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Lutrov71

Inspiration!

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What gives you inspiration to make a Doom level and what do you do to tackle a mappers block?
It might seem odd but I sometimes get inspiration from music. I try and visualise a map that suits the music and then I make it.
And to tackle a mappers block I tell myself what I want do map and I sometimes draw it on paper, and then I do it!

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I have a nice running world of darkness group. The storyteller brings up nice ideas that i "borrow".
My only problem.... finish something ;)

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We're quite similair Lutrov, I used to do that all times (music and drawing maps' plans on paper)

I've encountered many mappers' "blocks" many times in my career. Here are some suggestions that might help You.

If You just lack interest in Your map, and it happens often, just get some free time and start editing. Don't think upon opening the editor, just start mapping and You'll see how enjoyable this process is.

Don't be affraid of doing something wrong when building the map. Add a new area, finish it. If You don't like it, DON'T DELETE IT! Cut it out via selecting those sectors in DB and cut and paste them to a new started map. Save it to Your /scraps folder. Then try again building something. The point here is overproduce. No work should ever be wasted as it may evolve in the future, You may rebuild it to a completely new cool area, it may be used in the future and so on (example: I once built a reactor and it's controlling rooms into my map, but I didn't like it. I've cut it out and went to my scraps folder. In the future, when doing Ze1m4 for KDiZD I took that part and placed it in the Remade Command Centre, rebuilding it, adding detail and better architecture. Turned out fantastic). Overproduce also gives You more experience in handling maps. Theory is one thing, but experience is more important.

Don't be concerned with how long a map will take to do. It may take 1 day and will rock, it may take 3 weeks and will suck. The point here is that it will take as much time as it needs (ofcourse we are counting the time You spend on it, not it laying over Your HD for weeks untouched :-P)

As for the maps' areas themselves, it depends. Sometimes I'll get inspiration from other maps (don't be affraid of doing this like I was in the past. For instance, Kaiser's maps have a lot of D64 maps' influence and it looks cool and works well). Purpose of different areas, which leads to realism and less to Doomish interpretation of real world (like seen in the original Doom maps) may also help-think about this place as a comp lab instead of a comp room, or a factory, or a storage, or a sewage tank, and so on. Be creative. If You're building a castle of some sort You may also try googling for some pictures of gothic strongholds and try to recreate that architecture in Doom (tip from Fanatic).

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Crap i usually delete everything that i don't like and start over.
Ill be more carefull now,im going to cut the bad rooms out and safe those for later.
Who knows i might need them later or have got some new ideas to make those rooms look better.

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I usually start with someplace that appears to be possible in real life, like the inside of an elevator, out on the streets of an office building, or on the pathway leading up to a mansion (the last of which is the basis of my CC3 map). I let it flow from there.

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Lutrov71 said:

What gives you inspiration to make a Doom level and what do you do to tackle a mappers block?


Mappers block? Never heard of it.

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I sit down with graph paper, ruler, protractor and a few geometric shape stencils and try to map out my rough ideas of what I want to do.
When I can't figure out what to do next, I set it all aside for a while... Inspiration seems to come to me if I take a step back from it.

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I just sit down, open DB and start throwing sectors together, adding new stuff as I go. If I don't like an area, I either delete it or leave it as it is and come back to it later.

If I get bored from working on one particular map, I simply cast it aside and start a new one. I do get back to some of those unfinished wads, but most I leave to rot in my DooM folder (seriously, if wads could rot, there'd be an awful smell in there)

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Select the music that would fit in the mood, and listen to it while I imagine and build the level in my mind, until the undetailed whole, is made in my mind, then I start the editor and fill in the detail as I design the level there.

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I'll build something, and toss it aside. I'll usually get about four map ideas. I hate the first one, I'll hate the second, the third will suck. BUt by the fourth attempt I usually get something great.

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I slowly place bits and pieces of a single map together, whenever the week-end comes around. On Sunday evenings I save & back-up my work on a CD and I put it on hold until the next Saturday morning.

And yes, I do wear my headphones 80% of the time that I spend working on a map. I open up a huge playlist of like 85 MP3s, and I play them in random shuffle mode to prevent myself from feeling exhausted and bored.

I never have one clearly predetermined layout in my mind, it is always sketchy and very dynamic. Mapping gives me so much freedom and that's why I love it. I've never done blueprints on paper, I think it's too tedious and it takes all the fun away.

I hate having to toss an unfinished map aside. I try to avoid doing that at all costs. I only give up on a map after spending more than 5-and-a-half hours of trial-and-error in trying to figure out how to fix a single devastating glitch.

But what matters is that at the very end it all turns out to be fairly decent, with hardly any texture misallignments and with balanced amounts of health and ammunition scattered around.

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Speaking of blocks, i'm experiencing weapon modder's block. I got no ideas and no inspiration, and this has been going on for 4 and a half weeks.

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If you have mappers block, try doing a self-imposed speedmap. See waht you end up with.

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Make a type of map you want, if you're working on something that needs techbase maps, make a hell, rocky canyon or city map, once thats done retexture bits and shuffle some stuff around until you have a map that does fit into whatever you where originally working on

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The best source for inspiration is hard work. That counts for DOOM editing too.

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Fredrik said:

Inspiration is overrated. Hard work is where it's at.


More importantly, well planned details which are then executed properly.

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Far from it; great work entails from its own development, and not from any planning, which is at best only a base or starting point. Thus an author forges his or her style.

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If you force yourself to work on a map rather than work on it because you're inspired to do so, the results aren't going to be anywhere near as good - the lack of the mapper's enjoyment will be plainly evident.

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You're not forced to work on it. Indeed if you're working on just one piece you'll have to "give it some time" sometimes, but the act of working itself is the one that most builds your resources. Thus I'll often temporarily stop working on one map and take on another.

But there's also something else; you don't necessarily have to worry about where your work is going, and worrying per se is one of the main "inspirational blocks." If you enjoy the editing process you can edit to the point that if you do have to discard something, you will, and the work you did will point towards what you will do. Not because you will necessarily be working with the idea of discarding the work in mind, but you certainly won't fear doing so if necessary.

Lutrov71 said:
It might seem odd but I sometimes get inspiration from music. I try and visualise a map that suits the music and then I make it.
And to tackle a mappers block I tell myself what I want do map and I sometimes draw it on paper, and then I do it!

What people call inspiration is often the moment inspiration is triggered. It's not surprising to me that music can help with that... I do something similar in respect to the music that will (likely) be used for the map.

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myk said:

But there's also something else; you don't necessarily have to worry about where your work is going, and worrying per se is one of the main "inspirational blocks."

Indeed, You are correct. Respect.

My most memorable (in my opinion) map was Waste Site, altough people dislike it because of repetive architecture, upon building the map I really enjoyed doing that. The work I've put into it is rewarding. Most likely I would care about the repetivness and follow the reviewers and numerous players' opinions on it that would ultimately led me to disliking my own map. However, I do not follow those opinions.

Other maps however that were going to be featured in the "Fear The Shrill" project were supposed to be really high in quality terms. Guess what, the project never took off from the ground, with Waste Site being the only released exception (ok, a part of Mining Complex was also mapped out, but it doesn't count)

One of the reasons for a block is fear of quality. Upon making a map You can start getting a self-believe of how it will turn out. You are planning to achieve best quality You could and You end up in increasing dedication for it to make it the most perfect thing, and ultimately a fear of the auto-dislikeness You could get Yourself puts You away from editing and the map put away for weeks, expecting probably for it to magically get itself done automatically.

Ok, I put this here room.. no people will dislike it. Ok, I put this thing here.. no, I don't like it myself. It's not perfect! Argh, I'm going to waste my time

Fear is something a man can not cope with. No man in history was able to force himself over fear. He must start accepting it and perhaps transforming it into a pleasurable feeling, less haunting. That is the only "medical" or psychological way to beat fear.

So who cares if it'll not be perfect? It's mine. Next one maybe will be better, or maybe not.

Question-why numerous joke wads and minor projects get done so easily and huge and ambitious projects-Hellcore, Mordeth, Hellstorm take an eon to finish? Are authors aware that their quality will not match the authors' growing perfectionism?

Something to consider before making Your next ubar cool mod.

EDIT:

myk said:

What people call inspiration is often the moment inspiration is triggered. It's not surprising to me that music can help with that... I do something similar in respect to the music that will (likely) be used for the map.

Again I and my experience concure with this.
Does music keep one in the mood of the specific mod tough?

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Design the map in a paper and have an idea of how do you plan it to look usually works. If you lack of inspiration for that, then try to recreate a map that you like from one of the oficial wads, and when you start editing you start adding enough variants from your own style to get far from the model and have your own creation, (one of my best maps, that hopefully will be at DOOM 2.5 was made like this).

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Does anybody else have a bad habit of looking at architecture and trying to work out if it's doable with the Doom engine? I was outside a museum a few weeks ago and I actually got a bit excited when I realized the exterior was entirely possible to construct using vanilla Doom. I haven't even released a map, nor have I tried making one for about 5 years!!

I guess I picked up the habit back when I was trying to think up neat things to put in my maps.

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david_a said:

(...)
I guess I picked up the habit back when I was trying to think up neat things to put in my maps.

Yes, I also possess Your habit. Only in make exception I see things that could also be possible using some trickery, like PAR styled floating 3d textures, or ofcourse Zdoom's slopes.

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david_a said:

Does anybody else have a bad habit of looking at architecture and trying to work out if it's doable with the Doom engine?


Jesus, I have that all the time, Dave, I even tend to look for cars, and other means of transport, that could be done using some tricky tricks...

But honestly. All my ideas for map making come from real places I've been to, or I've seen (movies, photos, pictures, paintings), and then I change them, twist them within my twisted mind. And doing so, I can make a reactor from a column I saw at some place; or make a decent underwater area, based on a room I work in. It sounds kind of... odd. And it is; I guess I have a very elastic imagination.

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Heh, nice to know I'm not alone with my condition :)

You know, I don't think anybody making maps for modern games would do this, since basically all standard architecture is possible. Takes all the fun out of it! In fact, when I was by the museum earlier, I asked a Descent-freak friend of mine if he ever had the same thoughts, but he didn't know what I was talking about :(

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