What was the first map you ever made?

[Raith138]

As someone who is relatively new to the mapping scene I am kinda curious how other people started out.

My first ever map was in a pack of 3 which were made in direct order so the first is the first map I made the second is my second etc.

Maybe even post your most recently completed map so you and maybe other people can appreciate how far you have come.

My maps:

First maps.

Most recent map.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Raith138

[DRON12261]

Actually my first map was a few boxes made very many years ago. 
 

Then there was a period when I was mapping newbie maps and sat on it a lot (I think it was around 2018). But at the time I wasn't active in the community and didn't sit on any forums, etc. (or rather I was always reading them, but I wasn't registered to write anything somewhere myself). Plus, many maps are now either left to gather dust on my hard drive or have disappeared forever. Also, many of them were not trivially finished. After that I abandoned mapping for a long period of time since then.

I think I had a couple more maps on disk, maybe I'll dig them up in time and throw them here a bunch. But don't expect any quality from them, plus some of them can't even be passed (there's no exit from the level, lol). But at least recently I found one pack of 2 more or less good maps for a streamer I know. You can check out the cut footage from the stream here:

Spoiler

 

As for the current time. I returned to mapping last summer (2022) and my current skills are very different from what I did before. This is probably mostly due to the fact that I've always been into gamedev and everything related to it in general. The reason for coming back was spontaneous. In general I used to sit in the local part of the community (on LegacyZ discord server) and loved playing deathmatch/duel, even participated (and still participate) in tournaments, but not saying that I'm a super player. But I also sometimes looked at what was happening on other doom servers (since I still sometimes did zandronum modding for myself and on such servers it was possible to get some help in figuring things out). At some point one mapper, a newbie at that time, uploaded his first map to such a server and asked to look at it and give feedback (hello, @Nikolanchik). And I got the urge to do it. In the end, I was so blown away that I even wrote a whole local guide with tips for beginners in mapping and made something like a remake/remaster of the map, which showed an example of what and how you could improve the map. 

After that moment I realized that I was interested in mapping and that I was actually pretty good at it. And then I really got into it and I still do, working on a few projects of my own as well as participating in a couple of community projects. It was around that time that I started getting into the forums. The first maps after that guide were some dm/duel maps, which we also played/tested in LegacyZ for a while afterwards. After that, I started to look again in the direction of single levels. I actually have one public release so far (which was this January), also had a number of cancelled maps I stopped working on, and now have a number of WIP maps I work on from time to time. Something like this.

Many of the current works can be found here, including that little set of dm/duel maps.
https://github.com/Doom-Mapping-Modding-Lair-DRON12261

 

Also some different screenshots from my various current maps, as an example of what I can do now:
 

Spoiler

 

[Treehouseminis]

I started mapping last december,not even a year yet and it quickly became my new hyperfixation.  

 

I've been a doom player my entire life, but only been playing custom content off and on since 2016, but really renewed my doom obsession when Eternal came out, and then lost my job in the early pandemic so most of what I did was play doom and doomwads.  Went through cacowards of what looked interesting, and started browsing the forums more.  

 

My first maps are pretty basic, but in my first 3 map set there's a noticable jump in quality from map01 to 03.  I feel I have a decent grasp on UDB as a tool atm.  Mostly cuz since last December I've been mapping almost non stop.  I've made 15 total maps.  3 for community projects and I've released 3 mini sets.  Currently working on 2 other CPs.  Most are larger slaughter type maps as stuff like Sunder, Abandon, Sunlust, combat shock, are my main inspirations.  I like detailed levels with difficult combat. 

 

I'll link my works if anyone's interested in order I made them :) 

 

Blood Grave

 

MEAT MACHINE

 

Early Mass

[OceanMadman]

I made it 4 years ago or so. It was a couple of corridors, with some nazis because I felt like making a wolf3d-styled map, but with a pit with nuclear waste which had a cyberdemon and the exit. Sadly I lost the map years ago.

 

After that I kept making crap for at least a year, then I started making crap but at least I had good ideas, and now we are in the present, in which I like to think I managed to make some good maps but sometimes accidentaly making some crap which I have to fix later so my old style isn't entirely forgotten :)

Edited July 7, 2023 by OceanMadman

[Raith138]

8 hours ago, DRON12261 said:

Actually my first map was a few boxes made very many years ago. 
 

Then there was a period when I was mapping newbie maps and sat on it a lot (I think it was around 2018). But at the time I wasn't active in the community and didn't sit on any forums, etc. (or rather I was always reading them, but I wasn't registered to write anything somewhere myself). Plus, many maps are now either left to gather dust on my hard drive or have disappeared forever. Also, many of them were not trivially finished. After that I abandoned mapping for a long period of time since then.

I think I had a couple more maps on disk, maybe I'll dig them up in time and throw them here a bunch. But don't expect any quality from them, plus some of them can't even be passed (there's no exit from the level, lol). But at least recently I found one pack of 2 more or less good maps for a streamer I know. You can check out the cut footage from the stream here:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

As for the current time. I returned to mapping last summer (2022) and my current skills are very different from what I did before. This is probably mostly due to the fact that I've always been into gamedev and everything related to it in general. The reason for coming back was spontaneous. In general I used to sit in the local part of the community (on LegacyZ discord server) and loved playing deathmatch/duel, even participated (and still participate) in tournaments, but not saying that I'm a super player. But I also sometimes looked at what was happening on other doom servers (since I still sometimes did zandronum modding for myself and on such servers it was possible to get some help in figuring things out). At some point one mapper, a newbie at that time, uploaded his first map to such a server and asked to look at it and give feedback (hello, @Nikolanchik). And I got the urge to do it. In the end, I was so blown away that I even wrote a whole local guide with tips for beginners in mapping and made something like a remake/remaster of the map, which showed an example of what and how you could improve the map. 

After that moment I realized that I was interested in mapping and that I was actually pretty good at it. And then I really got into it and I still do, working on a few projects of my own as well as participating in a couple of community projects. It was around that time that I started getting into the forums. The first maps after that guide were some dm/duel maps, which we also played/tested in LegacyZ for a while afterwards. After that, I started to look again in the direction of single levels. I actually have one public release so far (which was this January), also had a number of cancelled maps I stopped working on, and now have a number of WIP maps I work on from time to time. Something like this.

Many of the current works can be found here, including that little set of dm/duel maps.
https://github.com/Doom-Mapping-Modding-Lair-DRON12261

 

Also some different screenshots from my various current maps, as an example of what I can do now:
 

  Hide contents

 

Those screenshots look really good.

I literally started mapping a month ago yet the difference in my maps is like night and day.

I actually used to use scratch because it is, if you think about it is the same idea, you are creating something out of nothing.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Raith138

[Raith138]

I just realized this is in the wrong forum.

Wooops

[DynamiteKaitorn]

For me my first ever map is lost to time forever. My first published map is teechnically 2 WADs: TMoD 0 - TNT Strikes and TMoD 1 - War on Poneto.

 

Compare them to some of my recent PUSS speedmaps and yeah... I've DEFNITELY come quite the distance. XD

[LuzRoja29]

it was a cave map like this

[Raith138]

I am gonna make a quick map based on that drawing if you are cool with that. 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Raith138

[Herr Dethnout]

My first map was literally a default square made in Doom Builder 2 that didn't even save.

 

My first complete and release map was this: 

 

I also worked on two maps in thos Megawad, but only the initial layout:

Maps are E1M1 and E3M2 btw

 

Spoiler

1 hour ago, LuzRoja29 said:

it was a cave map like this

De pelos

 

[indigotyrian]

 

Completely vanilla to boot! I ain't making that mistake again lmao

[Lippeth]

I've still only made a handful of maps since starting in 2012, but the first one is probably still the most fun to make, as I generally don't find making maps to be nearly as enjoyable as playing other people's. It was also the first time I tried making MIDI music as well. Anyway, here's a ten year old video of my myfirstwad.wad.

 

[Sesamia]

I wish I could remember.  I started in the late 90s when I was very young, and they were likely very below average 90s maps (like the REALLY bad stuff you'd find in maximum doom).  I only remember bits and pieces of a few maps from back then, with an exception for two of them which I could recreate from memory if I tried hard enough.

 

I came back to mapping a little over a decade ago, and I consider the stuff I started making to be my first maps.

 

This is one of them as seen from a level editor:
 

Spoiler

 

[LoatharMDPhD]

Holy Shit!!! 2 1/2 KB compressed!!!!

 

Res Ipsa Loquitor

 

"What Fresh Hell" -2022 LoatharMdPhD, "Baby's First Doom WAD"

01WhatFreshHellmk3.zip

[Yousuf Anik]

This was my first map ever made. It was stupid as hell :D I'm very sad that I don't have the map file anymore. What I have is this guy's video of playthrough. Anyway, I'm going to revive some parts of the map inside my new work that is in progress. 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Yousuf Anik

[KeaganDunn]

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/firstb
 

My first 14 Doom maps. MAP05 is the true first one. As is typical, this entire thing was made in Boom/limit-removing but only tested in GZDoom. kek

Edited July 9, 2023 by KeaganDunn

[lunchlunch]

My first and third maps I ever made. Not sure whatever happened to TestingMAP02.wad or if it was ever finished.
Both are UDMF format, haven't made changes to them since their original conception in the first half of 2020. Haven't even played them all the way through since then, any time I've had a hankering to, I get a couple minutes in and get irritated by the mapping naivete present and then quit them. 

Edit- TestingMAP03.wad is in mapslot 04 for some reason

Edited July 8, 2023 by lunchlunch

[LoatharMDPhD]

3 hours ago, Sesamia said:

I wish I could remember.  I started in the late 90s when I was very young, and they were likely very below average 90s maps (like the REALLY bad stuff you'd find in maximum doom).  I only remember bits and pieces of a few maps from back then, with an exception for two of them which I could recreate from memory if I tried hard enough.

 

I came back to mapping a little over a decade ago, and I consider the stuff I started making to be my first maps.

 

This is one of them as seen from a level editor:
 

  Hide contents

 

// for a first map its nice to see the shadows from the pillars in the south east room there...

[xScavengerWolfx]

My first map was called Underground toxicity but i did not save it (thank god)

 

My newest map well mapset is Abandon: Shadows of Darkness episode 1 & 2. I'll leave a link for it here if you wanna check it out.

 

It is for Ultimate Doom not doom 2.

[Capellan]

A 64-wide STARTAN3 maze where you got a berserk right at the start and there were no other weapons.  Monster-wise it was all imps and demons.

 

Ironically, I really don't enjoy Tyson maps at all.

[Li'l devil]

Technically it was this troll map (read the responses)

 

[Ninty]

My first map was nothing special. (And crap, but that's a given.) The name was, creatively, "MAP01". I never fully released this outside of some Discord friends as it was just something for me to learn how UDB works and such.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Ninty

[Raith138]

1 minute ago, Ninty said:

My first map was nothing special. (And crap, but that's a given.) The name was, creatively, "MAP01". I never fully released this outside of some Discord friends as it was just something for me to learn how UDB works and such.

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

It looks really good for a first map actually.

[Death Bear]

HAHAHA. So, here's @Clippy playing my first map. By "first", it was the first map I made that had a beginning and an end and could be completed. January of '20. Just learning the basics after reading tutorials and watching chubbz videos and having several other "practice maps". I released it on the PUSS discord shortly before this video was posted...hence how Clippy got ahold of it. Nothing special. We all start somewhere.
 

Spoiler

 

My most recent map is not released yet, and is for Quoth the Raven, but will be released shortly. I have quite a resume of maps, and many more on the way. If anyone has sneezed in the general direction of a community project since December of '20, you've probably seen a map of mine. I wouldn't say looking at my resume in a linear fashion shows a clear progression, but what I can do now (and what I can do in a short amount of time) is quite different. Skulltiverse, Mapping at Warpspeed, Solar Struggle, and PRCP2 all have/ are featured with the DWMegawad Club, and while I worked on them all around the same time, they are different. I'll get gud one of these days. =)

[real slush59134]

This.

 

 

or 

 this - oldest doom video from me. 

[LuzRoja29]

18 hours ago, Raith138 said:

I am gonna make a quick map based on that drawing if you are cool with that. 

yes please

[LuzRoja29]

18 hours ago, Herr Dethnout said:

 

  Hide contents

De pelos

 

muchas gracias bro

[SilverMiner]

Name: Swamp

Iwad: Plutonia

Slot: 01

I played it in GZDoom 1.8.6, but maybe it's finishable in Boom

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7j9xace643a0xx4/SMAMP.wad?dl=1

[dashlet]

MAP01 from Liminal Doom was my first experience with Doom mapping and UDB. It went through a lot of changes before hitting idgames though, but the main ideas are still there.

 

 

 

 

[DJVCardMaster]

A regular MAP01 stuff for a megawad I was working on when I was younger, if you played ZDaemon circa 2010 chances are that you played it, as I liked to open servers with a new version of it each time I Made 4 maps. Not that bad though, but pretty straight-forward. The fact that its format was Doom in Hexen makes it totally unplayable in my books.