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Tormentor667

[Realm667 Contest] Doomjá-vu - Deadline 31st of March!

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Years ago Newdoom.com held a "Map in a week" contest. People had one week to build a complete map from scratch. To ensure that every contestant actually started when the contest began, Newdoom.com provided a base map with a few rooms which had to be part of the final map. Now, what about doing a whole project with several small maps that are based on the same layout but all of them looking totally different as every single map is finished by a different author?



The contest will run from January 15th till March 31st so you have about 2,5 months to plan, create and submit your entry which should be fairly enough for a good and solid map.



The map layout can be downloaded from this Dropbox link (important, updated on January 17th, please redownload). It's a ZIP file containing three wads, which is always the same layout but saved in different editing formats (UDMF-, Hexen- and Doomformat)




We set up a certain amount of important rules. These will ensure that the results can be compared to each other and that everyone has the same chances of winning. The list is not a set of guides but it's actually the law to take part here. Submissions breaking the rules won't be consideded. If you aren't clear about some points, feel free to ask us. Other than that, here we go:

  • You may change any sector/line property (height, light, boundaries, shape, vertice position, linedef length/split, map size)²
  • You may cut about 30% of the provided layout of necessary
  • You may add custom textures/flats
  • You may add custom actors (props, monsters, weapons)³
  • You may add custom sounds (ambience, sequences)
  • You may add custom music (midi, ogg)
  • You may add custom graphics (w/o overwriting original ones)
  • You may add additional rooms/space to your map's layout
  • You may add scripts to your map (acs, dialogue)
  • Your map must be vanilla-, boom-, zdoom- or gzdoom-compatible
  • Your map must work with DOOM2.WAD (but it doesn't have to be only Doom-styled)
²as long as the (auto)map layout roughly stays close to the original base
³don't go overboard, we don't need another Brutal Doom




To raise the interest and motivation to participate in this project, we didn't spare any effort and prepared some awesomely amazing prizes for the 5 winners, but take a look at them on your own:
  • 1st place - Spikey, the plush imp (it's unique!)
  • 2nd place - An amazing canvas print² of the Doom 2 box art plus an awesome² Doom poster (signed by id software)
  • 3rd place - An amazing canvas print of the Doom 2 box art
  • 4th place - An awesome Doom poster (signed with id software members)
  • 5th place - An awesome Doom poster (signed with id software members)
²both the poster and the canvas print will be created in a high resolution and quality in a large printing manufactur in Germany for best quality



Any submission must be posted to the Realm667 contest forum which can be found here. There is no need to sign up to this contest, it's enough to submit the results. You can upload them to any host or attach them to your post, anything is possible as long as we are able to download the submission and it's posted before the end of the day on March 15th (we will take your timezone into account, don't worry).



Esselfortium already put it into a nutshell some years ago when the idea was developed the first time:

"I'm pretty sure the point is for each person to make something creative and interesting out of the layout, not for Torm to ask a bunch of people to detail the same map 10 times in slightly different ways."

Out of all submissions, the Realm667 stuff will choose a Top 5. We will not only consider the level of detail put into the layout but also the level of creativity involved by staying to the set of rules we've prepared. After the Top 5 has been chosen, the community decides, which one's the winner through a public poll that everyone can participate.

We are looking forward to your submissions,
Cheers, good luck and best regards,
Tormentor667 and the Realm667 Team

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So, the base layout is the winner of the "Greatest Doom E1 map" poll, flipped and rotated?

I've already worked with that map during the making of Switcheroom. :P

EDIT: I still think that this was an unfortunate choice of a base layout. So does this mean that the resulting maps will never be allowed on /idgames, since they're going to be directly based on idSoftware's layout?

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scifista42 said:

So, the base layout is the winner of the "Greatest Doom E1 map" poll, flipped and rotated?

Memfis said:

it's just doom.wad e1m7, how lame is that :((

...and simplified, but yes, that's right and that was exactly the intention of this poll and contest :) It's something everyone is aware of, so the creative part of it is to turn this into your own baby.

Solarn said:

Tormentor, are you even capable of doing anything original or creative?

No sorry, I can only copy & paste, you should already know that.

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Hoo boy, this probably won't end well.

Tormentor, hear me out here for a sec: for the most part I enjoy your projects, but I'm not quite sure what you're going for here. Are you hoping for a compilation of e1m7 clones? Because that's kind of what you're inviting, and that won't at all be conducive to a clever and varied compilation of maps. You yourself said that Newdoom;s "Map in a week" contests only provided a few rooms to work with, so the idea providing an entire map clearly isn't the way to go.

Instead of providing e1m7 itself as the base for mappers to work with, I would suggest creating something yourself in a similar vein as the original map, and posting that as the template instead. People voted for e1m7 in that thread you made on ZDoom, so you could still use basic facets from the original map in your new template, but really needs to be much less substantial and "complete", so that mappers can interpret it in a number of ways, and allow their own creativity to flourish with a basic launch pad instead of trying to work their ingenuity around an almost-complete layout.

Also, a minor gripe, but I should point out that your Doom format template currently has a flat used for all the textures, which isn't supported in Doom format and hence makes the textures all show as ?s in Doom Builder. You might want to replace it with STONE or something.

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I, for one, am excited to participate in this project, though I absolutely agree with everything Jimmy's said.

Making basic layouts is not too hard to do. All that's needed is for the map to vaguely resemble a beginning layout, almost like tracing basic shapes of a drawing. The rest can be left up to the authors to work with. I like idea behind the project, too, so I hope you keep going with it! :D

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Tormentor667 makes another post.

Tormentor667 gets flamed again.

Me wonders if Tormentor667 is giving off some kind of negative pheromones or something, because I can't see what the problem is.

I'd join the project if I didn't feel like screaming and urinating every time I open Doom Builder... working on six maps at once will do that you.

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MajorRawne said:

Tormentor667 gets flamed again.

Nope, it's just the choice of entire E1M7 as the base layout for a mapping contest that seems to be uncomfortable with people, including myself. Other than that, the idea of the contest sounds pretty good to me.

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Yeah, I like this contest idea, and I can see the rationale behind picking a popular map as the basis, but I'd prefer something simpler, as well. Even just using, say, the starting area of E1M7 as a base, would be more conducive to creativity.

For what is supposed to be merely the base, this already feels overwrought, especially with how tight E1M7's layout actually is. I just spent 20 minutes fiddling around with it in Doom Builder, and it seems like I'll have to delete more than half of the current layout if I want room to do anything interesting here.

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I really like this concept. I've long had the same distaste that some do now, to the totally random guidelines of earlier endavours, like only 1 monster, or only 3 textures, or only 48 unit tall sectors, and so on with totally random obscurity.

Count me in. I've already found some texture packs from the very same Realm667 site, and I have a futuristic theme in mind (still tech-base), with a certain music track from MM2, and all new weapons and enemies. The prizes sound great and it would be sweet to score one of them, but I'm skeptical as I don't intend to put a whole lot of effort into manipulating the layout, but I'm at least aiming for a drastically different experience than the original E1M7.

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Is there any chance of not making this e1m7 based? Everything about the project seems excellent, other than the elephant in the room. I really hope a much, much simpler base layout is given, that would make this very fun. :)

EDIT: Are we allowed to cut it down to like, 2 rooms and a hallway from e1m7? If so, then I can definitely get on board.

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Tormentor667 said:

You may change any sector/line property (height, light, boundaries, shape)

I'm assuming that means it's allowed to move vertices around.

Is it allowed to split the original linedefs? Or remove some of the original vertices/lines/sectors?

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The basic idea (and prizes) make this seem neat, but this needs a different base map. Authors need something they can actually work with and build around, instead of having an entire (already-existing, heh) map as a forced start.

I won't be participating unless something's done about it.

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So, yeah, I trimmed away a bunch of the layout, to get what I think is a much less constraining base for reinterpretation:


VS:


There are still plenty of recognizable elements of E1M7, but some rooms (including all the tiny alcoves) are removed, some geometry is simplified, etc. I think it makes this sort of project much more interesting if there is some void space to potentially be used, so that each designer is encouraged to connectify(!) the map in different ways.

Wad link.

If working from a base such as this is okay, I'm much more interested in contributing.


Edit: If it's permissible to restrict E1M7 idolatry to one main area, this even simpler base could be fun to build around:

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First of all thanks for the constructive feedback to everyone. We discussed that contest in the Realm667 staff, so this is not just a "Tormentor667" project. (@MajorRawne - Maybe someone else should have started the thread :P)

@Jimmy - Thanks for that post, this is definitely helpful :) I've worked on the layout for another time, simplified it, fixed it (flat/texture) and also took in account what Mithran Denizen suggested. The complexitiy has been reduced, the sector heights have been all set to floor 0 and ceiling 128.

@Da Werecat - Exactly, vertices are allowed to be moved, sector heights, floor and ceiling levels, line lengths, everything can be altered and changed, it's just that the rough layout needs to be recognizable anything else isn't fun working on or playing later. Cutting down about 20% of the layout is fine as well, I will add this to the rule-set.

Something general about the map and contest
Using the E1M7-layout from the start was a bit too much I guess, so reducing the sectors and simplifying them even more might help a lot. Though, this contest is not the same as NewDoom's! The creative part is not about adding a map to a few existing rooms but turning an "automap layout" into your own creation.

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I would have to agree with Mithran's modifications as a starting point. If I have the time and if that is used as the beginning point, then I may contribute.

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Springy said:

I would have to agree with Mithran's modifications as a starting point. If I have the time and if that is used as the beginning point, then I may contribute.

Considering that you can cut 30% of the existing layout, you are close to Mithran's modifications which might be enough freedom :) I hope you can work with that.

@Archi - No

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The new simplified layout is a big improvement, thanks for the rapid update, Tormentor! Leveling out the sectors was certainly a good idea. It's still a little tight for my comfort, but if I can judiciously hack away 20-30% of the existing structure, I think I can have fun playing around here.

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Out of creative curiousity, I have a question regarding this point in the guidelines:

You may change any sector/line property (height, light, boundaries, shape, vertice position, linedef length/split, map size)

Is it within the spirit of the rules to scale / resize the map entirely, or in part? As in, stretching the layout so that it's at 200% scale, for example?

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Mithran Denizen said:
Is it within the spirit of the rules to scale / resize the map entirely, or in part? As in, stretching the layout so that it's at 200% scale, for example? [/B]

That's absolutely fine :)

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Personally I would have preferred the layout to be more abstract . Without stairs and such. leaving that more to the designers to plot out. But regardless, it might invite for some interesting analysis of the different approaches. However the fact that it is a famous design it is taken from, that is likely to have some impact on how much the submissions will deviate from eachother (and the original).

That said, Tormentor. There's a truckload of junk data in those WADs posted. Basically a lot of extra maps lumps without level header lumps to them.

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Tormentor667 said:

By the way, here are photos of some of the prizes

Where did that canvas print come from? I'd buy that up in a heartbeat. (A hint for someone with the skills to make such a thing...)

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