HeadshotTAS

I'd love to make a map for this! Sign me up!

As someone who is currently going through the insanity of trying to make a 64-level megawad, realizing that perfection is impossible is undoubtedly necessary, since you'll never be able to outdo yourself for the millionth time in a row. But for me, the more important thing is motivation: I make the maps I want to make because they're the type of maps I want to play. To me that's far more important than "doing your best" or making your "magnum opus". It's not that I don't strive to do either of those things, it's that it's important to realize that you can't please absolutely everyone no matter how hard you try, and that's okay. It makes sense that we will fixate on what others say about our work, and I certainly appreciate any feedback I get on my maps, but this conversation ignores what I think is more important; that is, the satisfaction and fulfillment of creating the art that is authentic to yourself. Making any kind of art is just as much about the experience of creating it as it is about putting it out there in the world, if that's something you even feel like doing. That's what I've learned from making my own maps, anyways. I've been happy to see how my maps have been received in the Doom community, but for me it wasn't even in my mind that I'm going to be making "the best" ever maps for Doom, because I was just having a lot of fun making them in the first place. I think that if you just focus on that experience without worrying about making the best thing ever, that's the way to go. That's what I think.

I'm one of those people that played the original game on the N64 as a kid. As a 5 year old, you don't really have the concepts of game design or level progression that you have as an adult. I didn't beat the game at such a young age (I would do that a few years later) but even thinking about the game now I can still vividly recall the feelings of the levels fully immersing me in its world. More than anything else, Doom 64 felt less like a game to me and more of a mystery that I desperately wanted to solve. Finding my first secret in the game made me feel like I'm uncovering that mystery. So when it comes to the more contentious parts of the game's design (such as the sometimes cryptic level progression or even the admittedly very cheap death traps) I actually didn't mind that at all. I didn't interpret these things as being bad game design, I interpreted them as being just more layers in the mysterious artifact that is Doom 64. I was way too enthralled with the game's presentation, atmosphere and visuals, to the point where I didn't even really care about dying to a death trap right before the exit, because the mystery that it presented to me all those years ago was too gripping for me to let go of. The criticisms presented in the video are valid, and I get why the game isn't to everybody's tastes, even within the Doom community. But personally, Doom 64 was one of the most important games I played as a kid and I still cherish it for its amazing atmosphere to this day. I can't overstate how powerful that feeling of the game itself being a complete mystery was to me. There was just something about it that begged for me to look further and further so I can discover as many secrets as I can. In hindsight, I totally get why things like the death traps in Blood Keep or Dark Citadel would piss people off that are playing the game for the first time now, but back then I had little reason to care. My mind wasn't set on reaching the end of the level, it was on immersing myself in the world and uncovering as many secrets as I could. It's an experience that was incredibly powerful for me and one that I owe a lot to, so I'm willing to forgive the game's shortcomings. I still think it is a fantastic game in spite of its flaws, and with the remaster bringing the game to a new audience and allowing for custom mods, there is an unbelievable amount of potential to bring new life to the game, much like how custom mods have kept the previous 2 Doom games alive for all of this time. Doom 64 isn't flawless, but without it I doubt I'd have gotten seriously invested in the Doom community in the first place and enjoying these amazing games for as long as I have.

Some areas have been slightly edited in order to fix bugs, but there are no new areas or anything like that. The layouts are the same just as before.

With episode 1 of Dreamblood having received a cacoward, I decided it was necessary to give the first episode a much-needed update to iron out some issues that I've noticed over the past several months. Dreamblood is now at version 1.2! The biggest change between this version and the previous one is at MAP04: the first required strafe jump has been reworked to not only be easier and more comprehensible, but also to fix issues with softlocks that could happen at that point in the level. There was also a softlock on MAP07 that only existed on I Own Doom difficulty which has now been fixed. Besides that, the other major difference is that the crashing issues that originally existed in the wad are no longer present. For those who are curious, it turns out the cause was related to the macro command Line_CopyTextures; by copying textures from a single-sided line onto a double-sided line, it risks crashing the game. Additionally, this update contains a whole host of minor bug fixes, lighting/texture adjustments, and other quality-of-life improvements to make the playing experience better than how it was originally released. Hope you all enjoy!

Absolutely amazed and honored to see Dreamblood get an award. I didn't even know it was in consideration! Seriously, thank you to everyone involved. I am very happy to see Doom 64 get increasingly more representation in this community and I'm especially happy to have done my part in showing off the potential that the game has. I'm happy to say that the future of the game has never looked brighter than it has right now. Thank you so much!!! It really feels like my dreams have come true!

Thank you for all the positive comments, everyone! Shortly after I posted this, I noticed a softlock in MAP04 that I somehow managed to overlook, so I've gone ahead and quickly patched that out. If you've downloaded the wad within the last 24 hours, I would recommend downloading it again so you can avoid that. Happy dooming!

Dreamblood is a work-in-progress megawad project for the official Doom 64 remaster. It will consist of 8 episodes, each with 8 levels, for a grand total of 64 maps! The mapset will be released on an episodic basis, meaning that it will be updated for every episode that gets completed. Each episode will have its own theme, and each map will feature its own variation on that theme. Features include: Large, dynamic map designs that will shapeshift as the levels progress Immersive environments that combine Doom 64's aesthetics with many outside influences Extensive usage of macros and other advanced features (including jump pads) Fancy custom skies (thanks @Immorpher!) Challenging combat situations that will test your skills A new soundtrack by Proxy-MIDI! This is being tested on the official Doom 64 remaster, but it secondarily supports Doom 64 EX+. If you decide to play using EX+, bear in mind some things may not work as intended. Screenshots: Episode 1 Download (version 1.2)

Deathless Episode 1 UV-Speed TAS in 2:47. Video: dle1x247.zip

Micro-Slaughter Community Project MAP09 UV-Speed TAS in 0:29. Video mscp09x029.zip

Just wanted to say that it's been an honor to be a part of this historic release and I'm super happy with what we were able to achieve here. The variety of different ideas and the usage of the many different features of the Doom 64 engine collect into something that I strongly believe can be used as an example for any future Doom 64 wads going forward. There is so much potential to do amazing things with this engine, and we're just getting started. Thank you @Immorpher for leading this project and giving me and many others the opportunity to pay tribute to this awesome game!

Micro-Slaughter Community Project MAP08 UV-Speed TAS in 0:46. Video: mscp08x046.zip

Looks like I picked a really good time to get back into Doom TASing. I'm definitely going to study this intensely in order to help improve my own runs. What an amazing TAS! I can only imagine how much effort went into this, huge congratulations on actually finishing it. MAP29 was truly insane!

Micro-Slaughter Community Project MAP01 UV-Speed TAS in 0:56. Video: mscp01x056.zip

1994 Tune-up Community Project MAP09 UV-Speed TAS in 1:34. Video: 9409x134.zip