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MrFlibble

Shaw's Nightmare source code released

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Thought that it could be of some interest to the community here that the author of Shaw's Nightmare recently released the source code of the game. It can be downloaded from the official site.

Shaw's Nightmare is a 2.5D FPS game very clearly inspired by Doom. It runs on the modified Build engine.

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huh, this seems awfully familar... I remember ages ago (probably sometime before 2010) someone coming to the zdoom forums (and maybe here also?) wanting to make a game for dos because games for dos are automatically better and they wanted to relive that era and stuff. I guess they finally did it...

and it looks like their artistic skills haven't increased any in that time, so...

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Too bad the source is incomplete... :(

The bad news: The source code for the Build engine used for this code has
been lost, so if you want to use another version of the engine other than
the one supplied, you will have to make some modifications of your own. See
ENGINE.MOD for details.

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MrFlibble said:

Shaw's Nightmare is a 2.5D FPS game very clearly inspired by Doom. It runs on the modified Build engine.

40oz said:

screenshot depicting the end result of using Doom as an inspiration.

Something went terribly wrong here.

PS can someone tell me what the HUD message is saying? The font is an eyesore to read. I think it has something to do with a body?

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Voros said:

PS can someone tell me what the HUD message is saying? The font is an eyesore to read. I think it has something to do with a body?

"You picked up a body repellent."

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For those interested, here's the original topic posted here by the author to advertise the game:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/everything-else/68668-new-build-engine-game/

I have followed the project for quite a while (having come across its author's posts in various forums I frequent). Its history is quite curious. The author started this at the age of 12 and apparently with almost no coding experience, but managed to recruit programmers and level designers through the (now defunct) forums at JonoF's website and other forums. He also contacted Ken Silverman to discuss licensing issues. After falling out with at least some of these collaborators, the author managed to release several prototypes and finally a complete game, which underwent several updates over the past two or three years.

I am in no way a fan of the art direction here but to be fair, the game is pretty stable and playable (in the sense that all controls work, you can progress from level to level etc.). At the same time there are lots of points of criticism for the game. However I find it not entirely implausible that someone might pick it up and perhaps improve or build something on top of it. The concept behind the game could work quite well for an old-school style game.

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Agentbromsnor said:

My question is: of all things, why did the creator use the Build engine to create this?

Based on the screenshot, the Doom engine would've been sufficient. Hell, probably could've done it in Wolf3D.

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It uses some Build features that Doom doesn't have, like sliding doors, breakable windows, and slopes. However, the controls are so terrible it's really frustrating to play. I almost managed a workable scheme when I remembered there are buttons on my mouse to let me increase the tracking resolution.

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Voros said:

PS can someone tell me what the HUD message is saying? The font is an eyesore to read. I think it has something to do with a body?


It says "You picked up a body repellent."

Btw, the game looks extremely naive, something like Ken's Labyrinth, I must say.

But at least is a one good achviement to be a game made out completely by scratch (expect a modified build engine)...

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MrFlibble said:

For those interested, here's the original topic posted here by the author to advertise the game:
https://www.doomworld.com/vb/everything-else/68668-new-build-engine-game/

I have followed the project for quite a while (having come across its author's posts in various forums I frequent). Its history is quite curious. The author started this at the age of 12 and apparently with almost no coding experience, but managed to recruit programmers and level designers through the (now defunct) forums at JonoF's website and other forums. He also contacted Ken Silverman to discuss licensing issues. After falling out with at least some of these collaborators, the author managed to release several prototypes and finally a complete game, which underwent several updates over the past two or three years.

I am in no way a fan of the art direction here but to be fair, the game is pretty stable and playable (in the sense that all controls work, you can progress from level to level etc.). At the same time there are lots of points of criticism for the game. However I find it not entirely implausible that someone might pick it up and perhaps improve or build something on top of it. The concept behind the game could work quite well for an old-school style game.


huh...i kinda wanna help him, i feel bad for the kid. he just tried to make a game, which is impressive in its own way, but he doesn't really have the sufficient resources to make it good.

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