20 Years of Doom

The Concept

A map progression starting with vanilla style Doom maps, through limit-removing and Boom compatible, then onto modern styled maps that take advantage of all the abilities of source ports. Not only does this celebrate the evolution of editing over time, but also provides something for everyone to play, regardless of their taste in maps. Due to the technical requirements of the later maps, it will need GZDoom to run.


Who we're looking for

This isn't a community project that anyone can sign up to, but all applications will be considered by the team. Ideally we want experienced mappers who understand the fundamentals of gameplay and aesthetics and who aren't going to disappear half way through the project with an unfinished map.


The Plan

The final date for map submission is August 1, 2013, and the release date will be December 01, 2013. That gives us plenty of time for playtesting and bugfixing.


Mapping rules

● All maps must be Singleplayer and Coop compatible (If you would like to add a DM only section to your map, it would be great, but not required at all).
● Maps must be thoroughly playtested
● Maps need to be quite large, aiming for at least 20 minutes of gameplay.
● No new monsters or weapons.
● New music is allowed and encouraged (see below).
● New textures and flats are allowed (although the first few maps should be stock textures only).
● Every map be must possible from a pistol start.
● Any style or theme is allowed.
● Maps should support all skill levels.
● All maps need at least 10 secret areas.

Continuity

If possible, we're looking to have some theming continuity between levels, rather than just jumping to random locations that aren't related. A proposed idea is that once you finish your own map and the order is decided, you can then make a shared map between yourself and the next mapper working together, so the level starts with your theme and slowly changes to the theme of their map. Or if you prefer, just find out what their theme is and make the end of your level in the same style.


Music

We've been given permission to use some fantastic mp3 remixes of the classic Doom soundtrack in the project. This keeps things true to the original, whilst still giving it a modern twist.


Members with maps underway

● DooMAD
● Dutch Devil
● Exl
● Iori
● Logan MTM
● Mr. Rocket

Screenshots:

Oh hey, I've seen some of these sexy screenshots before :O.

This is an interesting concept, although I'm a little confused. Is this aimed at a certain port? Your taking advantage of various mapping formats, but I assume you want all maps to be able to run together. Or perhaps you'll release it in parts via the format they are made for?

Given the work schedule, I could probably contribute to this :D. I'd probably do something Boom-compatible...though I don't know if I'd use new textures or not.

It's aimed at GZDoom, if that isn't a turn-off. The later "high-tech" maps would need to use some fancier features like 3d floors, point lights and proper texture translucency.

Yeah, probably should have mentioned the GZDoom part, heh. OP now edited.

I support the whole 20 years of doom thing, but I don't want to play this!

It's an interesting project, but I would have preferred whether it's of aimed boom format, finally why not, after all, it's a question of shown the progret in mapping and in technology since 20 years ^^ Why not to wait for the last release of the eternity port? (which has interesting features)

Perhaps I could do a classic or possibly limit-removing map?

This looks like a neat project, though the lighting in a lot of the shots (particularly the first 3) looks really bland and unappealing to me. Dark rooms with most or all of their lighting being cast by circular dynamic lights is really cliche for GZDoom maps :P

I guess as something made to celebrate DooM this might be a nice tribute or documentary wad (lol), but I've always thought a humbly detailed old schoolish style map would clash violently against a modern design orientated map regardless, although you might be able to pull it off with mappers like Dutch Devil and Iori. :)

Bah, I'll exit after finishing the limit removing part anyway as I can't stand Zdoom features outside of a Espi Eternal DooM IV Map27. :)

What's the criteria for being an "experienced mapper" ? Are you looking for Mapper of the Year winners or just anybody whose risen from the "noob" stage?

This project sounds great, I like ZDoom maps and I like classic maps and I think the two will contrast nicely and keep the wad interesting, I'm not sure about the continuity idea though, as that may limit the themes and styles that people can use.

esselfortium said:

Dark rooms with most or all of their lighting being cast by circular dynamic lights is really cliche for GZDoom maps :P

I'd think a cliche GZDoom map is a must for a project that aims to represent the (d)evolution of Doom mapping. :P

The maps in the screenshots look good.

But they look far too far removed from the original game theme wise. I'd expect a project that shows how Doom mapping has evolved, to show how the various ports mapping features can make more complex maps in the original games themes.

I imagine that it will also probably be very difficult to avoid skewing this project toward the modern (i.e todays maps).

Hope that comes across right, I had some difficulty writing it.

I don't understand the no new monsters or weapons requirement. I don't like either one as well, but if you're showing off port features, it doesn't make sense to ignore dehacked and decorate.

What I'd like to see is 20 quality maps, each showing what was possible that year, although without going nuts.

I also don't see why the wad has to be playable in only one port. Surely if some map uses other features, it won't crash the port until accessed. Yeah I'd like to see some Eternity portals instead of GZDoom fake floors and circular lighting.

this looks... sexy. :D

franckFRAG said:

Why not to wait for the last release of the eternity port? (which has interesting features)

Eternity is a fantastic port, but several of the maps have been in development for some time already and we don't want to start work all over again for a different port.

Processingcontrol saidL
What's the criteria for being an "experienced mapper" ? Are you looking for Mapper of the Year winners or just anybody whose risen from the "noob" stage?

This would come down to the team's discretion. If they've been impressed by your work in the past and trust you to complete your submission on time, they'll probably let you on board. There's no clear cut guidelines.

Vermil said:

I'd expect a project that shows how Doom mapping has evolved, to show how the various ports mapping features can make more complex maps in the original games themes.

I imagine that it will also probably be very difficult to avoid skewing this project toward the modern (i.e todays maps).

We are a bit lop-sided with modern maps at the moment and would like more vanilla and boom style maps. The scope of the project has changed from what it was originally. Before, it was just "make the shiniest, sexiest, bestest map with slopes, 3D floors, dynlights, etc", but then it was decided that this was a bit shallow and wouldn't appeal to everyone, so we put a bit more thought into it and the current progression-from-old-to-new idea was proposed.

Scet said:

I don't understand the no new monsters or weapons requirement. I don't like either one as well, but if you're showing off port features, it doesn't make sense to ignore dehacked and decorate.

The weapons and monsters are a pretty major part of what makes it Doom, so we don't want to move away from that.

Those screenshots are beautiful. If I have one problem with them, and problem is too strong a word to be honest, it's that they don't have the original Doom feel to them in terms of textures and colouration - but they look amazing and I would be very happy to play a megawad that looked so gorgeous.

If only I wasn't such a noob at mapping, and I still haven't got a finished map yet due to my fetish for detailing...

I guess there needs to be screenshots of the "Doom" and "Boom/limit-removing" maps too...

Gez said:

I guess there needs to be screenshots of the "Doom" and "Boom/limit-removing" maps too...

Not enough slopes for anybody to be interested. Sorry.

It's certainly an interesting concept, but I, too, have doubts, as I worry this might end up being some GZDoom mapset but with a few half-hearted vanilla and Boom maps tagged onto the front of it. Hopefully that won't be the case.

Oh, and maybe there should be some "vanilla ZDoom" maps too, which employ ZDoom effects but not GL features.

I think there are a lot of ways that this kind of project could easily go awry and turn into a massive joke. I'm also brushed the wrong way by some of the mapping rules, mainly the one regarding map size, and the one regarding secret areas.

With all that said, I think this could be very interesting if it's done well. At some point over the next year or so I might be interested in contributing a map myself, but I just don't have the free time to commit to something so prominent right now.

I might have missed it somewhere in the thread, but I didn't see any indication of how many maps are being aimed for here. Since it's GZDoom-exclusive, you wouldn't be restricted to 32 maps, but I'd guess that's how many there would be, since it's kind of standard. Of course, 20 maps, with one for each year, could be interesting too, and would probably be plenty if the all the maps are going to be fairly long.

Mithran Denizen said:

I think there are a lot of ways that this kind of project could easily go awry and turn into a massive joke. I'm also brushed the wrong way by some of the mapping rules, mainly the one regarding map size, and the one regarding secret areas.

Those two are probably more guidelines to aim for, rather than strict requirements. We're not going to throw anyone off the project if they've only got 9 secret areas or anything silly like that.

Mithran Denizen said:

I might have missed it somewhere in the thread, but I didn't see any indication of how many maps are being aimed for here.

We don't have a set number in mind, it mostly depends on how many mappers we decide to take on.

Megamur said:

It's certainly an interesting concept, but I, too, have doubts, as I worry this might end up being some GZDoom mapset but with a few half-hearted vanilla and Boom maps tagged onto the front of it. Hopefully that won't be the case.

Dutch Devil said that his map would definitely be vanilla or boom and I suspect iori's will be too, it's just that they haven't submitted any progress yet, so we can't show any.

Would the first map be required to work under all of the constraints that the original Doom.exe proposes? A 20 minute large map might hit some technical limits like maximum save file size rather quickly.

Or is the plan for levels to be "styled" as if it were made for vanilla doom?

I think maps having at least 10 secret areas is an unnecessary rule personally, and perhaps you will struggle for submissions for the more advanced zdoom orientated maps... I think a boom compatible/doom 2 remake of the doom 1 would be a better way to celebrate 20 years of doom.

My bad, it seems there are screenshots for Dutch devil's map. Tinypic is fucking useless and not displaying hotlinked images for me, so I didn't see them. I'll post them here, as I assume eveyone else can see them:



If, like me, you can't see them images, here's the direct links:

http://i47.tinypic.com/2mw76h4.png
http://i45.tinypic.com/2eewtq1.png

DD's ones, and the last 2 in OP which mix white and black look awesome. The rest look pretty generic and flat layout wise.

Interesting... All screenshots posted look fairly fantastic. I'd be willing to drop a limit-removing map into the project. PM me if you're interested.

Personally, I'd prefer it if there was no continuity to the themes. It'd make the project feel more like a community wad and true-to-Doom, so to speak.

I'm interested in this, and would do a boom-compatible map, but I have no ideas at this moment as to what exactly the theme would be and so don't know how far off in theme continuity I would get. But if that's not a problem I'll see how fast I can get back into mapping.

I really like the bottom two shots, the recolored yellow UAC logo jumps off the screen, and the skybox looks great as well.

I think all of the screencaps look great. I think this may turn out to be an impressive project :)