Six Minute Showdown [now on idgames] - A map with rhythmic elements that move to the beat/melody!

[Vytaan]

Hi! This is Six Minute Showdown, the first map I've ever released. The main feature is that the map has some rhythmic elements to it!

 

I've been listening to @Cammy's 'Chicago Typography' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS_VgV1zR3g) a lot over the last year, a track originally created for the Alien Vendetta MIDI pack. Because it's used for a map in the old version of AV (first release, MAP25: Valley of Echoes), which many people might not have played, I feel like it deserves more recognition. 

Listening to it made me wonder if there's ever been a Doom map where the MIDI and map/combat are 'connected' to each other... and at that moment I knew I wanted to give it a try. 

 

Quick info:

IWAD: Doom II

Comp level: 9

Runs on: DSDA 0.26.0+/PrBoom+ 2.6.66, NOT on GZDoom

Renderer: OpenGL

Difficulties: Fully implemented

No jumping or crouching

 

IMPORTANT: 

• Do NOT pause or load, it will break the intended effect. The map is short for a reason!
• Do NOT use GZDoom: it will break the intended effect due to different conveyor belt behavior and mess up some monster spawns.
• Use OpenGL, software will cause a graphical issue.
• I suggest turning up the music compared to the sound effects so you can hear the track during bigger fights as well. That way you'll also be able to prepare for certain cues once you know the map.

 

Difficulty options are fully implemented, please use them. UV is hard, especially blind, and forces you to keep up the tempo. HMP is tough and even HNTR is still somewhat challenging.

 

Finally, the map is named this way because it WILL end exactly 6 minutes after grabbing the shotgun. You better escape before that time - you have been warned. Have fun!

 

Download it here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/sms

 

Additional credits:

@Cammy for creating 'Chicago Typography' (used in MAP01) and 'Boston Cream Pie' (used in the menu) 
@AD_79 for creating 'Undefined' (used in the intermission screen)
@ukiro for creating the OTEX texture pack.

@Spectere for letting me know you can add a DSDAPREF lump to warn the player about software/OpenGL

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Vytaan
Put a screenshot in the wrong spot, added some extra credits

[bofu]

This is a very fun and creative map. Six minutes is about the sweet spot for a reasonable amount of time to go without pausing, too.

 

I still giggle every time the hills start dancing in rhythm with the music.

[EduardoAndFriends]

LET'S F-ING GOOOOOOO. Congrats on your first released map, V, plenty more to come, I hope! Video playthrough incoming. ;)

[mancubian_candidate]

This was something else - I had a stupid grin on my face for the whole Map. Well done Vytaan, its some achievement :)

 

Edit: Also to Cammy for the Jam!

Edited December 2, 2023 by mancubian_candidate

[borogk]

Great map, great music, had a lot of fun practicing, memorizing the rhythm and developing the strategy.

Would be very impressive for one's 100th map, let alone for the very first. Well done!

 

Oh, and here's my UV-max run with 12 seconds to spare (17th attempt): sms-548.zip

[LightningBoltForever]

Downloaded this right away - can't wait to give it a spin. Congrats on your first release man!!

[plums]

Great first map! Having the map move based on the timing of the song is a very inspired idea.

 

I'm not super thrilled by the ending conditions, just because hitting the switches is relatively easy and mostly independent of whatever else is going on. Two ideas would be that you have to kill everything to end the map, before the 6-minute mark (doable with a UMAPINFO lump, I can help you if you're interested in trying this, no problem if not); or to have to survive to 6 minutes and then you win (which would probably need restructuring the map too much to be worth the effort here). In any case it doesn't detract all that much from the map.

 

The software graphical glitches can also probably be worked around with Boom property transfer actions, but since this is your first wad you get a pass ;) Something to keep in mind for next time though.

Edited December 2, 2023 by plums

[SupremeBioVizier]

Was okay for the first few seconds when everything was a lift, then it's just typical slaughter fest.

[ZioMcCall]

3 hours ago, SupremeBioVizier said:

Was okay for the first few seconds when everything was a lift, then it's just typical slaughter fest.

Skill issue

[SupremeBioVizier]

10 minutes ago, ZioMcCall said:

Skill issue

Bra

[Dragonfly]

Absolutely brilliant map! The way the perimeter walls dance to the beat, the river waving along with the arpeggios... wow; it's impossible not to have a smile on your face when trying this map! Even after starting my 4th attempt after some unfortunate deaths and going allll the way back to the start of the map, I'd still end up grinning when the map itself starts dancing.

 

EDIT: Props to Cammy on the tunes, they rock!

Edited December 2, 2023 by Dragonfly

[Stupid Bunny]

Delightful concept, delightfully executed!  I like how the map ends at the same time as the song does--100% kill oriented maps are so tired, it's nice to have a survival-style map like this that's simply "keep going as long as the song does."  And the dancing bouncing map opening up with the sections of the song keeps the survival interesting...plus it's a great choice of music for a map like this.  Spectacular debut release, this could be a great concept for a whole mapset with the right song choices.  Inspiring stuff.

[EduardoAndFriends]

 

[EduardoAndFriends]

Hehehe! What an amazingly fun time. The Mario-like hills that bob up and down (and especially the fence posts before the big slaughter release) had me laughing big time!

 

I don’t know if you’ve played Rayman Legends (I love it) and it’s got these super fun rhythm games based to music which I was reminded of in this map. Super stuff. :)

 

I struggled doing a live commentary run (over 20 attempts, oof) because my brain has trouble dividing its attention between tasks sometimes so I did a post commentary run and I wrestled it into submission within a few tries. I was able to then properly listen to the music without my voice drowning it out. I’m a dolt, lol.

 

Spoiler

One thing that just might need patching up is a pair of poor hell knights that get stuck on their columns in the centre of the map near the bridge. They just might need monster blocking lines so they don’t get booped by Boom. :p but then that would block the cacos and other monsters when the columns drop so I dunno, haha, not very helpful sorry!

 

Bloody fantastic fun, man, and though I’m prone to excited exaggerations, I meant everything I said in the commentary. My heart was beating so fast near the end, when I exited I had to sit back and let the thundering blood come to a more natural beat. Phew! More of this sort of thrilling Doomage, please. MORE I SAY. MORE!!! You should be very proud of your work. I had a sneaky peek in Doom Builder and WOW. Masses of lines and boxes and the note to yourself about the beat measurement; very cool. It’s clear just how much work has gone into this map!

[RHhe82]

I believe this might be an occasion where I'm not gonna be patient enough to wait for an idGames upload, if there's going to be one.

[Vytaan]

Thanks for the wonderful feedback everyone! It's been surreal to see you play and react to my map.
 

12 hours ago, borogk said:

Great map, great music, had a lot of fun practicing, memorizing the rhythm and developing the strategy.

Would be very impressive for one's 100th map, let alone for the very first. Well done!

 

Oh, and here's my UV-max run with 12 seconds to spare (17th attempt): sms-548.zip

Great job! I'm so happy to see you use the dancing pillars in the second half of the final fight to dodge the AV zaps :D Your tempo was great too. In my experience, going too quickly due to the time pressure tends to just end in death - but of course, being too passive makes you run out of time. You struck a perfect balance :)
 

8 hours ago, plums said:

Great first map! Having the map move based on the timing of the song is a very inspired idea.

 

I'm not super thrilled by the ending conditions, just because hitting the switches is relatively easy and mostly independent of whatever else is going on. Two ideas would be that you have to kill everything to end the map, before the 6-minute mark (doable with a UMAPINFO lump, I can help you if you're interested in trying this, no problem if not); or to have to survive to 6 minutes and then you win (which would probably need restructuring the map too much to be worth the effort here). In any case it doesn't detract all that much from the map.

 

The software graphical glitches can also probably be worked around with Boom property transfer actions, but since this is your first wad you get a pass ;) Something to keep in mind for next time though.

Thank you! The end is definitely the part I was/am the most unsure about, I see what you mean. I've tried a few different variations:

1. Letting the map just end at 6 minutes instead of killing the player
   • Works okay, but it removes any sense of urgency. I've had some test runs where I killed the last enemy with 10 seconds left on the clock but still had to press two switches - so I was better off just sitting there until the map completed itself for me. It ended up feeling a bit anticlimactic.
2. Spawning in more enemies after the big fight, basically until the song ends
   • I think this can work, but it also removed some of the tension of beating the big fight when more enemies just kept appearing. The music winds down quite a bit after the climax, so I had a hard time figuring out a way to keep it interesting. At that point you have the BFG and a lot of cells, so you could just instantly blow up any group that spawns and it wasn't very engaging. Of course you can make the enemies threatening enough so you can't do that, but then it didn't really fit the music.

Your idea of having to kill everything to end the map is very interesting! Assuming it means that the map actually ends pretty much directly after the last kill, I think that would work great. Because I definitely want to avoid players being forced to just sit and wait - that's why I ended up adding the switches and the exit portal. On the other hand, I like that hitting the switches early allows you to get some 'pre-work' done and shave off some seconds, plus it forces you to get out there into the fight. But I agree that it's not exactly hard to do so and that they aren't connected to the music in any way. 

Thanks for the offer, I'll think about it based on other feedback and how much time I still want to spend on the map. Creating this took so, so much longer than expectef. Mostly the lack of experience, but having individual closets/triggers for lots of sounds/map elements doesn't exactly help 😅 Whenever anything would break, trying to fix it and retesting the map (which forces you to wait 5+ minutes sometimes, because you can speed up the game but not the music) was a pain!

 

7 hours ago, SupremeBioVizier said:

Was okay for the first few seconds when everything was a lift, then it's just typical slaughter fest.

 

I don't think there's a way around this sadly - though playing on HNTR/HMP should lower the enemy count by a lot. The issue with this kind of map is that you want to offer enough enemies for the player to stay engaged, because waiting for things to happen too often will become boring. On the other hand you also don't want it to become too overwhelming. That's why I made sure to implement all three difficulties, even if HNTR/HMP are still somewhat slaughtery later on.

 

2 hours ago, Stupid Bunny said:

Delightful concept, delightfully executed!  I like how the map ends at the same time as the song does--100% kill oriented maps are so tired, it's nice to have a survival-style map like this that's simply "keep going as long as the song does."  And the dancing bouncing map opening up with the sections of the song keeps the survival interesting...plus it's a great choice of music for a map like this.  Spectacular debut release, this could be a great concept for a whole mapset with the right song choices.  Inspiring stuff.

 

I would LOVE to see others attempt this!

 

1 hour ago, EduardoAndFriends said:

Hehehe! What an amazingly fun time. The Mario-like hills that bob up and down (and especially the fence posts before the big slaughter release) had me laughing big time!

 

I don’t know if you’ve played Rayman Legends (I love it) and it’s got these super fun rhythm games based to music which I was reminded of in this map. Super stuff. :)

 

I struggled doing a live commentary run (over 20 attempts, oof) because my brain has trouble dividing its attention between tasks sometimes so I did a post commentary run and I wrestled it into submission within a few tries. I was able to then properly listen to the music without my voice drowning it out. I’m a dolt, lol.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

One thing that just might need patching up is a pair of poor hell knights that get stuck on their columns in the centre of the map near the bridge. They just might need monster blocking lines so they don’t get booped by Boom. :p but then that would block the cacos and other monsters when the columns drop so I dunno, haha, not very helpful sorry!

 

Bloody fantastic fun, man, and though I’m prone to excited exaggerations, I meant everything I said in the commentary. My heart was beating so fast near the end, when I exited I had to sit back and let the thundering blood come to a more natural beat. Phew! More of this sort of thrilling Doomage, please. MORE I SAY. MORE!!! You should be very proud of your work. I had a sneaky peek in Doom Builder and WOW. Masses of lines and boxes and the note to yourself about the beat measurement; very cool. It’s clear just how much work has gone into this map!

 

Thanks so much for playing through my map and uploading your run, it was so much fun to watch! Doing it post commentary seems like the way to go, as there's enough to focus on already 😅

 

I'm very proud of the conveyor belt 'metronome' being accurate, that was the first thing that got me stuck for a while! In hindsight it wasn't too complex, but it took some time to figure out. Once you know how a length X linedef corresponds to conveyor speed Y, you just have to make sure that the BPM of your MIDI works well with it. In my case, I upped the tempo (with permission :P) of Cammy's track from 155 to 160 BPM - this made it so a linedef of 256 units translates to the voodoo doll on the conveyor belt moving pretty much exactly 105 units per beat.

 

The above wouldn't work with 155 BPM because you'd have to use decimals (having the voodoo doll move 101.71875 units per beat isn't helpful), unless you multiply it by Z so it becomes a whole, usable number. But then you'd have a conveyor belt with such a high speed that it would probably cause linedef skips...

 

Oh and the Hell Knight thing is a good point, monster blocking linedefs would definitely help and I'll give it a try. It also happens later on when the extra pillars come out of the ground during the second phase of the final fight, sometimes it even incapacitates a cyberdemon heh.

 

47 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

I believe this might be an occasion where I'm not gonna be patient enough to wait for an idGames upload, if there's going to be one.

 

Thanks for the reminder! I'll give it some time first and see if I leave the map as is or perhaps make small adjustments.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Vytaan

[LadyMistDragon]

I couldn't get a video of this because well, I'm lazy. Didn't matter too much because I did the best the first time around, despite not knowing anything about the encounters.

[Ravendesk]

Very cool map. I was always fascinated by music sync maps and ideas (in both doom and other games), and this map does this concept in a super fun and a very elaborate way, really loved the attention to detail and the amount of little things that complement the music (even though I probably missed some of them as it usually happens). Also the raising and lowering bars before the final fight genuinely made me laugh. Reminded me of some musical scenes from old cartoons where plants or trees dance to the music, but here it was bars instead which is hilarious. Great stuff.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Ravendesk

[Pechudin]

I though of a similar idea but never could get around the pause problem. Guess the only way is to disallow it.

[DuckReconMajor]

incredible! great map great midi

Here are a few Skill 2 demos and a Skill 1 (idk why it would break in Skill 1 but i can confirm it works)

My successful skill 2 didn't finish because I didn't read and I went looking for the other secret at the end!

Congrats on this release! Absolutely crazy for a "first" map

 

 

[El Juancho]

I knew you could do this kind of levels in doom in my imagination, it was a pretty cool experience :D

Edited December 2, 2023 by El Juancho

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Outstanding concept for a map! One that actively moves/dances in time with the music! Unfortunately I could NOT finish this map. Being forced to survive 6 WHOLE MINUTES is exceptionally long for me. I thought its just because I suck so I bit the bullet and went down to HNTR... and yikes that's still harsh. Sure you've got a BFG9000 that shreds enemies apart but when Mr. Archie comes a-knockin' my grave comes along with it usually. :l

If anyone wants to play this I do recommend it but yeah... avoid UV or HMP if you're not the best player like me. :S

[Cammy]

It's such an honor that you enjoyed this midi of mine enough not just to use it in a map, but to make a map where the midi is the gimmick. I've said this before, but this map plays great, and uses the unique premise to its full extent. This is a brilliant and highly original piece of work that will no doubt be on people's lips for a hell of a long time. :)

[Pseudonaut]

Cool map. Those archviles are bastards.

 

 

[plums]

18 hours ago, Vytaan said:

Your idea of having to kill everything to end the map is very interesting! Assuming it means that the map actually ends pretty much directly after the last kill, I think that would work great. 

I ended up making a general-purpose template that anyone should be able to use, since this idea might be useful for other people. If you want to use it, I imagine you'll be able to figure out how to incorporate it into your map, but feel free to ask for help if not:

As a bonus the map also uses property transfers to show how to make invisible walls/doors :)

Edited December 3, 2023 by plums

[Vytaan]

On 12/2/2023 at 9:01 PM, DuckReconMajor said:

incredible! great map great midi

Here are a few Skill 2 demos and a Skill 1 (idk why it would break in Skill 1 but i can confirm it works)

My successful skill 2 didn't finish because I didn't read and I went looking for the other secret at the end!

Congrats on this release! Absolutely crazy for a "first" map

 

 

Thanks for sharing your replays, that was fun to watch! And great job basically clearing the map, let's just pretend the death in the last replay didn't happen and that you exited :P

 

23 hours ago, DynamiteKaitorn said:

Outstanding concept for a map! One that actively moves/dances in time with the music! Unfortunately I could NOT finish this map. Being forced to survive 6 WHOLE MINUTES is exceptionally long for me. I thought its just because I suck so I bit the bullet and went down to HNTR... and yikes that's still harsh. Sure you've got a BFG9000 that shreds enemies apart but when Mr. Archie comes a-knockin' my grave comes along with it usually. :l

If anyone wants to play this I do recommend it but yeah... avoid UV or HMP if you're not the best player like me. :S

Thanks for trying the map! I think for HNTR what might work best is to anticipate the second phase of the final fight - when you listen to the music you should be able to prefire the BFG and take at least 1 of the 2 down. But it might require a bit of practice still, the final fight is definitely tough for HNTR!

 

16 hours ago, Pseudonaut said:

Cool map. Those archviles are bastards.

 

 

 

Awesome, well done clearing it on UV! With plenty of time to spare too. And yeah, those archies are mean, but you took them down nice and quick :)

 

13 hours ago, plums said:

I ended up making a general-purpose template that anyone should be able to use, since this idea might be useful for other people. If you want to use it, I imagine you'll be able to figure out how to incorporate it into your map, but feel free to ask for help if not:

As a bonus the map also uses property transfers to show how to make invisible walls/doors :)

 

Cool, thanks for creating and sharing this with everyone! I'll take a closer look at it, I'm especially curious how to use those property transfers as they seem so confusing to me :p

[plums]

On 12/3/2023 at 8:17 PM, Vytaan said:

Cool, thanks for creating and sharing this with everyone! I'll take a closer look at it, I'm especially curious how to use those property transfers as they seem so confusing to me :p

Meant to reply to this before, property transfers are indeed confusing especially if you want to use all of their features, or look at diagrams like this, but for basic stuff like "make one sector look like another sector" it's quite simple, and that's all I do in that template I made.

Edited December 5, 2023 by plums

[Maribo]

A max from a few days ago - sms-maribo.zip

 

Very silly and fun in spirit, the dancing walls remind me of old Mickey Mouse cartoons with the dancing buildings and objects that would be in the background. I haven't cracked this open in UDB to see how complex it is, but setting up a map to flow perfectly with an intended soundtrack sounds like real untapped potential. Absolutely stellar, especially for a first map.

[Kwisior]

Good idea with mostly good execution. The big fight at the end left a bad impression on me though, and I'm not normally the one to complain about slaughter - a backpack could be nice for example. All that being said, the waves and bouncing stuff was really well done.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Kwisior

[Vytaan]

5 hours ago, Maribo said:

A max from a few days ago - sms-maribo.zip

 

Very silly and fun in spirit, the dancing walls remind me of old Mickey Mouse cartoons with the dancing buildings and objects that would be in the background. I haven't cracked this open in UDB to see how complex it is, but setting up a map to flow perfectly with an intended soundtrack sounds like real untapped potential. Absolutely stellar, especially for a first map.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look once I'm back home!

 

49 minutes ago, Kwisior said:

Good idea with mostly good execution. The big fight at the end left a bad impression on me though, and I'm not normally the one to complain about slaughter - a backpack could be nice for example. All that being said, the waves and bouncing stuff was really well done.

 

There is a backpack! You just haven't found it yet 😋 I agree it's pretty much mandatory. Location below:

Spoiler

It's behind the arachno 'cliff'

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Vytaan