Pushing yourself as a mapper - how necessary is it?

[Jimmy]

Challenge yourself. Explore as deeply as you dare to go what you're capable of doing. Be wary of your limits but test them.

 

Don't simply force yourself to be outside of your comfort zone. You won't be happy with the result.

 

And of course stay hydrated.

[jazzmaster9]

As a mapper you should always try to be better than you are before, but it is best to know your limit.

Gonna share my mindset during Innocence X3's development (and why the damn thing took so long)

Not sure if this is even gonna be useful input but here it goes:

 

When i was half way into Making the set I just began playing other notable mapsets such as Back To Saturn X, Valiant and Ancient Aliens and just felt "Damn those maps look better than mine" and proceeded to delete 60% of my work in hopes being on par with set mapsets...

 

well fast forward 8 months later and I was burned out and pretty much ended up with only a slightly better output than before.

There was a point where I just said "fuck it I'll do what i like", because quite frankly it wasnt fun anymore. The strive to be creative is strong but i did not feel good about it.

 

After i pretty much went back to "Normal, make shapes mode" suddenly it felt so amazing to be able to just map without the fear of trying to one up someone else. I was able to atleast salavage the project and get it out 2 years after it started but only after pretty much tiring my creative self.

 

There comes a point where you reach your limit and thats fine. Creativity isnt always. about the "How" but the "Why". I man because i l love Doom and Love the creative process, Though I had to learn that the hard way.

[kb1]

Whether you're mapping, programming, drawing, composing, or just playing, Doom is supposed to be fun! If you're not having fun, you might consider doing it differently.

[diceman]

I've made 2 Maps for DOOM already, but I've never released anything ... partly because I didn't think the maps were that good, even though I poured weeks of work into them, and then I suddenly stopped because I felt burnt out. I have an unhealthy tendency to overextend when it comes to polishing minor details... I lose focus of the whole picture, the layout, fun gameplay, instead I'll keep procrastinating whether I should adjust brightness in this sector by 16, and shift that texture 8 pixels to the right.

That was 3 years ago.

 

Now I'm taking a second chance at mapping: I found a group of hobby programmers in the vicinity, and they're doing Mini Game Jams all year long; just for fun, no competition, no theme, it's just about meeting new people and 12 hours of everyone trying hard to get something done from scratch, and they've welcomed me into their group with open arms. I used to do a little programming as well, but since I'm not feeling like writing a lot of code at the moment, I asked, if I could participate into one of their jams by trying to create a Doom Level instead. They dug the idea. This will be an opportunity for me to push myself into new territory: no planning ahead, no over-detailing, just gameplay and being creative and surprising myself what I'm actually capable of, if I force myself to focus on the big picture ahead. I know my way around GZ Doom Builder, all I've needed was a boost in motivation.

 

We're meeting this Saturday, and by the end of the day, close to midnight, everyone will present their project on a big screen. It's actually a bit scary, but I'm also really excited.

Edited November 8, 2018 by diceman

[onetruepurple]

Mystery solved!