Do you have any mapping gimmick trademark?

[digithead100]

I've only made a few maps but they all contained bridges. I'm pretty sure every single map I ever make will contain at least one bridge. I invested a lot of time into figuring out how to get them to work properly so you can imagine that I don't want all that effort to be for naught. I've even thought about making a map that contained nothing but bridges. Haven't had the time to get around to doing that unfortunately.

[RastaManGames]

If my map gonna be a "real" place (like habitable complex/building for human beings), then there is must be a toilet. At least, one...

And if there is any toilets, they must be flushable! 🌊🚽

[Doom_Dude]

This is more of what I'm doing these days. In the past I did all sorts of dumb shit... whole maps made from 2 textures and whatnot. My bad habits took awhile to kill off.

 

I still make too many maps. I tell myself I'm not going to make any new maps and then BOOM another one appears somehow.

• Monster closets are fun but sometimes a door flies open on an ammo / health closet.
• Less symmetrical a room the better. I was too symmetrical for ages.
• Most of my rooms have light sources.
• I like to place torches and floor lamps in recessed spots.
• Lots of stuff going on with the ceilings. Beams, holes, trim, decorations, lights,...
• Teleporter pads that you can only beam to are grey or silver. The red ones are those that take you places.
• Lots of moving walls and or 3d walls.
• Secrets that aren't just broom closets.
• I make a lot of custom textures for my maps.
• I like to design levels that open up as you progress, so you're crossing previous areas.
• If it's an exit, it's marked as an exit.
• I tend to jump from one map to another. Probably harder to get any particular map finished that way.
• Trending towards making more smaller maps.
• None of that inescapable pit nonsense but you may not live to find the way out.
• I started making most of my key requiring doors stay open after unlocking.
• I tend to make my steps all 8 high and 32 deep...
• I hate ceilings that are too low for the monsters and you see them clipping through...
• I'm nuts about how textures are aligned and I don't like how some textures have very noticeable spots when tiled. Not gonna write a paragraph about that.
• I have a weird thing where I like fixing up old maps.
• I tend to only use monster blocking lines to guide them towards the player or keep them from getting stuck.

Edited October 6, 2022 by Doom_Dude

[aRottenKomquat]

Obvious light sources and sector lighting, rather than lit areas that have no apparent source of lighting. And occasional 3D floors to create bridges.

[Budoka]

6 hours ago, pcorf said:

My recent gimmicks.

- Linear progression but maximize interconnection and minimize backtracking.

- Run and gun.

- Ambushes.

- Lots of Secrets.

- Use ROCKRED1, ROCKRED2, ROCKRED3 to vary the animation, not just ROCKRED1. Same with other animated textures (BFALL1,2,3,4, SFALL1,2,3,4, etc).

My past gimmicks.

- Symmetry.

- Backtracking.

- Unmarked Secrets.

- Extreme linearity.

Out of curiosity, which release of yours would you say was the tipping point into the "recent gimmicks" part becoming more predominant?

[CittyKat112]

I love adding fake floors to make the floor look like it has an invisible glass on it or to avoid bumpiness and sometimes add unreachable areas that you can't go to but can see for the worldbuilding (and also doors that can't be opened if you directly interact with them, some of them can't be opened up at all and each one of these doors should share the same two textures - one for wide and other for thin doors).

[Captain POLAND]

- Random sections of damaging floor in the middle of normal floors with no indication to tell them apart

- Platforming sections where the platforms randomly drop into lava as soon as you step on them and don't make a frame - perfect jump to the next one

- Groups of powerups that look like you can grab them, but if you try you get teleported into an inescapable death pit

- Dozens of arch-viles teleporting into rooms you've already cleared of monsters

- Normal looking rooms and hallways that spontaneously become crushers once you're far enough inside them and don't give you time to escape

- Powerups that you have to approach from a very specific angle to pick up, otherwise you hit an invisible instant-death linedef

- Hundreds of chaingunners on balconies in open rooms with no cover

- Random unmarked teleporters that, if you step on them, kill you with a barrel explosion, or teleport you into an inescapable room surrounded by 20 cyberdemons

- Icon of Sin levels where the only safe spots are the monster spawner destinations (everything else is a 20 damaging floor or crusher) so you have to run from one to the next to avoid getting telefragged while killing the Icon of Sin with precisely aimed rockets

- Custom monsters with gimmicks like shooting rapidfire BFG blasts and spawning arch-viles with every attack

 

I don't release any of my maps...

[bofu]

If the player's about to walk into really nasty ambush, I throw a lot of gore decorations around to warn them.

 

I separate big, mini-slaughter fights with more traditional fights so that it never feels like the same thing over and over again.

 

I'll put two different secrets in the same room because it's usually the last place where a person looks.

[Bobby :D]

Not finishing them. 

[cannonball]

I don’t even think I have any signature traits/gimmicks. Pretty much all of the ideas I tend to use are ones that are more associated by other mappers.

I guess I tend to prefer making maps that give a lot of freedom of movement to both the player and monsters.

[smeghammer]

I've been told I use too many hitscanners... 

 

Spoiler

Usually by @Biodegradable when he playtests :-)

 

[Firedust]

20 minutes ago, cannonball said:

I don’t even think I have any signature traits/gimmicks. Pretty much all of the ideas I tend to use are ones that are more associated by other mappers.

I guess I tend to prefer making maps that give a lot of freedom of movement to both the player and monsters.

Noticed a lot of honeycomb layouts in your latest project contributions ;)

[exl]

Double. Inset. Walls. Sometimes with a divider column.

 

[Rexen²]

For me its usual the following:

-If the player can see the outside, they most likely can get there in some way without cheating.

-Texture scaling to make textures fit 

-Actor/Thing scaling on props for some variety

-Snakeimps

-UV+ support 

[Herr Dethnout]

Monster Closets and MONSTER CLOSETS

Using Skies on windows

Barons

Using all 3 keys

Shotgun start

MORE BARONS

Only Ult. Doom

MORE SHOTGUN START hatepistolstart

Symmetry enjoyer

Secrets that actually helps on the player

Did I say MONSTER CLOSETS WITH BARS LOCK?!

Edited October 5, 2022 by Herr Dethnout

[Pechudin]

When making human-built structures I use only 90 or 45 angles. I am trying to get out of that habit.

 

When making natural environments, using anything BUT 90 or 45 degree angles.

[Astro X]

Almost every map of mine has a huge colorful star/pentagram on the floor :)

 

I also use damaging floors a lot.

 

Inescapable pits 99% of times inexistent.

 

Very little use of hitscanners.

 

All maps have a computer area map at the exit and you can always backtrack if you want.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Astro X

[Deadwing]

Probably the main ones:

 

- Enemies behind every corner

- Low monster counter

- Non-linearity, which leads to cryptic Progression (trying to improve on that!)

- Rocket Launcher as your main weapon

- Short maps

- Enemies in secrets

- Closets over teleporting enemies

- One-way drop downs

[magicsofa]

[Doomkid]

Quote

"Jimi, do you rely on gimmicks?"

Quote

"Gimmicks, man! Here we go again, gimmicks! I'm tired of people saying we rely on gimmicks. What is this?? The world is nothing but a big gimmick, isn't it?! Napalm bombs go off, people burn in the street and it's nothing but a big gimmick...

...Yes, we do."

 

I guess my personal "gimmicks" (teehee) would be...

 

- Typically high on the action, but with lots of health too

- Plenty of hitscanners, but rarely placed meanly

- DeHackEd weapon upgrades, frequent minor alterations of baddies

- Oldschool visuals and designs for the most part, but in a slightly more "refined/neo-classical" way, I guess...

- Running community projects every year or so

 

..Assuming gimmicks just means trademarks in this case, and not "tricks solely to attract attention". I do everything I do in the pursuit of fun, that's the only motivating factor for me!

[Solmyr]

• Custom textures: mostly borrowed from the share your textures thread and it's equivalent from the zdoom forums.
• Doomcute.
• Office theme: venetian blinds, desks, vending machines, book cases, billboards, file cabinets.
• Semi-abstract architecture and minor realism.
• Slaughter-lite combat: micro-slaugther encounters which consists of medium to high tier monsters in small and medium-sized areas which have just enough space to allow the player to dodge, take cover, and instigate infighting but it requires the player to be quick on their toes lest they get too much of their "moving space" denied and die.
• Different monster/item/ammo/powerup placement and type per difficulty setting.
• Not knowing which MIDI fits the tone of the map then stick with an IWAD track that somewhat fits.
• Prefference for vanilla format.

[JacenXYZ]

I think my gimmicks are typing out a story and not knowing how to commence it, being unfocused with level design, using assets, procrastination. As well as focusing on quantity over quality.

[Codename_Delta]

Experimentation, insane looking yet manageable fights and good midi choices.

 

 

Oh yeah, my love for doors, hexagonal/octagonal rooms, and usually some kind of dehacked stuff (My shitty earth place, Unstable Reality technically counts, The Mines [My Doom 1 hell map if you didn't know] and Helmet-Deep In The Cybruisers.)

Edited October 6, 2022 by Codename_Delta

[SplinkWizard]

Have important areas have a special detail or decoration different from the rest of the map so the player can form landmarks. To me, it will draw the player to areas and prevent them from being lost.

[Desfar]

My gimmick is never finishing a map

[Chezza]

I have one scene I always create in my FPS projects. Honestly, I stole it directly from Unreal. It inspired me when I've first seen it many years back.

 

Press a switch or something and then all music stops. Lights behind you gradually switch off one by one until the room is almost pitch black. You start hearing noises, knowing what's coming. Then bang, walls open up and bunch of enemies ambush you.

 

Unreal

See the original Unreal scene I'm referring to. Video starts at 11:03

 

Doom

See 2:35 of my custom wad: Operation UAC

 

Doom 2016

and also see 20:36 in my Doom 2016 Snapmap: Memento Mori Machina

 

[lainxtp]

My map gimmick is pretty special. It's not releasing them.

[Faceman2000]

My gimmick:

 

• Start by saying “no gimmicks this time, just a nice simple map”
• Think of a cool gimmick on accident
• Spend an unholy amount of time implementing that gimmick
• Think of some cool textures that will aid the gimmick
• Make that texture, get more inspired, and make a bunch of unrelated textures
• Have a really, really slow release schedule

I also realized that three of the six maps in the episode I’m working on have a section where you platform across the top of computers, so apparently that’s one of mine.

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Pretty much all of my maps align to the 64x64 grid to some extent. I also get kinda anal about making ABSOLUTELY sure my wall textures are aligned.

I also seem to always use tiny cubby holes accessed by pressing against a door for my secrets.

Oh and I love giving the player some extra health. <3

[Bobby :D]

2 hours ago, Deadwing said:

Probably the main ones:

 

- Enemies behind every corner

- Low monster counter

- Non-linearity, which leads to cryptic Progression (trying to improve on that!)

- Rocket Launcher as your main weapon

- Short maps

- Enemies in secrets

- Closets over teleporting enemies

- One-way drop downs

We are clones :D