Halloween themed megawad project proposal

Hello everyone,

I'm quite new to the Doomworld forums, and as such I'm totally ignorant as to how these megawad projects work. I imagine the person that proposes the project is usually responsible for compiling the maps into a single wad, organizing playtests, etc. Since I'm completely inexperienced, I doubt I'd be able to do anything like that (unless it's easier than I anticipate). As a result, this is an idea that I'm hoping will become popular enough for a functional project to start up, rather than one I would be personally managing.

I love Halloween. It's by far my favorite holiday of the year, but unfortunately, I haven't found any decently sized Doom wads to complement the mood around Halloween that are actually good. I realize that since Halloween is coming up quite soon, creating a full 32-level megawad between now and then isn't going to happen. Perhaps 10 maps is a realistic goal? As a general outline for the theme, each map could be based on a favorite Halloween/Horror cliche. For instance, a graveyard/abandoned church, haunted mansion, asylum, mortuary, slaughterhouse, mad scientist's lab, catacombs, etc. Some kind of Lovecraftian, otherworldly level might even be possible if a mapper could get creative enough: http://dybiz.com/sites_randomblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/cthulhu_city_rlyeh.jpg http://dybiz.com/sites_randomblog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lovecraft_rlyeh.jpg . I also love the game BLOOD, so some of its levels could be a helpful inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT-lpU19lXM . I imagine only the normal Doom 2 enemies would be used for the sake of time, but all the enemies have frightening, ghoulish aesthetics so I think they'd ultimately fit the Halloween theme.

I hope some people out there like this idea and would be interested in mapping for a Halloween themed megawad. I wish I could provide some help in terms of mapping or organization, but I'm afraid my lack of experience would make me more of a hindrance than a help. Thanks for reading and please post your thoughts.

I like this idea.

I like the idea of a community project where the goal is to make scary maps. Whether "scary" means jumpy or tense would be up to the mappers.

Sadly, there does not seem to be a great deal of interest and I don't think I'll have time to make anything myself before Halloween between my other project commitments.

Maybe it should be something to remember for next year.

Your probably looking at least a year development for a community project so, right now would actually be a good time to start to have it released 2013.

I think it could be fun. Replacing some of the sounds with some scary ones that'll make ya jump could be fun.

How come the guy killed himself at the end of the video?

Pottus said:

Your probably looking at least a year development for a community project so, right now would actually be a good time to start to have it released 2013.

I see. Well perhaps the huge number of active projects is detracting from the likelihood of this materializing.

ZHalloween hasn't had much sucess and it has been on the table since 2004: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3664

Hellbent said:

How come the guy killed himself at the end of the video?

I think he pulled off one of those things that you could do with alot of older games, I think the classic Doom games can too.

Often times if you time it just right, you can kill yourself through various means while at the same time hitting the exit switch, often causing you to show up on the next level with a single point of health.