The Age of Hell: FPS game for GZDoom - DEMO OUT

[Bridgeburner56]

*Update*

 

So, there has been a unforeseen, but quite awesome (I think so anyway), change in plans. Seems that my work has caught a few eyes and I've been officially announced as part of the Elementalism project. It was pretty much a no-brainer to say yes for a couple of reasons. It's an awesome project with some of DW's best mappers/special effects wizards while remaining true to the classic Doom gameplay, and working with these people will be like steroids for my own mapping skills (particularly the technical side of things) which will make The Age of Hell better in the end.

 

I've been working on my first map for Elementalism for the last 2 weeks but I am planning on splitting my time between Elementalism and Age of Hell. I'll probably settle into alternating weeks so as to not neglect either one (although there will be focused bursts if I'm excited about an idea).

 

With regards to Age of Hell initial release, I've decided that I'm going to set up a Discord server for people who are really keen to get a sneak peek and test the maps in advance. This will help prevent the inevitable "why have you released an unfinished map" trolls while still getting some testing done and satiating some of the more desperate fans of AOH. The discord will be pretty much open to all but I'll follow Dragonfly's example and have a minor screening process on the server and then interested parties can let me know if they want to be part of the testing team and I'll be posting the server link here in the next few weeks. I'm still sticking with making maps available for playtesting this month but I need to organise my resources into one .pk3. I'll make this a separate file (it's all publicly available material) so the testers only need to redownload the map wad with each iteration.

 

TL;DR

 

Age of Hell is still going but I'm working on 2 projects now because fun times.

[Bridgeburner56]

So, I know things have been a bit quiet on this particular front while I've been getting stuck into Elementalism so I wanted to use this opportunity to give a shout out to @killerkouhai and the Infinite Void which is shaping up to be a damn fine looking map set. So good in fact that I couldn't say no when asked if I wanted to contribute and you may see some evidence of that soon ... (cue ominous music)

 

In Age of Hell related news the discord server, The Hellforge, is close to being ready. I just need to organise everything into a nice pk3 so that some testing can begin. That should get me back into working on TAoH albeit split between these various entities so there will be slow but steady progress on all three fronts.

[Catpho]

Heh, "hellforge" does certainly have a nice ring to it.

[Firedust]

This is easily my most anticipated megawad at the moment. Shame it's going to be a very long time until I get a chance to play the whole thing. The screenshots look gorgeous, you truly have the eye for visuals. Hopefully, gameplay will be on the same level too :D

 

Wish you good luck on your epic undertaking!

[Bridgeburner56]

*This is on the OP as well*

 

So there has been a major paradigm shift in the way I am going to approach this project. It was always my original intention for this to be a solo project and to focus on AoH above all else. But a couple of things have changed the way I'm looking at this and i believe this is a good thing.

I've joined a couple of other projects which has made me appreciate working with other people and has just been a whole lot of fun and exposed me to new aesthetics. The downside of this is that I am now spread pretty thin. Fortunately this has coincided with expressions of interest in helping out with AoH which brings me to ...

 

For this project to a) live up to it's potential and b) actually get finished this century that I am going to need some help. So I am very pleased to announce that @killerkouhai is now an official part of the AoH team. You can thank her for the hellishly awesome title font and getting the discord server up and running. She has also been doing epic work organising the resources for the project and getting the pk3 ready for ... playtesting*.

 

So watch this space. Work will be resuming on AoH in the very near future.

 

*This is serious unfinished alpha state playtesting but, playtesting none the less

[Bridgeburner56]

For those interested parties in more real time updates and a window into the creation process, here is the discord server

https://discord.gg/fp2espG

From there, if you are interested in playtesting you can make your petition to the Lord of the Damned and your case will be considered

Edited September 18, 2018 by Bridgeburner56

[Bridgeburner56]

Update time

 

So we hit a few stumbling blocks with getting the pk3 ready. Turns out the latest bugfix version of GZDB does not recognise the decorate file if it is wad format which was causing none of the user defined things to show up in the thing menu. Even a stand alone wad file that I had been using a couple of months ago wouldn't show up. The assets would work fine in test mode though. Problem found and solved so we are now close to having the resource fully compiled. There are just some texture name issues for me to sort which is mostly just grunt work. General Roasterock has been doing the leg work on the decorate so big ups to him for doing this for the project

 

TL:DR unexpected issues have slowed things down a bit but progress is still bubbling away behind the scenes.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Bridgeburner56

[elend]

Take your time, we'll be here when you are ready.

[MFG38]

Holy shit, I can't believe I overlooked this earlier. This is looking mighty promising!

 

I'll keep an eye peeled. c:

[Akenore]

I can't wait for this to come out. This will be phenomenal.

[Bridgeburner56]

Hi everyone, I'm going to be attempting to stream some mapping tomorrow at 9am (GMT+13). I should be going for most of the day so pop in and say hi and witness the methods behind the madness*. I'll put a post on the streamers thread too when I'm ready to start.

 

^{*more madness}

[elend]

Will the stream also be archived on YouTube? :p

[Bridgeburner56]

Probably not initially but it's something that i'll do if there is a demand for it

[elend]

Well, set your "demand counter" to at least 1. xD

[Bridgeburner56]

Stream starting in 1 hour

 

[Teder]

I don't have twitch account, so I write here - amount of details are beautiful insane. I love it.

[Gaia74]

i want make maps like this, but i cant :"v

[Bridgeburner56]

5 hours ago, Gaia74 said:

i want make maps like this, but i cant :"v

practice, patience and more than a little insanity

[Bridgeburner56]

So I have a twitter account now (ew) but it's a good place to keep up with everything I'm working on and stream announcements https://twitter.com/Bridgeburner4

[Bridgeburner56]

Ok so a non update. Not much happening on AoH at the moment due to an increased work load and imminent release of Infinite Void Refracted Reality

So the bad news is that AoH is further delayed but the good news is that Refracted Reality will be released Jan 31st which will contain (cue drums) my first released maps (probably 3 of them). So go check out @killerkouhai's project. It's going to be out in the near future and it's going to be fucking awesome.

[Bridgeburner56]

As a reward for everyone waiting so patiently, here's some screens of what I have been working on for Refracted Reality which is scheduled for release on Jan 31st.

 

Warning: Colourful af

[Gideon020]

*Smiles internally*

 

*Screams Externally*

 

I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me.

[DOOMGABR[RU]]

Oh man... *pressed F to pay respect*

[ketmar]

that architecture is amazing. jaw-dropping, i'd say. but i cannot imagine how you can orchestrate fights there -- for me, it is more fits into some adventure style. but meh, i never did a playable map in my life, so i cannot imagine how you did all that geometry too. ;-)

 

i mean -- this looks great. can't wait to lay my hands on those maps. I WANT THAT HELL! ;-)

[rodster]

Oh my God those colours and the architecture! Those screenshots look sooooo tasty!

Edited November 26, 2018 by rodster

[kb1]

@Bridgeburner56You really should be designing stuff for employment, making a ton a cash for your work. Those screenshots show perfection - seriously. Impressed, as always!

[Bridgeburner56]

Thanks @kb1 If only this was a job. Maybe one day ...

[kb1]

2 hours ago, Bridgeburner56 said:

Thanks @kb1 If only this was a job. Maybe one day ...

Maybe indeed. I'll keep that in mind. Careful what you wish for... :)

[Bridgeburner56]

OK time for a new years update regarding what I'm doing and what's happening with Age of Hell.

 

So I've still got an intense month or so of work for @killerkouhai's Refracted Reality. RC1 release is still scheduled for 31st Jan and we are making good progress. I have finished Crimson Chaos and will now be diving back into Palace of the Black Singularity. The hub map (the rainbow af one) is pretty much done and we have started compiling everything together into the final .pk3.

 

The Hellforge will then flare back into life. The gears will start grinding. Hell's artisans will get back to work. February should see a marked increase in activity and there should be alpha level testing in the first couple months of the year and there will be the release of Volume 1 in 2019 (probably 8-10 maps). I'm also starting to recruit some guest mappers to provide a fresh take on the manifestations of hell which will help with progress while adding some new dimensions to the wad.

 

The other primary project will still be Elementalism but there are a few community projects and other bits and pieces I'm working on.

 

As far as the previous year went, I managed to release my first every map in JOM 6 which was a hell of a ride. I wish I had made more progress on things but I think most mappers feel that way so I'm not gonna beat myself up over that.

I also totaled up what I had done in the last 9-10 months up to Dec 31st. Here are some stats (this is all saved and kept work)

 

Total Linedefs: 546,122

Total Sidedefs: 1,019,526

Total Sectors: 119,924

 

o.O

 

Thanks to everyone who's been following what I do, giving feedback, helping me out and saying nice things. This helps keep me moving forward. I would still  be here if it wasn't for the people pushing me forward and helping me out. Hope you have a good 2019 :)

 

And here's some shots of the finished map for Refracted Reailty, Crimson Chaos

 

 

[General Rainbow Bacon]

That's not mapping anymore dude.  That's fine art.  Amazing!