the only difference between when I got the BFG secret and before is it took me an extra five minutes to chaingun all the cacos from the same "door chokepoint" strategy. it might behoove you to make the player get stuck in that room for a bit, so they can't just run away like I did. (I surprisingly have a link to a relevant article about this exact problem here because it's so prevalent in all of game design)

good start though, I have no complaints about texture work or overall layout design. just needs a bit of polish and a bit more difficulty, which you're already working on. 

[Chocolate_Doomer]

Update 5/7/2023

- Lowered the height of the ledge you get teleported to in "Blood Room" so the player can't cheese the encounter by standing on a ledge the monsters can't reach
- Player now gets trapped inside the pork and meatball room until they press the button that also raises the bars
- Started work on E1M3
- Demo 2.0 will have the first three levels and new midis for those levels
- I'm also going to attempt to find a way to extend the first level (which I have still yet to name) without ruining the flow
- A few minor texture changes, just to make sure everything is properly aligned 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Chocolate_Doomer

[Chocolate_Doomer]

Update 5/9/23

Demo 2.0 is getting delayed because I'm not liking how level 3 is turning out so far (weird glitches are happening, IDK how or why, and I think the only solution will have to be deleting level 3 and remaking it from scratch.)

However, to compensate, I'll make the bonus level and hide it's entrance somewhere in level 3.

[thelamp]

Neat couple of maps I look forward to more! :)

 

 

[Chocolate_Doomer]

Quick mini-update, here are some screenshots of a new sky, a change I made to The Blood Room (not pictured is the new teleporter trap), and WIP third level

Edited May 12, 2023 by Chocolate_Doomer