Regrettable things you did in your own older projects

So, you made a wad, a project, a map, a mod in the past & you published it.

Looking back, you highly regret the decisions you implemented into your mapping/modding process that you have learned from & now, your maps/mods look so much better & neat.

What are those regrettable things? It can be anything.

- A crappy trap

- Bland map

- Too many misalignments in textures

- Not using certain texture pack

- Too few monsters put into

- Unbalanced things in your mod

- Scrapped concepts you wish you didn't scrap them in the first place...

etc., etc., etc.

using UDMF at first was a horrible mistake, i made lots of shitty maps that i thought redeemed themselves because they had ambient lights and 3d floors in them.

I'm mostly guilty for scrapping maps at their start. When I'm looking back, I could do so many nice maps from them, but they are lost forever. 

What I regret the most is that I didn't publish my shit and then lost it. So much wasted time.

My first ever published map. An e1m8 remake for zdoom. 

I regret EVERYTHING about this map. Seeing it with my more experienced eyes, it is a POS. You are stuck with the shotgun for 3/4 of the map, there are scripts that work in an odd manner (not as intended of course), bland/empty rooms, barons you have to fight with your best weapon being a shotgun and to put insult to injury, they are placed BEFORE the pentagram shaped arena. 

An extremely linear design with a bunch of scripts that add absolutely NOTHING of value to the map and an overall boring experience. I don't recommend it haha 

Then again, it was nearly 8+ years ago so, it's only natural that you would look back at your first ever map and think: Holy fuck, did I really make this? This fucking sucks :( 

So yeah, granted, it does hold some sort of sentimental value considering it was my first ever published map (on idgames) but other than that, it's shit. 

My practice levels went into my megawad. Too many square rooms, narrow halls, pitfalls the player can't escape, lack of texture variation, too many doors. There was nothing like Doom Builder at the time tho, but there was still lots of issues with what I had designed at the time. Lack of testing outside my own council. Rushed it all out the door in the end.

Created FraggleScript

Also using UDMF and focusing in new monsters and weapons while ignoring important gameplay elements. One of the worst things in my older wads was increasing enemies HP because more HP = harder lmao.

I was mapping in 1994.  If it's a bad idea (edit: and possible in the vanilla game), I've done it :)

"Swimming with the Fishes" from Mayhem 1500.

I tried to go for a slaughter style map when I could have gone for a simpler, more traditional map with an actual layout that didn't use up all the lines for the 1500 line limit.

In retrospect, I don't think I should have added those custom DEH additions in 50 Monsters, as the original intent was to see what I could do with limited amounts of the original cast. Should I try anything of that nature in the future, it's likely to stick to the stock bestiary.

Used the various scrolling and strobing light effects too much.

Making a full megawad back when I was new to Doom mapping.

Slowing down the player after he was below a certain amount of health in NECROSIS.WAD for Hexen....

I made a shitty Final Fantasy Doom mod back in the 90's and while designing the Lamia enemy I thought it would be easier to draw her topless so I did. Later on when a guy named "Sparky" or something turned my wad into something playable he added some new graphics and one of them was for the ending and it had a modified image of a Final Fantasy 4 enemy naked with a slightly rapey vibe. Kinda creepy. Sorry Sparky, thanks for fixing my wad but.. I can't say anything because it's not like I was the first one to add boobs to the game.

I'm also ashamed of the rest of the wad. But I don't regret that, shitty wads are a gift too.

On 10/31/2018 at 2:16 PM, Linguica said:

Once I made a WAD where you shot yourself. It's somewhat embarrassing to think about now but that's life I guess.

Wasn't there one before that where you slash your wrists?

Project regrets for me are not finishing some of things I put alot of time into. Even if they end up sucking. Instead of fearing criticism, finish, and release it. Embrace the feedback and make cooler stuff next time around. For hobby / amateur stuff, it's the best way to go starting out. 

More relevant to released stuff, lack of height variation, less corridors to square rooms, and more interconnected open areas. Better flow.