can a purely exploratory map work?

Marcaek said:

It can work, but people who want a Doom map will hate it.

I'd like to see it if someone has the nuts to pull it off.

This looks promising

Awhile ago i started making a literal haunted mansion but i haven't touched it in quite awhile, just out of creator's block. No monsters, super dark, and a small trail of books leading from the library to the basement is quite unnerving, the silence, and dark night sky... damn, i really wish i'd finish that map.

sounds cool, hope you get the drive to work on it again ;)

i don't think i would make my take on an exploratory map terror, but what do you guys think? is it more feasible to make it if it has a scary theme?

If the player knows that there is no threat, it cannot be scary.

It can evoke feelings and imagery that relate discomfort to a player, so I'm going to call BS on that. You can also use the environment actively as a source of danger.

scifista42 said:

If the player knows that there is no threat, it cannot be scary.

That said, I suppose the trick is to convince the player there is a threat. Like you, I can't be sold on the idea of "evil crushers" and "spooky nukage" but with 10 or so cyberdemons off the map that get crushed you can avoid that "0/0 monsters" thing on the Automap, AND give the player the expectation of a surprise cybie fight. You could start a map with the usual gameplay trope where your stuck in a room with a door that must be shot to get out. Then jump scare the player with fast opening doors whenever he picks up an item. If its boom you could possibly have a big arena with cages and pillars and stuff that would imply incoming monsters, and then later just have barrels or gore decorations teleport in to the expected locations in lieu of monsters. You could also use teleporting barrels for a surprise barrels o fun puzzle.

Come to think of it, you could use a lot of monsters and keep them seperated from the player by invisible walls. Imagine a huge slaughter looking map, and you have to navigate through a narrow path in between thousands of angry revenants and hell barons that can't touch you towards a large switch imagine how dreadful it might feel to be completely surrounded by monsters and have no choice but to press a switch with no indication of what it does. Or maybe archviles could be used on scrolling floors so they can teleport in and light you up, but teleports out before they can damage you.

Still yet, there's a brief shock that gets mitigated pretty quick when the player realizes they're not in any particular danger.

That could work, you'd just have to set up right. You could try to tell a story or just make it an atmospheric walking simulator. I'm not sure how hard it would be to propose a story without diminishing the feeling of it though.

I personally really like those experimental indie games that don't really have an objective, but are interesting enough in their environment and atmosphere to compel you to continue exploring.

First of all, I think some people would enjoy exploratory maps even if they were just strolls through pretty architecture or a mapping tricks arthouse, think gggmork's showcase wads. It's kind of a mapper's mapper thing.

You can target the hardcore player crowd by making obstacle courses. There are many training maps, there was an attempt at an oldschool rocket jumping wad (no z-axis boost), TimeOfDeath's bump.wad had you perform various other speedrunning tricks and even though it had archviles, they were there pretty much just for the jumps.

And if you're targeting the "mainstream" and require atmosphere, progression, tension and whatnot, you just have to think outside of the box. 40oz has some ideas, but they sound a little clumsy as they still rely on working with monsters, then killing them off-screen. You want danger? DEH is your tool and purist is your man. The evil eye works flawlessly. I guess you could also add ambient sounds to other static items, wasn't that done already? I'm thinking screams to twitching bodies. You can also add visual elements like mouldy's creepy wall faces with sad eyes - and that was with stock resources only.

Here's an idea: since Boom is okay, create a Tyler Durden's Dick scenario. As the unsuspecting player walks down <insert location>, he trips a silent Boom W1 teleporter that yanks him away to a creepy/Hellish vista where he lands on a conveyor that quickly throws him on another teleporter bringing him back. A quick flash of a disturbing scene works better than staring at it for a minute and finding the seams.

Basically you need to get very creative and it will probably work just once, plus I doubt it would carry an entire megawad, but there's more potential than it seems at the first glance.

Protester said:

Awhile ago i started making a literal haunted mansion but i haven't touched it in quite awhile, just out of creator's block. No monsters, super dark, and a small trail of books leading from the library to the basement is quite unnerving, the silence, and dark night sky... damn, i really wish i'd finish that map.

Nothing's stopping you. Except creativity, I suppose. If you're feeling stuck, maybe watch a haunted house movie, or look at other games featuring haunted houses for inspiration? Blood has a really good haunted house level.

Any reason why it couldn't work?

Yes!!

There are rocket jumping maps, jumping mazes (jumpmaze), maps of cities amongst many others. I'd enjoy a map with a lot of exploration but some scary scenery (like flashbacks to hellish situations in the past) but somewhere in the map is a hidden, but big threat. Perhaps with no weapons, ammunition till the fight begins.


I really like this idea. The only limit is your creativity. Good Luck!

Doom Raider, heh...

The map mentioned above, Doxylamine Moon, is one of my favourite maps and a great argument that Doom levels can evoke more emotions in a player than simple fear... I'd personally welcome an entire megawad of underpopulated maps to wander around, especially if there was a lot of ledgewalking, nukage and item searching, long ambient or progressive music tracks, by authors who understand there's more to Doom ambiance than piles of corpses and inverted crosses

also I'd like to argue for the existence of a map so hard that you personally need IDDQD to beat it being another type of exploratory map >:) I've looked at a lot of TimeOfDeath's unique brand of architecture while cheating my way through his levels, hee

GoatLord said:

Nothing's stopping you. Except creativity, I suppose. If you're feeling stuck, maybe watch a haunted house movie, or look at other games featuring haunted houses for inspiration? Blood has a really good haunted house level.

these encouragements are probably going to be enough to make me finish it. I just gotta find time. Wish me luck. I'll keep y'all posted.

a little of topic, but do you guys recommend drawing out a layout on paper before working on the map editor? i want to give my ideas a try, but think i have the blank page problem equivalent of mapping

I highly recommend drawing layouts on paper before transferring them to the editor.

raymoohawk said:

a little of topic, but do you guys recommend drawing out a layout on paper before working on the map editor? i want to give my ideas a try, but think i have the blank page problem equivalent of mapping

It's the preferred method among the greats. I prefer making it up as I go. Think of a theme, and I go for it. Speedmapping can help you develop this unstructured way of mapping, but I'm pretty sure some speedmappers do sketch a layout too. Drawing has the benefit of having an overall visualization of what you're doing. I guess you can think of it as jamming out a new song vs meticulously arranging and composing one.

SYS said:

I prefer making it up as I go. Think of a theme, and I go for it.

That's exactly how I do it. Sometimes, all I have is an idea/theme for the starting area, but that's usually enough to take me through the entire map. Planning it out on paper may be a better idea, but I can never find a bloody pencil when I need one!

@raymoohawk: I like getting a layout roughed out first (though I don't always), because it means having a better idea where the map is going, being able to more easily incorporate large-scale transformations, and having less likelihood of wasted effort on polishing areas that end up being completely changed or scrapped later.

I almost never use paper for it, though. I'm more comfortable putting layouts together in Doom Builder, where it's easier to change things around and to get a feel for how the scale and connections are working.

Yeah it can be done, some will hate it, others will like it...so just do it, when it comes to creativity you might as well give it a go for fun if for nothing else.

I had an idea for a similar sort of thing, but lame texturing skills and a surprisingly difficult time in finding any sort of appropriate textures (With permission of course) to use, it hasn't even begun yet. It doesn't follow any horror themes but does take a surreal route.

But yeah, have a go at it. Not all maps can be for everybody, so forget the naysayers and do it.

Yes, a kid I know absolutely loved exploring E1 maps with no monsters. Searching for helmets and water bottles was very exciting indeed. We also walked some stairs, opened doors, pressed switches and operated lifts. Exploration works, but for a veteran doomer it needs to be something very special.

ive actually done that too! explore levels withouth monsters in them XD

A Fallout: Doom Edition would be pretty damn interesting.