Demonic Research Institute - Doom 2 vanilla single map

[piXelicidio]

A scientific facility where cutting-edge technology meets demonic experimentation.
Medium size tech base with alternative routes designed for vanilla Doom II with custom textures

intended to fit in along with original Doom 1|2 style.

Watch the trailer!

 

✔ Single map 

✔ Pistol start

✔ Doom 2 vanilla (complevel 2)

✔ UV tested (Chocolate, DSDA, PrBoomPlus, Crispy Doom... and others)

✔ "Original" soundtrack (suno.ai generated) (.OGG format)

✔ Easy difficulty setup.

 

Avg. completion time: ~17 mins.

(110) Monsters, (93) Items, (5) Secrets.

 

❌ multiplayer: No.

 

 Download PWAD: dri.zip

 

Design notes:

Spoiler

The level is structured in two parts. First, you cross a mysterious town on a dark night to reach the DRI entrance. In this section, you are introduced to specific gameplay features and new button textures. This part is mainly linear.
 

Later, you enter the facilities, which offer more open gameplay with many unlocked sections right from the start.

There are no "wall-hump secrets"; everything has a visual hint, and the main progression path is not locked by any difficult puzzles. The puzzles are reserved for some of the many secrets, and two of these secrets are keeping the special weapons.
 

Why a single map so big? It is intentionally a larger map because it will be part of a mini WAD collection where the previous three maps are shorter and easier. This design choice ensures that once the player is engaged (or not) with my design style, they can enjoy a more expansive experience.

New interactive buttons:

 

Screenshots:

Every horror story start in a mysterious town dark in the night....

They say the locals were former employees of the DRI...
 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoyed making it and still fine-tuning.

All feedback is very appreciated, more playtesting is always welcomed!

Thanks to @Zahid for the valuable playtests!

 

 

Download PWAD: dri.zip

 

 

Edited June 8 by piXelicidio

[Astro X]

4 hours ago, piXelicidio said:

(110) Items, (93) Items, (5) Secrets.

I think you probably meant 110 monsters. Anyway, good stuff!

[piXelicidio]

17 minutes ago, Astro X said:

I think you probably meant 110 monsters. Anyway, good stuff!

Ha! Thanks right, fixed, thank you! 

[Degree23]

This took me much longer than I thought it was going to based on the information in the post! Very enjoyable map to play through. Normally I miss not having the SSG (couldn't work out how to get it), but here I didn't. Just enough RL ammo to punch through a few fights while at the same time not enough to just fire wildly. I also liked the small stashes of health and ammo if you had the Blue Key.

[piXelicidio]

48 minutes ago, Degree23 said:

This took me much longer than I thought it was going to based on the information in the post! Very enjoyable map to play through. Normally I miss not having the SSG (couldn't work out how to get it), but here I didn't. Just enough RL ammo to punch through a few fights while at the same time not enough to just fire wildly. I also liked the small stashes of health and ammo if you had the Blue Key.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed playing it! 
I would like to make a better completion time estimation from other people playing, is being hard to get players/testers... 

The path to the super shotgun while not easy, is in fact not "locked" behind any key or wall-hump secrets, if you you don't plan to try again I can show you via PM.
I always add visual clues to everything in my maps.

ha! That's cool you liked looting those security staff stashes. 
Thanks for the feedback!

[Degree23]

1 hour ago, piXelicidio said:

I would like to make a better completion time estimation from other people playing, is being hard to get players/testers... 

 

It was mainly the non-linearness of it that added to the time - but not in a bad way. I did notice that I had removed one of the barriers to the SSG, but by the time I noticed I had all the keys already and had seen from the monster count I was nearly done with the map, so I just went on without it.

[Zahid]

it was fun playtesting it i tried it again as noticed some changes

design and visuals are great i must say, fights can be more challenging but still enjoyable 

my first exit uvmax again

prboom cl2 uv demo popi9.zip

[LadyMistDragon]

A very atmospheric beginning, kind of like Map 14 of Rebirth in tone, very much like a decaying and ruined feel until we enter the DRI which is a complete contrast in every way. Although the return to it regarding the tunnel leading to the bright daylight exit was also nice.

 

 

 

[piXelicidio]

2 hours ago, Zahid said:

it was fun playtesting it i tried it again as noticed some changes

design and visuals are great i must say, fights can be more challenging but still enjoyable 

my first exit uvmax again

prboom cl2 uv demo popi9.zip

Nice! 
I definitely have to learn some of your tricks before I start making any other maps!
Like  dealing with Revenant and Archivile with that equanimity :) 
 

[piXelicidio]

56 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

A very atmospheric beginning, kind of like Map 14 of Rebirth in tone, very much like a decaying and ruined feel until we enter the DRI which is a complete contrast in every way. Although the return to it regarding the tunnel leading to the bright daylight exit was also nice.

 

 

 

Thank you! It's great you made and shared a recording, the fact you keep playing it for 30 minutes I think means you didn't hated it! :D 
It is always delightful to see how your thinking process many times matches what it was intended by design.

[Zesiir]

Good map! If a tad on the easy side, combat encounter-wise. But great level design overall. I always had enough shells for the SSG.

 

I also got all secrets, the rocket jump secret in particular took a while to figure out. But it's fun to see nice rewards hidden behind gameplay puzzles.

 

The only issues I found were a few misaligned and/or odd textures; one at one of the doors in the beginning, with wood panels not aligning due to height differences. Another near the teleporting cacodemon room that just a lacked door track texture. And a few boxes near the Plasmagun secret that had the wrong floor flats (brown for gray crate, etc).

 

But nothing gamebreaking. All in all, a fun and atmospheric map with clever secrets.

 

Edited June 7 by Zesiir

[piXelicidio]

7 hours ago, Zesiir said:

Good map! If a tad on the easy side, combat encounter-wise. But great level design overall. I always had enough shells for the SSG.

 

I also got all secrets, the rocket jump secret in particular took a while to figure out. But it's fun to see nice rewards hidden behind gameplay puzzles.

 

The only issues I found were a few misaligned and/or odd textures; one at one of the doors in the beginning, with wood panels not aligning due to height differences. Another near the teleporting cacodemon room that just a lacked door track texture. And a few boxes near the Plasmagun secret that had the wrong floor flats (brown for gray crate, etc).

 

But nothing gamebreaking. All in all, a fun and atmospheric map with clever secrets.

 

Thanks for playing!
Good catches I'll try to find and fix all those texture issues.
Is a fact I'm can't produce higher difficulty maps when I can beat them myself XD ... need to practice more!
Glad you liked!

[DoomBerry]

Very fun map with some really clever secrets, took me a while to find them all! :-)

 

Thanks for creating the map.

[piXelicidio]

6 hours ago, DoomBerry said:

Very fun map with some really clever secrets, took me a while to find them all! :-)

 

Thanks for creating the map.

You're welcome! I'm glad you didn't give up discovering all secrets and had fun in the process!

Also, I just fixed texture issues found by Zeziir and updated the file.