[UDMF] The Art Museum (my first map)

[tornado potato]

Hello, good people of this forum! This is my first map. This is a single level inspired by colonial buildings that can be found all over my city, which nowadays are used for all kinds of stuff such as churches, government offices, and of course museums. It was so much fun creating this (though towards the end in the error correcting and polishing phase I just wanted to be over with it asap haha), hope it's the first of many to come. I think I did plenty of playtesting but surely I will have missed something so feel free to give feedback.

 

Story

Doomguy is chilling around at the local art museum when suddenly the place becomes infested by demons. "Ugh I don't like working on weekends" he thinks as he tries to head for the exit but discovers the monsters have locked the main door with their pesky skull keys. Thus he prepares to hunt for them and fight his way out, toasting as many enemies as possible.
 

Info

Name: The Art Museum

Map Format: UDMF

Ports Tested: LZDoom 3.87, Gzdoom 4.8.2

IWAD: Doom2

Map(s): MAP01

Music: The Old Castle, from Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. Guitar Pro file from ultimateguitar.com by user gnaeus.macro. Instruments modified by me.

Gameplay: Single player

Difficulty Settings: Yes (Easy - 142 monsters, Normal - 230 monsters, Hard - 257 monsters and there's less ammo and health)

Multiplayer Placement: No

Build Time: Like 4 months, working let's say 2 hours per week on average.

Textures: Images of the paintings were downloaded from various sources such as wikimedia. Other than that only stock Doom textures were used.

Requirements: No jumping, no crouching. Mouselook recommended

 

Download

Art_Museum.zip

 

Screenshots

Spoiler

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by tornado potato

[Daytime Waitress]

I only finished it on HMP and not even 100%, but this was a bunch of fun, and a really polished effort for a first map! More importantly than just being a fun stroll, it made me want to come back and ferret out all the key cards (I'm sure I'll feel like a right goose for missing a bunch of stuff) and catalogue all the references. There are quite a few neat touches that tie it all together, too, like the subtle, Doom-64-styled coloured lighting really made certain areas pop; and the Mussorgsky piece was very fitting for casually ambling about whilst laying waste to demons.

 

Only bug I could find was getting trapped one of the teleporter closets: if I opened up the door prior, it was fine, but it didn't seem to be tagged on the inside (I can't open an editor at the moment because one of my hard drives is being a shit, so pic attached).

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

I'm sure adjusting lighting and adding in all the paintings was a headache for a first map, but you've created something very unique here, and I reckon it straddles that boundary of "chill, with teeth" very well. Be proud of your first effort, and, like you said, hopefully more to come!

[tornado potato]

12 minutes ago, Daytime Waitress said:

I only finished it on HMP and not even 100%, but this was a bunch of fun, and a really polished effort for a first map! More importantly than just being a fun stroll, it made me want to come back and ferret out all the key cards (I'm sure I'll feel like a right goose for missing a bunch of stuff) and catalogue all the references. There are quite a few neat touches that tie it all together, too, like the subtle, Doom-64-styled coloured lighting really made certain areas pop; and the Mussorgsky piece was very fitting for casually ambling about whilst laying waste to demons.

 

Only bug I could find was getting trapped one of the teleporter closets: if I opened up the door prior, it was fine, but it didn't seem to be tagged on the inside (I can't open an editor at the moment because one of my hard drives is being a shit, so pic attached).

 

I'm sure adjusting lighting and adding in all the paintings was a headache for a first map, but you've created something very unique here, and I reckon it straddles that boundary of "chill, with teeth" very well. Be proud of your first effort, and, like you said, hopefully more to come!

Thank you so much for trying it out and leaving a comment I appreciate it :) You nailed it, both the lighting and adding the paintings was really a headache. Like just hunting for the images and then editing all of them so they had a little black frame and everything. And how lighting works with 3d floors is weird to understand! Also I'm glad to hear the music ended up being a good fit because I also spent some time figuring out what would work best.

 

Regarding the teleporters they were indeed misbehaving at some point but I thought they were fixed! I couldn't replicate getting stuck in them. You mean the door didn't open from inside? They are all tagged correctly I think :o

 

Spoiler

 

[Daytime Waitress]

Good to know - it's definitely something I have to fix with my GZDoom, then, because I can remember another map awhile back where I was skipping linedefs that others weren't having trouble with...

[Amiga Angel]

cool stuff - I will definetly give this a go

[Zoti]

If the map is very cool in its gameplay and its placement of enemies, I really like this museum environment which is quite original for me!

[LadyMistDragon]

Night at the museum. What, you're saying that cave in the bathroom is riduculous? Have you ever played the Museum level of Bart v. The Space Mutants? :P No, I didn't have dynamic lights turned on, I may have forgotten or else I had other things on my mind.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[tornado potato]

@LadyMistDragon awesome, loved watching the playthrough. Really cool to see how other people solve it. Regarding the dick-ish ness (wonder why you think that! 😈) in my defense for example the very difficult lava pit jump is a red herring, when you kill the Baron the green marble wall lowers again (I didn't even know the jump could be achieved, very nice!).
Also I looked up the Simpsons game and I see what you mean, haha, maybe this needs some lasers too! 


@Amiga Angel yeah! you won't regret it (I hope...)

 

@Zoti yeah I learned how the placement of enemies is really not that easy to pull off. It's not just placing monsters randomly in a long corridor, and the the map layout must also contribute. For example the hallways around the courtyard were originally very bland that's why I added some lava pits and rocky mounts with snipers on top.

@Daytime Waitress weird. Maybe also try getting LZDoom, I kinda like it more, it runs faster. Oh and if you do end up getting around trying to find the secrets tell me what you think. I am still wondering whether they're too obvious once they're really searched for, or too hard. I now feel like half the level is secrets lol.
 

Edited November 22, 2023 by tornado potato