[idgames]Chex Quest: The Penultimate Breakfast :: 40-map megawad for CHEX.WAD, Limit-Removing -complevel 3

[ProfBloom]

Played all three episodes (so far!) on stream tonight, had a blast!  It all felt like a natural extension of Chex Quest 1, like "Chex Quest but more" and I mean that in the best way.  Combat was frantic and fun towards the end, and I enjoyed it more than I enjoy most Ultimate Doom gameplay.  Great stuff!

[Andrea Rovenski]

 

Travel back to the wilderness of the Outer Bazoik Mining Complex on the surface of the planet Bazoik. Large rumbles can be heard from many kilometers away...

 

[Rudolph]

Nice! I see you threw in some new music as well.

 

Also, E4M5 is INSANE!!! :o

[Andrea Rovenski]

25 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Also, E4M5 is INSANE!!! :o

hopefully in a good way ;p

[Rudolph]

@Andrea Rovenski Oh yeah, I managed to figure it out after a couple tries, but I would have never expected the mapset to escalate to that point. :P

 

Spoiler

I already was not expecting a Chex Quest map to get this intense, but also, I do not remember ever playing and beating a Doom map with such a high monster population!

 

[OliveTree]

I just sat down to re-record gameplay footage of the first episode of this mapset in preparation to properly record the second episode (since the compatibility issues were rearing the head last time I tried, as you're aware) and then record my first tries for the later episodes.

 

I will send my footage for episode one when it renders, but a warning in advance: it is 53 minutes long and the last thirty six minutes is spent on e1m5. I actually haven't beaten it.

 

 

In a word. HEALTH.

 

in three words: HEALTH PICK UPS

 

in six words, PLEASE ADD SOME HEALTH PICK UPS

[Andrea Rovenski]

6 hours ago, OliveTree said:

In a word. HEALTH.

 

in three words: HEALTH PICK UPS

 

in six words, PLEASE ADD SOME HEALTH PICK UPS

hahaha to be honest, I did add health pickups, but I've put the project on hold for a bit to sort out some personal stuff and never published that update... so my response would be: I hope to be ready with the other half of the game soon :)

[OliveTree]

On 9/15/2023 at 9:38 AM, Andrea Rovenski said:

hahaha to be honest, I did add health pickups, but I've put the project on hold for a bit to sort out some personal stuff and never published that update... so my response would be: I hope to be ready with the other half of the game soon :)

looking forward to any future updates :>

[OliveTree]

 

Procrastinated uploading this

[OliveTree]

 

 

I recorded a demo this time, the video above is just a playback of that demo. I've attached the demo itself as well, so here: Enjoy

 

Some notes:

 

• You've mentioned you've added some health, but certain specific places I would suggest adding health based on my gameplay are:

Spoiler

 

inside this alcove

and

the dry ground im currently standing on here, in the final arena

 

I honestly think just adding some health pickups to those two spaces would make it a lot more reasonable. The latter placement would give the player a clearer incentive to run to that edge for safety (as I did), so if that's your intention, bear that in mind as well.

 

• Regarding the final arena, I noticed there are two flembranes guarding the hostages. Just a suggestion, but perhaps they'd be better utilized guarding some switches or something that opened up the exit w/ the hostages, rather than being positioned right in front of them. I realize that being positioned right in front of the hostages is how the original CQ ended, but if there are two of them, it feels like a bit of a waste that they aren't capable of both aggressing on the player at once.
• I noticed that you made the slime floor in this final arena hurt the player, which I believe I specifically recommended you do. I think that's a good change, but I feel like this mapset very much needs more consistency w.r.t. its hurtfloors. There are a ton of slime floors that don't hurt the player when IMO they should either all hurt the player or none of them should.
• IIRC, the convention in the original game was that floors with this texture would hurt the player whereas this weird chewed gum looking texture didn't do so.
• There are a lot of rooms where simply making the slime hurt the player would make those fights nigh unplayable imo (such as the room where the player finds a phasing zorcher). But maybe those pools could be replaced with water, or something? Or even a custom texture? "Dried flem" or something :P. There are a few textures like this in Chex Quest 3, which also needed flemy looking textures the player could safely walk on, that might be helpful to source from!
• The ending feels a bit like a crapshoot, specifically given the lack of health. It's hard to arrive at that section with enough health to survive the hurtfloor and the enemies will block the player even though they can't see them from so high.

I realize these are mostly critiques and suggestions. Regarding the map as it is, I actually do really like it. It provides a real challenge which is uncommon for Chex Quest maps. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out a strategy for the aforementioned phasing zorcher room especially. Architecture across the board is pretty great. I've made some maps for CQ before (unreleased, mostly) and I can speak to how truly difficult it is to work with the limited textures and decorations. I think this map is the most appealing to look at in this episode.

 

I'll replay Episode 2 soon!

[Andrea Rovenski]

I am going back to development on this! Episode 5 has been added! Link in the OP. Hope people enjoy :)

 

 

Let me know if there's any issues with any map, and a sixth episode will be done shortly :) 

Edited December 14, 2023 by Andrea Rovenski

[OliveTree]

andrea over here is trying to produce olive-bait.

 

like,,, "chex quest goes to the moon?" come ON- i wont fall for this, its too obvious

 

(*falls for this*)

[Andrea Rovenski]

3 hours ago, OliveTree said:

andrea over here is trying to produce olive-bait.

 

like,,, "chex quest goes to the moon?" come ON- i wont fall for this, its too obvious

 

(*falls for this*)

:) 

 

new demonstration video for video enthusiasts here 

 

[CeeJay]

What's going on with the episode select?

 

[Andrea Rovenski]

placeholder graphics

[Andrea Rovenski]

speaking of graphics. Episode 6: "CHEX AND BALANCES" has been added! Ideally, the seventh and final episode will be ready by next friday :)

 

 

 

[OliveTree]

9 hours ago, CeeJay said:

What's going on with the episode select?

ill tell you whats going on!! chex quest goes to the moon!! chex quest goes to the moon!! chex quest goes to the moon!! WOOOOOOOOOO

[Argent Agent]

Some challenging maps! I found E5 to be the most difficult with the damaging sectors. Keep up the great work!

 

One comment, however, as I may have found a bug that breaks E5M5: If the player raises the bridge to do the platforming to get to the red key and fails to reach the ledge where the wall will lower to the red key, the platform you originally crossed cannot be lowered back again and the player is softlocked from ever getting the red key (at least I think they are).

[Andrea Rovenski]

1 hour ago, Argent Agent said:

Some challenging maps! I found E5 to be the most difficult with the damaging sectors. Keep up the great work!

 

One comment, however, as I may have found a bug that breaks E5M5: If the player raises the bridge to do the platforming to get to the red key and fails to reach the ledge where the wall will lower to the red key, the platform you originally crossed cannot be lowered back again and the player is softlocked from ever getting the red key (at least I think they are).

thank you! and oops. I'll fix that in the next release :)

[Andrea Rovenski]

Episode 7: Thy Chex Consumed is finished, and with this rc1 is here. I've done a lot of playtesting of the whole thing so it should be very close to the final version. Hope people enjoy! Here's a video. 

 

[NightFright]

Be praised, admired, adored. Being generous for the holidays is a nice character trait, indeed. Merry Christmas to you, my dear!

Edited December 25, 2023 by NightFright

[Andrea Rovenski]

The wad is now on idgames, check it out! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/chex/chextpb

 

I will also be posting some speedruns here, feel free to join me: 

 

 

thank you to everyone who played along the way. 

[TheShep]

42 minutes ago, Andrea Rovenski said:

The wad is now on idgames, check it out! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/chex/chextpb

 

Love to see this! I'll be sure to use the up-to-date one when I get to it.

[NightFright]

Congrats, dear! I might be wrong, but this may very well be the largest expansion ever made for Chex. I'm giving it a shot ASAP.

[Plerb]

God damn how do you make these so fast??? I was playing this a few months ago and I had assumed it was more or less done. Haven't gotten the new version yet but the video of Thy Chex Consumed reminds me of the chaotic texturing of the leftover Doom levels in Chex Quest (which happened to be my first experience playing Doom).

[Andrea Rovenski]

3 hours ago, NightFright said:

Congrats, dear! I might be wrong, but this may very well be the largest expansion ever made for Chex. I'm giving it a shot ASAP.

I tried finding other megawads for chex, but could only find doom-converted levels or unfinished collab packs, so who really knows! Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, Plerb said:

God damn how do you make these so fast??? I was playing this a few months ago and I had assumed it was more or less done. Haven't gotten the new version yet but the video of Thy Chex Consumed reminds me of the chaotic texturing of the leftover Doom levels in Chex Quest (which happened to be my first experience playing Doom).

Intense focus, caffeine, and magic. :) Yes, ep7+ is based on the best levels in chex ;)

[Blacklight]

Finally! I've been really waiting for you to complete all the Episodes of this MEGAWAD! Now I can fully proceed with the passage of these Christmas Holidays!

 

Precisely! After all, I have just passed the "A War On Christmas" Dilogy and will recommend the rest to play your Christmas Level Collections! It's been a long time since I've enjoyed such Levels so much! Thank you and Merry Christmas to you!

[Danfun64]

As someone who played a lot of Chex wads several years ago, I wanted to give this one a shot. Still plan on continuing but there were a couple issues of note.

 

All of the attached screenshots are from E1M3.

One section has a Hall of Mirrors error. Another section has a flemoid stuck in an area it can't leave.

 

Spoiler

I haven't completed the map yet, but I find it weird that you have an area where a blue key is required and all there is is the spork and some other ammo.

 

[Andrea Rovenski]

stuck monsters and homs are cool :) The blue key room may hide more than you think. Thanks for playing! 

[DeetOpianSky]

Watching this live on @TheShep's Twitch channel.