By Candlelight (NANOWADMO 2022 Heretic Episode) (Beta 2)

[Death Bear]

 

Over the summer of 2022, I was home with my kids with all plans to do fun stuff...until a storm came in and knocked the power out for about 8 hours. During that time, I decided we were going to make the most of it and we drew doom maps by candlelight. Three of these map sketches ended up getting used in Lunacy. Once the kids went to bed, I poured myself some whiskey, grabbed a blue crayon laying around, and I sketched out an entire episode of Heretic map layouts. Some of them were inspired by/ loosely based on random dungeon layouts I saved on my phone; some were straight from my head. I took these to editor. This was my project for NANOWADMO 2022, and I managed to finish building these maps within the month.

iWAD: Heretic
Format: Heretic (Doom format)

Target Port: Chocolate Heretic (which means most sourceports supporting Heretic should play it)

Tested With: Chocolate Heretic, GZDoom

Assets: Stock Heretic

Maps: Replaces Episode 1 (E1M1 – E1M9)

Version Beta 2: Download (Google Drive)

 

A Special Thanks to some initial players/ testers: @Egregor @Endless @joe-ilya

Tracks are mostly from the Raven MIDI Pack.

 

Map/ Tracklist:

Spoiler

E1M1: Hideaway Harbor ("Docked In" by Viscra Maelstorm)
E1M2: Canyon Keep ("Schilder’s Ladder" by Dial Up for Murder)
E1M3: Halls of the Harrowed ("All is Lost" by Puck)
E1M4: Silent Sanctuary ("Gravelord’s Lullaby" by AD_79)
E1M5: Atrophied Altar ("Fort Rot" by Bimmy and Jimmy)
E1M6: Torchlight Tunnels ("Avenger’s Spirit" by Viscra Maelstrom)
E1M7: Spires of Fire ("Liquidation" by Viscra Maelstrom)
E1M8: The Umbramarsh ( "Die for Parthoris" by Dragonfly and Jimmy)
E1M9: Scribe's Sanctum ("Crushed Spirits" by pcorf)             

I still need more playtesting to iron out some of the kinks, but these are basically speedmaps, so as far as layout-related experience, it’s not changing much...but I still appreciate feedback as I continue to map and learn. If you play, I would appreciate you letting me know of any issues...including balancing feedback. I'm sure I missed something. I also still have to figure out how to do things like titles, and if I'm going to include anymore graphics. Plan to have this on idgames before the end of Q3. 

Here's a little dev thing, with map names, tracklist, and some personal thoughts on each map.

Spoiler

E1M1: Hideaway Harbor

Created 10/1/22

"Docked In" by Viscra Maelstorm

Thoughts: A nod to the original E1M1 of Heretic, this was one of the first times I started experimenting with a layout that had a castle in the middle, and natural areas off to the side that opened the way. If you’ve played Godfall from PUSS X, you may know what I mean. My submission to PUSS XXVI also does this. Big thanks to Egregor and Endless on some suggestions for this map, as well as Joe for finding a softlock in the beginning of the map.

 

E1M2: Canyon Keep

Created 10/13/22

"Schilder’s Ladder" by Dial Up for Murder

Thoughts: The most difficult for me to get the feel for, and maybe my least favorite next to E1M4. Big thanks to Egregor here for helping with some progression flaws.

 

E1M3: Halls of the Harrowed

Created 10/14/22

"All is Lost" by Puck

Thoughts: This one is my favorite of the set.

 

E1M4: Silent Sanctuary

Created 10/15/22

"Gravelord’s Lullaby" by AD_79

Thoughts: I heard a video about how someone used some kind of scrying ability while playing DnD to scout out an entire dungeon before entering it. I got the idea of the player being able to explore pretty much the whole map before having to engage monsters. He said that kind of gameplay progression is boring…but I thought I’d play with it.

 

E1M5: Atrophied Altar

Created 10/16/22

"Fort Rot" by Bimmy and Jimmy

Thoughts: A mid-episode “boss” fight, Atropied Altar was meant to be small and intense.

 

E1M6: Torchlight Tunnels

Created 10/16/22

"Avenger’s Spirit" by Viscra Maelstrom

Thoughts: I thought this was a cool idea. It does contain the secret exit.

 

E1M7: Spires of Fire

Created 10/23/22

"Liquidation" by Viscra Maelstrom

Thoughts: I think if you haven’t already, this map probably starts to show an over-reliance on boss monsters. Open outdoors areas were difficult for me to develop using Vanilla limits, but I think it’s okay.

 

E1M8: The Umbramarsh

Created 10/25/22

"Die for Parthoris" by Dragonfly and Jimmy

Thoughts: This is loosely based on the Underrot dungeon from World of Warcraft that I ran numerous times during my time as a Guild Master and Mythic Keystone Dungeon tank prior to Doom mapping. I think this map is too big, and I think it suffers for it. I’ll let you be the judge. Much of the placement was done the following day, and I've struggled with HOMs, which I think I've mostly gotten rid of.

 

E1M9: Scribe's Sanctum
Created 10/25/22

"Crushed Spirits" by pcorf

Thoughts: The secret map. The original sketch was ruined, so I redrew it before starting. The most difficult plan to get to work in Vanilla limits, this map is a tribute to the idea that I created all these maps by candlelight with a blue crayon and paper, with the cacophonous storm around me for a large amount of the time.

Enjoy!