Need tips from experienced mappers!

I was going to include this stuff in my "text interludes" post, but figured it'd be barely relevant to that topic. So, I made a different post. Also, it doesn't matter if you're experienced or not. Any tips from anyone would be great! :)

Okay, I have seen some awesome WAD's come out from some very talented people. Great stuff to be honest. So, I had some questions about what would be wise to include/not include in a very short campaign I am making.

1) I am developing five levels (and two secret levels). I am trying my hardest to make these maps to be played in an unconventional way (for Doom anyways). Examples are: puzzles involving disappearing keycards, items, invisible monsters, platforming (using the jump feature included in the majority of Doom ports), free aiming and shooting out of reach switches Quake-stlye, non-linearity to the level structure (not so much to where the objective becomes obtuse), swimming in deepwater segments to get to an objective, etc. Is this a good idea to include this? I ask because some of the WAD's I see are made for new ports of Doom, but don't normally include things like this so I wonder if it's more of a popular approach to not include new features such as this when releasing your PWAD?

(That was a long one, sorry!)

2) Instead of using MIDI files for the music in my WAD, I am using MP3 files for music. I know for a fact that this works on Skulltag/zDoom (which is what I will prefer my campaign to be played on), but maybe not on some other sourceports. Plus, the MP3 files inflate the file size a lot even when they're compressed. I'd like more realistic music for my campaign, but once again: is it wise to do this too? Will people care too much about the file size? Will they think it's an awesome WAD packed with goodies because the file size is large and then when they open it, they'll be disappointed when it turns out just to be the MP3 files?

3) My wad looks amazing with the Beautiful Doom Add on. In fact, some parts are specifically developed to show off the new gibs whenever you turn someone inside out (the player crosses a line def to grab a rocket launcher with ample ammo. This causes 50 zombiemans to spawn behind him and gore ensues). I am planning on including the three wad pack of Beautiful Doom with my wad with a seperate text file including much thanks and credits to the authors of the BDoom wad. Is this okay as long as I make it clear that BDoom is not my creation and I give credit to the real author(s)?

4) My levels have heavy sector coloring to emphasize the tone. This sounds stupid, but in my opinion I think it looks pretty cool. Then again, I'm not the most experienced guy making levels for Doom. So opinions other than my own on this pseudo-question would be great! :) (my levels are heavily influenced by Quake, so I am using the sector lighting to evoke the dark and creepy style of Quake.)

Well, I suppose that covers most of my questions. Sorry if this post is horrifically long. Any input would be greatly appreciated!!! :)

I would not recommend including MP3 music unless you wrote it yourself or someone wrote it specifically for your project.

Similarly, I would not recommend including a big weapons/enhancement mod that's available independently and that can be loaded separately by users.

Have enough faith in your own creations that you know you don't need to rely so much on other peoples' content to make it impress people.

j_dickerson09 said:

1) I am developing five levels (and two secret levels). I am trying my hardest to make these maps to be played in an unconventional way (for Doom anyways). Examples are: puzzles involving disappearing keycards, items, invisible monsters, platforming (using the jump feature included in the majority of Doom ports), free aiming and shooting out of reach switches Quake-stlye, non-linearity to the level structure (not so much to where the objective becomes obtuse), swimming in deepwater segments to get to an objective, etc. Is this a good idea to include this? I ask because some of the WAD's I see are made for new ports of Doom, but don't normally include things like this so I wonder if it's more of a popular approach to not include new features such as this when releasing your PWAD?

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
—Antoine De Saint-Exupery

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with the features listed, before you implement them for the sake of being unconventional, ask yourself what it adds and why you're adding it. Have you played a wad called Void? It's very unconventional but it works (although the jumping puzzles can go jump off a cliff). Compare this to Knee Deep in ZDoom map Z1M3, which is otherwise your standard affair except all of a sudden the level turns into some horrible sprawling key hunt puzzle bullshit where you spend an hour running around wondering what to do when everybody would have far rather just carried on with the shooting (this is not the worst example, but I include it mainly because I assume most people here have played KDiZD so they know what I'm talking about).

Just keep in mind that a number of ZDoom features were added primarily for the sake of one project when somebody specifically asked for it, so just because it exists doesn't mean it's suitable in most projects.

Thank you, guys! I appreciate the input. I'll definitely take these thoughts into consideration. Although, I still may go with the MP3 idea, esselfortium. I think it's really fitting for what I'm trying to go for. If it comes down to it, though, I'll try and find some creepy MIDI's. I'm not great at creating my own :(. I'll take a look at Void also.

Hey, if you guys wouldn't mind, I made a preview of the first map that I've finished (almost) and it'd be cool to get some input of the actual gameplay.

Just finished uploading it to youtube, so sorry for the late reply.

Severed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJax9QQsItQ&feature=player_embedded#at=20