My Very First WAD (Five Map miniwad)

[NickTheNESHero]

Here is my very first WAD! It's a five-map miniwad that I made as a birthday gift for my brother, Jake. With his blessing, I am posting it here for everyone to enjoy.

 

I made it for Doom II with Eureka Doom Editor and tested it with GZDoom. The maps are designed to be completed without jumping or crouching.

 

I'd like to know what y'all think about it. I welcome any and all feedback! :)

 

Download Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19Etc_9OcEmA0R3MzYWsrwFac6sAg2Ko9?usp=sharing

 

The Five Levels Are:

 

map01 - First Landing: My first ever Doom map, taking place in a decrepit toxic waste storage. It's a little rough, but I think it turned out alright.

 

map02 - Temple of Torment: A temple themed map based around three challenges! The opening room is a recreation of an unfinished Doom map that my brother Jake made for me.

 

map03 - Cistern: A combat-centric map in an underground cistern and its surrounding caves!

 

map04 - Calamity Canyon: an outdoor map taking place deep in a massive canyon! When you fight, you'll have to watch your step.

 

map05 - Dead Heat: Finally, an obligatory Dead Simple clone, as is traditional. Pure combat, no frills. Try to find a hidden secret amidst the chaos!

 

An unfinished sixth map, Cloning Labs, is in the map06 slot. It's very early in development, and nowhere near done, though I intend to finish it.

 

Anyway, try it out and let me know what you think of it! -Nick

Edited April 21, 2020 by NickTheNESHero

[NieMaMordy]

It's a cool mapset, especially if it's your first. The first map lacked focus, but I liked the traps that were there during the backtracking. Second one was probably the best, as it was the most nice looking, and had some good challenge, even despite the fact that last fight was quite chaotic. The third map was simmilar to the second, altough most of it's rooms looked quite simmilar to each other. I liked the staircase that lead me to the blue door though. Fourth map was the most nice looking, although the most chaotic when it comes to enemy encouters, as it seemed that you used all the types of monsters available. Still a cool one though, even if the pits were inescapable I think. The fifth map looked like something that I'd make lol, but still a very enjoyable one. Quite chaotic too, but managable and felt much better to play. I couldn't find the exit though. 

Here are some tips:
Let the player know which doors are possible to open and which are not by using different textures.
Don't be affraid of seting traps for the player. I loved the ones that you created, but there wasn't this many of them.
Let the player escape the pits. Maybe a teleport or an elevator?

Overall a very fun time. I envy your brother as I can tell that a lot of effort went into creating this one. You've got the basics now, and I can tell that your maps are gonna keep getting better and better, just like here, where with each map I noticed more and more focus on a certain themes. Nice Job!

[Doomkid]

Oh, these look so far up my alley. Will play and give a review within the next couple days! (Away from home atm)

[taufan99]

Looks like a nice mapset. I also would like to have that status bar face mod as well.

[NickTheNESHero]

1 minute ago, InDOOMnesia said:

Looks like a nice mapset. I also would like to have that status bar face mod as well.

What status bar face mod?

[taufan99]

1 minute ago, NickTheNESHero said:

What status bar face mod?

Aren't you using one? I saw several sprites which I remember come from a status bar face mod, particularly the Doomguy closing his eyes.

[NickTheNESHero]

2 minutes ago, InDOOMnesia said:

Aren't you using one? I saw several sprites which I remember come from a status bar face mod, particularly the Doomguy closing his eyes.

I'm using SmoothDoom. I guess I never noticed that it changed the face sprites, lol. Can't recommend SmoothDoom enough, though. It smooths out all the animations while still keeping a vanilla feel.

[Hurykles]

Cool mapset. Some misaligned textures here and there but i liked it. For first maps it's not that bad.

And i have a question: after defeating all monsters in map 5 center with cybie should lower, right? Because it didn't when i played it. I was using PrBoom+ port (gl-boom+ if i have to be precise).

[NieMaMordy]

I was using doomretro and it didn't lower for m either.

[phoo]

Looks like a cool mapset, I'll give it a try when I get a chance.

[Caleb13]

Not bad for the first WAD, though there are a few bugs:

 

MAP02: sectors 172, 186 and 249 shouldn't be secret.

 

MAP04: sector 167, shouldn't be secret. Also, you have many monster-blocking linedefs around the canyon, they make fighting the floating monsters very easy.

 

Well, the main downside of the mod is that it's overally very easy. And I mean "I could play this blindfolded" easy, maybe except MAP05 and the last fight in MAP02. I don't think my health ever dropped below 80% when playing this.

[piesunisko]

Very good wad for a first time, my fav map is the third one it had a nice rooms in the beginning and the end, first i played it with prboom+ but i couldn't finish it because the center with cyberdemon didn't lower, also i noticed that with prboom+ music doesn't get replaced, i recorded my second try with zdoom tho

 

JakeDemo.rar

 

Also happy birthday to your brother :)

[Austinado]

Hey man, i took the liberty to record your WAD so you can see the perspective from other player. Comments in the video. Cheers!

 

 

[NickTheNESHero]

I want to thank everyone for the awesome feedback!

 

I've been taking it all under consideration and have begun the process of incorporating changes suggested by the community! Here are the changes I plan to make:

 

1. MORE CHALLENGE

I greatly underestimated the skill of the average DOOM player, so I'll be going back and making all the maps a lot harder. More monsters, more traps, more challenge all around.

 

2. LESS HEALTH AND AMMO

The most common feedback was that I placed so much health and ammo in the maps to the point that it made fights too easy. So, I'm rethinking health and ammo placement, and I'm going to try and be smarter with what kind of ammo I dole out to the player.

 

3. BETTER TEXTURING

Visually, the maps aren't much to look at, so I'm going back and improving the look the maps. I hope to improve both the texture variety and the variety of heights and styles of rooms and corridors.

 

4. ONE MORE LEVEL

I hope to finish the sixth and final level, Cloning Labs. I'll be designing it from the ground up keeping in mind the feedback I've gotten from the previous maps.

 

I'll be posting an update when it's done, and you'll be able to try the new and improved WAD for yourselves!

[baja blast rd.]

1 minute ago, NickTheNESHero said:

1. MORE CHALLENGE

 I greatly underestimated the skill of the average DOOM player, so I'll be going back and making all the maps a lot harder. More monsters, more traps, more challenge all around.

 

 

From what I've seen, the pacing and composition of your maps was actually very good for a newcomer.  There were hardly any fights that felt pointless. So instead of just 'more more more', you might just want to consider choosing some select moments in the already existing map flow and spicing those up. 

[NickTheNESHero]

13 minutes ago, rdwpa said:

 

From what I've seen, the pacing and composition of your maps was actually very good for a newcomer.  There were hardly any fights that felt pointless. So instead of just 'more more more', you might just want to consider choosing some select moments in the already existing map flow and spicing those up. 

Don't worry, I won't be just throwing more monsters into the mix. I plan on using a few more higher-tier monsters in arena fights (Barons, Hellknights, Revenants, etc.), being smarter with how I place them, and using a few more mid-tier monsters (Cacodemons, Pinkies, etc.) in corridors between larger fights.

 

I also want to retool the boss fights (namely, the final encounters in map03 and map04) to make them a bit less of a grind. I think the best way to do that would be to remix them into multiple phases focusing on interesting monster combinations.

[tib_]

very cool, played maps 1 and 2 so far (got owned in the big fight with the archvile)

 

make sure to use DOORTRAK texture on your door tracks, its makes them look a more consistent and also works as a transition between areas