Splatterhouse Community Wad?

[Impie]

DEMO

This project began as a remake of my old Splatterhouse 3D game made in Game Maker. Unfortunately, due to medical issues, I won't be able to finish this mod on my own. So I'm proposing a very cool Halloween community project event for the month of October: the Splatterhouse 3D Community Wad. I have a specific vision for this project, but I don't wanna start something that nobody's interested in joining.

The idea is for a three-episode megawad using the assets seen above (and more assets I haven't showcased yet). It features mechanics from Beautiful Doom and Ketchup Mod. I'm asking for local mappers to contribute UDMF maps using the parameters and assets I provide to keep the project consistent and authentic.

I'm waiting to see if it generates a lot of interest on the forums before I go ahead with it. In the meantime, here's the general structure I have in mind for the three planned episodes.

E1: ESCAPE FROM WEST MANSION
While taking photographs of West Mansion, Rick and Jenny are assaulted by monsters summoned by the Terror Spirit, which seeks to destroy the Terror Masks that bind it to the physical plane. It empowers Rick with superhuman strength and agility so he can destroy Dr. West's monsters and escape with Jenny.

M1 - Forgotten Catacombs (Boss: TopHeavy) 100%
underground caverns of torture
M2 - Dungeons of Dr. West (Boss: Eating Machine) 100%
subterranean torture chambers & monster warrens
M3 - Hangtree Woods (Boss: Lumberjack) 100%
rainy forest filled with hanging corpses
M4 - Haunted Halls (Boss: Mirror Rick) 100%
mansion halls and various rooms
M5 - Gallery of Fear 0%
art gallery and library
M6 - Desecrated Chapel (Boss: Evil Cross) 0%
eerie church
M7 - Demonic Nursery (Boss: Dr. West) 0%
laboratory of dr west, which is being consumed by a colossal, fleshy entity
M8 - Breakup From Hell (Boss: Monster Jen) 0%
west mansion is burning to the ground; rick finds jen, but she transforms into a monster and must be killed to open the exit

E2: HELL AND BACK
Months after Jenny's death, Rick -- now committed to an asylum -- is informed by the Terror Spirit that Dr. Mueller used him to further her understanding of her own mask, at the cost of his sanity and Jenny's life. It promises to use Mueller's facilities to open a gate to hell so Rick can rescue Jenny and bring her back to life, in exchange for the destruction of Mueller's mask.

M1 - West Mansion Ruins (Boss: Eating Machines) 0%
rick awakens at the entrance to burnt-out remains of west mansion, explores ruins to find entrance to underground tunnels
M2 - Crypt of the Living Dead 0%
subterranean crypt filled with ghosts and undead
M3 - Deliverance 0%
traveling along a noxious river to reach mueller mansion
M4 - Glade of Misery (Boss: Bugman) 0%
eerie forest filled with pit traps that lead to horrific underground tunnels; leads to mueller mansion gate
M5 - The House That Mueller Built 0%
haunted manor on an island at the center of a lake; various rooms and hallways
M6 - Creature Labs 0%
mueller's laboratories containing horrific devices and captive monsters, some of which break out to attack rick
M7 - Orpheus (Boss: Hell Guardian) 0%
rick enters the gate of hell, and explores the eerie void where jenny's soul is held captive
M8 - That Sinking Feeling 0%
rick escapes mueller manor as it sinks into the lake

E3: CURSE OF THE MASK
This episode is presently up in the air design-wise: chances are I'll use excess maps to populate this final chapter. Years after the events of E2, Rick and Jen retire to their own mansion with their son David. Rick, a successful archaeologist, has discovered what he believes to be another mask, which summons the forces of evil to his home and threatens to devour his family unless he takes the Terror Spirit for one last ride.

Restrictions:
- Use the Splatterhouse textures, Gothic textures, and Doom II textures in that priority order.
- Don't use a boss monster before it's first appearance as a boss in the level hierarchy.
- No scripted cutscenes or camera work. The only exception would be Monster Jenny's transformation sequence.

EDIT: Showcase of the boss monsters for reference.

Spoiler

[Walter confetti]

First REKKR, now this. You guys this year are taking out real gems as a community projects, aren't you?

In other words, this looks really interesting and if you want help with a little / medium sized map i'm here...

Even if I don't have huge zdoom mapping skills, for example, I kinda remember how theorically sliding doors like the one you show in the video are done...

[Koko Ricky]

Gotta say that this is a brilliant mix of franchises. Looking forward to development.

[joe-ilya]

Seems kind of bland, just you in a bunch of wolf3d mazes punching shit doesn't seem like a fun thing to work on and play.

[Salt-Man Z]

Incredible.

[Albertoni]

The idea is good and the assets are solid. I am quite interested.

One thing that annoyed me is the lack of ranged weapons and ammo, a few snipers can make or change a combat zone and those are a bit hard to take down with a baseball bat.

[Job]

Holy smokes, that's terrific, Impie! As someone old enough to remember having rented Splatterhouse 1 for the TG16 and Splatterhouse 3 for the Sega Master System (I actually own a copy now), as well as the ill-fated Xbox version, this is a real trip. I'm really impressed that you've come to the forum with something to show. I thought it was going to be a blind pitch for help. Unfortunately, I'm very busy with family matters, and I'm not good at advanced mapping, so I probably won't be of much help.

I'm sorry if your showcase video, which I watched a good deal of, answers the question, but have you considered having the invincibility sphere transform you into Super Rick? If you want to keep some of the original feel, you could have the tomes actually be lives or continues. Would it be possible, since you have jumping implemented, to do the slide kick or maybe a jump kick? The other suggestions I had were whether some of the SH3 assets would be more ideal based on the intended gameplay. I also noticed cases where Doom sounds still exist where SH sounds would be ideal, such as Rick's death sound. I think that some of the textures in Doom beg for a womb level with the Mother boss (IoS?). My final suggestion, for now anyway, is maybe you'd consider making the monsters a little more powerful but have fewer of them at a time, like the Master Dead as the archvile or have the Jokers have more hitpoints.

Crap, I'm overflowing with ideas I'm totally useless to help you implement. :/

[gaspe]

I played only the first game but what you have so far seems rather faithful to the mood of the game and the assets so far look good. I don't think I will join in the mapping though. Also did you have in mind to make remakes of the levels or stay close to them?
Good luck with this, lots of potential to be something really cool.

[kmxexii]

Impie said:

Unfortunately, due to medical issues, I won't be able to finish this mod on my own.

I am very sorry to hear this. I hope the best for you.

[Impie]

kmxexii said:

I am very sorry to hear this. I hope the best for you.

Thanks! It's nothing super serious, I just can't use a chair much, and I can't really dev on Doom if I have to stand all the time.

gaspe said:

Also did you have in mind to make remakes of the levels or stay close to them?

Staying in the ballpark of the original games, for the most part. I was initially just remaking my Splat3D maps in the Doom engine and fleshing them out a lot more.

I'll post links to the assets in the OP when I find time, and allow people to play with them for map making. If a lot of people show interest I'll greenlight the project. I was hoping to do three 8-map episodes, each based on one of the original games, but with a slightly different story connecting them all. I'd written a movie screenplay years ago, and seems a shame to waste it, so I'm incorporating it here.

Job said:

I'm sorry if your showcase video, which I watched a good deal of, answers the question, but have you considered having the invincibility sphere transform you into Super Rick?

That's a badass idea, actually. Maybe a variation of the Mutant Sphere which changes you into a hulking bruiser.

I don't have the necromancer guy as an asset, but I do have a Dr. West boss that spawns monsters from glass jars, and revives dead ones like an archvile.

Also, I used a couple of Splatterhouse 3 textures, but the trouble with them is I'd have to recolor them like I did the eating machine boss so the palette matches and isn't as washed out. Genesis graphics clash noticeably with the arcade graphics due to the limited palette.

And yeah, the maps area little Wolf3D-ish, partly due to the texture sizes (96x96). But part of the vision I had was to make a Splatterhouse Doom game where, if you set it to a lower resolution, it'd feel like something from the DOS era. Like a "lost" Splatterhouse game.

[Solarn]

Impie said:

And yeah, the maps area little Wolf3D-ish, partly due to the texture sizes (96x96). But part of the vision I had was to make a Splatterhouse Doom game where, if you set it to a lower resolution, it'd feel like something from the DOS era. Like a "lost" Splatterhouse game.

Don't listen to joe, almost everything he writes is either a huge troll or ignorant bullshit. The maps look fine.

[Tetzlaff]

I love the idea of a Splatterhouse Doom game and it looks great from the video. The only thing that maybe could be a bit tedious is the focus on melee attacks.

[kmxexii]

Impie said:

Thanks! It's nothing super serious, I just can't use a chair much, and I can't really dev on Doom if I have to stand all the time.

phew! glad you are relatively alright.

[joe-ilya]

Solarn said:

Don't listen to joe, almost everything he writes is either a huge troll or ignorant bullshit. The maps look fine.

Piss off.

[Impie]

Voltcom9 said:

This looks neat. What map compatibility were you going for here?

UDMF for GZdoom, so the colors aren't washed out and scripting and other complext things can be used.

Also, in later levels there can be heavier emphasis on the ranged weapons, depending on the map design (i.e. some levels focus on shotgun use, others on the bat, others on berserk, etc). It'd be good to have variety.

Adding the assets to the OP in a little bit.

EDIT: Dr West's potassium bomb drop has inventory 0, because the item normally provides only 1. I can't remember how to make it so it always provides 1 no matter what.

[Albertoni]

E2M7 sounds like my kind of map.

I'm a sucker for surreal, empty voids with stuff floating around and weird colors and such.

That said, I'm a bit of a newbie on the mapping scene, so... I'm not sure I'd like to claim that slot. Specially not without even checking the resources lol

[marxr]

How can i join?

[Impie]

marxr said:

How can i join?

Just work on a map for a slot of your choice and submit it when it's ready.

[marxr]

OK, i'm trying this one -

M5 - Gallery of Fear 0%
art gallery and library

One more thing, should i just make a kind of regular doom level with those themes or should i keep something more in mind? (I am playing all the Splatterhouse games for research, only played the 2-nd one i think previously).

And i'm using GZDB so is the "GZDoom: Doom 2 (UDMF)" format OK?

[Impie]

marxr said:

OK, i'm trying this one -

M5 - Gallery of Fear 0%
art gallery and library

One more thing, should i just make a kind of regular doom level with those themes or should i keep something more in mind? (I am playing all the Splatterhouse games for research, only played the 2-nd one i think previously).

And i'm using GZDB so is the "GZDoom: Doom 2 (UDMF)" format OK?

it might work. i use doombuilder 2 with udmf format.

try to keep your maps in the style of the demo maps, but dont be afraid to experiment a bit. maps should be restricted to the splatterhouse, gothic, and doom 2 textures in that priority order.

[marxr]

Got it, i'll give it a go.

[marxr]

.

[Walter confetti]

marxr said:

.

k

on a more serious note, got this bug while opening the assets pack:

i've downloaded a more updated version of GZdoom SVN today if it's a problem of SVNs compatibility...

[Impie]

walter confalonieri said:

on a more serious note, got this bug while opening the assets pack:

i've downloaded a more updated version of GZdoom SVN today if it's a problem of SVNs compatibility...

Weird, I've never had any trouble opening or running it. If you figure out what the issue is, lemme know.

[Walter confetti]

Impie said:

Weird, I've never had any trouble opening or running it. If you figure out what the issue is, lemme know.

At first sight looks like a typo in the DECORATE code... what version of gzdoom do you have?

[marxr]

Was working on something and got some error as well.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/du0pp4l19ozf9ls/AAAZ23B9wX3EjfJ6uxbnnv9Ja?dl=0

Some shit i was doing with the library theme.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vmpx6hahamyaph3/AAB1ELa8AIiiDumyCZ0fj53La?dl=0

(a game of doom2 worked well with the assets tho)

[Impie]

walter confalonieri said:

At first sight looks like a typo in the DECORATE code... what version of gzdoom do you have?

1.9.1

I wasn't using devbuilds when I developed this.

EDIT: Keep in mind, Marxr, that you should avoid using boss monsters before their first appearance as a boss. Basically the bugman doesn't appear 'til episode 2 (it's the fourth boss of Splatterhouse 2), but after that it can appear as a miniboss or common enemy.

EDIT2: Oh! The error might be caused by Ketchup or Beautiful Doom's decorate, too, since I don't think I was using the most recent versions of either.