The /newstuff Chronicles #202

Weston said:

Barista is not only the coolest WAD I have ever played, but also the scariest.

Are you serious? Admittedly, it had some nice ideas, but it was too short, the level design was not all that great, and the enemies looked ridiculous.

Schneelocke said:

Are you serious? Admittedly, it had some nice ideas, but it was too short, the level design was not all that great, and the enemies looked ridiculous.

Have a little pity .. MS-paint molested him as a child :O

udderdude said:

Have a little pity .. MS-paint molested him as a child :O

Why didn't he use the regular caco sprites then, though, for example?

I like the sprites in Barista. They're... different. The only ones I have issue with are the big blue blobs. And that's only because of the limitations of the doom palette making them change colour as you move further away and closer to them. The Cacos I thought were really pretty cool.

To each his own. :)

I loved the subtle underslung humour of Barista.

The gameplay weren't that eye-opening though.

Little Faith said:

I loved the subtle underslung humour of Barista.

The gameplay weren't that eye-opening though.

Humour? I must've missed that. o.o

Thanks for the comments!

I made Barista with the intention of making something different from most Doom maps. It focuses more on creating atmosphere and telling a story, with monster-killing action as an afterthought. I knew Barista wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I'm glad there are a few people that enjoyed the change of pace.

It seems almost everyone loathes the new monster sprites. They were made because A) I tried to not include original Doom art assets, and B) the FreeDoom package didn't have what I wanted. I don't think they turned out that bad, but I guess I'm just not familiar with the conventions of Doom sprite art.

This raises a good point about most of the Freedoom art being ugly.

Scuba Steve said:

This raises a good point about most of the Freedoom art being ugly.

ok get to work making sprites chop chop

He's right, though, and I think it's OK to say that even when you can't do better yourself (I can't speak for Steve, of course, but I know I can't).

Barista was quite interesting. Something about the cacos that made them seem 3d-ish, and they look cool. :D

Scuba Steve said:

P.S. Canadians are messed up

=-o

Weston said:

Barista is not only the coolest WAD I have ever played, but also the scariest.

Barista was quite creepy at times with it's dark colours and things quickly poping around.

Linguica said:

ok get to work making sprites chop chop

I tried to contribute new work but your community shunned me away because of my shabby clothing.

By the way;

AndrewB said:

Fredrik Johannson

I appreciate the mention, but I'd appreciate it more if my name was spelled right :P

I really liked Barista... that's why I made the music for it ;). It was very original, and although the monsters looked cartooney, they had their place IMO. I'm just cureouse, did ROTGS have anything to do with inspiration? :D

If blenda just added some nice shading to the monster sprites then they would look even better :).

And as for my map... I was under the impression that people loved vanilla style maps... but my map hasn't had much of a response... someone even said that it was nothing special... oh well, better luck next time...

I liked barista. Had a definite Marathon touch to it with the garbled consoles, the mosters did look a little stupid, but when the map had atmosphere and compelling direction to follow, well it worked for me anyway.

Most of his Barista maps are pretty cool. I have to ask you though Blended, are they all stand-alone or are you eventually going to link them together story-wise?

udderdude said:

psst! You're supposed to put the maps that don't suck first!

Stupid reviews!

psst! You don't decide the format and we take a dim view of people reviewing the reviewers.

The actual link to the Dm-Symmetry entry is:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12877

Zpong is amazing? How was it possible to get the script running on a monitor? I think this idea could be put to use in some very novel ways in Doom, creating some very unique situations. Maybe you control a crane in the next room over, from a monitor and move a box... maybe you have to control a sentry bot on a monitor and make the bot find it's way through a gas infested room.

Barista was cool because the atmosphere was so... enthralling. so original. I found the MS-paint monsters to be a surealistic touch and thought they added some healthy humor, that only made the experience seem scarier. The scariest parts being when you run around in the dark maze with the dual pistols and the mantis-things coming out of fucking nowhere and snapping at you. Good times.

pritch said:

psst! You don't decide the format and we take a dim view of people reviewing the reviewers.

Look out Udderdude, criticism has no place in the newstuff chronicles!

blender81 said:

It focuses more on creating atmosphere and telling a story, with monster-killing action as an afterthought.

Very well said.

Use3D said:

Look out Udderdude, criticism has no place in the newstuff chronicles!

... which kinda defies the purpose of a discussion forum, though.

LorD BaZTArD said:

I have to ask you though Blended, are they all stand-alone or are you eventually going to link them together story-wise?

I like to think they are currently linked together in an ugly roundabout way.

Schneelocke said:

... which kinda defies the purpose of a discussion forum, though.

I take it you don't recall the time when most /newstuff threads seemed to become a flamewar about reviewing, some of which ended up needing to be closed. That really sucked, and I don't imagine anyone wants a return to it.

No, I don't recall that.

Grazza said:

I take it you don't recall the time when most /newstuff threads seemed to become a flamewar about reviewing, some of which ended up needing to be closed. That really sucked, and I don't imagine anyone wants a return to it.

It beats your stoopid newstuff reviews you dumbhead!

Use3D said:

Look out Udderdude, criticism has no place in the newstuff chronicles!

I like how he included "Stupid Reviews!", even though I was referring to my own mini-review.

Well, if you meant that, fine; but it's by no means clear that you were referring to your own reviews... it did strike me as dissonant because you sort of seemed to agree with AndrewB, so I was thinking "then why the hell's he saying 'Stupid reviews!' if he kind of agrees?"

A colon instead of, or in addition to, the exclamation mark would have saved us the display of swords.

Grazza said:

I take it you don't recall the time when most /newstuff threads seemed to become a flamewar about reviewing, some of which ended up needing to be closed. That really sucked, and I don't imagine anyone wants a return to it.

Yeah, I'm still waiting to write up another /newstuff review. Hell, if AndrewB can do it again, so can I!