I... need... inspiration...

Well, it all happened today, when I sat down, pulled out my good'ol pencil and paper, and began to draw the outline of my new level. Well, I realized it didn't look good... so I crumpled up the paper and threw it. About an HOUR later, I had a whole freggin' pile of papers. Great. Grand. Wonderful. I'm supposed to be doing map projects with people and now I'm going out of my mind- I NEED LEVEL INSPIRATION! There has to be a soul out there that can give me ideas for design or archetecture! Apparently I can't do it alone, because right now I'M BASHING MY HEAD AGAINST MY TABLE LIKE A RETARD! Anybody? Please? Doomworld forums... my last effort...

Sometimes I have to take a day off and just play for a day to get re-inspired. Sometimes I see things on TV or in Books or mags that I like the structure of.

Play lots of new Pwads for ideas if you run out. Don't give up. There are thousands of possible ideas that have not been done yet.

Try this

I get that all the time. It's tough to get new ideas especially with the billions of wads that are out there. I usually just get in there and play some good old Doom and the blood gets boiling. There are some great wads out there and I find that I get inspired just by playing them. I see something and say "Hey, good stuff!, but I can make it better and so on and so forth. Usually just some hardcore smack down of some beasties is all I need.


Cadman - Member TeamTNT

Try designing an underground temple, or a cathedral with a wide open field, where you must battle from the start of said field to the catherdral itself.

I prefer to write out the entire level in a very abstract guide-form rather than describing every single room, like:

At the start, hit the switch to the right and grab the chaingun. Clean out the chambers at the sides before you advance down the main hall. Instead of grabbing the red key immediately, it might be a clever idea take the path to the left and activate the hidden trigger by the torches to reveal the rocket launcher - this will help you when hell breaks loose in the main room. Once you're done with this area, you can enter the courtyard...

I merged Maonoths idea with a little bit from DooMBoy- THANKS YOUS GUYS SO MUCH! :-) I was so overjoyed, I posted these screens:

angelfire.com/ga4/blackvoid/doom08.jpg

angelfire.com/ga4/blackvoid/doom09.jpg

That opening field and a polyobject door! See what the inspiration does? Now I'm getting back to editing, again, thanks guys!

*NOTE: If the links above don't work correctly, than just copy and paste.*

i'm fighting off minor mappers block with my level for community chest. it helps me greatly when i have multiple levels under construction at the same time, then one map gets stale i can swtich to another one and freshen up. I used to draw all my maps on huge spawling pieces of graph paper, and that was nice, but lately i've just been plunking rooms in the editor. Back in the old days, all my levels that weren't drawn out first ended up going nowhere, but that's not the case anymore.

lately much of my inspiration has been coming from doomworld, since i know no one in real life who plays Doom.

Right now I am trying to work on level one of Games Demons Play (GDP), basically it looks like the inside of some giant worm thing, complete with bone arches and "meat" walls. A dark and moody atmosphere, although i cannot get any farther than the blue door.
My website will then be updated as my project moves up the proverbial ladder to accomplishment. (The way it looks, it's like asking a Leper victim to climb a mountain.)*



*(Oh screwit, ill put up the story for it now)

Hey, I got inspired too! :) After doing some thinking, I started on my
newest level (not titled as of yet, but will have a castle sort of
feel to it).

http://www.kwic.com/~junior/doomscr1.gif
http://www.kwic.com/~junior/doomscr2.gif

Volteface- nice! Mine is much more completed now! Several polys, several bookcases, several staircases... :-)

I still think though, that you do a better job than I...

I usually do themed maps, cos a good theme is always a good place to start. Inspiration from other games, wads, tv, films etc. is handy, too. (you wouldn't believe the number of sources I got inspiration from when I did Fragport...)

Unthemed maps are always harder IMO, as they're based on shapes (ie. 2d drawings of maps) rather than themes, but that's where playing tons of pwads comes in. Still, I managed to do 2 maps for Community Chest this way.

It's best to draw the basic shape of the wad (rooms, corridors etc. but not in detail) then make up the finer points as you go along.

That's basically how I make most of my maps. First I make the basic structure of the room (walls, pillars, etc.). Then I start putting in a few accessories, like windows or stairs. Then I start adding decorations, like torches or whatever. Finally, I add the items and enemies.

Cave maps are a bit easier to make, since you really don't need to add quite so much details or things, but they generally don't leave that much to the imagination for that reason.

I basically just see it in my head, then I put it in right then and there.

[edit] unfortunately lately my brain is fried cuz of school.

Does this help?

Good visuals VolteFace, Black Void, Have you tried attending to structure more?

For instance think about some less cubic rooms and more variety for floor and ceiling heights, windows that connect really dark places to light places and the nearly lit sector in the dark place because of the window.

Flickering lights of candles. wierd structures like cubism skoll?

high mountain platforms lightened with some torches that can be seen from below that is reachable by narrow catwalk? Hellish places with lots of fire walls and lava and tortured dudes?...

Sphagne said:

Good visuals VolteFace, Black Void, Have you tried attending to structure more?

For instance think about some less cubic rooms and more variety for floor and ceiling heights, windows that connect really dark places to light places and the nearly lit sector in the dark place because of the window.

Flickering lights of candles. wierd structures like cubism skoll?

high mountain platforms lightened with some torches that can be seen from below that is reachable by narrow catwalk? Hellish places with lots of fire walls and lava and tortured dudes?...

My level has much progressed since those screens so just wait till' the final. Point is, I got what I wanted- good'ol fashioned inspiration :-)

Creating wads which don't have the "played it before" feel is an issue of personal style rather than brainstorming for hours on end. You might have "hardcore blast'em" levels and "take it slow because-of-the-traps" type levels in mind, just create these levels using your own personal style. That way the levels won't get old. Add your own style to the gameplay and architecture. Theme the maps, create a personal 'feel'.

When I am inspired to make a new enemy or weapon, I whip out the ol' pencil and paper and start drawing. 70% of the time, I'll actually use the idea I draw on paper.