how to make a horror map?

[some guy who made a wad]

can anyone give me some tips on making a horror map?

[Murdoch]

That is a tricky one. Doom to me does not really lend itself to horror in the strictest sense. It is more of an action game with horror overtones. Yes it can be dark and spooky at times, but considering that you are a legendary badass mowing down hordes of demons with a spring in your step, a song in your heart, and enough firepower to level a small country, it's hard to put your player in a mindset of genuine fear.

 

Maybe try to create a situation of horror. Keep it dark but not too dark. Have a couple of spots where a trigger drops the lights and releases a horde. Plenty of bloody imagery. Some gore piles, dead fellow marines, that kind of thing. A few surprises here and there with the bigger monsters, but do not put the player in a situation where it's unfair and they have "rehearse" the fight. The player should only fail because their skill was not up to the task at that given moment, not because you thought it was a good idea to teleport a Baron of Hell on their head with no realistic chance of reacting. Do not try to do survival horror thing with sparse ammo. That to me is the absolute antithesis of Doom. You can get away with it to a certain degree with health, but micromanaging resources when you're busy badassing the hell out of some demonic scum can become frustrating for a lot of players (myself included though I know some like that style of gameplay). It is a fine balancing act.

[some guy who made a wad]

thanks for the tip, I have been planning to use other mods like lasting light and just making maps for them.

[DiR]

You could possibly try the following:

    - Making use of light sources and modern dynamic lighting for a different setting

    - Decreasing player speed

    - Custom monsters perhaps, ideally faster than the player, but not to the point where it becomes unfair

        - Make the monsters have higher HP as well so that the player can't employ punch-and-bob tactics like with pinky demons

    - Stamina for running

    - Subtle or nonexistant music to establish the vibe

    - Ambient sounds

    - Weapons have been reduced to things such as a flashlight, or simple melee weapons

    - Props such as corpses, blood, etc.

    - Even a good story can contribute to the spook factor of the map, depends on what you're going for

 

Just a few I could name off of the top of my head, but making doom into a horror game does require a lot of tweaks to remove the badassery.

[some guy who made a wad]

thank you for the tip but I don't know how to do things like that.

[SpaceTrash]

Vanilla Doom isn't suited to a horror game. Doomguy is just too powerful for anything to really be scary. It can be scripted to be one because it's such a flexible engine, but if you want to make a horror map with the core Doom elements then it isn't likely to work too well. Being a death machine and being scared doesn't tend to work too well, there's no vulnerability. 

 

You'd end up with a map that didn't do Doom or Horror very well because they're basically the polar opposites of each other.

Edited June 28, 2019 by OrbitalSpaceGarbage

[Spectre01]

47 minutes ago, OrbitalSpaceGarbage said:

Vanilla Doom isn't suited to a horror game.

I somewhat disagree. A recent wad I replayed called Nihility does a good job of establishing and maintaining a tense atmosphere in some of its maps. Darkness combined with limited resources and a proper ambient midi can still create that horror game atmosphere.

[SpaceTrash]

17 minutes ago, Spectre01 said:

I somewhat disagree. A recent wad I replayed called Nihility does a good job of establishing and maintaining a tense atmosphere in some of its maps. Darkness combined with limited resources and a proper ambient midi can still create that horror game atmosphere.

 

True, I often find it works best as a break from the run and gun. I don't think it'd work if that's all that the WAD was doing. I dunno, maybe it's just me.

[ketmar]

i too think that horror is not something you can easily do in doom. but you can create thrillers, by carefully crafting your maps. see Unloved, for example.

[BethOfDeath]

Basically... copy Doom 3. Slow marine, weapons that don't do as much damage, and make it dark (in terms of brightness). Just don't do the PDA locker code thing!

 

Haunting or off-putting (due to chord and melody structure, not lack of quality), and maybe interspersed with more typical music? I dunno, I'm not a musician. :P

 

Play some PSX Doom, the combination of music and colored sector lighting really changes the entire mood, you might get some ideas!

[ketmar]

2 hours ago, bpeterson said:

Basically... copy Doom 3.

but it won't be "classic doom" anymore.

[TheMightyHeracross]

@ketmar

 

If "that's not classic Doom" were a valid criticism the only PWADs we'd have would be hundreds of "the Way id Did" type WADs. I don't like shutting down ideas for straying the slightest bit from vanilla.

[ketmar]

@TheMightyHeracross it is not about denying some ideas, it is about core gameplay. slow marine, weak weapons... this will completely redefine the gameplay. i am not saying that it is bad, i am just saying that it won't be classic doom anymore. that is, it won't be Doom horror map, it will be something like "Doom3-inspired horror map".

 

i don't know if OP wants to change gameplay or not, but some people will complain about such changes. that is what i tried to say. sorry for being unclear.

[BethOfDeath]

12 minutes ago, ketmar said:

@TheMightyHeracross it won't be classic doom anymore. that is, it won't be Doom horror map, it will be something like "Doom3-inspired horror map".

 

i don't know if OP wants to change gameplay or not, but some people will complain about such changes. that is what i tried to say. sorry for being unclear.

 

I don't know either, I was just throwing out some sources of inspiration.

 

It's why I pointed to PSX Doom as another possibility. ;)

 

There are many kinds of horror -- demonic, eldritch, slasher, psychological, jump-scare-overdosed (which just gets annoying), etc. If you restrict yourself to a tiny set of tools... yeah, you'll get really dang good with that set, but they won't always be the right tool for the job, and the results will prove repetitive if the scale is too large, imho.