Can I get someone to give a go of my WAD?

I have just recently made a map to learn and add my skills to the test. this is what I came up with: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/amnesia2.zip

I would love to learn a lot more and eventually become more better at mapping for Doom. Please let me know what you think! :-)

I played and liked it. I liked your ventilation idea and the library. Stick with it and keep working on maps. Do more with less monsters, though.

Also be prepared for stern criticism around here, don't let it turn you away.

Thanks man! It really means a lot! I should probably do some less with monsters, I agree, and I will continue, probably make a megawad sometime. (someday, somehow)

It's a good first effort, no doubt about that.

But it also shows. I like that you've made your own music and that you took the time and effort to write a short story for the level. You also imported some new sounds, which is also refreshing.

Critisism? Well, I guess there are a lot of things we could go into, but here's some that areas that I feel you could concentrate a bit more on:

- Gameplay is a bit Wolfenstein'ish. All the monsters are just waiting to be gunned down in groups and pose little to no threat. Surprise the player :)
- Way too many items in general. Especially all those health bonuses in the beginning and all those decorative corpses. I know you're trying to build an atmoshpere in the map with all those items, but it's not always the best approach. Ligthing can also help build atmosphere (see below)
- There was a stairway with great ligthing. Try and adapt some of that into other parts of the level. This could be torch placed in a small sector that glows in a dark part of the level, like in that library part.

If you want me to elaborate on some of the points, then feel free to send me a PM (just to make sure I see it, sometimes I miss posts).

Chris Hansen said:

It's a good first effort, no doubt about that.

But it also shows. I like that you've made your own music and that you took the time and effort to write a short story for the level. You also imported some new sounds, which is also refreshing.

Critisism? Well, I guess there are a lot of things we could go into, but here's some that areas that I feel you could concentrate a bit more on:

- Gameplay is a bit Wolfenstein'ish. All the monsters are just waiting to be gunned down in groups and pose little to no threat. Surprise the player :)
- Way too many items in general. Especially all those health bonuses in the beginning and all those decorative corpses. I know you're trying to build an atmoshpere in the map with all those items, but it's not always the best approach. Ligthing can also help build atmosphere (see below)
- There was a stairway with great ligthing. Try and adapt some of that into other parts of the level. This could be torch placed in a small sector that glows in a dark part of the level, like in that library part.

If you want me to elaborate on some of the points, then feel free to send me a PM (just to make sure I see it, sometimes I miss posts).

Thanks for the compliments and constructive critisism, That's why I am showing this off, I enjoy getting hints from people. I feel it will help out in map editing. I am also in progress with a new WAD. I shall upload some footage of it soon.

This is my new WAD in progress.

Well, that was pretty poor.

While vents could have been a nice idea to interconnect different parts of the level they just don't work on a map like this. They do not look very good and are not convenient neither. Layout itself is cramped (quite a few 64px corridors), makes no sense whatsoever and vents only add to confusion. Detailing is almost none and is mostly presented by random decorations in meat storage or whatever that room is supposed to be. Monsters placement is very poor. They are placed in groups that are just waiting to be shot and they do not represent any threat except maybe archvile who I failed to kill with RL due to bad aim and respawning shotgun guys. Oh, and overabundance of different supplies does help with low difficutly. Quite a few technical mistakes like non-aligned or unpegged textures, some sectors that are not closed (like library) and I saw at least one HOM that was revealed by pushing some random panel which lead to a secret. In fact, you should have used Doombuilder error checking function that will tell you about those problems. By the way there is no way to identify secrets unless you're looking at automap or by sheer luck.

All of that does not mean that there's no potential. You have basic understanding on technical aspects of mapping and you have one or two nice ideas (like that library, it was kinda cool).

OK for a very first map, but don't make any more maps consisting primarily of narrow passageways, it's a boring style, which also shows off amateurishness. Give the player enough space to look around and dodge enemy attacks, free movement is comfortable, restricted movement is uncomfortable. Show him big rooms with real architecture, variaty of light and height levels within each room. Mix up various shapes, not just rectangular ones.

Keep in mind that doors look better if you 'dive' them at least 8 units into a wall, instead of being 'parallel' to the whole wall they are on. Also, make sure that all DOORTRAK sides of doors are flagged 'lower unpegged', some of them weren't and the side shifted upwards while the door was opening.

When you put secrets, make them findable by small hints, just don't force the player to hump every wall in the entire map, or trivially spot them on automap without any other kind of hint.

When you put monsters, think about the type of challenge they'll give to the player. Also, try to entertain him with combat for the entire time, including backtracking. Corridors (or vent shafts) without any enemies at all are boring (in fact, corridors are always boring, better focus on other forms of architecture). Rooms completely filled with shotgunguys are not actually hard to deal with, but it's a cheap and obviously inefficient placement, that's the real reason why you should avoid it. Place monsters to threaten the player efficiently, but give him an appropriate ammo/weaponry to deal with them quickly enough before the fight gets boring (for example, never place any random barons of hell). Your map wasn't hard at all, actually. Just rather tedious.

That's all I can think off right now. Keep making maps and improving! Taking inspiration from community-made wads can help you finding a direction. :)