Strange Aeons 5.7

[Impie]

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Way back in 1994, I played Doom for the first time and it blew my little mind. Immediately I started sketching ideas for Doom clones, and kept at it for about ten years as a hobby (Duke Nukem 3D helped influence this as well, I think). The first one I ever came up with involved a hapless dude who went on inter-dimensional adventures in horror reminiscent of The Dreams of Unknown Kadath and similar Lovecraftian works. Years later I finally find a way to bring that weird little vision to life in the form of an Ultimate Doom mod called Strange Aeons.
 

 

Edited February 5, 2018 by Impie

[Ribbiks]

very cool aesthetic overall! I'd definitely try this out once you post it. my only visual critique from that video is that the sky you chose tiles pretty horribly :p

[nxGangrel]

It looks really interesting style wise. At the beginning of the video I got a sort of horror feel from it, that really gets my attention. Keep it up, it looks very promising.

[TheNerdTurtle2]

I can't wait until you post this! Very creepy and low enemy count but still looks challenging :)

EDIT: Are you going to be able to walk on the void in the final version because I think that it's kinda odd

[Impie]

Ribbiks said:

my only visual critique from that video is that the sky you chose tiles pretty horribly :p

I tried a few skies and they all tiled horribly...I might just have to edit them myself.

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Very creepy and low enemy count but still looks challenging :)

There are plenty of skirmishes in later levels though, of course, and theres a big difficulty curve from normal to hard. Most of the monsters die relatively easily, but that's mostly because they can really dish it out if you give them the chance. I'm also trying to make the level layout as much an enemy as the monsters.

TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Are you going to be able to walk on the void in the final version because I think that it's kinda odd

You'll be able to walk on the void, though it damages you. I didn't want it to be insta-death or teleport because it's easy to fall off the islands, and either would be super annoying. And restricting the player from walking off the ledges would limit his/her maneuverability too much.

[chexwarrior]

Very cool, a DooM wad inspired by the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath sounds awesome! My only critique is that you shouldn't make the player run through the void like you do in the video, it's very awkward IMO, besides that it looks good.

[gaspe]

It looks interesting! Ribbiks already noted the sky tiling, but aside that I think it fits well.

[joe-ilya]

I can give you a tiling SKY4.

Looks cool and explorary.

[antares031]

This looks great! It looks like a nice mix of horror and action. I wonder if there's any jumpscares which I personally don't like during the gameplay.
(the ghost from the video is acceptable for me, though)

Keep up the good work :)

[scifista42]

The floating island in void reminded me of the penultimate level of Winter's Fury, it even used the Nightmare enemy.

Good looks and great atmosphere, I liked it. Only the walk on the sky floor seemed odd and atmosphere-breaking to me, because it makes you realize the engine limitations (the floor is flat and all floating islands are clipped at the same height). Maybe consider teleporting the player out as soon as he falls down (while performing some surreal audio-visual effect on his screen)?

Since you apparently use only custom resources, would you consider designing the mod in a way to be compatible with any Doom IWAD instead of just Ultimate Doom?

[Memfis]

Imo when you already have like 95% new textures, you really should go for all 100%. Otherwise the few remaining graphics (doortrak, doorstop, some switches in your case) feel out of place and make the whole thing look kind of like unfinished work. Maybe even replace some sprites too to make the items suit the setting better. Epic 2 did it quite well, for example.

[StevieWolfe]

Lovecraft inspired Doom? Fuck yeah I'll check this out :)

[esselfortium]

Memfis said:

Imo when you already have like 95% new textures, you really should go for all 100%. Otherwise the few remaining graphics (doortrak, doorstop, some switches in your case) feel out of place and make the whole thing look kind of like unfinished work. Maybe even replace some sprites too to make the items suit the setting better. Epic 2 did it quite well, for example.

Agreed! I thought I was the only person who was bothered by this, since so many other wads themed around new textures have the same issue.

[PRIMEVAL]

Looking good. I side with the others about walking in the void, it's very awkward. Also don't care for the item pick up sounds. Otherwise, good work, looking to the finished result!

[Impie]

joe-ilya said:

I can give you a tiling SKY4.

Looks cool and explorary.

Cool! PM me a link and I'll check it out. Thanks in advance, too.

antares031 said:

I wonder if there's any jumpscares which I personally don't like during the gameplay.
(the ghost from the video is acceptable for me, though)

No jumpscares (I hate that shit). The closest you get are monsters creeping up on you.

Memfis said:

Imo when you already have like 95% new textures, you really should go for all 100%. Otherwise the few remaining graphics (doortrak, doorstop, some switches in your case) feel out of place and make the whole thing look kind of like unfinished work. Maybe even replace some sprites too to make the items suit the setting better. Epic 2 did it quite well, for example.

I might still do that. It's early yet.

scifista42 said:

Only the walk on the sky floor seemed odd and atmosphere-breaking to me, because it makes you realize the engine limitations (the floor is flat and all floating islands are clipped at the same height). Maybe consider teleporting the player out as soon as he falls down (while performing some surreal audio-visual effect on his screen)?

On the flipside, I feel like that or death might be tedious to the player. Even if I did it that way, it wouldn't affect monster corpses, and the effect would still be broken, so I figured it was best to just treat it like nukage under the excuse that it's already a weird-ass environment to begin with. I might give silent teleporting a shot or something, and if I change my mind i could easily tweak the maps to account for the new effect.

[Impie]

I posted a new video in the OP. I dunno how the teleporting trick looks, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and was surprisingly easy (if tedious) to implement. Hopefully now the "floating islands" illusion isn't broken.

Episode 1 is almost finished, too. The maps are all done, but I wanna get the story written and maybe a title pic made before I upload anything for playtests.

[Average]

This looks really interesting. It's always nice to see a mod with lots of new textures and things. Giving the player a different sense of location rather than just another UAC base or Hell is refreshing to these tired old eyes... :)

[scifista42]

The teleport trick looks slightly strange, but overally OK to me. If this was my wad, I would use it.

[Impie]

Average said:

This looks really interesting. It's always nice to see a mod with lots of new textures and things. Giving the player a different sense of location rather than just another UAC base or Hell is refreshing to these tired old eyes... :)

I started off by just asking about underused texture sets elsewhere on the forum, and some really interesting sets were mentioned. One mention was the Chasm: the Rift textures, and I love the look of Chasm, so I got inspired to use 'em in something.

scifista42 said:

The teleport trick looks slightly strange, but overally OK to me. If this was my wad, I would use it.

My first choice was to make it appear as if you were seeing the underside of the islands as you fell, before teleporting back to start (or god knows where). Unfortunately, I quickly realized this just wasn't feasible, given the level structure of this episode. So I went with the "psychadelic effect" idea that was suggested.

[Impie]

Check the OP for a download link! The first draft of Episode 1 is done, and I included a little game manual in the zip with the story and such.

[Average]

Cool. Downloading just now for play after work.

PS: Like your name on Game Jolt. :)

[scifista42]

I hear stock Doom music, which feels out of place. Why didn't you follow my advice to make this wad compatible with any Doom-game IWAD? Adding a simple MAPINFO would make most of this job alone. Making sure that there are no stock textures specific to a particular IWAD (= present in one IWAD, but not in others) would be the next step.

[Impie]

scifista42 said:

I hear stock Doom music, which feels out of place. Why didn't you follow my advice to make this wad compatible with any Doom-game IWAD? Adding a simple MAPINFO would make most of this job alone.

I haven't decided on replacement music yet, and it seems best played without music at all, like I suggested in the manual. Hexen tunes don't feel quite right, Descent is too fast-paced, and there aren't enough good Chasm tracks to have a unique tune for each map -- they'd start recycling halfway through an episode. And PSX Doom and Doom 64 are out of the question.

I went with Ultimate Doom to keep the episode format (also for other reasons I've long since forgotten since the project blew up way bigger than I expected it to be). Could I add to the mapinfo lump to keep that format and still make it work with any iwad? Also, can you think of any switch textures that would fit this set but are similar to what I already used? The quake switches don't look like much of anything and they're all either faces or hi-tech. I would need some greater variety like Doom has: a good mix of hi- and lo-tech. As yet haven't found anything suitable on Realm667.

[scifista42]

Impie said:

Could I add to the mapinfo lump to keep that format and still make it work with any iwad?

Yes, of course. MAPINFO allows you to define the format however you want, as well as change music, map names and a lot of other things. Your project is already (G)ZDoom-only, or am I wrong?

[Impie]

Basically ZDoom-only, yeah. I'll mess around with MAPINFO some more later, probably, when I'm sure I know what the hell I'm doing. I'm sure I can always tweak it for any IWAD after I actually finish it.

[Merry Widow]

This is really great!Played only a few maps,but I like what I see. :)

[TheOrganGrinder]

Okay, let's see, initial impressions...

E1M1 and E1M2 are both solid maps that quickly establish the theme you're going for here - physically fragmented and haunted city floating in the void. Enemies are an odd mix of soldiers, cloaked cultists, and demonic monsters - I like the smaller and squishier cacodemon replacement you've thrown in, where's that from? On the other hand I hate the ghostly enemy but that's true pretty much wherever it crops up so that's not a strike against this WAD in particular.

E1M3 has layout elements that put me in mind of the labyrinth section of Silent Hill 2 - I think it's the descent into the sewers and the configuration of diagonal walls and passages that does it. Anywhere else I'd protest the use of Dark Forces assets but here the dianoga works rather well as a 'generic tentacle monster' - seems like it uses the same set of code as the stalker from Hexen? Actually the mash-up of assets from different places works better than it has any right to, it feels suitably surreal rather than distractingly schizophrenic.

E1M9, again with the Silent Hill theme, mostly through it's choice of hospital location and 'alternate world' there-and-back gameplay. It's deliciously disorienting. I think the relatively minimalistic detail plays to the engine's strengths (it's easy to use too many sectors and too much fine detail to make something that looks so much worse than taking a basic approach) and makes elements like the bed with the curtain pulled around it stand out that much more.

[death112]

I've tested your wad and sent you an email.

Overall its pretty nice. MAP02 tho was very confusing and i found a suequence break. Also MAP08 seems a WIP.
I wonder what you guys are talking about MAP09, because it seems to be finished with MAP08

EDIT:
It appears, you didnt register with a valid email, so i uploaded it to:
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1383253

[Impie]

death112 said:

EDIT:
It appears, you didnt register with a valid email, so i uploaded it to:
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1383253

Shit, that means it's still my cox inbox, which is dead at the moment. I coulda sworn I changed it. Thanks for the heads up! My email is valid now (I changed it), but I got your download.

TheOrganGrinder said:

I think the relatively minimalistic detail plays to the engine's strengths (it's easy to use too many sectors and too much fine detail to make something that looks so much worse than taking a basic approach) and makes elements like the bed with the curtain pulled around it stand out that much more.

Also, hospitals look super boring!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the mod so far. I think the tentacle beastie especially fits here because it's so reminiscent of Glaaki, another Lovecraft monster.

EDIT: death112, I see what you mean by the shortcut there. Thanks for pointing it out. Unfortunately the casual playthrough demo gets out of sync somehow: you die near the start of map 2 and start spazzing out for the rest of the demo.

[death112]

yeah, thats what i thought, if you reload a save. i shouldve recorded every level seperately. sorry for that!