Gangrel Levels

I've made four levels that are short and simplistic, inspired by the style of Quake, created on my spare time. When I'm not busy I'd like to make more (and better) maps to accompany these. There's also a fifth level I through in that I made for the Consumed Earth project.
These are all limit removing levels, and difficulty levels are implemented (with the exception of map 05 as it doesn't have HNTR or ITYTD).





Link v.1:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/gkyyfyp10pjq6pb/aya1.wad

Very good stuff! Just curious, about how many hours did it take to make these? And have you made many maps before these?

Simplistic is not how I'd describe them. 3 and 4 were especially complex.

Lot of fun, I will say 5 is my least favorite. I enjoyed how these felt different from the norm in that they had smaller areas and didn't throw countless enemies at you. Then level 5 kind of does that. Plus I died about a zillion times when that Archvile and all the Revanents etc attacked me in the thin hallway. Would've liked maybe a bit more health there, and a bit more firepower.

Those 80 cells I had ran out long before I got to the Archvile, and I only had found one rocket recently. I ran back to the street to fight them, since the hallway was brutal, so he resurrected a lot of enemies. Played on HMP for the record.

Still, really good stuff, and the first four levels were especially up my alley.

PsychoGoatee said:

Very good stuff! Just curious, about how many hours did it take to make these? And have you made many maps before these?

Simplistic is not how I'd describe them. 3 and 4 were especially complex.

Lot of fun, I will say 5 is my least favorite. I enjoyed how these felt different from the norm in that they had smaller areas and didn't throw countless enemies at you. Then level 5 kind of does that. Plus I died about a zillion times when that Archvile and all the Revanents etc attacked me in the thin hallway. Would've liked maybe a bit more health there, and a bit more firepower.

Those 80 cells I had ran out long before I got to the Archvile, and I only had found one rocket recently. I ran back to the street to fight them, since the hallway was brutal, so he resurrected a lot of enemies. Played on HMP for the record.

Still, really good stuff, and the first four levels were especially up my alley.

I'm glad you like them! Well at least the first four any way. I sorta kept track on my time for making each level, it looks somthing like this:

-Map 01 Three days
-Map 02 Five Days
-Map 03 Three Days
-Map 04 Seven Days
-Map 05 Seven or so Days

So 18 hours plus the seven for map 05 in all.

Map 05 is actually the first level I made on Doomworld about four months ago so I was a bit inexperienced in map making and my style changed a bit. The rest were made recently.

And no. The only other maps I released was circuitry, but those maps were nothing like this and just flat out terrible. I'd like to make a 20 level wad from this, the second to fourth level were suppose to be a part of that, but I decide to be more "episodic" I guess.

There's also one level I'm missing that's suppose to be a part of this, but it's on a different computer I'm away from.

Impressive stuff there, I just started messing around in mapster for Duke3D, and it could take me an hour just to properly figure out how to make one effect I hadn't tried before work properly, etc.

I look forward to more to come!

I really enjoyed maps1-4, felt very bleak, yet ominous/threatening. Felt very ultimate-doomy (and not just because of the music). A number of things I think it did well:

- shapes. I liked a lot of the slightly-quirky shapes, felt very "classic" overall. these stairs for example, I really liked for some reason :D
- I also liked some of the cutesy progressions, like the YK in map03 whose only purpose is to immediately get you the RK.
- sparse monster usage, yet still used aggressively enough to keep me on my toes
- I like the small-scale interconnections, quirky hallways or teleporters whose only function is to momentarily relocate you so that you can traverse a room another way or from another direction. cool stuff.
- nonchalant weapon/item placement. I like just encountering a key and moving on with my day sometimes. Felt like a good approach here throughout. This contrasted well with some of the abrupt trap setups.
- I liked the way a lot of the secrets were done. Either there were some occasional baddies or new visuals, or the way into the secret felt rewarding.

map 3 was definitely my favorite, then 1, 2. didn't care as much for 4/5 (5 seemed like it didn't belong in the set at all tbh, but I guess you already mentioned that in the OP). I think this style worked better for me on a smaller scale. when the layouts started getting larger and more complicated it came across to me as less charming, slightly sloppier (because for longer stuff linearity becomes more noticeable, non-threatening mob placement becomes more tedious). A few general things I think could be improved:
- a lot of areas are like.. really dark. ended up going up to max gamma at one point during map02 I think.
- there are plenty of setups that punish playing aggressively (like the 2 rev room in map04 where if you run in the wall closes behind you, but they're also very visible from the getgo to just snipe from outside the room.
- most all the combat was a ssg-fest. Not really a complaint, as I love the weapon, and it's well-suited for sparse high-tier mobs. but maybe more prominent RL/zerk gameplay would be a nice mix-up.

anyways, cool little maps! easy, but maps1-3 in particular had a solid atmosphere.

MAP01 was absolutely brilliant! Loved the claustrophobic feeling, track choice and texturing. The overall design with its pain floors compelling you forward, hidden enemies and weapons caches, and interesting layout was very fun to play through. And as someone who loves to explore and 100% all this was a real treat, I nearly breezed through missing half the map before doubling back and finding hidden side paths and ingenious use of teleporters to feed back in to the main line.

I'll try to play through the rest for more feedback but that was really a great introduction. You captured Quake's gothic brutality well I felt.

@Ribbiks and vadrig4r
Thanks for the feedback!

Ribbiks, map three was my favorite and I didn't like map four much either. Map 4 I found to be the most difficult of the four to make because I had less creativity with it since I was following an already existing layout as a sort of easter egg. I did feel like I got a bit sloppy making it.

As for the darkness and the SSG centered gameplay, those were purposeful since these take place underground and are considered as "early maps" respectively, but I will make my future maps have different variety in gameplay and brighter lighting.

FDA for maps 01-04.

I really liked those maps - they look soooo oldschool. They're not very short / very long, not very difficult, but there were some dangerous moments. Texturing was a bit monotonous though.

Also, I've noticed some bugs / weird moments:

- Paper-thin walls on map02. PIC
- A bunch of missing textures on map04. PIC
- A weird teleporter in map04. PIC I would've surrounded that GATE-texture square with something different

ClumsyDoomer said:

Also, I've noticed some bugs / weird moments:

- Paper-thin walls on map02. PIC
- A bunch of missing textures on map04. PIC
- A weird teleporter in map04. PIC I would've surrounded that GATE-texture square with something different

)For the first one, those are actually supposed to be windows. I guess the bug is actually seeing a sky rather than nothing. It was meant to keep the monsters from that room from noticing you.

)Haven't noticed that. I'll check it out.

)That was purposeful, but also valid criticism.

There were a couple different bugs I noticed when playing, but no one seemed to notice. Or at least mention them.

nxGangrel said:

)For the first one, those are actually supposed to be windows. I guess the bug is actually seeing a sky rather than nothing. It was meant to keep the monsters from that room from noticing you.

Nevermind, I checked that in the editor. It looks okay with a software renderer. You can just replace that sky flat on sectors 204, 205, 206 with something else and it will look fine.

Small Update!

- Added a "missing level". The level takes map01.
- Fixed the sky/window bug in map02 (now map03).
- Added a new Intro and Intermission screen.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/2il277mpzjy8ng0/aya1v.1.wad

I'd like to turn these into a megawad and I am currently working on more levels, though when I finish it and whether or not I release more levels in an "episodic" fashion depends. But I am very determined to do more! :)

I loved these.

If you "added a missing level", shouldn't there be six maps in the wad now? One seems to have been deleted.

EffinghamHuffnagel said:

If you "added a missing level", shouldn't there be six maps in the wad now? One seems to have been deleted.

I took out the level from Consumed Earth because it didn't belong here and I used it as "filler".

Hoodie said:

I loved these.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

Just played through maps 1 - 5 and enjoyed them. The first three maps are brown, brown, and more brown - But the clever layouts and subtle design choices really brought me back to some of those classic 1995 WADs. I love when you press a switch and the floor right under you starts lowering, and I love coming back through the same area but seeing new open doors/raised bridges and stuff, it really gives me a sense that I'm going somewherre and getting something done, which is one of my main driving forces while playing SP.

My only real recommendation would be more texture variation, but map04 and map05 looked fine, so I guess it was a deliberate choice for the first 3. Hell, I kinda like it anyway, gives that "gloomy old dungeon" vibe.

On map04, there's trap with revenants, but I (accidentally) stepped backwards out of it as it closed and didn't seem to be able to progress. That was the only little bug I found throughout though!

Keep it up and keep improving, certainly looking forward to more.

Thanks @Doomkid!

A lot of the problems mentioned (by different people) like the lighting and texturing will be fixed in future levels. A lot of the things I did were purposeful but I think I talked about them enough. I'll be working on one final level then the first set will be finished. All these levels actually have names but I haven't implemented them yet.

(if you're wondering what they are here's the list:)