Doomworld "Secret Santa" Project - SECOND MAP POSTED

[Snakes]

TimeOfDeath said:

I agree with Memfis that it would be cool if the imitators remained hidden as well.

Also, will the imitatees be chosen randomly, or will the project leader decide who imitates who?

Who imitates who will be randomly selected. I'm having a third party just draw names at random ATM, which is a great way to sidestep my own bias, IMO (neither roommate is at all interested/knowledgeable about the Doom community). Are you planning on participating, ToD?

I'll consider keeping the imitator a secret depending on what other participants think of the idea. Anyone's thoughts on this?

Also, yaaaaay gemini, Mista_T and Khorus :)

Boooo Meck and ProcessingControl :P

[Phobus]

How can we keep the imitator a secret? We all know we're imitating somebody else who signed up to the project :P We just don't know who the other people are imitating until the map is out and somebody can successfully guess (or nobody can guess and the mapper tells us)

I feel disappointed that, now we've hyped up the fear of Mek so much, he's not in to legitimise it :P


Also, fair points raised by Mista_T and esselfortium - when the mapper you're trying to imitate has got maps made that are in turn imitating somebody else, they're probably best not to work from. So people's DtWiD and PRCP maps would be an obvious "no-go", I'd imagine!

[Memfis]

Phobus said:

How can we keep the imitator a secret?

Send maps to some guy who will post them in this thread.

[Joshy]

Phobus said:

Also, fair points raised by Mista_T and esselfortium - when the mapper you're trying to imitate has got maps made that are in turn imitating somebody else, they're probably best not to work from. So people's DtWiD and PRCP maps would be an obvious "no-go", I'd imagine!

I don't know. Most of my styles were pretty much inspired by plutonia (as it was the first doom I played thoroughly), and I'm sure most of Alien Vendetta's style would have taken off Plutonia as well. A lot of ideas are always reused, one after another (even original ideas are based on ideas). How else are you going to learn doom mapping? :P

I think there's always the mappers own element in their 'imitation' maps whether they realise it or not. Nevertheless, if I'm not wrong, PRCP's guidelines weren't as strict as DtWiD for imitating the original map/pers (i.e, there was more room for interpretations and creativity), so they should still be viable for 'collecting info' on the mapper's style (just look at Xaser's maps in PRCP, 'nuff said! :P)

[Phobus]

Memfis said:

Send maps to some guy who will post them in this thread.

Ahh... clever. Yeah, we could get Snakes to do that as well ,seeing as he knows who is imitating who to begin with!

@Joshy: I have to admit, when mentioning PRCP I was tempted to state an exception in Xaser's case :P There will be better examples of most other people's styles though. For example, if I were imitating you, I'd look at SoD or your BtSX maps before PRCP or Surge, as the latter two are explicitly working within a style, while the first two are more free-form (although obviously we are still influenced by other maps and people even then).

[TimeOfDeath]

Ok cool, I'm in. My maps:

degrassi - prolly my best
Anigav maps - /idgames search
TimeOfDeath maps - /idgames search, maps before 2010 are on doomedsda.us
Croysent maps - /idgames search
SF2012 thread
SF2011 - 27, 28, 29
DMP thread

[Xaser]

Phobus said:

@Joshy: I have to admit, when mentioning PRCP I was tempted to state an exception in Xaser's case :P

If I may say so, such an exception would sorta make sense. Helix is kinda Neurosphere-influenced, but mostly in theming, and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that Wicked Garden wasn't really influenced by anything Plutonia at all. I sorta had a weird idea and ran with it. I am cheat. D:


@Sgt Dopey: I can't actually download either of the mods you've posted, because 4shared has started forcing people to make an account to do so. I'd normally point to DRDTeam as a sane alternative but it's been having some more registration troubles as of late. Failing that, Mediafire is probably your best bet.

[45th Parrallel]

Xaser said:

@Sgt Dopey: I can't actually download either of the mods you've posted, because 4shared has started forcing people to make an account to do so. I'd normally point to DRDTeam as a sane alternative but it's been having some more registration troubles as of late. Failing that, Mediafire is probably your best bet.

I sure can re-upload them
Here you go

Powerslave 2
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/8UfEjzkoXI/powerslave-2-alpha-2.zip

Project Orion
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/5PkzZfDp9-/project-orion-.zip

[Snakes]

I'm bumping this thread before the weekend kicks off to give everyone a second chance to look it over. Don't be afraid to sign up, folks! Plenty of fun to be had! I know there's still a lot of mappers I'd like to see sign up.

I'll most likely send out "assignments" for this project on June 20th, as I'm flying across the country for a week-long vacation the following day and would like to have this all prepped before then :)

[skillsaw]

Snakes said:

I know there's still a lot of mappers I'd like to see sign up.

Indeed! This is going to be a lot of fun. If nothing else it will be a good way for those of us who have gotten too comfortable in our styles to at least try something new.

[stewboy]

I'll sign up.

Some examples of my maps:

CC4 MAP31 (unreleased)
Claustrophobia MAP04, MAP10
Claustrophobia 2 MAP01, MAP10
DTWID E1M9
32in24-11 MAP10, 32in24-10 MAP18, 32in24-9 MAP39, 32in24-8 MAP07, MAP12

That's all the recent ones, I think.

[Merry Widow]

May I please be a beta tester, please?

[Snakes]

Cool to have you on board, stewboy! Playtesting is a go, grouchbag.

[MTrop]

I would also be pretty interested to see a port-mortem from each mapper or how each mapper decided on the characteristics to emulate in their maps based on their source's material. It could give a lot more insight into each others' creative processes.

[Snakes]

Yeah, I think that'd be pretty awesome.

[45th Parrallel]

So we use stock Doom 2 textures for this?

[Xaser]

That's addressed on the first post. It depends on what you think would best emulate the target author.

[fiend-o-hell]

Captain Ventris said:

I'm now secretly hoping that someone will have some form of existential meltdown when confronted with their imitation.

That should be the mapper's goal: Show the other mapper THE ESSENCE OF THEIR BEING

This made lulz!

No, but yeah this sounds like all kinds of fun. Sign me up plz! My sig pretty much covers all my main releases.

[WH-Wilou84]

Interesting idea. :)
Would've been a pleasure to participate, but I'm quite busy those days and the bulk of my work is in unreleased projects.

I'd be glad to help as an additional playtester though, if needed. :)

[Dutch Doomer]

Looks like a fun project, not sure if I should join. Scared of drawing someone like Ed or Esselfortium. I think I lack the skills to make someting that resembles their work. It would also mean I would have to create maps in a different way, which would probably be a good thing and maybe also the hardest thing to do.

[Jimmy]

Snakes, is the selection process going to be completely random, or down to you personally? I must admit that I relate to Dutch Devil's point, in that I am slightly wary of being allocated to imitate the style of a mapper as seasoned as skillsaw, Essel or Ed. I'm up for it, but I definitely won't be able to promise quality/non-insulting results. :P

Anyway, in case whichever unlucky bastard gets saddled with me isn't familiar with my style, here's Jenesis. In all seriousness, this is my only worthwhile map-related release.

[Snakes]

The process will be completely random. I'm just probably going to have a roommate do a blind draw and work with that. Believe me, I don't feel all to confident when it comes to imitating someone like Ed or essel. I'd love to see you participate, Dutch. Oddly enough, I don't know if I'm skilled enough to make a good DD map :P

As a side-note, Grain of Salt has decided to sign up to the project. Here is the link to GoS's wads.

This is the last day to sign up, everyone!

[WH]-Wilou84 said:
Interesting idea. :)
Would've been a pleasure to participate, but I'm quite busy those days and the bulk of my work is in unreleased projects.

I'd be glad to help as an additional playtester though, if needed. :)

Playtesters are always a good thing :)

[Dutch Doomer]

Fuck it, I'm just gonna join this project. Sign me up good sir.

[lupinx-Kassman]

^Same here, even though pretty much all of my most recent work (though mostly complete) is landlocked in other releases. Now don't mind me as I try to ninja edit this post to include some links to my stuff. For my unreleased stuff I will provide a thread with screenshots, as well as a screenshot of the layout, so you can get an idea of it :P.

BTSX stuff | Map view | Older scrapped map view
Earth base maps | Map 05 view | Map 07 view (In case you're wondering, I used some TNT and Plutonia resources in these two maps)
Music used in the above unreleased wads, with due credit.

Below is my released stuff. Except for my cc4 maps, pretty much all 2008 or earlier.

CC4 Interstellar Sickness | Map view | Scrapped sections map view
CC4 Shaman's Device | Map view | Resource Download
Hybrid Fragments (Please use this version of the wad instead of the demo that is in the archives. Note: this is for Eternity. Though it uses few EE features, it will not run properly in other ports. The layouts for maps 1-3, save for a few aesthetic changes, are playable from beginning to end. The other maps in the wad are not finished. Remember to load the dehacked patch! It's half the fun ;))
Various Speedmaps (Just a compilation of various complete and incomplete speedmaps I made for your conveniance. Maps 1-3 are complete, the rest are not, but at least the incomplete maps can give you an idea of the types of themes and structures I like to make.)
CC3 Map 31 Disarming the Mechanism
32in24 stuff (I had a hand in anything between 3 and 9, including diet 32in24 and greenwar 2)
Random Chaos stuff (A couple of community wads I organized for a clan I used to be part of called RC. Some minor but interesting stuff is in there.)

...then there are the 5 noob project maps in the archives. These are some of my earliest wads. I would be surprised if they work in zdoom anymore. I wouldn't exactly recommend these, but if you want to dig into my dirty dirty past, go on ahead.

EDIT: A beta of CC4 has been released! This means two of my much more recent maps are available for download! Interstellar Sickness and Shaman's Device links have been edited and moved to my "released" section =P.

[Snakes]

The deadline to sign up has passed! I believe we have 23 mappers signed up for this, so that's plenty of mapping fun to go round!

I'll PM everybody regarding who they're going to imitate by Friday night at the very, very latest (though as I stated earlier, this will most likely be done ASAP).

There are still two slots for testers open!

[Siggi]

This is an awesome idea. Good luck to all the participants!

[Chopkinsca]

I'm excited for this. I even had a dream about this project.

[Walter confetti]

Snakes said:

The deadline to sign up has passed! I believe we have 23 mappers signed up for this, so that's plenty of mapping fun to go round!

I'll PM everybody regarding who they're going to imitate by Friday night at the very, very latest (though as I stated earlier, this will most likely be done ASAP).

There are still two slots for testers open!

ok...

[j4rio]

Hm, might help testing as I've 2 and 1/2 months free now (and then uni.. urgh). I'm probably way too nice so as long as I manage to finish a map, I won't have a complaint most likely.

[Snakes]

The "assignments" for this project have been drawn blindly. Every participant has been PM'd, and there are some really interesting combinations that will happen.

I think for now, I'll set a loose deadline for maps in this project for August 31.

That is, of course, subject to change as time goes on. Should progress be a bit slow, it won't hurt to push it back. Pretty much everyone involved in this project has another big map they're working on.

Once a map is finished, I'll upload it to the thread so people can start their guesswork. I figure they'll just get posted as they come (but only 1 at a time, as more would cause confusion in all likelihood).

AS A REQUEST: Once a map is finished and playtested, please send me a .zip of the wad that includes a sort of "post-mortem" involving the process of map creation. This would really help kick the project up into the stratosphere in terms of understanding the ways we all approach a map.

I look forward to hearing from you all in the future :)