Keeper of the Seven Keys 3: Disc One (NaNoWADMo 2019)

[DavidN]

 

DOWNLOAD KEEPER 3 FOR GZDOOM

 

Since Send Lawyers to Hell started I've been playing Doom nonstop, so Ryath and/or Scwiba's NaNoWADMo was a great chance to make something for myself! It's also an idea I've wanted to explore for a while, making a WAD based on an album and turning the song titles into levels.

 

I chose the first disc of Helloween's "Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy" for two reasons:

1. It has very inviting theming and a collection of evocative song titles,

2. It's quite short.

 

So here's "Keeper of the Seven Keys 3: Disc One" (or Keeper3 as I more sanely call it), a hub-based techno-magic themed WAD made from start to finish in a month (incorporating weapons, monsters and other assets from some of my past projects). I tried to limit myself to my techbase comfort zone in only a couple of levels and explore some cave areas, castles and an Egyptian level with almost entirely original textures!

 

I'm considering this a beta after some testing by Ryath and the rest of the great people in the NaNoWADMo Discord - have fun!

 

Thanks to:

OTEX textures - Ola Björling (Ukiro)

MIDIs - Tony Swicked, Power-Metaldude

Other assets - Horror Movie Guy, Blue Shadow, Captain Toenail, Neuralstunner, Eriance, Ghastly, TODM

 

DOWNLOAD KEEPER 3 FOR GZDOOM

 

More screenshots

Edited September 30, 2020 by DavidN

[scwiba]

I have personally confirmed that this is a very good mapset.

[elend]

Oh crap, I want to test this now.

[Walter confetti]

Played the first demo and it was an awesome wad! Playing this too ASAP

[wolfmcbeard]

This is an amazing map set, I will definitely be playing it again.

 

[Doomenator]

An interesting maps set. But I think using BDlite is a bad idea. 

It would be nice to play these maps with Hexen weapon mod and Fantasy monsters, for example. But there is no compatibility. In addition, owners of weak computers will not be delighted with the ketchup gore system. 

Is there a vanilla option in the plans?

[DavidN]

Thanks to everyone for the comments so far. A 1.0 release is now on idgames, and I've updated the original post as well :)

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/j-l/keeper3
    Updated to BDLite 1.2
    MAPA Added more ammo throughout
    MAPA Rifle in water
    MAPA Non-taxing zombies in end fight
    MAPB Invisidemons less health
    MAPC Grenade on approach to cathedral
    MAPC More ammo on roof
    MAPD Can no longer get stuck behind platform in lower area
    MAPD You can now open the door back to the starting area on far side
    MAPD Made yellow key more obvious
    MAPE More health in spiders section
    MAPF More health in second half, and arena

 

I'm also proud to say that Mr Icarus spent a couple of hours on a complete playthrough! 

 

[Underqualified_Gunman]

map set looks interesting it would be nice if there was a vanilla compatible version. but i understand if there isn't for technical reasons.

[fuzzytrick]

I can't believe I created an account just to comment once around here, but here it is.

 

I've been lurking around and checked out some DOOM mods, but there were few that I had actually tried myself. It became a habit of mine to watch Mr Icarus' videos, and once the Keepers3 showcase started, I knew this had something special. The hub has an eerie feeling, and the whole idea that it is based on an album made it even better. Unfortunately, I watched the entire video before playing, so I knew the gimmick of every level, but this did not lower my enjoyment, and rather expanded upon it, as I grew more and more anxious to play it. Gave it a go today, and blasted my way through it pretty fast, but damn was it fun. I felt like this was a reaaaly well crafted experience and had me long for more once I finished it.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by fuzzytrick

[DavidN]

Thanks @fuzzytrick! Really glad that it intrigued you so much :) I hadn’t meant the levels to be quite so based around gimmicks when I started and just meant to use the song titles as inspiration for atmosphere, but it just worked out that way :) It’s great that people are enjoying this - I will have to make a disc two, competing with the part two of the other project that I said I would continue :)

[NPC_CO8ALT]

Is there an order of which levels one should do from easiest to hardest? I keep feeling like I keep choosing the hardest ones by accident and die before I can get any real weapons.

[ryanjames1029]

I can't seem to get the mod to work

[Tango]

3 hours ago, ryanjames1029 said:

I can't seem to get the mod to work

 

are you using GZDoom, and if so, what version? what's not working for you exactly? are you getting an error message when you boot up?

[ryanjames1029]

I'm using GZDoom 4.2. And yes I get an error message that says "keeper3.pk3:mapinfo.keeper3" line 29:
Apprentice is already the default skill

 

EDIT: I downloaded GZDoom 4.3 and it fixed the problem

Edited April 27, 2020 by ryanjames1029