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40oz

The pressure of time makes for a better map

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Maps and projects that stagnate tend to remain in limbo because there is little to no pressure to complete them. In the community, a doomer may make a remark saying "Hey how's that project you were doing coming along" and that might remind you that there are people who are interested and remind you to work on it. However, like most goals in real life, an actual deadline narrows your scope of when you will allocate your free time to work on it. The pressure of not getting your map(s) done within that time puts you in a position to really concentrate on mapping during your time alotted to make it, much better than when you remind yourself that you have the rest of your lifetime to work on it.

Scythe 2, Plutonia Experiment, Khorus' Speedy Shit, and Countdown to Extinction, are megawads where the mappers had, or gave themselves a very limited time to work on each map, so they used their time as efficiently as possible, and these wads are arguably very strong, durable, and well-done megawads, particularly compared to some wads that have taken years to develop.

Sometimes megawads that have extremely long development times have less to show, or are of mixed quality than wads that were made on a timely routine schedule. Sometimes this is because of loss of inspiration, or that inspiration came in varying volumes. Though not always concrete, this can be noticed during gameplay. This may also be because the mappers' skills waned during long periods of mapper's block.

I don't mean to imply that everyone should speedmap. Speedmapping is often criticized for being untested, sloppily put together, and buggy. This is mostly because 100 minutes (usually) is a rather unhealthy amount of time to create something really remarkable. However, I'd say that perhaps 1-2 hours a day for 2-4 days is ideal time for a map. The two hours shouldn't be set on a timer. When your time descreases, the pressure rises, making you crack when down to a few minutes left. Just estimate two hours and put your map in a position where you can come back to the map later and remember where you left off. That is plenty time to make serious progress in layout planning, texture alignment, and a bit of detailing, while following days can be used for more minute detailing, error checking, lighting, thing placement, and playtesting. The breaks in days gives you time to think about what you want to do with your map, instead of pouring all your attention into it at once, giving you a chance to think and evaluate ideas to try.

Wads and megawads that take years to develop are an unrealistic time frame for Doom mapping. Doom mapping is very fast and easy and simplistic that I highly doubt any serious project will really need even half that time to complete, and even when completed will likely fall short of wads that followed a more routine schedule.

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regards the title, its a known phenomenon across most artforms. i've noticed it with game development, music writing, pixel art, and heard it from pretty much every artist/musician/game developer i know. It only stands to reason that it is true for mapping also.

It's a very interesting thing though, and can definitely be exploited.

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Hmm, I think there is a truth to this but I don't think it is the whole truth. I think it's more a case of maps with a focused and efficient author are superior to maps with an unattentive and easily distracted author.

The length of time is a by-product but there are examples quickly made bad maps and good maps with long development cycles to counter the ones given to support your argument. If a map is bad and took a notable time to make or is good and was made within a tight timescale it is naturally more notable than bad maps made in a short time or good maps made over a long period of time.

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I suspect there's some truth in this. I've never set any deadlines at the outset of any modding/mapping project I've ever pursued, which would explain the spotty development times they usually have. There was one Commander Keen mod I dug up after a few years of inactivity, and set a deadline of a couple months to finish it, though very late in development it led to a "fuck it I just want this done" attitude that I think compromised the quality of parts of the mod. At the same time I don't know if it ever would've been done otherwise. I tend to go through cycles of putting intense love and focus into a project, followed by periods where real life or other projects draw my attention away. My time management skills have always been minimal, though, and announcing deadlines might motivate me to work a little harder to balance the project with IRL stuff.

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Setting deadlines for any project tends to bring out better products in general (at least not with the games industry!). In the set building industry I'm in, it generates a lot of fun interesting products.

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Deadlines probably could help you focus more, but I have never used them.

Although it isn't a Doom map, I am currently working on a little game of my own, I have set no deadline for it. By a small game, I mean a small game...however for the last 2 or 3 weeks I have spent several hours each day on it, making sure things work, giving it out for people to test and it's going quite nicely....

I'm not sure I'll ever set a dealine for my Doom maps, I'll work new bits in when I see fit...I'm no serious Doom mapper and I don't intend to be, but a mapper enough to care to at least try making something people could enjoy....I'm soon gonna put a new download for my maps. I'm not going to let it take me over or anything, I want it to stay fun.

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40oz said:

The pressure of time makes for a better map

The pressure of not getting your map(s) done within that time puts you in a position to really concentrate on mapping during your time alotted to make it, much better than when you remind yourself that you have the rest of your lifetime to work on it.

This only works for some people, who can handle to do so. I, for example, can't stand time pressure very well. I feel uncomfortable. And then, my speed-works are usually nothing worthy, I mean even less so than when I take my time. Unless I have a great idea already prepared or it's half-thought-out and intuitive enough to be finished on the go, but that rarely happens in my case. I admit that I'm not so good creator, that might be it.

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scifista42 said:

This only works for some people, who can handle to do so.


Precisely. I like to map at my own pace, in a relaxed environment. It is a hobby after all. Applying time limits to my mapping sessions would just put undue pressure on me and my output would suffer as a result.

Having said that, I do employ some of 40oz's speed-mapping disciplines. Although I don't use a time limit, I do try and force myself to work on a map everyday (if I have the free time), and I usually won't stop until I've made some progress, even if it's only a little.

So for me, motivation is the most important factor when making a Doom map, and time management plays a big part in that.

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Dave The Daring said:

Although I don't use a time limit, I do try and force myself to work on a map everyday (if I have the free time), and I usually won't stop until I've made some progress, even if it's only a little.


This is what I need to learn. Once I get into the flow of mapping, it's really hard to get myself to stop and do other things I need to do and I can easily keep going until long after I should have gone to bed. :P I guess I need to realize that "getting faster/more efficient at mapping" and "balancing time between mapping and other stuff" are not at all mutually exclusive.

I find that following the activity of the community and playing other people's maps helps my own motivation a lot, too. I see all the clever awesome stuff that the community's best mappers produce (this could tie into that reference thread too), and both sets a higher standard for the creativity of my own work, and also makes me more itchy to get that work done and released sooner. That motivation definitely feels a lot less arbitrary to me than a self-imposed deadline, though of course it only lasts as long as other stuff doesn't keep me from here.

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How you see this phenomena depends on your mapping style.

With mine, the first 80% gets done in one heavy session. But that is a barely usable result. Several more sessions to fix the major problems will be needed, and then another session several months later to add the details. The total time spent will be 250% of what you think it was.

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