Caverns of Darkness

December 31, 2007

Well this will be my first, and last, update of the Chaos Crew News. I just wanted to draw attention to Grafl Zahl's ZDoom Caverns of Darkness patch. I had hoped to someday make a Windows Eternity version of the WAD, but it is just not going to happen. Too many other things to do. The main thing is to make sure people can play the WAD on modern machines. My thanks to Graf for his hard work. I have also updated the download links on the Games and Crew pages so they should all work now. Thank you, and good night.

- Joel Murdoch

July 2, 2004

You know, it would be awesome if I could say that Deimos: Anomaly Unleashed was now available, since I would have beaten Action Doom and could tell Scuba to suck it. However, in the last six months, I've only completed half of one level and a few graphics; also, I like Scuba, and telling him to suck it would be mean and wrong. Anyway, the bad news is that D:AU is hardly progressing at breakneck speed.

The good news, however, is that D:AU is progressing, and given I've figured out a better schedule, might actually progress somewhat faster than the current glacier-like pace. At this point, I have a rough idea of the level progression, what each level is going to be (or the theme of the level), and an episode style to keep things consistent. I know that really doesn't sound like much, but as a level designer who's designs always have to have some basis in reality, that's pretty damn useful. It is a lot easier for me to design when I know how things are going to tie together, and where the level needs to go.

...But dammit, it occurs to me that I haven't said anything about exactly what I'm doing. I got a lot of suggestions from my last post (six months ago...d'oh) about what to do next, and I have decided on doing a sequel to P:AR. Deimos: Anomaly Unleashed will replace Ultimate Doom's episode two, and takes place shortly after the events of P:AR. I haven't written the story yet, but the basic gist is that Deimos has reappeared from the realms beyond with still more hellspawn, and you are part of a team sent to stop them. The target installation is the Omega Lab, the facility at which the UAC was performing the bulk of its teleportation research. Since the UAC facility on Deimos is much older than P:AR's Site B, there is going to be a lot more gothic-industrial architecture; more GSTONE than STRTAN, anyway. Part of the reason the pace of D:AU has been crawling is that I haven't quite acclimated myself to that style, but I'm learning as I go.

And yes, you greedy bastards, I do have screenshots.

That's all for now folks. Enjoy Action Doom.

- Lutz

January 17, 2004

[Note: this update is a direct copy of my most recent Doomworld forum entry; if you have any thoughts on what follows, please respond here.]

Surprise!

Sweet merciful McGillicuddy, 2003 just flew by, didn't it? Er, at least as it relates to this site; I haven't touched it for almost 365 days. Eeek. Of course, during that time I have found a new job, bought a house, moved out of DSL range, and got married (sorry, ladies)...so I've been busy, but still, it's been too long. Anyway, for better or worse, I'm back -- and I come bearing a long, convoluted, and reasonably self-serving piece of introspection. Read at your own risk.

Recently, I've been some time playing through a lot of my own levels; it's been a while since I've thought about them, much less seen them, so it was both entertaining and nostalgic. And since this seems to be that time of year for the requisite host of "Best of..." lists, I somewhat unintentionally compiled a list of my favorite levels that I have created (that seems odd, I know, but this is going somewhere; I promise). So, in no particular order:

Inferno E3M5: "The Ravaging Way" - With the exception of the opening room, this level just looks good, and maintains a rather consistent theme without always looking the same.

Inferno E3M7: "The Spawning Vats" - I love the beginning area of this level; it has some nice shadow effects, and the spiral staircase is just neat.

Caverns of Darkness MAP06: "Peredition's Abyss" - Running around on top of the church ruins was fun, and (in my humble opinion) the mix of gothic/tech architecture amongst the lava really looks good.

Phobos: Anomaly Reborn E1M4: "Railbender" - It's a friggin' train!

Phobos: Anomaly Reborn E1M6: "Subterra" - Again, this just looks good, dammit, despite the occasional slowdown. Also, it has a host of really cool effects (moving gears -- ha-ha! I rule!).

Millennium Boss Level - I realize that very few people have actually seen this, given the issues involved in getting the project out the door. I won't spoil it in case Millennium is actually -- someday -- released (!), so I'll just say that two-thirds of the level is one giant special-effect that (a) I've never seen on this scale, and (b) is just plain cool.

In looking at these levels, I've come some conclusions about how I go about designing and building my creations. To briefly sum up, I think about and design around a series of "set peices" and/or special effects -- more often than not, I will come up with some cool structure and/or effect that I will then build a level around. For example, the opening cave of P:AR E1M6 is good looking -- there's lots of detail, both in the architecture and the lighting, but nothing novel or tricky about it. Alternatively, the transparent water in the same level isn't necessarily gorgeous, but it is a "neat" effect (not that I take any credit at all for it's discovery). Eye-candy and novel tricks are combined in the moving gears -- it looks good and they move...how 'bout that?

Another example: when I started designing P:AR level 3 ("Dissolution"), the only thing I had in mind was the crane. So, I went ahead and built that; after the crane was done and looking pretty good, I sat for a while and wondered where, exactly, the level would go. Clearly, the crane was the central set-piece -- it had to stay -- but there needed to be some reason for it to be there (see the next paragraph). Eventually, I stumbled upon the idea of a crumbling, half-finished base. Also, I had been kicking around the idea of a "filling pool," so I went ahead to build that...and from the pool came the notion of turning on the water, and then the nukage, etc. Similarly, level 2 started only with the idea of a horizontally-moving platform and grew from there; level 5 with the Quake II-ish cavern architecture and the tank; and so on.

Some other points: I really like creating levels with "ancient/tech" themes; I think that medieval architectures strewn with industrial technology (e.g. CoDE3M6, as well as certain Strife and Unreal levels) offer the most opportunites for my concepts of both beauty and outlandish creativity. Further, I tend to always design spaces that "serve a purpose" -- there's some point or theme to the structures. Or, in other words, it would be very difficult for me to build a level like Doom II's MAP01...it's just sort of a vague tech-y "base" that could really be anything.

Anyway, I suppose you're wondering what the point of all this is going to be; so, here you go. After a year away from Doom (I played around with UnrealEd 2.0 but never released anything), I am feeling the desparate need to create. The problem is, I don't know what, exactly, I want to create.

Actually, I take that back -- I have a very good idea of what I want to create: namely, Unearthed. This was the project that the Chaos Crew started after the release of P:AR; it would have been a ZDoom-based gothic horror megawad in the same vein as Undying. It had a great plot by Joel Murdoch, and we had some big plans for it...but to do it right would take forever given the little time I can devote each week, and I'm not going to do it if it's not going to be done right. Basically, Unearthed isn't going to happen unless someone pays me (so, Mr. Carmack, if you're reading this: I'm sure you have $100,000 just lying around -- start a charity! Pay me to make a free mod for a 10-year-old game!)

Right, so what can I do that's also reasonably feasible? Well, I have a few ideas:

A series of SP levels (e.g. Blind Alley or kzdoom) - a level here and there with no particular consistency. With the exception of my 10 Sectors entry, I've never done this; even my Heretic maps were originially going to be part of an episode. The problem is that I generally have a need for at least a few additionally graphics, and I don't want to force anyone to keep downloading extra stuff (though I guess I could just (a) deal with it, or (b) use an existing resource pack, e.g. TeamTNT's Return Resources).

A direct sequal to P:AR - something along the lines of "Phobos: Nightfall" that chronicles the exploits of the hero surviving the night on the surface of Phobos immediately following the events of P:AR (and trying to get back to the Hangar from E1M1?). It would probably be a lot like P:AR, which might get old.

The second episode in an "Anomaly Cycle" - perhaps "Diemos: Anomaly Unleashed" or something like that. Instead of doing a direct sequal to P:AR, switch planets to allow for different styles of architecture. This wouldn't stray too far from P:AR -- it would still be the same universe -- but it would definitely be more different than the idea above.

Something "Strife-esque" - I really enjoy Strife, and it takes full advantage of the "ancient/tech" theme I like so much. In a Doomworld post, I asked about a Strife resource .WAD, and I didn't get a terribly clear answer -- is there a .WAD out there with some converted graphics/sprites (or a .WAD with a new color palette and some unchanged graphics? That I might actually prefer...)

I really don't want to do anything with Hexen -- that never really captured me like other Doom-engine games.

Finally, a lot of people critisize the "playability" of my levels, and it occurs to me that I really don't know what that means. Does the detail just cause things to run too slowly? Unclear as to where to go next? Are there not enough (or too many) monsters? More ammo? Less health? Help me out, here. Even though the primary reason I design levels is that I love to design levels -- granted, I like that others play them, but it's not the reason I do it -- it would be stupid to ignore helpful suggestions. So, talk to me, folks.

Alright -- this has gone on long enough. Again, I realize that there are portions of this that sound terribly vain; that's not my intention (and I am equally as praising of others' work). Rather, I just wanted to make my thought process a little more transparent, then open it up to you all for ideas and suggestions. Please, if you have any comments or advice, write me an e-mail or reply on the Doomworld forums. It's Democracy in action, folks -- don't miss out.

Also, Mr. Carmack -- write me an e-mail about Unearthed. Or just send me some money in a box.

- Lutz