#DooM Speedmapping Session 1

Hello there,

The #doom community over on irc.speedrunslive.com (composed mostly of speedrunners) held its first speedmapping session today. Some of the authors had never made a map before, while others have made a bunch of maps. There were 12 participants and the session lasted for 2 hours, with Boom being the target compatibility. The randomly selected themes were "cyberdemon" and "water & lava".

Feel free to try it out and post any thoughts. There are probably some bugs.

Download

MAP01: Trainsman in the Alfonzone by Kraflab

Big arena with plenty of cyberdemons, and plenty more imps. Made by a speedrunner and plays like a speedrun. To beat this map you have to Never Stop Moving, hitting switches scattered around the map until the exit is revealed.

The visuals are reserved, and much to it's benefit. The simple structures don't look particularly bad, which is all you can ask for from a speedmap.

The map is pretty frustrating without using saves, because it takes a while to hit the switches and you can often die because of bad luck with cyber rockets. Pretty fun with saves though, and very satisfying wiping out hordes of imps with the bfg.


MAP02: Peekaboo by Altazimuth

I'm not sure what the exact goal of this map was, but it seems you have to avoid being hit by the cybers and press a series of switches. Eventually this teleports you to the exit switch. Not much else to say, passes too quickly to really cast any impact.

The texturing was mostly still left as startan, with the time being spent purely on function it seems.

MAP03: DimewreckSquared.wad by Dime

This is pretty intense and packed with enemies. The Yellow Key room with the two cyberdemons is definitely the meat of the map, being initially impenetrable from the sheer numbers of Shotgunners. The choice of monsters in this room makes for a really intense and interesting battle. The teleporters however would basically as a deathtrap though, as you often teleport onto a cyber's rocket.

The texturing was mostly default, which didn't detriment the map at all, but can probably be explained by Dime's lack of knowledge of Doom Builder 2. The stream audience tried to help out by pointing this fact out as many times as they could.

The rest of the map is a cakewalk compared to that room, which is probably a good thing for how much that first one wears you down.


MAP04: Don't Stop Or We'll Die by dingdang

This map has you running past many cyberdemons to reach the exit, which surprisingly is a Romero head. At no point do you need to fight any of the cyberdemons, though you are given a BFG at the start.

You travel through various different styles of areas, all with very wonky geometry and consistent one-colour texturing.

The map passes by rather quickly.


MAP05: Hope You're Good on Tight Spaces with Cybers! by 4shockblast

I'm not.

This map unfortunately incorporates a countless number of very tedious tropes in level design. Precise platforming, cheesing archviles, not leaving out the eponymous tight spaces with cybers. I didn't enjoy this map.


MAP06: Stupid Cybertemple Thing by DrJordo

This map is very short, and mostly a thin corridor filled with hitscanners. The only challenge provided was the Blue Key room, where a short amount planning is required to grab the key and exit again. The cyberdemon at the start provides no real threat other than "be aware of it".

It seems time was probably spent making the river in the corridor room, rather than fleshing out the level, which is a trap I see a lot of new speed mappers falling into.


MAP07: Please Fight The Monsters by Connor "eLim" O'Leary

Ironically, the quickest way to beat the map is to ignore the monsters.


MAP08: Cyber Crackle3 by Ezormer

This map opens with a very impressive looking opening shot, and doesn't disappoint throughout the map visually. Incredible work considering the time limitation.

The gameplay doesn't suffer either, with plenty of interesting and difficult encounters throughout.

There's not much else to say, it's a very competent map by any standard, and amazing for a speedmap! If you only play one level in this wad, make it this one.


MAP09: The Circle of Cyber Featuring Circle Cyber Center by JMickle

I made this one!


MAP10: Nespithe by paymentplan

Set in a lovely looking canyon, a big open space with two high corridors. You have you grab keys and hit switches in different parts of the map, with more enemies appearing as you go. Unfortunately any meaningful gameplay is hindered by the BFG you are given at the start, and the space to run past most enemies.


MAP11: the flooded base by nub_hat

Eclectic texturing, and strange set ups for encounters, but a not un-enjoyable romp throughout. Again, being given a BFG so early on trivialized a lot of the battles, but I found that I burned through the ammunition quickly enough that it didn't spoil the entire map.

The exit is unreachable.


MAP12: Unfinished Business by AdamaK

Another very good looking map, and another map that is surprisingly good for a speedmap.

As far as visuals, it seems that the approach of "I know Bronze looks good, I'll use bronze." was taken, with almost every surface using bronze or a texture that supports it (by being brown also). However this is pulled off well, mostly aided by the architecture of the level.

Gameplay is rather intense and definitely not balanced, but every entertaining. The layout of the level is quite open, the first room so much so that it feels as if the entire map was created before the player start was put anywhere. It's pretty refreshing to turn around and find yourself with a new path from the starting area.

sorry about my broken ass map heres a patch wad if you really want otherwise just skip it
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0pil6d7aes3iw03/srlspeedmap-nubhat_FIX.wad

Just have to note that in map 12, I forgot to make a few linedefs impassable! Just throwing in a version which fixes that (but leaves everything else unaltered).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5mc3p73zeogwnc/UnfinishedBusiness.wad?dl=0