Hobbyist Mappers and Megawads

[Hyacsho]

Hello dear Doom friends, 

I've been playing a lot more, single maps of late, and really enjoying them. I was reminded of the amazing RAMP project too, where we basically enjoy a collection of single maps into a massive mega mega wad. 

Then I thought, what is your point of view on mappers as hobbyists, do you think single map creators is the norm, or, does everyone work toward a larger Megawad?

Are you such a hobbyist? Like me I think; I like making single map projects more I suppose. 

If you do have single map experiences, share them here with me; I'd love to check them out! :D

 

Take care, rip & tear!

[CravenCoyote]

It depends on what I feel like at the time. It was nice to make a single map for RAMP, but I've done singles and more previously. I did a 9 map pack, but I'm not sure I'd do that again unless I gave myself a heap of time to do it. Most of my maps last around 10 minutes or less, but I spend days, weeks or even months working on them.

 

My most recent wad, Dark Matter was two maps in length.

[Somniac]

Well, every mapper here is a hobbyist. Everyone does it for free, because they like doing it! 

 

Regarding megawads, I simply don't have the time or energy to make something that would qualify as a megawad on my own (so at least 18 maps, maybe 32, maybe more), and even if I did I don't think I'd want to. I don't have the free time I had as a younger person to be able to consistently do that over a timeframe I would find acceptable. I have to be in the right spot for even one map or one room to work out sometimes. Even doing a 9-map Ultimate Doom episode, I felt creatively spent by the time it was over. I really enjoyed doing it, but it was fucking exhausting. 

 

I like making single maps, but a habit I have is making something that feels like a spot-on MAP01 and going "now there has to be a MAP02", and a MAP03, and it basically turns into "you're making an episode". I typically make vanilla maps so I naturally fall into the vanilla structure of episodes. This ties me up a bit because releasing anything less than that would feel like unfulfilled potential in a way. I don't make big maps so it feels like there always has to be "more". I'm trying to break away from that mentality, because I like playing miniwads and bite-sized mapsets, I just struggle a bit with the notion of doing that myself without asking myself "where's the rest of it?". Its a tricky one!

[yakfak]

so many people show up on these shores asking like "favourite megawad? what megawad should i play?" that im sure creators alter their goals to compensate! the way i compensated was mapping less

[Stupid Bunny]

 

I've done a bit of both--like @Somniac said, pretty much all mappers here are hobbyist mappers, whether they put out a modest little single map here and there, crank out solo megawads, or contribute to/lead community projects on a routine basis.  We're all doing it for fun, based only on how much time and motivation we have and what we want to create at any given time.  Making a grandiose solo megawad is just as much a hobby project as making a casual little map in a couple hours.

 

For my part I've done a bit of both, although most of my released maps, even single ones, were envisioned as part of a set at some point in time. Self promotioney rambling tl;dr below
 

Spoiler

 

 Very often I will create a map, and then either after finishing or partway through the process will decide "hey why don't I make a whole set out of this."  Usually the set doesn't end up actually happening: my very first maps ever, which are unreleased and also shit but still around, were meant to be a 10 map + 2 secret map episode, but I just sort of lost steam partway through as I moved onto other things.  Actually, this may be the only time the opposite happened, where I took on-paper designs for other maps in the set and kind of Frankensteined them together into a big confusing unwieldy mess that would become my first public release.  This may be the only time so far I made a map and released it without any plan or thought of extending it into a set.

 

Dead Outpost was released as a single map, although along the way I thought about making it a mini-episode of 3 maps (that's why it's in the MAP28 slot).  You can actually see the beginnings of the second map if you open it in SLADE or a launcher, because I still didn't know what I was doing and left map data in there.  When I finished the map I decided I didn't have enough ideas for two more, and that it was a nice big enough map as is, so released it as a standalone.

 

Microcosm was an idea I had for a single vanilla compatible Doom 1 map that was going to start as E1 style, then transition through E2 and E3 as it progressed.  I was way into really big maps for a long time and this would've been another one of those.  I got most of the way through the E1 section and, once again, moved on to other things.  I threw it onto DW somewhere like "here someone do something with this" and it eventually found a second life, in highly modified and expanded form, as MAP12 of TNT: Revilution.

 

Mortal Soul was another mapset that started as a single map and then two maps that I decided at some point should become a project.  I originally scoped it for 5 maps before it grew to 11 and then 13 as I kept getting more ideas.  I still haven't formally abandoned it, and finished like 9 of the maps conceptualized, but the remaining ones and envisioned boss enemies are elusive and I have no time anymore, plus, yes, I moved on to other things.  I have four maps from the project up on the archives all released as single maps--the other finished ones will end up there sooner or later.  Maybe I'll finish the rest someday.  Because they're mostly larger and relatively ambitious, it made sense enough to release them as standalones anyway.

 

Extra Beany Canned Doom is my first and maybe last full megawad.  It's the only time I made a map or two, said "hey, why don't I make a whole project out of this", extended the scope multiple times and then actually ended up with a finish project.  This is probably because I kept the size and ambitions (and build times) of each map much smaller than anything before and also committed to not monkeying around with bosses or custom textures or anything like that.  Not sure if it's more or less than the sum of its parts, or if the parts just don't add up to much anyway, but they mostly make more sense as a set than as standalones, at least to me.

 

I also have a few maps--one released, one in limbo, one unfinished, a couple abandoned--that were intended for and/or ended up in community projects.  Back in the latter half of the 00s I also did a surprising amount of work on a Commander Keen themed megawad TC, including a bunch of flats/textures and a lot of spritework.  Say it with me class I ran out of steam and moved on to other things (plus I approached it as basically a normal 32 map megawad with Doom style shooting action and the barest of dehackery, which in the final analysis felt inappropriate for Keen to be doing).

 

 

After all that, and my experience of releasing solo maps, making megawads, and failing to make megawads, I've definitely come to appreciate the casual solo map and will probably do more of that in future.  Part of that of course is just because I'm getting older and no longer have the hours to sink into big mapping projects.  Making megawads is fun but also a lot of work and are also a bigger commitment for people to play, meaning a lot of the maps are less likely to be played anyway :.3 especially later in the set, than if they were released standalone.

Edited June 21 by Stupid Bunny
forgot to mention the Keen thing

[Plerb]

I rarely make maps with the intention of them being standalone, but I usually favor making episode-length stuff. Out of my 3 main projects right now, two are episode-length and one is a megawad TC, of which I plan to let my brother make several maps to ease my workload a bit since I'm making all the textures and sprites. Because I'm fond of working on about 300 different projects at once rather than working on a single thing continuously, I'd rather work on 300 episodes than 300 megawads. also i just got out of bed and haven't finished my coffe uh

[valkiriforce]

I think it depends on the designer's objective and outlook on what kind of experience they want out of Doom - a lot of my efforts have been all around the place, because there were some maps I felt deserved a spot either in a larger project or as part of a smaller release. I've had my experience with creating a megawad, because I really wanted to play something that was like a full-game replacement, whereas there are smaller episodes that I felt like tackling as a theme for a handful of maps, but felt it wouldn't fit the scope of something as huge as a megawad can be. Other times there are projects that are already being worked on that I could imagine creating something I felt could belong within the context of the themes at work, and it's fun to experiment with those one-off ideas, because I don't have to carry the weight a larger project can sometimes have.

 

I think the only way I tend to enjoy making single maps is when they're a part of a bigger project - either a small episode or a full set. Either way, it can be hard for me to justify the download of a single map if I feel I've made something that comes and goes too quickly. I do wish I'd do it more often, but I tend to veer towards it being something epic in scope (or at least I feel like it has to be - which in itself can be intimidating and self-demotivating unfortunately).

[RataUnderground]

I pretty much only make individual maps or work on collaborative projects, but aside from my Habitats series, my idea is to someday put all those individual maps together into a megawad. We'll see how that goes when I launch it in 2032.

[LadyMistDragon]

We've had a few releases like that this year! Maiden Voyage, Evil Returns, Scorching Earth, and possibly Road to Hades are all examples of 32 level wads made essentially be people not really knee-deep (heh) in the Doom community.

Edited June 22 by LadyMistDragon