Does anyone else here make lore for their (mega) wads?

[Codename_Delta]

I can't be the only one, although I do go over the top a lot of the time..

[ThatKidBobo]

Imagination Beyond would have had lore if I was still working on it.

[volleyvalley]

Hell In Hell did it in a way of really short prologues in almost every map, which is all well for an 1996 megawad.

Edited October 16, 2023 by volleyvalley

[SilverMiner]

I do. The lore can exist both before and after the maps are done, it's a system of checks and balances

[Codename_Delta]

4 minutes ago, SilverMiner said:

I do. The lore can exist both before and after the maps are done, it's a system of checks and balances

Interesting.

[Fonze]

I love it when wads have some silly story typed up in their text files or on the episode end screens. Bonus points if it's sufficiently mundane enough to anti-joke dump all of the weight/tension it was carrying in the final sentence 😂 

 

I didn't add lore to most of doom wads I made beyond visual storytelling, but I have been doing so for the frog hop maps I've been making recently. One of them has the player 'dropped off by their alien overlords looking for red velvet cake' so I made a cheesy frog-hop-cute flying saucer the player starts near to go with the silly story, and the following level is themed around red velvet cake. Idk why I did that, but it gives those maps a unique flavor that I wouldn't have made if not for that random lore I wrote down. I guess it can be a good outlet for making a thematic outline for your map to help fight mapper's block in a more entertaining way.

 

I think writing a good story is hard work and it's far more natural to just write something campy that you can represent in your map. Stuff like lore being both stated and represented visually, doomcute stuffs, etc adds character and life to the worlds we build, as well as gives an additional layer of communication to players you can use as a mapper.

[xScavengerWolfx]

The only lore i have is for my solo Ultimate Doom wad called Abandon: Shadows of darkness. I still have to write up chapter 4 (great song by Avenged Sevenfold) for it

 

[roadworx]

i'm making lore for my episode, yes. in the text file there's gonna be a short description to accompany each map, and it's gonna form one continuous story :)

 

memento mori 2 did it, so i am required to also do it

[Jerem]

Yes! ~✨

Narrative is a powerful tool. Coming from having done many game jams, I can say with confidence that players are often excited to find out there's a goal.

A word of warning: Concision! Players' eyes glaze over when their movement/progression is reduced because of lore, and on top of that, the less subtle your exposition the more they'll lose interest! Setup your 121 story structure and let everything organically fall into place. 

[dobu gabu maru]

Yessir, lore can be a lot of fun, especially when it's not delivered via a dry text file block. Almost all of my stuff is organically spun from mapping itself—that is, I come up with a backstory and the rules of the world as I'm mapping, rather than any of it being pre-written beforehand. Helps to centralize what I'm going for and makes it much easier to implement ideas. For instance, rather than write about a giant machine deep inside Phobos that teleports troops to hell, start by making the machine and then discover what it does [what if it's a big crusher that instead sends bloody gruel to hell to be later reanimated into monsters? Could have the next level feature archviles resurrecting a bunch of pre-dead monsters])

 

33 minutes ago, Jerem said:

A word of warning: Concision!

 

Yeah 100%. Brevity is the soul of wit and all that.

Edited October 18, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

[Firedust]

People underestimate the power of visual storytelling. Narration is key to immersion and it oftentimes elevates a mediocre experience to a greater level of enjoyment. Don't get me wrong, I love Doom's abstract realism, but boy is it a breath of fresh air when you are presented with some kinds of hints as to what a sector's / a switch's / a level's lore purpose is.

[Cutman 999]

If it is just filling the intermission screens and textfiles with some dumbass shit, maybe yeah, i write "lore" in my wads...

[OliveTree]

my pretty-bad megawad from 2016 that ive mentioned weirdly frequently in the last month or so had a heavy emphasis on story with these giant black signs w/ white text delivering dialogue/exposition and in-jokes

[kalensar]

I made a mini-lore for one of my gameplay mods because I wanted to use some monsters from different sources that normally wouldnt be found together. Fortunately due to some updates of the primary source, I might have to update my mod artistically again. 

 

Brutal FreeDoom Exkalibered- the fork of Brutal FreeDoom GZD v3.

 

"The Year doesn't matter. The Alternate Universe of FreeDoom has taken on a new form. Reformed after years of war but still the Alien Menace persists.
A company called the UAC, a private Corporation, has joined the AGM in their plight, but all isnt fairing well. Yet all is not lost, the decimation of the Serpentipede home world bought Humanity a bit of time, but the old hindrance was quickly replaced. But something stirred deep, and a chill was felt on the psychic waves. Something not encountered or concieved. Even the destruction of the last Mother Brain wasn't as painful as what ESPER branch was reporting.
Things changed when the first assaults in half a decade resumed. Teleporters opening and old faces appeared with blood, but others were new. But the Psychic Training failed and soldiers fell under sway to the Aliens just like before. AGM braced for impact, and hoped the same old tactics would work again.
War never changes when it is genocide versus slavery."

 

So basically just an explanation for minor crossovers of some guns and monsters. +D

[bobstremglav]

Yeah

 

Project BIJOGAVONING probably will be more cursed by having crossover with Wolfenstein, but that's other story

[BeachThunder]

Noooope. The only semblance of a """story""" in You Have 1HP is what is suggested by the title itself. And, um, that's not exactly a story...