Doom's design "language" trends

[DiavoJinx]

On 2/24/2024 at 2:10 PM, DoomGappy said:

Not really a language trend but a design trend that I actually don't enjoy: Megawads with progressively bigger maps that don't seem to end. I like big standalone maps (baaul's foursite is one of my favorites), but having 32 levels be huge setpieces gets tiring. I'd much rather have 32 maps that can be beaten in 20 to 30 minutes each. That's actually what I generally aim for when making a bigger map. 

I'm with ya there!

As much as I loved the Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast games back in their days.... oooh boy some of those maps are gigantic. (And IMHO that isn't necessarily a positive trait.)

[Xaser]

Plutonia's entry/exit teleporters are a great bit of consistency, but I gotta give a shoutout to the OG: EXITDOOR. As soon as you see that texture, you know exactly what's up.

 

Also props to DOOR3 for playing the "unopenable scenery-only door" role, though that rule tends to be broken as often as it's followed. Nice idea, at least.

[Helm]

The biggest one is stealthy and people don't notice it. When you make a 2d game scrolling the player will be presented with visuals in a linear way. You literally cannot miss the event upcoming unless you close your eyes. In a 3d engine where the player can turn their viewport quickly and retreat at any point, go scrutinize anything in a 3d world for 30 seconds... leading the player through spaces, signposting progress was - at the time - a dark art. Leading with light is the trope I want to talk about, one that was massively expounded upon in the era of HL1 and similar, strongly part of the valve design toolbox at that time. But Doom did it first because it needed to do it first. Whenever you feel lost in a dark maze and you see a bright thing in the distance, be it sector, item or enemy, there's loads of study about what your brain is doing to you to go check that out now. Back in 1993 some texan kids were inventing how to get you to move your ass in their scary and dark game by using the tools of contrast available by intuition. Mad 'early days of cinema' stuff, again.

[rouge_means_red]

Gotta give a shoutout to the Jimmytropes

[Scypek2]

On 2/3/2024 at 12:48 AM, june gloom said:

Years back I noticed a trend of sticking a single imp in the exit room, something that's been done since Knee Deep.

 

Sometimes imps, sometimes demons. It goes all the way back to wolf3d, and its SS guards and officers hiding in the elevators in the later episodes.

[Li'l devil]

Why haven't anyone stuck a cyberdemon in the exit room? Seems like a good idea.

[ChaingunChaCha]

When you're done in an arena, flick the switch to progress and "Surprise, Arch Vile to resurrect the corpses!" Seems to come up in a lot of wads.

 

The above is fine but sort of expected these days but I don't like it when an Arch Vile is let loose a long way from you to resurrect stuff with no clue to the player that it's going on.

[LadyMistDragon]

6 hours ago, Li'l devil said:

Why haven't anyone stuck a cyberdemon in the exit room? Seems like a good idea.

Why has that never taken off??

[Mr. Alexander]

A lot of these aren't so much aspects of "design language" as "things in maps that annoy me," without discussing mapping cues. For instance, a big room full of dead demons is obviously going to have arch-viles released into it later, but there's no agreed-upon cue, like a certain texture or a certain pattern of "holding chambers," that indicates that arch-viles will later be released into a room you just cleared out.

 

I personally really like it when exits are very, very obvious, as with Plutonia's teleporters, the original games' EXITDOOR rooms, Ancient Aliens's purple teleporter rooms, and the flashing red chambers of Tarnsman's Projectile Hell.

 

One trend that absolutely deserved to die, but still crops up from time to time, is using the key-color trim to decorate a door or a switch that leads you to the corresponding key, rather than one that opens with it. Mappers who do this should get a slap on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper.

[ReaperAA]

Not Doom per se. But I actually liked how in some games like Heretic* or Descent, we always get keys in specific order. In Heretic, it is always yellow -> green -> blue. When you got the blue key, you knew it is either the exit door itself or just one final room/fight before the exit. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I kind of wish this trend was more popular.

 

*a bit of a shame that most Heretic pwads don't follow this rule.

[Jayextee]

Totally agreed on Heretic's key colour order convention; with Raven's propensity toward occasionally-sprawling and sometimes-labyrinthine map design, it helps to indicate to players where their focus should be -- e.g. not hunting for access to the blue key first, going for the yellow and then the green instead.

I was working on a Heretic episode myself at one point recently and, yes, I did keep to this convention (except in nonlinear maps where all keys are required for the one exit).

[Pancrasio]

10 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Not Doom per se. But I actually liked how in some games like Heretic* or Descent, we always get keys in specific order. In Heretic, it is always yellow -> green -> blue. When you got the blue key, you knew it is either the exit door itself or just one final room/fight before the exit. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I kind of wish this trend was more popular.

 

*a bit of a shame that most Heretic pwads don't follow this rule.

In my maps most of the time the order is blue -> yellow -> red, I kind of agree with this one

[DoomGappy]

4 minutes ago, Pancrasio said:

In my maps most of the time the order is blue -> yellow -> red, I kind of agree with this one

I do Blue, Red, yellow. I think that's the order they appear on the HUD, right? 

[Pancrasio]

29 minutes ago, DoomGappy said:

I do Blue, Red, yellow. I think that's the order they appear on the HUD, right? 

Blue, yellow, red is the order and that is why I choose it. It could be the other way around, but that way it seems like the colors are losing intensity instead of gaining it, I do it so it goes from coldest to hottest. Just some silly thing really. In nonlinear maps they indicate the intended route but it loses sense still (and no one would infere that is my preferred route just because of what I explained).

But in the end it doesn't matter :P

Edited March 1 by Pancrasio

[DoomGappy]

33 minutes ago, Pancrasio said:

Blue, yellow, red is the order and that is why I choose it. It could be the other way around, but that way it seems like the colors are losing intensity instead of gaining it, I do it so it goes from coldest to hottest. Just some silly thing really. In nonlinear maps they indicate the intended route but it loses sense still (and no one would infere that is my preferred route just because of what I explained).

But in the end it doesn't matter :P

Oh, that's really nice. Players who notice that will definitely find it cool.

[kwc]

On 2/29/2024 at 10:41 PM, Mr. Alexander said:

For instance, a big room full of dead demons is obviously going to have arch-viles released into it later, but there's no agreed-upon cue, like a certain texture or a certain pattern of "holding chambers," that indicates that arch-viles will later be released into a room you just cleared out.

I was gonna make a post about this, the Archvile "holding chambers" thing. I'm glad you brought it up.
Pillars, concentric "arena" geometry, particular clustered ammo/item layouts, and enemy fodder positioning are an example of form following function that I think have a really unique identity tied with Doom level design. It ends up being really efficient level design that in and of itself communicates the encounters expected of the player while also supporting it very well. I think it ends up being particularly rich language due to communal aspects of Doom, with 30 years of iteration, some design patterns like this have fallen into a defacto standard that remain constantly learned, adapted, and challenged as new mappers and players alike join in the community and participate. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typology_(urban_planning_and_architecture)

Edited May 12 by kwc

[DiavoJinx]

On 3/1/2024 at 1:39 AM, ReaperAA said:

Not Doom per se. But I actually liked how in some games like Heretic* or Descent, we always get keys in specific order. In Heretic, it is always yellow -> green -> blue. When you got the blue key, you knew it is either the exit door itself or just one final room/fight before the exit. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I kind of wish this trend was more popular.

Oh, nice! Never thought about that. Now that I am, I realize I'm doing something like that now as consistent with my last map: yellow & blue normal keycards first, but the last keycard is specifically the red skull keycard.

 

EDIT: I've been doing blue key then yellow key then red skull key.

Edited May 11 by DiavoJinx

[DiavoJinx]

One thing I've been doing consistently (and now that I noticed I'm doing it, I'll keep doing it intentionally) is with colored locked doors:

The underside of the door [sector] itself I'm using a matching color to the key you needed to open it.

So when the door opens/closes, you get a visual flash of that key color as a subconscious reminder for those that like to fight around doorways (me!), that the monster on the other side can't open the door again one it closes... so you know you can take a breather if you want.

 

Of course recognizing this I will need to subvert the expectation down the line!

...make a monster walking trigger linedef on their side of the door that permanently opens that door back up once you first opened it and aggro'd them. >:-]

[Reisal]

I've always had a knack for traps in my own maps (list in my "About Me") in a variety of methods. Teleports are common in my later maps but I also particularly enjoyed the red key trap in "The Unnamed Base" which had a combination of doors fast closing and other surprises.

[Nefelibeta]

On 3/1/2024 at 8:34 AM, LadyMistDragon said:

Why has that never taken off??

Almost every map of NoSp3 has a exit tunnel shaped like this and a cyber snuck inside it :P

Spoiler

 

[kalensar]

Oh yes. There is tropes even in modding. Since I'm not a mapper I don't really notice patterns for the pwads that often. As far as weapon and monster modding, yup there's a lot of tropes based on Doom.

 

1. adding a super shotgun equivalent to Doom 1/Ultimate Doom.

2. The cries of dismay if your weapons mod doesnt have a super shotgun.

3. That BFG dont need the identical mechanics of the BFG but it better have big boom.

4. Alternate Chainsaw sound on chainsaws-- on of the funniest ones for me because i prefer a slower idle sound, and with the common gripe being that it "sounds likes its dying."

    ( see Code Zleek Doom}

5.  "make the pistol useful or stronger" This brought about because the vanilla pistol is such a travesty. I personally love the vanilla pistol, odd as that may seem.

6. Absolute Loathing of the Pain Elemental : Oh the gripes I heard when one monster mod of mine had 3 monster summoner enemies instead of the Pain Elemental alone.

7.  Archviles-- So universally loved and despised that modding a variation of one as a Single replacer of Archy earns undying respect or "WTF were you thinking!" THere is no middle ground.

8. Weapons not performing to the "standard of Doom" Example:  When your Pump Shotgun seems weaker than a Pistol, but the performance of the pump shotgun almost outperforms the SSG. This one was a funny one because yes one of the pistols was stupid powerful, but the pump shotgun has a slightly faster fire rate than the pistol did and does more damage when all pellets hit.

9. Explosive Barrels: Lord forbid you make a mod that replaces the Explosive Barrel with something that doesn't go boom. example case: Doomed Over Zelda replacing them with pots, treasure chests, or breakable nonexplosive barrels