Are you / did you make maps for other games than Doom? What you think of it?

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

Howdy,

As I mentioned in a comment before, I made some Duke3D levels as a kid many, many moons ago. Before you ask, unfortunately they're all lost to time. I also made a few skirmishes for the first Arma, also known as Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. But that's just encounter planning. And I was wondering what would it be like to make a full 3D maps. 3D floors, slopes and portals make stitching together complex architecture relatively simple. Or at the very least possible. Doom and Duke3D mapping is really fast, you can get a fine, playable level in half an hour. Probably not the case in most other engines. Unless it's one of the snap-prefabs kind like the newfangled Doom. Nothing wrong with that, of course but it feels kinda limiting to me, and I didn't actually try it, my machine is too old. I know Godot games can use Quake level format, which is pretty cool, I guess. Prodeus mapping looks funky as well.

So, do/did you map for Quake or Unreal or something? What's it like?

[Thelokk]

Only mapped for Warcraft 2, as Segovia said for guitar 'easy to learn, poorly.' Very rudimentary compared to Doom mapping, but also very easy to produce unplayable junk. 

[Kappes Buur]

After having played a lot community made Doom3 maps I tried my hand of creating my own with GtkRadiant. It made my head hurt and I gave up.

[Hisymak]

My very first experience with a 3D game mapping was with Duke3D, and its Build tool. I moreless figured out myself how to draw sectors and map geometry and such, but desperately needed a tutorial about how to make any actions like doors, teleports and so. After I learned the basics, I could make more by looking at how things were done in other maps. I had however lot of problems figuring out/remembering all the keyboard shortcuts (for very long time I did not know how to change sprite palette and make for example red or yellow access cards) as these were the only way to change the sector/sprite properties, there was no menu or GUI to edit these values directly, which was pretty poor design. Especially changing floor/ceiling heights was a big pain, needing to press PgUp/PgDown precise number of times to get the exact height I wanted, instead of entering an absolute value like in Doom Builder. Scaling sprites and textures was a pain too.

Later I tried mapping for Doom with Wadauthor, it was kinda hard to use due to absence of 3D mode, so I made just something very basic and simple with it. When I got Doom Builder later, it was finally something that worked pretty well!

 

(unfortunately I lost my map I made for Duke Nukem)

[Gez]

PopCorn (old freeware Arkanoid clone)

Deus Ex -- I actually used UnrealEd not to make playable levels but as a cheap way to model places for a tabletop roleplaying game...

Warcraft II -- I mostly made "adventure" maps where you had just one overpowered unit and had to destroy an enemy horde before they managed to destroy some very resilient but otherwise entirely passive buildings; but you had to go tactically about it because just rushing to the target would get your hero overwhelmed.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and Command & Conquer: Red Alert -- nothing really serious, just a few map doodles with the very limited editor they had.

Morrowind -- I participated a bit in Tamriel Rebuilt. I doubt there's any of my work left in the project, though, since they tend to go and redesign what they've already done every couple of years.

Oblivion -- only a personal mod, abandoned and unfinished.

Skyrim -- like Oblivion, but abandoned much faster.

 

And of course Doom, Doom II, Heretic, and Hexen. Never tried mapping for Build engine games, or Descent, or Wolfenstein, or other vintage shooters. I may have attempted a map for Unreal Tournament, since it was basically the same editor as Deus Ex, but if so it didn't go far.

[yakfak]

i have some unfinished DROD holds. really good puzzle/turn-based combat hybrid game not everyone knows.

 

what I really wanna do is make Hexen stuff but I cannot work out how you'd ever get started understanding the tools, lol. it's SO arcane

but what I really REALLY wanna see is an Ultima Underworld editor. if there were ways to redesign the Abyss, add different conversations, different ways of finding the Talismen i'd honestly just play that game and nothing else

[Metal_Slayer]

Does Super Mario Maker count? If yes, then I definitively made a lot of levels for it. There's just something about console level designing tools that I really like, of course it is more limited than tools for PC games, but it's easy to understand the basics and I have even seen some levels that had some kind of scripting or more complex stuff. I just wish there was a 3D console game with good level designing tools (other than Snapmap, of course).

[Shawny]

Back in high school I played with Hammer editor (goldsource) for a bit and created 3 CS1.6 maps.
I wanted to create a small Half life campaign but that endevour was fruitless in the end. Lack of focus and dedication.
I have also tried Build engine, but that experiment never got anywhere.

[Chopkinsca]

I've messed around with level editors in quite a few games, but nothing as extensive as Doom. I think the OG Starcraft is one I did the most with.

 

3 hours ago, yakfak said:

i have some unfinished DROD holds. really good puzzle/turn-based combat hybrid game not everyone knows.

DRoD! I love that game. It is kind of like Doom, in that user content is keeping the game alive. Not to say the official 5 games aren't worth playing and will take quite a bit of time to master.

 

 

[RHhe82]

4 hours ago, yakfak said:

i have some unfinished DROD holds.

 

Oh, that's a great game I used to play, what, quite a few years ago. Can't remember which parts I completed.

 

As for the question, if we rule out Doom-based games and Duke Nukem 3D, I did some (mostly incomplete, just some starting areas or so) with Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures. Also, I did make some (once again incomplete) dungeons for the Dungeon Master "source port", Return to Chaos that came with an editor.

 

Then, as a kid, I also did some missions for the excellent X-Wing and TIE Fighter games. Those were the days.

[MemeMind]

SELF PROMO https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/?filtered=Mememind

 

Im still very new to quake but its very fun to make maps. Trenchbroom is such a easy and fun editor.

 

Messed around with hl2, tf2, and l4d2 and it was fun.

 

I have tried New Vegas modding, but the engine and editor is just too hard to work with. I actually want to try Morrowind modding, since its a much early version of the engine and the editor is a bit simpleler to understand. Plus OpenMW, a Morrowind sourceport, has its own editor that is much easier to use. 

[DannyMan]

I made maps for HacX and HacX 2.0, they are lacking in quality.

[Axuris]

I once tried making a TF2 arena map that was going to be literally a box, but i never finished it.

I did think of maybe relearning mapping for TF2 and also complete the map, however I never did.

Besides i'm pretty sure no one would care about a map that is just a giant cube.

 

[Mystic 256]

nothing fully complete yet but I've messed around with Heretic and Hexen mapping, Duke3D mapping, Blood mapping, Quake mapping, and Super Mario World romhacking before

[Kor]

I've made maps for Heretic and Hexen.  And I also briefly played around with making stuff for Quake, Serious Sam, and the Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind and Oblivion only).  I never fully figured out how to make stuff for those games though.  I pretty much stick to sectors and linedefs, lol. 

 

And I agree, the snap map process for Doom 2016 seems quite limiting.  I'd rather make a room exactly how I wanna make it than rely on someone else's premade content.

[Captain POLAND]

I made some stuff for Descent and Descent II a long time ago.

[Misty]

I messed with Trenchbroom several times for Quake, but I found 3d environment a bit too confusing. Maybe someday I'll return to it again. As for Doom engine games, I have short Heretic project in the works and I played around with Harmony, but it went to nowhere. 

[Mr. Freeze]

Used to get really into Starcraft scripting and custom mapmaking back in 2000. 

[magicsofa]

49 minutes ago, Captain POLAND said:

I made some stuff for Descent and Descent II a long time ago.

Me too! Potentially before even doom mapping? It was a lot of fun and I was horrible at it. I remember being able to change the properties of the robots from within the editor, which I thought was unusual, and being able to make impossible structures (i.e. a hallway through a room, that can only be seen from the inside, and you can fly through it from the outside without interacting with it)

 

I also made one silly map for Unreal Tournament.

As for what it's like... definitely a bit tougher than Doom mapping. Having to look at multiple perspectives most of the time is a mental exercise for sure. The advantage of course is there's no limitation on vertical structures or sloped surfaces, which is liberating when you've worked with Doom for a long time.

Edited May 17, 2022 by magicsofa

[SilverMiner]

Trackmania, Boulder Remake, Loderunner, Little Big Planet, Granny in paradise, Heretic

EDIT:

Oh, we're talking about shooters

[Nikku4211]

When I was 9 I made some maps in Lunar Magic.

 

This was years before Super Mario Maker, so this was all specific to Super Mario World.

 

I eventually tried to make full-on hacks of Super Mario World with characters I made like CCYNS (that's the actual name I came up with for him) as well as hacks featuring my IRL friends from school, and hacks based on a historical fiction book I had to read at summer for school, all of which are abandoned.

 

I downloaded loads of patches to apply to my hacks for things like parallax scrolling and gradients, and also made several (mainly player) sprite graphics and a few background graphics(which sucked because I was a preteen).

 

I still have some of the hacks I've made, but the historical fiction hack is actually fortunately lost to time... 

...with the exception of a single demo that was submitted to SMWCentral which was rejected for obvious reasons(cause it sucked), but not before someone on the internet made a video review of it which I find funny now. I used a different name back when I released the demo, so you won't find 'Nikku4211' attached to it.

 

And the hack hasn't made much progression outside of the demo. Due to the period in history it depicts(as I was a stupid 11 year old), I will never work on it again.

 

I have since lost interest in hacking Super Mario World as a whole, as I've always wanted to use that game as a tool for making my own games, but I eventually decided it's better to program games from scratch in 65816 assembly. Never finished a game, but I've been trying to get the hang of the 65816 so far.

[Hitboi]

As of writing this, I'm making a Wolfenstein 3D map and got rather suprised that the mapping process is easier than Doom's, I also made a map for Sonic Robo Blast 2, but never really finished it.

[Codename_Delta]

1 minute ago, Hitboi said:

As of writing this, I'm making a Wolfenstein 3D map and got rather suprised that the mapping process is easier than Doom's, I also made a map for Sonic Robo Blast 2, but never really finished it.

 

Damn, surprised.

An SRB2 map?

God, that must've been hard to make.

[Hitboi]

2 minutes ago, Codename_Delta said:

God, that must've been hard to make.

It's not as complex as you think, just a square room with too many rings and enemies, and no exit. 
Also I remember the map editor I used was based on GZDoom Builder, which gave me a good sense of familiarity.

[Codename_Delta]

Just now, Hitboi said:

It's not as complex as you think, just a square room with too many rings and enemies, and no exit.
Also I remember the map editor I used was based on GZDoom Builder.

Well then, I was mistaken.

 

I guess I haven't played any custom srb2 maps yet.

[Codename_Delta]

I used to make mario maker maps every day on my 2ds.

It was fun but awfully frustrating due to the fact that you have to unlock everything in the 3ds version.

 

As for anything else.

 

Nothing I don't think.

I guess I made a bunch when I was like 11 on those roblox sonic games.

 

Never again.

[Hitboi]

21 minutes ago, Codename_Delta said:

I guess I haven't played any custom srb2 maps yet.

I only played like four maps and never beated any of them, but one of them caught my attention, it's an exploration map that takes you in sections like a graveyard, sewer, library, etc... it looked kinda like Castle Eggman Zone 2 execpt more greenish and outdoor areas where bigger than indoor ones. It came from a community project, I don't remember the name but it came out in like 2020.

Currently I have little-to-no interest in making an SRB2 map, speedrunning the game is more fun.

[CittyKat112]

I wanted to make my own mod for Deus Ex with its own storyline, music and shit, downloaded Deus Ex Editing Pack and started reading a guideline made by the guy who made Zodiac mod... But mapping for Deus Ex involves scripting so I gave up.

[URROVA]

I remember mapping some really bad Geometry Dash levels, then i lost these

I tried to map something for Cave Story, and i think i can make something for it

And the usual level making for my indie gamedev projects (nothing released yet)

[Frost-Core]

Made maps for some open source games, to show my love i give you a very old supertux world :

Lost In A Sea.