PAINLOOP (vanilla, E1 replacement centering around game code gimmick)

[slowfade]

Do you enjoy not knowing what to do and/or standing still while your health is slowly being drained? Then this is the wad for you...

 

 

----What you need to know----
-IWAD: DOOM.WAD
-Vanilla Doom 1. Use complevel 2 if port allows it.
-NO jumping, NO crouching, NO freelook. You remember Doom 1? It didn't have any of them.
-Designed to be played on UV and UV only.
-Pistol starts fine if -- well you'll see...
-Developed/tested with Crispy Doom, doom.exe, Chocolate Doom, and should work with every port that does vanilla accurately.
-File: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/p-r/painloop (idgames) or

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/37rc2c4xad7f7po17czn0/painloop.zip?rlkey=90m2tay5n6ndzt0x7b7o2c8we&dl=0 (my dropbox)

 

It can be absolutely enraging and feel futile to play, and you can rest assured I had those feelings often while making this.

 

I hope you'll give it a try but I must warn you that it's probably not fun and can just exhaust you. A playthrough guide can be found in the readme.

 

The screenshots might have some pixel-level differences because I took them some days ago and then did some final adjustments here and there and I just couldn't be bothered to take new screens.

 

Have fun, if possible!

 

Edited June 14 by slowfade
Added idgames link.

[Walter confetti]

A Doom episode using Otex? This is a real rarity!

[Firedust]

This is pure nightmare fuel.

[Insaneprophet]

I am one of the people who really liked Confusion Constructions so I will be giving this a go. 😃

 

Yeah, I dont hate this at all. Ive been replaying an endless loop about 5 times in a row now but I know what i think i should actually be doing. Tomorrow morning ill test my theory. Cool shit youve got the best out of left field ideas.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Insaneprophet

[Zoti]

I had a lot of fun with this map. Of course it's sometimes frustrating but by learning from your mistakes you always manage to find a solution!

[LadyMistDragon]

That was....vaguely unsettling. I guess the repetitive music is supposed to convey that "another day at work" feeling. Is there some lore reason why you end up returning to the map "Warp" when you go down an obvious path of deception?

 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by LadyMistDragon

[slowfade]

Thanks for trying it out people. This is quite different from my first wad and that was on purpose. I wanted to try plainer maps that sort of blend together and revolve around the looping concept, and I didn't make the kind of constructions and attractions I want to make (my next wad will take care of that!). That made this somewhat difficult to make, in terms of putting so much effort on something you don't care all that much to make.

 

LadyMistDragon, you're supposed to play on UV, and in the very first room will only get the blue skull if your setting is UV. Everything is calibrated for UV: the damage, the health, the ammo. Thanks for recording a video. I must say your playstyle is a bit too fast for this set, this requires a more meditative approach! The music is what it is because I had zero interest in trying to make it, zero ideas, and zero skills with Doom midi. But it works here I think (others might disagree). The hidden warp is just another gimmick to deepen the sense of entrapment, but no lore behind it.

 

I see in the video that map 2 has a glaringly misaligned texture. I don't know how. I saw that wall a million times, it was completely fine when I ran all my last tests, but somehow now it's misaligned. I'm 95% sure there's some texture bug in DBX that happens sometimes when you save or something. Or then I just moved around shift pressed (for speed) and accidentally hit an arrow, but I sort of doubt that. But I guess I'll just leave it like that because I just can't be bothered any more.

[slowfade]

I have now uploaded this thing to idgames. It shouldn't take long till it's there and I can edit the main post with an idgames link. What I sent to idgames is 100% identical to what has been lying in my dropbox for more than half a year.

 

I didn't fix that texture misalignment in map 2. I let it be a reminder of the crumbling nature of all human efforts. Nah, the actual reason is less loftier than that: making this wad I burned myself out so much that I just couldn't open any of the associated files, edit the map, compile a new version, test, repackage zip, reupload, I just couldn't do it and still can't. One misaligned texture, who gives a damn? I saw that wall so many times while testing and it was ok, but in the final version it wasn't. Either the old DBX changed it on its own the final time I edited or saved the map (more likely) or I had somehow selected it without knowing and moved it 8 units (way more unlikely).

 

 

 

Anyway. I replayed the wad about an hour ago. It was alright. Some rooms were particularly good in their small-scale ways.

Was it fun? Not really.

Was it interesting? Not really.

Was it nightmareous? Yes! This wad is/was too much of a gimmick but at least it does it fullheartedly. I'm glad I got it done but the process wasn't exactly gladdening. I had so many problems that I had to fight so much and it burned my mind. I know it's a very small wad compared to many others but the struggle is (very) subjective and for me some parts of it felt almost unconquerable and drove me to the limits of my endurance. Too much pain for too little reward. As a result, for pushing myself too hard with this, I haven't been able to map in half a year. I've mostly done small, not so special rooms that don't connect, and a few small unnecessarily sadistic maps that lack coherence (and aren't finished besides). All my bigger plans remain dormant.

 

Anyway 2. I think there's more potential to this idea than I managed here, but I can't really form it in clear ideas. Perhaps one distant day I can make a collaborative work with one or more mappers that utilizes this loop idea some way but makes a more engaging thing of it than this wad here. You never know...

Edited May 30 by slowfade