[Mapping] Do you ever get inspired by maps you don't like?

[Roofi]

Hello. Excuse me  if a similar thread exists , I made a quick search before creating that thread.

 

Just a little question because working for exams is boring.

 

As a mapper , I sometimes get inspired by maps that have frustrated me or not necessarily correspond to my tastes. On the other hand, I consider that a map can always have good ideas, even if it is really bad according to me. Also , my mapping tastes are always influenced by the last maps I played , good or not. For instance , I'm not really fan of unescapable pits but I like place some in my map if the last level I played contained unescapable pits. A more realistic exemple : Playing very hard maps encourage me to make very hard maps , whatever how frustrating they could be.

 

So , does it happen to you to take some ideas of levels that you do not really appreciate? Or maybe they don't give any inspiration to you at all ? Or maybe , you are a very creative mapper so you don't need inspiration to make maps.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by Roofi

[baja blast rd.]

There is a saying that the best way to criticize a film is to make a film of your own. While that is a... difficult piece of advice to apply to full-fledged movies, Doom mappers are lucky to have a much more accessible path.

 

The drive to capture an experience found in another work or espied in a flash of imagination is the most familiar form of inspiration, but 'corrective' inspiration -- 'this map would be great if only it did this and that' -- is definitely a thing, and it can be just as potent. TimeOfDeath: "Entryway would be a good map if it had hundreds of archviles and cyberdemons." 

 

[Kira]

1 hour ago, Roofi said:

Or maybe , you are a very creative mapper so you don't need inspiration to make maps.

 

 

I'd argue the trait of a very creative individual is the ability to leverage many inspirations. So you can bet many did what rdwpa coins as "corrective inspiration".

 

This feeling when you are in front of a map and it "wasted" what you saw in it. I'm sure it propels the proactive people around here, once in a while. We all kind of find out our ideal vision of Doom, and want it real after all.

[Spectre01]

Visually, definitely. I'm not the biggest fan of Sunder map08, but I love the art style of making large buildings with skinmetal textures.

[Nine Inch Heels]

I definitely had times where I thought to myself that "I want none of that stuff in my maps", most recently while playing RJSLAB where I thought one particular jump through a corridor was jank since it was barely controllable at all and you have to get around 90° corners without ever touching the ground. If I were to make an RJ map, I'd never build a sequence as long as that one, because it's really easy to just loose orientation due to insane speeds and always being so close to a wall that it's hard to maintain a sense of your surroundings at all. If one or two rockets in a row misfired you needed to start over, which made it a frustrating grind, rather than a enjoyable skillcheck.

 

At the same time I also have situations where I think about the maps I played, and what I haven't seen in them (or at least don't remember seeing) and build a small vignette to see if I can somehow get it to work.

[Zulk RS]

I steal ideas from maps I don't like all the time.

[Decay]

Yes all the time, in fact Impromptu DM was a speed session specifically inspired by how terrible VGP DM was, so the challenge was to make a better wad in 36 hours than what took VGP 9 months. Diet DBAB was inspired by Joe-Ilya's poor mapping ability. Every other map pack I took part of was partly born out of dissatisfaction with pre-existing pvp wads.

 

Bad maps are a fountain of inspiration for a variety of reasons!

[HavoX]

3 hours ago, rdwpa said:

There is a saying that the best way to criticize a film is to make a film of your own. While that is a... difficult piece of advice to apply to full-fledged movies, Doom mappers are lucky to have a much more accessible path.

 

Words to live by, I'd say. ;)

 

52 minutes ago, Zulk RS said:

I steal ideas from maps I don't like all the time.

don't

[Juza]

I find inspiration in every single map I play, as long as it fits with my standards with what it's trying to achieve. Wether it does that well or not, maybe I can do better.

[Zulk RS]

8 hours ago, HavoX said:

don't

 

I was kidding.

[Doomkid]

Sometimes ideas have to be lovingly stolen or reappropriated, just look at every single piece of music ever written as an example! There is nothing wholly original in the world of art and more specifically in the world of level design.

 

There are maps I know are terrible that have inspired me. Many of my DM maps are either directly or indirectly inspired by old maps, sometimes terrible maps in the dwango wads and such. Several of my SP layouts are vague recreations of old early 90s maps that have nostalgia value for me but have aged like milk by the common Doom mapping standards of today.

 

Corrective inspiration has occurred for me a few times in Doom mapping, but only rarely - or does making an ‘improved’ version of an old/bad map’s layout count as that? I guess so, even if I already enjoyed the original too.

 

Anyway, long story short: Yes!

[Van Daemon]

Not for now I guess. I dont even take any ideas from any maps. I simply create what my minds tells me to do and I guess that's why I feel so stuck sometimes. Hah, sorry, but I like doing my own shit 

[incel]

I hate Water Levels as much as the other guy, but, you know, it seems like it should offer some interesting mechanics to play with: oxygen conservation, free 3D movement, underwater streams, things hidden below the surface, temples of long forgotten fish-face-gods, the good stuff. "Ocean Floor" from UT is regarded as a bad level, but I liked it back then and thinking about doing something similiar with the player starting in submarine/sunk ship. Not for Doom, of course, for obvious reasons.

[dybbuk81]

I hope my 90's mods were a great inspiration to many, as they were pretty infamous in their day! I did like messing with paint shop in my primitive days but as a defense I got the game when I was 14 to make levels for it, and was at the time 14 when I released some and started the one that took 4 years off and on without knowing /newstuff chronicles or this website was a thing.

 

As my answer I only made a few new mods lately as I'm starting again and not releasing until I get better, but most were from completely new ideas that have never been done before. But as a musician that tries hard to do "something new and never done before" I'm still guilty in both realms of still accidently paying homage to something I either didn't know existed or just thought was commonplace and base material to begin with.