The philosophy that goes into making a good map

[Stroggman]

Wanna know the makings of a good doom map

[Kappes Buur]

Three things:

1. Know the tools

2. Give your imagination free rein

3. Have fun

[NightRiding Doom]

1) Google is your enemy, youtube is your friend. 

2) Patience. First maps take time to get correct, so having patience is a must. But don't gate your creativity. let it loose, and what doesn't suit, make it in another .wad file. you will never know what you can use.

 

Other than that, the philosophy of mapping is pretty much summed up by 5 doom wads:

The IWADS Doom I and Doom II, The Sunlust, Going down and I have yet to find the fifth one

[xScavengerWolfx]

So you wanna know how to make a good doom map eh? *pulls out a mary jane cig and lights it*

 

Well what i've learned from being in a community project is the following:

 

Think of a good theme and run with it.

 

Play with map editor and see what works and what dose not.

 

Make places in your map that is either hard as hell but winable or set traps for greedy players.

 

Do NOT make inescapable traps unless your doing Plutonia mapping then run wild with that one.

 

Don't give the player over powered weapons right off the bat unless it's for a boss fight or a slaughter fest.

 

The biggest one that i try to teach other that are going into mapping is this....always ALWAYS listen to feedback and criticism. This one is important because if you brush off what people say about your work you would never get better at it. Believe me been there done that. 

 

*finish the weed ciggie and puts it out*

 

Hopes that helps and a bonus one i'll throw out there. Play a bunch of wads and get ideas on what you want in your maps, inspirations is a big one as well. And never copy & paste someone else's work, that's being lazy and it's dumb to do.

[DoomGuy999]

23 minutes ago, tumedaskihutaja_37685 said:

Other than that, the philosophy of mapping is pretty much summed up by 5 doom wads:

The IWADS Doom I and Doom II, The Sunlust, Going down and I have yet to find the fifth one

What about ancient aliens?

[DoomGuy999]

As much as I can't say much since I'm a beginner too, I can summarize what I have learned for you:

 

#1 

Software

Doom editing software is how you make maps. Ultimate Doom Builder is the preferred method because of it's interface. You can easily switch between 2d map making mode and the 3d view. On the other hand, Slade 3 can do doom level editing, though it is a little harder to make maps. What is cool about slade is that you can edit textures and thing sprites.

 

#2

Tutorials

To keep it short, Chubzdoomer, DavidXNewton (Leader of RAMP), Raven67854, And LazyGamer all put up doom builder tutorials on YT. I would recommend chubzdoomer. 

 

#3

Inspiration

This may not sound important, but it really is. There are great wads available which are a great resource. This will help you find your mapping style. I personally like Tech Base.

 

#4

Design

Now you are ready to make a map. Draw shapes that you feel. Maps often start with a square, though you can mix it up and make a hexagon if you want. Keep your style flowing, don't make a tech base and use a hell texture out of nowhere. If you have plans to have a hallway to hell, make a nice transition. 

 

#5

Gameplay

Add enemies, weapons, health, and armor to your maps. If a room is too hard on ITYTD than flag some monsters for higher difficulty. If your map is to easy on UV and you don't feel like adding more enemies flag health for lower levels.

 

I might edit this some more, I hope it's helpful. :)

[Maribo]

Follow your heart.

[DoomGuy999]

1 minute ago, Maribo said:

Follow your heart.

Why did the link just give me a privacy warning before continuing?

[Maribo]

Just now, DoomGuy999 said:

Why did the link just give me a privacy warning before continuing?

Guess Ribbiks' website security certificate expired. It's just a reference to Magnolia.

[DoomGuy999]

Just now, Maribo said:

Guess Ribbiks' website security certificate expired. It's just a reference to Magnolia.

Ok, because I immediately closed out after reading there was a privacy issue. Sorry.

[networkerror]

Every good map to one person is another persons idea of a shit one. Just make what you would like to play as if someone was map-catering to you personally.

[DRON12261]

21 hours ago, Stroggman said:

Wanna know the makings of a good doom map

Let's discard the "just practice and do what you like" advice. Because for the most part this advice is useless, and it's clear enough if you're not a fool. If you are suddenly a fool for whatever reason, just don't be one and you'll be fine. 
 

 

 

1) Study the editor. Explore its capabilities, what it even allows you to do. Go a little further than just "you can draw a sector, lines", "you can make doors", etc.

2) Study map formats, what they are, what they provide, and what ports they work on. Learn certain mapping tricks, there are a lot of them and for each format can be different. Today of the significant formats there are the following: Vanilla(with limits under the original), Limit-Removing, Boom, MBF21, Hexen, UDMF. Each format has its own limitations, its own purpose and its own goals. At the very least different port coverage.

 

3) Study how ports work at a good level (I mean those aspects that can play a role in mapping, you don't need to dig into the port source code, much is described in the Wiki, much is learned with experience, much is mentioned in discussions), what features and capabilities they have, as well as what problems and limitations they have. Make yourself a list of ports for each map format, customize configurations in Doom Builder to match these lists. If you think that on one port everything works great, and on other ports everything will work just as great, you are terribly mistaken. In almost all ports, various unforeseen nuances may pop up in certain situations (up to bugs in the vanilla Boom or prBoom+, for example, which some ports focused on during development, and which were fixed by other ports).

 

4) Pay attention to additional features and "standards", especially MAPINFO. Today there are many additional features implemented in different ports, which you can additionally use in your map. If we talk about MAPINFO for example Boom maps, always implement several MAPINFOs. In my experience, the greatest port coverage is achieved by including UMAPINFO, ZMAPINFO, EMAPINFO, MAPINFO(Hexen format) in your wad. Combine with techniques for vanilla ports (level names in Dehacked and additional image files with level names for Intermission Screen, naming music and everything else for vanilla format, etc.).

 

5) Test your maps on a wide range of ports. DO NOT sit only within one or two ports only, unless you are creating an exclusive that will only work on, for example, GZDoom or Eternity Engine. If you created a map on Boom, for example, but tested on GZDoom, then you haven't tested it at all. Good testing and paying enough attention to the polishing of the project often plays an important role.

 

6) Learn to do things quickly. Gradually increase your development speed. Get deeper into the nuances of the editor. Develop your own "techniques" for doing certain things "in a couple clicks" that you spend a lot of time on. Practice speedmapping, not necessarily with rigid limits. The main message, do more without losing quality in less time.

7) If you feel that you lack creativity, set yourself limits. It's often the case that in the face of strong constraints in trying to implement certain things, you'll look for hacks of one sort or another to implement them, which in turn will keep your "brain is boiling" and will go a long way towards delving into a topic and therefore ensuring your growth. This is one of the reasons I usually tell beginners to start with Limit-Removing or Boom. Limits can straighten your arms if you put in the extra effort, there is no magic out of thin air, don't get your hopes up. But it's still worth considering that it may not work for everyone, although from my observations it has often worked for me and many other mappers I know. Another thing worth mentioning here is to search for your idea generators. For example for me it's listening to music, especially MIDI soundtracks, listening to which I already start visualizing my map in my head.

8) Take into account the rule that a player is a "fool" (I don't mean to disparage, I'm a player myself). If you think you've come up with some incredible new thing on your map, don't assume that the average player will be able to figure it out and see it. It often happens that even on seemingly insanely obvious things, the player will sit scratching his head for 3 hours and do not do what you have in mind. This is basically the eternal dilemma of leveldesign and gamedesign in the game industry. So always keep this thing in mind. And don't forget to test on players before releasing a map. It's a good idea to keep in mind among potential testers as people with experience in mapping, as well as ordinary players who may not even know much about Doom itself.

9) Your multi-layered posts and README files will be read by only a few people. People don't know how to read. Either they are insanely lazy or busy. If you have to write certain important things that need to be conveyed to the player in a post or README, this is likely to be a problem. If you have a way to automate this (e.g. the settings or things or whatever are automatically applied when the map starts) or implement it in such a way that the player simply can't miss this information (e.g. explicitly provide it to the player on the map itself) or something along those lines, do it. The less there will be such an intermediate textual and not only layer between the player and your wad, the better it will be.

10) Don't rush with the release on idgames. It can often happen that you post a map on idgames after some pretty confident testing and polishing, and then suddenly after a couple of weeks you find out that there are certain flaws, someone had something broken, or the balance or level progression was not as obvious as you thought. Do a temporary Release Candidate and specifically wait for a certain time period (e.g. a month), during which certain issues could potentially surface.

11) Play other wads and learn from other mappers. It is impossible to come up with something potentially new. Observe, adopt, combine, develop. And don't be afraid to learn other maps in builder, this is the key point, due to which you can learn a lot of things.

 

 

I've also written in more detail about some things in other posts, you might be interested in reading that as well:
- Map formats and port testing in detail: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2640803
- How to build your own texture pack: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2652222
- Vanilla-Friendly features: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2655658

Good Luck!

Edited September 19, 2023 by DRON12261

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

Find a list of things mappers should avoid, bad mapping practices and concepts. And then do that.

 

For example,

List: doom platforming is bad because you can't see where you're going.

You: Make a map that's mostly platforming where you can't see where you're going. But here's the twist - think about a way to make it a fun challenge. I guarantee there is a way. 

[Jayextee]

6 minutes ago, Sneezy McGlassFace said:

Find a list of things mappers should avoid, bad mapping practices and concepts. And then do that.

 

Motherfucker giving away my secrets here.

[Doom Wads]

@DRON12261

Great! Very helpful ideas bud, thanks!

[OceanMadman]

Try to think outside the box. Imo a lot of people don't give enough credit to creativity, and instead they just go and make another techbase.wad. Those can be good, but I'm sure you can be more original. 

[DeafPixel]

On 9/19/2023 at 9:29 PM, Sneezy McGlassFace said:

Find a list of things mappers should avoid, bad mapping practices and concepts. And then do that.

 

For example,

List: doom platforming is bad because you can't see where you're going.

You: Make a map that's mostly platforming where you can't see where you're going. But here's the twist - think about a way to make it a fun challenge. I guarantee there is a way. 

Great tip. Doom Mapping is a form of art, and so like all art, my main piece of advice is to be uncompromising in your vision.
Beyond the basics, I think you just need to pursue opportunities. Maybe you have a vision in your mind before starting your map, and when working on it it starts to turn out different. Instead of trying to "re-rail", I like to find every interesting thing that happens and push it further.

You'll never make something you like if you conform to someone elses standard. Your map may not even be good if you follow this type of advice, but you don't have to make something good every time, and I guarantee your maps will be more interesting if you "follow your heart", as it were

[Axamoretl]

Here's a few of my thoughts from building as well as playing other WADs, talking to other builders, and watchin way too many tutorial vids (some of the bullet points below should be taken with a grain as they're aesthetic opinion):

 

• F4. Use the F4 - Map Analysis function.
• Always make sure your sectors are closed and your vertices are aligned.
• Player testing is incredibly valuable. The amount of information you can get from just 3 people testing out the map can vastly alter the quality of the WAD.
• Learn how to signpost. A lot of map confusion just comes from things not being taught enough (rule of 3!), or stuff being too esoteric. Some of it is "obvious" and people miss it though cos that's how humans be, so don't sweat it too much.
• Do all kinds of shapes for rooms. Wrap rooms around each other. Draw circles and ovals. Make mazes. Create crazy architecture that will make Euclid blush.
• Try to make each space feel "lived in". Give that room some kind of purpose and fill it with geometry, textures, and Things that fit that room's purpose.
• Experiment with heights. Use stairs and platforms/elevators and take the player all over. Fill rooms with towers or high up platforms where hitscanners can thrive and be a serious threat.
• Do your best to avoid scope creep! My first map, Spillways, went from a quick 30 min to beat map to taking over an hour to beat cos I kept adding in ideas (it also took me 2 months to make it as a result). Pick a central idea and theme and stick to that.
• Give the player more than enough supplies. Find out what the player will need to beat the level on a base amount, then go a bit over that to compensate.
• Personally I'd avoid stuff like wallhump secrets, or death traps (where the player cannot get back out). Secrets with more obvious activators are much better, imo.
• Consider adjusting the level per difficulty. I've largely seen this done by taking a percentage of the total monsters on UV out for lower difficulties (ie. UV has 130 monsters, HMP has 100 monsters, HNTR has 85 monsters, ITYTD has 60 monsters). Same for items and powerups.
• Maximize monster potential! Hitscan enemies are at their most challenging in large or long rooms where they're tougher to hit. Smaller rooms are great for pinkies and Lost Souls. 
• Please don't overuse stuff. Look, it's the 20th monster closet filled with 20 revenants. why do you hate me so much 😭?
• Get creative with textures! If you don't have the inclination to make your own, there are plenty of ways to repurpose many of the base textures in the IWADs. Some textures could make cool table-tops, or door tracks!

Edited September 25, 2023 by Axamoretl

[Fonze]

Lotta great points in this thread! Not sure I have much more to add but since it hasn't been yet: communication with the player. Even something as simple as letting the player see a key door before acquiring the key or a slightly obvious secret can be a powerful morale boost to players, while silently teleporting monsters in (as a cheap example) can come across as antagonistic and make players feel discouraged. People like feeling clever that they figured something out or that they know what to do and it's a comforting thing to feel that there is a communicated or seemingly-intuitive 'thing to do.'

 

Doom as a game has some bits of unspoken communication that are naturally built into it, plus tropes through the iwads and over the years in pwads has added more to fuel expectations for those unspoken bits, but more pertinently: it's importance can be felt most when it is absent.