The DWmegawad Club plays: Going Down

[Inkie]

MAP04: Blood and Rockets

A bit more arena than the last levels, though most the the action occurs on the sidelines.

Anyways, the bulk of the action is gibbing things with the rocket launcher, with a good stream of weak baddies and big mouthed floaty things (Sweat Christmas).

It was easy to take care of the revs while they were descending. Somehow I had expected more to pop up then, maybe I was thinking of a harder difficulty or something.

MAP05: Time Warp

A map with a time traveling theme.

The present side is filled with zombies, but the bigger threat lies in the future setting, which has quite a number of knights and revs, even a pain elemental. There is plenty of firepower to go around though.

It was pointless, but I went ahead and grabbed the present yellow key, because why not.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 06 -- Painframe - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
This is the first of a few maps in the set that for all practical intents and purposes is just a single arena, although I guess you could say it's really two arenas, if you count the extremely simplistic cyberspace pocket-dimension where Doomguy is sent to when he tries to take the red keycard (the UAC may have a history of making disastrously poor business decisions, but at least they're wise enough to protect their system with something other than McAfee or Norton). Having to pistol or shoulder past a former human commando at the start is a little bit of an unorthodox kickstart, but from that point on it's a fastpaced free-for-all that consistently introduces monsters onto both floor levels of the CPU core chamber, so unless you take things at a snail's pace it's not really the kind of setup where you can snipe away at enemies until victory is assured--you'll have to move around a bit. Despite the presence of more hell knights and revenants, it's the zombies that are the real threat most of the time, since the relatively open chamber is only medium-sized at best, but the CPU's platform makes good cover, and there's another genuinely useful blur sphere available from the outset. As long as you prioritize targets decently well, cleaning out this floor isn't too demanding a task--the layout is quite symmetrical, and the majority of the monsters are staged in a completely symmetrical fashion as well (even though their actual types differ on the two sides of the chamber), so there won't be many surprises in store assuming you can survive the first couple of minutes. The one major departure, the cyberspace battle, is as simple as they come, just a flat/open space in which the stream of monsters that beam in will happily decimate itself via infighting if given half a chance--a good example of an encounter that serves the theme/setting far more than it does the actual minutia of gameplay, but it's too short to harm the momentum much.

This map is also noticeably more aesthetically vibrant than the maps that have preceded it, although arguably it's precariously close to slipping into the 'uncanny valley' of Doom visuals, what with its ceiling being vastly more detailed than any of the rest of the structure. Texture selection is quite good, though, a novel twist on the classic compspan/compblue/silver theme, which sells the supercomputer-core theme about as well as you can using the stock texture set. I actually kind of wish there was more than an empty void as background scenery in the somewhat garish red/blue-checked cyberspace battle, but it's no deal-breaker, I guess.

A couple of small polishing touches I noticed here in contrast to the original public beta version of E1 that I played: it's now much easier to avoid taking the soulsphere on top of the CPU platform if you don't wish to as soon as it becomes available, and now vastly less likely that you'll unintentionally teleport back into cyberspace while running around on top of the platform during the course of the return fight. I still think that putting one Baron (or maybe a couple of knights) inside the actual elevator would be preferable to the two functionally non-ambulatory Barons that guard the door at the end, but alas.

[The_MártonJános]

Inkie said:

It was pointless, but I went ahead and grabbed the present yellow key, because why not.

Same did I. That room actually does contain stuff, so there is a point in at least entering it.

[Katamori]

MAP05 & MAP06.

EDIT: seems that I forgot postin MAP03 & MAP04 as well.

[tourniquet]

6: "Painframe"

The CPU arena, an interesting concept.
I'm not a huge fan of those stock Silver/Comp textures nonetheless they fit perfect for a setting like this and mouldy managed to create some cool visuals with them.
Gameplay-wise a lot of hitscan hell mixed with a good portion of hellspawn.
The "virtual chessboard" fight was pretty easy, the final uproar is a lot tougher especially if you get suprised or cornered.

Max

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP05: I really liked the quirky gimmick in this map. It can start off a bit underwhelming but heats up when you jump into the distant future and pick up the yellow key. I always look forward to exploration-based maps (well, those that don't go overboard) so it's definitely one of the more memorable ones from the first episode.

MAP06: Here is yet another taste of mouldy's penchant for just dumping monsters in an arena after crossing some triggers. Painframe is one of the few nearly-symmetrical maps, not really containing an interesting layout but focused nevertheless on standing your ground against waves of enemies. I like the feel of this map, though that might be my adoration for incessant detailing talking.

[scifista42]

MAP05 - "Time Warp". Easily the best E1 map regarding its concept. I like it a lot, the execution too (the floor puzzle gimmick is fun). Both the "present" and "future" part provided a decent challenge for my poor skill. In fact I've died many times (often in the "present time" already), eventually almost beaten the map but then died again, and that's when I quit trying. Occasional odd texturing (specially GRAY/silver), but it's making mouldy's E1 style unique and not in a bad way at all. The "ravaged future" managed to look better aesthetically-pleasing to me, somehow. But all in all, great experience.

MAP06 - "Painframe". Nice idea once again. Also an easier map compared to MAP05 (which I cannot complain to, I like how it plays), anyway I've died once. Map is fast-paced (not much efficient cover), compact, symmetrical, simply structured and intuitive - that's good (even despite the symmetry). In the main area, all the scrolling comps and GRAY textures are rather jarring compared to the beautifully detailed mainframe and ceiling and the rest of the area - again, that's no problem with me (as it's unique in a good way), I've just noticed it. I like how the virtual area uses lighting effects - not only there's pitch darkness between squares, but each square flickers! If it didn't, I believe the area would feel considerably more dull. I've enjoyed this map a lot, too.

[Veinen]

Casually maxed 06 & 07: https://www.mediafire.com/?9swdnn6wrcacd9n

Map06: Painframe

Well, it's an arena map. Felt kind of Obsidian-esque for some reason, maybe it's the symmetry and that abstract secondary disco dancefloor arena. A ton more detail than in those Obsidian speedmaps but it's only natural. While the sheer amount of detail is definitely impressive, I think it's a little too busy visually for my liking. Granted, I'm generally a fan of simplistic visual style though so it might just be me. Combat can be relatively easy or a gigantic clusterfuck depending on the player. I played it pretty slow releasing one wave at a time but in real maxes letting all hell break loose and cleaning up afterwards is most definitely the way to go. The dancefloor battle is a bit lackluster as it's basically a circlestrafing & cleanup exercise, and a very easy one at that.

Map07: Bad Reception

Oh the puns. Certainly not just a Dead Simple clone, which is good, even though the token Arachs and Mancs are still there. Their placement and number makes it feel like they are just a natural part of the map and not the whole concept though, if you catch my drift. The walls of HKs and Revs, on a crash course with each other, as well as the sadly rather limp Spider Mastermind do help a lot with erasing the image of a traditional map07 of course. The obvious way to go here is to reveal the hiding hordes simultaneously, pick an advantageous spot behind the receptionists' desk and just lay fucking waste with the RL. Some dodging is required but overall it's honestly pretty easy, at least with the strategy I used. The Mastermind WILL get locked among the furniture and get pummeled to death by something so she is a non-factor. Nice map; short, sweet and bloody.

[mouldy]

Map06 - the techno-doughnut

http://www.mediafire.com/download/9vgzk07ij1rbs4y/gd-mouldy-06.lmp

Supposedly this is the computer that is powering the time travel device in the floor above. This is one of those monster playground maps, where the whole map is one giant room into which monsters are poured, allowing both player and monsters to decide how they are going to play it. I like how you have to choose between the lower ground where enemies can outflank from both directions, or the higher ground which offers no cover, and switch back and forth between the two. This gimmick reappears in a couple of future maps, but its pleasantly concise here.

The 'virtual zone' was originally going to be a bit more fancy, maybe even with colour changing squares (i'm sure that is possible) but sometimes simple is best. The optimum technique I found for the final battle is to immediately blast through the barons and camp in the elevator, looks like others discovered this too.

Veinen said:

Casually maxed 06 & 07: https://www.mediafire.com/?9swdnn6wrcacd9n

More thoroughly entertaining demos, i like the chaos-rambo approach on map06 especially. The unleash everything on map07 is definitely the way to go, shame about the feeble mastermind - he's more of a threat/ally in zdoom, but in prboom he gets easily minced by hordes.

[cannonball]

MAP05 - "Time Warp"
This floor is pretty much map 04 of TNT evilution, fun to play and unlike others I found this rather easy. The two areas are connected which makes sense as they are differing time periods, once you get that then the map objectives and also the secrets fall into place. Just one death, and it wasn't a monster (Doh! :P)

MAP06 - "Painframe"
FOund this to be a little tougher than the previous one. The spectres are the main hassle here as they tended to block my path resulting in death. The off site disco party was rather strange but fun. About 4 deaths here I think. As for the final battle, I stayed in the central room but yeah I cleared the barons first as they occupy a set area which I would rather have to move around in.

Oh nice story text by the way :P

[The_MártonJános]

MAP07: Bad Reception
Ironically, I found the ambush that "needed" the Megasphere less of a threat than the one with no access to the reception counter and only the Soulsphere given. Maybe the Megasphere was only needed to power up for the second swarm I guess.

This map does make usage of the special MAP07 tags, though in a less conventional manner. Only getting rid of the Arachnotron does result in providing access to the way forward, eliminating Mancubi - which is still a thing making your work easier - reveals another tad of enemies, mostly Hell Knights to the arena. For an useful tip of advice, somehow make that Manc at the counter live until you access the territory he's blocking, then activate the Revenant ambush as well and enjoy the infight madness of the HK's and Revs, leaving particularly about ten percent of the hard work on you.

As for gameplay, evading those mechanical spiders in the outside area isn't always an easy task as it requires expert timing along with constant mobility and deadeye rocketing (I speak easily as I'm playing continous, heh). If you miss out on the chance for the HK-Rev infight, there comes the solution of the cowardy/beginner: camp into the Imp/supply room adjactent to the counter and shoot them like no tomorrow. Funnily I could see some Revs running upstairs to the marble Megasphere (only used to be there when happened) column, then unable to get off, which provides a cheap and easy way to get rid of them.

Aesthetically, I'm not disappointed. I particularly like the stairway, layering the carpet smoothly, and also the barrier's design around it. No complaint about the rest as well, the only minor issue coming to my eye is that in MAP01, there used to be MFLR8_1 as the main street covering, then comes CEIL3_5 clearly seen through the windows. Did mouldy actually forget what flat he used in MAP01 or was this intentional, I don't know, it just felt a bit strange to me. It isn't unbelievable that the street got a recovering during the time spent going down.

Supply was maybe a bit too generous. Related to what blatant mistakes I've made throughout, I wouldn't have deserved to survive. This only makes me even more intimidated in continuing my way down, but well, there's no other choice.

I guess it's time to say goodbye to the overground for a long time.

[Magnusblitz]

Cell said:

No complaint about the rest as well, the only minor issue coming to my eye is that in MAP01, there used to be MFLR8_1 as the main street covering, then comes CEIL3_5 clearly seen through the windows. Did mouldy actually forget what flat he used in MAP01 or was this intentional, I don't know, it just felt a bit strange to me. It isn't unbelievable that the street got a recovering during the time spent going down.

Interestingly, MAP05 (Time Warp) uses MFLR8_1 for the 'present day' outside, but CEIL3_5 for the 'future' outside. Maybe it's not just a time warp, but an alternate reality warp?!

[mouldy]

Magnusblitz said:

Interestingly, MAP05 (Time Warp) uses MFLR8_1 for the 'present day' outside, but CEIL3_5 for the 'future' outside. Maybe it's not just a time warp, but an alternate reality warp?!

Yes, thats exactly what it is...

But no, it is a mistake really, and a well spotted one. It should be MFLR8_1. I don't think I would ever have noticed that in a thousand years.

[Magnusblitz]

MAP06: Painframe
100% kills, 2/2 secrets

Yeah, this one foregoes any sort of interesting layout and just presents two arenas, but I'd expect at least a few of these sorts of maps given the theme (of course, once we get underground, the footprint of each map can expand greatly).

The first area does have some interest with the hitscanners filling the lower area and fireballers on the upper ledges, which can create some interesting gameplay decisions. I sped ahead a bit and activated some ambushes early, but managed to get through without too much trouble. The disco floor area is ... definitely a bit abstract, not sure what it's supposed to be/represent, and a bit boring gameplay-wise as well (very easy to just circle-strafe everything). I actually ran out of ammo in the last battle and had to punch the last few enemies.

[Pure Hellspawn]

i'll wait till days 8, 18, 19, 28, and 29.

[tourniquet]

7: "Bad Reception"

And we're back at the ground level where everything started a few maps before.
The outside area has been invaded by a bunch of arachnotrons and the lobby itself houses several mancubi.
As soon as you leave the elevator you'll get involved into some heavy crossfire.
The most entertaining part is the mass infight after releasing HK's/Rev's and the SM.
Short, fast paced, FUN

[Magnusblitz]

MAP07: Bad Receptcon
100% kills, 0/0 secrets

Back to the ground floor, this time on the inside of the lobby. The first time through, I killed the arachnatrons and mancubuses at the same time, unleashing a swarm of hellknights I was not prepared for as I ran out of rockets (and was unable to bust into the imp room quickly enough). So next time I took it slowly and dealt with the ambushes one at a time. The Spider Mastermind turned out to be a Spiderbro on this map, chewing through all the revenants for me.

[dobu gabu maru]

MAP07: A bit of a wild scuffle here. I like the use of the map's unique tags and really enjoy how obnoxious the arachs can be from the outside (perched arachs > perched chaingunners). The mancs feel a little useless in comparison but there's plenty of pain to go around if you're not careful. Good asymmetrical layout in the lobby too.

[cannonball]

MAP07 - "Bad Reception"
Fun map with plenty of action, especially when the other monsters come into play. Just about scraped home without a single death, though I came close as the revenant/SM showdown was a little difficult to orchestrate for me.

[durian]

Fallen behind...

Map 05: Time Warp

Pretty fucking cool. I really like the way time travel idea has been executed here, especially with the clever 'change the past to effect the future' switch puzzles. It was one of those maps that I had to learn a little before I could beat it, but once I had the traps figured out it was pretty simple. Although it would certainly have taken me many more deaths if I hadn't immediately taken advantage of the invulnerability for the YK trap, which enabled me to use the RL as melee weapon to great effect.

[Suitepee]

http://www.twitch.tv/johnsuitepee/c/5253351 = part 1 of my playthrough (continuous), covering maps 01-13.

All I can say is that so far, I'm really liking Going Down. A lot. The music is great so far, the levels ALL have a nice gameplay flow to them, there's lots of creativity both visually (using only stock textures!) and with how mouldy sets up some of his encounters (some being slaughter-lite thus far, the one on map 09 particularly reminding me of mouldy's 'The Seventh Circle' from NOVA: The Birth), and I've found nothing to complain about whatsoever except that mouldy is an evil bastard that knows how to set up devious traps.

If the rest of Going Down is like this first part, I'll be recommending this for a 2014 Cacoward and definitely calling this my wad of the year.

[Inkie]

MAP06: Painframe

Silver computer doughnut of doom.

A series of semi chaotic battles with chainguns and rockets. Rev Rockets can follow you fairly well around the trench. Not sure why the cooling tanks have doors as well as open archways to enter with. Grabbing the key puts you in a virtual reality fight for a little while, made a bit dangerous as it is a little small with no cover.

There is a fight after exiting the VR area, but it was more natural to just beeline the Elevator and skip it.

The intermission text is quite humorous.

MAP07: Bad Reception

A bit of a rocket spam fight with a big handful of mid tier enemies. Plenty of rockets, health, armor, and pain to dish out. Nothing really wrong with that.

[Demon of the Well]

Map 07 -- Bad Reception - 100% Kills / No secrets
It's obviously Dead Simple, basically, so minus 100 points. However, it also tries hard to put a different spin on the formula by introducing a strategic element to the consequences of triggering the mancubus and arachnatron map-specials--the timing and sequencing of finishing off the last fatso and/or the last spiderbaby can make a big difference in how this very short map's finale plays out, so for that sense of variety I guess I'll be a big softie and give most of those 100 points back. Basically, killing the mancubi unleashes a torrent of knights (with some pet demons in tow), while killing the arachnatrons simply builds a set of tiny stairs allowing you to reach the switch which grants access to the office/area behind the reception counter. Entering this area, however, unleashes a screaming mob of skeletons from behind the knights, and firing after hitting the switch (which you essentially must do to budge the cluster of imps from the office) causes a mastermind to activate and beam in. So, once you know what triggers what, you can take it in stages, but the way it's balanced means that this is not necessarily the best way to go about things--killing the mancubi first while one or more spiders are still alive requires you to use a lot of rockets fighting the knights yourself, whereas killing the spiders while ignoring the mancubi is tougher to do without damage (since the mancs naturally have much better angles on you since they're in the building with you) and this means that you'll face the whole rev/knight horde simultaneously as soon as the last manc bites it. Personally, I like to kill the last mancubus and last spider within seconds of one another right as I go to flip the office switch--everything turns into a demented infighting bonanza that way. The mastermind doesn't have enough space to be good for much in most scenarios, although if you use ZDoom (with its altered hitbox handling) it can put a dent in the knights for you, and sometimes even wins outright if it fights the revs at full strength.

Of course, if you really want to, you can skip the closet-hordes entirely by leaving one of the mancubi by the elevator alive long enough to kill the spiders, get the key, and leave....but what fun would that be? Overall, while I can appreciate the layering of the monster waves here, its more or less open adherence to the Dead Simple model, and some of the monster-janitoring that entails (most markedly in the case of the arachnatrons, which provide a nice crossfire at the outset, but still feel a bit awkward to take down by dint of their turret-style deployment), means that it's never going to be a favorite of mine.

Map 08 -- Hide and Seek - 129% Kills / 100% Secrets
An ordinary storage basement is the setting for this, mouldy's take on "Hunted", not really much more to say than that. In keeping with Going Down's generally tongue-in-cheek attitude, there's quite a sense of playfulness in evidence in the presentation here, largely expressed through subtle changes in the environment throughout the level's again very short duration. For example, early on the large wooden crate in the room apparently bursts from the inside while your attentions are elsewhere (you can see the splintered timbers and the vacant interior when you come back up the stairs), but whatever was inside of it opts not to show itself immediately. Later on, and again while you're off doing something in a different corner of the basement, some of the incidental piles of boxes in the main chamber are stealthily broken down and restacked to form a barrier keeping you from seeking sanctuary in the elevator. Little touches like this bring a sense of life and vibrancy to what is otherwise a rather mundane setting, wholly apart from their gameplay effects.

As to the gameplay, well, generally it's a straightforward test of nerves against a series of arch-viles in relatively tight spaces, although there's a small pack of demons meatshielding for the last pair of viles at the end. Generally speaking it's quite an easy map (one of the easiest in the entire set, in fact), although if viles stress you out you'll surely be inclined to disagree, of course. You get an SSG/plenty of shells and a rocket launcher and a few rockets to work with (probably wise to save the rockets 'til the end), and the environment is naturally lousy with cover (being a crate-basement, and all), so you're well-equipped to handle every encounter here, unless you panic and end up cornered, in which case things can go very bad very quickly. Naturally, this means that mouldy is constantly trying to have the viles cramp your space, introducing them point-blank and often via silent teleporters to suddenly attack you, but generally some quick thinking (predicated on an understanding of arch-vile behavior, I suppose) will neatly save the day.

I remember that I wasn't able to find one of the viles the first time I played this map back when E1 was first released, but I found him this time--I took a serious hit late in the game as a result of one of those rare instances where a pinky somehow survives a direct rocket hit, and so went back down to the lower level for a couple of medikits, which apparently causes the last guy to appear up top. Incidentally, if you're alert, the last group of monsters will happily show you where the 'secret' soulsphere is, at the small price of likely sicing their wallflower buddy on you.

[Katamori]

MAP07 & MAP08.

[tourniquet]

8: "Hide and Seek"

Going Down meets "Hunted", looking at the enemy count in this level might allready give a hint about what you're gonna encounter here.
Probably on of the easiest maps in the set, all those crates provide enough cover to deal with the viles, though the final Vile/Pinkie combo can get a bit nasty if you get cornered.


MAX

[scifista42]

MAP07 - "Bad Reception". A variation on mancubi+arachnotron arena, but very innovative and nice-looking, enough to make it very enjoyable. Difficulty is rough, I could only attack my enemies while chaotically running around and hoping for not getting hit. After a couple failed attempts agains mancubi and HKs, I've figured out an ideal starting strategy: First go left to take blue armor, then fill up with medikits and grab soulsphere on the right. Finish off mancubi, lure HKs down, get behind them and shoot. Kill all HKs and consequently all arachnotrons. It worked. But I've been eventually killed by revenants who started flooding the map and SMM didn't feel like infighting with them. :( Ultimately I gave up in that state, didn't feel like waiting for another good luck. But I consider this a pretty well-made and challenging MAP07!

[Veinen]

Maxes for 08 & 09, casual as usual: https://www.mediafire.com/?u1xj736iwnam0mt

Map08: Hide And Seek

So this is Going Down's take on the, nowadays all too common, Hunted-theme. Well sort of, at least. The scale is obviously very small and there is no way to get lost, even if you have the memory of a goldfish, like in the original. Also you're not really hunted at all, more like occasionally harassed. Nevertheless, I really can't say I'd enjoy these type of levels much. First time around it's decent but as the AVs lose the element of surprise, they lose their most deadly weapon. It becomes the easiest map in the entire set when the player can prepare for the next encounter. It simply becomes boring as there is very little variation between playthroughs as to how things will unfold Part of it is due to the massive and also very predictable amount of damage the Arch-Viles can deal; get hit once and you're on life support, get hit twice and you're a goner. Yeah, there are Pinkies here too but they are but meatshields in the most literal sense of the word. I'm not sure if it's even possible to make a truly interesting map of this type as the problems are much deeper than just with the mapper's choices, so the only thing that mouldy can be blamed here is incorporating a map of this particular gimmick in the wad in the first place. The other Archie-party coming a little later on is how it should be done anyway, if you want to make a map centered around those fellows :)

Map09: Broken Records

Aaand mouldy quickly recovers with another fun romp. You know the drill already; start the fire and soon the whole town is in flames. The setting is an underground library and the weapons of choice are the SSG and RL this time. The action peaks with a relatively mild chaos (compared to what's to come at least) and it's not much trouble to handle once you've established an advantageous position. Plenty of ammunition to waste some on resurrected monsters too so you don't really have to go chasing around the Archies. The biggest damage I took was (once again?) self-inflicted as one the aforementiond AVs teled right in front of me while I was busy laying down the law with my RL. Didn't really have a plan on how to tackle the map when I recorded the demo so it's a bit all over the place but oh well, it's suppose to be casual anyway.

Enjoyable map overall.

[scifista42]

MAP08 - "Hide and Seek". Normally, I'd expect "hide and seek" kind of gameplay to be tedious and unfun, but this map is an exception, here it is actually fun. I've played specially terribly today, so despite the map's low monster count and huge room for error, I needed about 7 or 8 attempts to beat it in one go (UV pistol start, no saves). I appreciate the free movement in this map. I like the map's visuals too, good way to portrait a crate storage, elaborated light work and non-crate details help it, I think. MAP08's music is also one of my favourites throughout the megawad. All in all, mouldy's stuff impresses me. At least, in the maps I've played so far. Some of the hard and/or slaughterish maps (soon to come) didn't please me at all - only by their gameplay, aesthetics and layout are a completely different thing, I seem to always like them in mouldy's maps.

[mouldy]

Map07 - dead simple and friends

http://www.mediafire.com/download/y8eho6nddh6mez5/gd-mouldy-07.lmp
Some very close scrapes in that demo. This is my first map07, so I feel like I'm allowed to do at least one dead simple clone. The twist here I guess is that you can choose to unleash everything at once, which i'm glad people are doing. Not the most sensible tactic but definitely the most fun. Someone in suitepee's twitch stream asked why I didn't have half the maps above ground and half below. This is the last of daylight we will see for a long while, and there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, at this point I didn't expect to be making the full 32 maps, and secondly I just couldn't wait to get underground where I could make the layouts bigger and more interesting.

Map08 - the archvile crate maze

http://www.mediafire.com/download/1c6a3i5gi5vlawp/gd-mouldy-08.lmp
This is an old demo as I was too lazy to record a new one for this map. Its mainly a breather between the carnage of maps 7 and 9, and a chance to introduce the archviles, a monster who I feel deserves an introduction. So its more of a story set-piece than anything else, and probably wont be much of a challenge to anyone used to dealing with viles. Why are they being stored in boxes? Where are they heading? Where are they from? Mystery..

[esselfortium]

mouldy said:

Someone in suitepee's twitch stream asked why I didn't have half the maps above ground and half below. This is the last of daylight we will see for a long while, and there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, at this point I didn't expect to be making the full 32 maps, and secondly I just couldn't wait to get underground where I could make the layouts bigger and more interesting.

No harm done there, IMO -- the underground themes are way cool, and there would surely be an audience for a sequel episode featuring the magic elevator from Willy Wonka.