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Juka

Barren Warehouse - My first finished Doom level

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(I read the sticky, if anything is missing please tell me and I'll edit :D)

Hello! I plan to develop games at some point in my life, so I've been looking forward to improve my level design skills for the future. This brings us to this short 1 level wad!

 

Here I tried my hand at backtracking, overall map flow and balance. I also tried to make interesting geometry thorough the level and tried fine detailing a few sections to stretch the detail-oriented muscles. So if you have anything to comment about these essentials, please do, I will take all and any discussion into consideration so I can improve where it needs and to learn things I didn't notice while mapping!

 

My main inspirations were Jenesis and BTSX, my favourite maps so far :p

 

Name: helloworld.wad

Map Format: UDMF

Ports Tested: Zandronum

IWAD: Doom 2

Map: MAP01

Gameplay: Single Player

Difficulty Settings: No difference

Requirements: Freelook on. Crouching, jumping and infinite monster height off.

 

Download:

barrenwarehouse.rar

 

Changelog:

Spoiler

Improved the secret health stash with a proper room.
Fixed the first door being not repeatable.
Swapped a box of ammo and shells around, so the upper section focuses on bullets and chaingun.

Two pinkies from the open area now appear behind the player in the dark corridor.

Improved closeted monsters in the SSG area, including a few pinkies so the player has at least a little trouble in staying on the ledge.

Minor tweaks.

Screenies:

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140312.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140339.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140402.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140430.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140442.png

Screenshot_Doom_20200301_140520.png

helloworld.rar

Edited by Juka : Update

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That doesn't seem at all bad to me for a first map, or for any sort of map! Seems very solid, plays okay, looks fine, everything works, etc. Thought that it needed a chainsaw, as ammo wasn't that abundant for a considerable part of the map, and it became a bit of a pain having to use the pistol from time to time on imps and occasionally on pink demons. Good challenging concluding section - I died to the AV first time I played it, as it was waiting for me at the foot of a lift and that was curtains. Did find one secret on that first playthrough, a 25% health pack. Looking at the video below, there seems to be something going on in the Soulsphere area at around 8:17, and it seems likely that there's another secret behind the pillar at around 10:20, but I didn't investigate further at the time.

 

 

 

Edited by Summer Deep

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1 hour ago, Summer Deep said:

That doesn't seem at all bad to me for a first map, or for any sort of map! Seems very solid, plays okay, looks fine, everything works, etc. Thought that it needed a chainsaw, as ammo wasn't that abundant for a considerable part of the map, and it became a bit of a pain having to use the pistol from time to time on imps and occasionally on pink demons. Good challenging concluding section - I died to the AV first time I played it, as it was waiting for me at the foot of a lift and that was curtains. Did find one secret on that first playthrough, a 25% health pack. Looking at the video below, there seems to be something going on in the Soulsphere area at around 8:17, and it seems likely that there's another secret behind the pillar at around 10:20, but I didn't investigate further at the time.

Thank you so much for playing, commenting and also for recording the playthrough! Yes, ammo wasn't very abundant, and I agree it does feel short if you don't take the elevator to the Chaingun early on, so maybe a fall back option would work nicely and a Chainsaw is just perfect, will add one in the next update at your disposal right at the beggining when ammo is more scarce.

The other two secrets are kinda hard to spot, you did trigger something at 8:17 so that's part of the secret, and you're correct about the pillar thing at 10:20, just look around and you'll find the secrets in no time!

Also, nice shot at 5:23!

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Well done. Stylish map with a smart layout.

 

- I'd move the shotgun shellbox in this area downstairs. If you visit the lower areas before hopping up here, you'll have a surplus of bullet ammo, no chaingun, and not many shells -- and it isn't exciting to use the pistol against opposition tailored towards the shotgun or chaingun.

 

- Pinkies don't always path well in this layout. I'd be inclined to either delete most of these or have them appear behind the player in the darkness of the tunnels instead.

 

- The arachnotron and HK released at the SSG pickup, under this ledge, don't contribute anything. They can't hit you with the ledge blocking them.  

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2 hours ago, rdwpa said:

Well done. Stylish map with a smart layout.

 

- I'd move the shotgun shellbox in this area downstairs. If you visit the lower areas before hopping up here, you'll have a surplus of bullet ammo, no chaingun, and not many shells -- and it isn't exciting to use the pistol against opposition tailored towards the shotgun or chaingun.

 

- Pinkies don't always path well in this layout. I'd be inclined to either delete most of these or have them appear behind the player in the darkness of the tunnels instead.

 

- The arachnotron and HK released at the SSG pickup, under this ledge, don't contribute anything. They can't hit you with the ledge blocking them.  

Thanks so much for the review! I'm glad you like the layout :3

1: Well that's true, the upper section is holding all the ammo. I'll swap the shell box with the bullet box downstairs in the dark room with the two chaingunners, it's kinda pointless to have the bullet box there now that I think about it, because you might not go upstairs and then bullets will be useless.

2: I was wondering why they never went downstairs... Releasing them from the tunnels is a better way to keep them in the map, so I'll do that. By the way, why don't they path well in that layout?

3: My initial idea was to make the player run away from the key area after picking up the SSG so they fell off the ledge, but seems like a bunch of hitscanners aren't enough to make you run when you have a SSG. Maybe increasing the difficulty of the rising monster closets in the key room and maybe adding something in the ledge itself would do the trick?

Once again, thank you for the review, I'll update the map soon with the suggestions!

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6 hours ago, Juka said:

 

3: My initial idea was to make the player run away from the key area after picking up the SSG so they fell off the ledge, but seems like a bunch of hitscanners aren't enough to make you run when you have a SSG.

 

 

It certainly made me run away, if only to get to the AV before it revived half the monsters in the map!

 

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9 hours ago, Summer Deep said:

 

 

It certainly made me run away, if only to get to the AV before it revived half the monsters in the map!

 

Hah so it worked! By your gameplay video it seems the SSG is enough to beat the encounter, so I'll leave the AV part as is, for now at least :)

 

 

7 hours ago, mmww said:

Looks nice! I will give this a go later today... :)

 

14 hours ago, elend said:

That does look very cool, I want to play this.

Thanks for the initial opinions! I'm looking forward to reading your reviews :3

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2 hours ago, Juka said:

Thanks for the initial opinions! I'm looking forward to reading your reviews :3

 

You are very welcome. I really liked the design. It's well thought out, and offers some pretty tight combat, even on "Hurt me plenty". Ammo is pretty scarce, and I found myself having to conserve it quite a bit. But that is a good thing in my opinion, and made for more interesting combat.

 

The secrets were pretty elaborate and a nice touch.

Spoiler

The exception might be the one that seemed to only be a little compartment with a secret-sector. Maybe it would be nice to fill it with something too? It took me a while to find all of them, but I had fun while hunting for them.

 

I enjoyed my play-through and would really like to see more of your work. Keep it up! I'll re-play it on "Ultra-violence" next... :)

clear.jpg

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2 hours ago, Rex705 said:

This was a nice little map. Here is my video :)

 

 

 

Thanks for the playthrough! That was an interesting video, and congrats on finding the secrets! Looking at your gameplay I realised that while you ignored the two hell knights, another player tried to kill them with the weapons available at the moment, which took a lot more than intended, so I'll lock them away until the player finds the red key. Also you completely bossed that AV :p

 

50 minutes ago, mmww said:

You are very welcome. I really liked the design. It's well thought out, and offers some pretty tight combat, even on "Hurt me plenty". Ammo is pretty scarce, and I found myself having to conserve it quite a bit. But that is a good thing in my opinion, and made for more interesting combat.

 

Thank you for the kind words, I tried to balance ammo so the player would ration it through the first part, so looks like that worked. I might still add the chainsaw early on as suggested though, so the player has a melee fallback option if needed.

 

58 minutes ago, mmww said:

The secrets were pretty elaborate and a nice touch.

  Reveal hidden contents

The exception might be the one that seemed to only be a little compartment with a secret-sector. Maybe it would be nice to fill it with something too? It took me a while to find all of them, but I had fun while hunting for them.

 

I'm glad you liked the secrets, I was afraid the Soulsphere was too hard to figure out :p

About that one...

Spoiler

There isn't much space to work around that spot, but I can think of something to make that alcove more interesting, or more than just an alcove. It's right behind the round server/computer thing in the blue computer room, so maybe it could work like a control room of sorts. Thank you for the input!

 

1 hour ago, mmww said:

I enjoyed my play-through and would really like to see more of your work. Keep it up! I'll re-play it on "Ultra-violence" next... :)

clear.jpg

Congratulations on the Full Clear! Unfortunately for now there's no difference between difficulties, but that's the next thing I'm working on. Current difficulty level is supposed to be UV, but I'll tweak it a little up for UV and a little down for HMP. And don't worry, I'm already planning out my next map :3

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the door at satart level is ocne time activation. After closed cant open again. Excelent, awesome map. i like it. NIce job

 

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On 3/2/2020 at 12:06 PM, Juka said:

2: I was wondering why they never went downstairs... Releasing them from the tunnels is a better way to keep them in the map, so I'll do that. By the way, why don't they path well in that layout?

 

I won't presume to speak for rdwpa, but monsters don't really like narrow stairs like that - They tend to "bounce" off them rather than trying to ascend/descend. Some of them (I presume it's based on hitbox size) are better than others.

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On 3/2/2020 at 6:22 PM, Omilab said:

the door at satart level is ocne time activation. After closed cant open again. Excelent, awesome map. i like it. NIce job

 

Duh! Fixed that one, thanks for pointing that out!

 

Map has been updated, some minor tweaks to add suggestions made by you fellow testers!

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Hey, neat map! I recorded my first (failed) attempt and third (successful) attempt. I lost the second attempt due to my lack of practice with recording. In that attempt, I saw an enemy open a secret door but I couldn't figure out how to access it myself in the third attempt. I had a super hilarious/sketchy fight with the archvile (around 6:30), lol. (GZDoom, UV difficulty.)

 

First:

 

Third:

 

I've got almost no complaints. The atmosphere, enemy selection/placement, weapons/ammo and architecture are all great. I wouldn't think this was your first map if you hadn't told me.

 

One thing I really like in maps is when roamers take me by surprise, and it happened multiple times in this one (in my second attempt). My only complaint is the exit took me by surprise the first time. Maybe I'm blind and didn't see any exit signage though. Any plans to make this into an episode?

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The design is pretty cool, but I felt like the start was pretty rough with just the pistol and fairly limited shotgun ammo.

My only complaint is that the design is a little bit on the claustrophobic side, and I felt like the map also suffers a little bit from "shit-opening-up-everywhere"-itus. That last part really isn't too bad, but I think a level designer should be careful not to invoke "ugh what opened up this time" in the player's mind.

I played this completely vanilla, to be clear; no Brutal Doom, or Beautiful Doom or anything.

But yeah; pretty damn solid map for a first outing! Hope you stick around in the mapping community.

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