[Community Project] - Lunchbreak 24: Doom in a jiffy

[Zerofuchs]

So, in my own antisocial and annoyingly attention deficit way I do want to get more mapping done, and get a bit more involved with the general mapping community. Get something proper out there.

 

Since NaNoWadMo is starting up come October and I've signed up for it, I thought I'd challenge myself by doing something that needs me to regularly interact with folk: A community project. But... keeping it relatively simple. Jumping the gun? A little, I've made one map, but I had to blow a little rust off anyway.

 

Rambling over motivations aside, the quick details:
 

Title: Lunchbreak

COVERPIC: TBD

Story: Doomguy takes a break from the office grind to get some quick slaying in.

Total Maps: 32

Deadline (loose): 1 November 2024

Release Date: 15 November 2024

Themes: Speedmapping; Bite-sized maps; Speedrun Friendly

Focus: Gameplay over form; Best-practice mapping.

Map Play Time Limit: 4 Minutes "par" time

IWAD: Plutonia (subject to change)

Compatibility: Boom (complevel 9); UMAPINFO; DOOM 2 monster roster/arsenal.

Target ports: PRBoom+ and DSDA-Doom. 

Custom Assets: Go ahead, but to reduce conflict risk try keeping it restrained with textures..

Currently, details of individual maps and interested parties will be kept track of in a Google Sheet

 

There's no experience baseline or prior maps required for interest in the project. The goal for mappers of all levels is low scope and moderate pressure, small and reasonably polished maps taking no more than a day or two to make each - and for the player to have something they can load up on a lunchbreak to blast their way through. Taking multiple slots is encouraged but we'll see how many folk are interested.

 

In terms of visual cohesion or story threads, this is a party pack. Slaughter lite is good but clever non-combat focused maps would add some variety.

 

The challenge level being targeted here is more on the average than peak, although speedrun friendliness is encouraged the truly challenging maps will lie in the latter episode. Not easy, per se, but maxing out about Plutonia levels. It'd start fairly relaxed, move on to frantic, then towards the end hit fairly frenetic.

 

Going to run from 1 October with a deadline of a month, but feel free to get started on any ideas earlier if you want. Release will be on 15th November, but I'll also update it for a month or so afterwards if some folk have other commitments get in the way. Getting the announcement out now to encourage interest and so any slot conflicts can be resolved early.

 

Thanks for reading this far and have fun!

And because it's suggested one always have a little eyecandy to go along with a text wall, some shots from the current iteration of the intro map:

 

Edit: A more formal list of guidelines, to be amended as additional details are determined:
 

General Details:

• The goal is to get a full 32 map set out by somewhere around November
• This is intended to be the sort of WAD you can run through over a lunchbreak, maybe two. Hence the name.
• Thus short, compact maps with a relatively gentle difficulty progression.
• While this isn't a speedmapping project, I advise against committing too much time to a given map - it's bite sized mapping as much as bite sized gameplay.
• Multiple slots are encouraged but in general, first come first served.
• No Legacy of Rust stuff (this time)
• At the beginning of November we'll see how many maps are done and start on final polish and putting together the release WAD, a few weeks will be given to finish up or for still-interested procrastinators to crunch (been there, I know how it is).
• If we don't hit 32 maps this year, it's not a train smash and what we have will be released - but if we can get a decent showing, Lunchbreak 25 will be on the cards to make another full slot attempt.
   

Gameplay:

• Monster count in the high 2 digits to low 3 digits, mostly because:
• Playtime for a UVMAX should be targeting somewhere between 3-5 minutes except for maybe the earliest maps.
• Gimmicks are great but bear in mind time constraints and bug fixing for anything particularly funky.
• Complevel 9, which is to say compatibility with basic Boom functionality, which should allow for generalised special linedefs but not cause too many issues with demo recording and speedrun submissions.
• All maps should be beatable from a pistol start and without finding the secrets (although that's not to say it's easy without exploring). Please design and playtest with this in mind. I recommend against hiding weapons in secrets unless they're fully optional to finish the level with.
• Difficulty is aimed to start fairly light but toughen up as you get towards the latter third of map numbers, the goal is to ramp up the challenge while still keeping playtime down.
• That said, we're creating a mapset for a more casual kind of play so let's keep it within commercial WAD difficulty ranges. 

Visuals:

• There isn't a hard theme and the emphasis isn't on massively detailed maps, so much as quick bites of DOOM.
• Plutonia textures, hope you like green and brown and brownish greens.
• Custom textures are fine but for collation simplicity please use a consistent naming convention, as these all need to be imported into the final pack.
•    I suggest E.g. BREAK04_1 for a single custom patch in map04; BREAK12_3 for the third patch in map 12, and so forth.
• I would like to get some custom, lunch themed sprite replacements together for health and armour and powerups, but these will be applied across all maps in the pack. As I'm not a great pixel artist myself, the support of a spriter would be appreciated. Junkfood might offer some inspiration but since we're already doing something similar that would perhaps be too derivative... 
• When using other people's assets, please be careful to credit appropriately and only use a texture if it is permitted in the license for the pack.

Audio:

• As with visuals, custom MIDs are fine. Please refer to this list for your map number and rename the file appropriately, and include a credit to the author with the original track name.
• Not really looking at sound effect replacements this time around.

Submitting a map:
You can DM me with a file attachment, or post it in the thread for the others to try out as well. I'm not the best critic but I'll play through and feedback as best I can.
Once it's been decided that a map is ready to go, it'll be uploaded to this share and linked in the OP so folk can give it a grab.

 

If there's anything I've missed in the above guidelines, please feel free to ping me.

 

Current Slots:

01: Zerofuchs (Playable - use Plutonia IWAD)

02: Matt Eldrydge (Playable)

03: DoctorNuriel

04: purple_ruberoid

05: dmh094

06:

07: Zerofuchs (Playable)

08:

09:

10: Murski

11: Zerofuchs (To Be Started)

12: Ezo Fuzz

13:

14:

15: Zerofuchs (To Be Started)

16:

17:

18:

19:

20: BeefyBoi

21: 

22: 

23:

24:

25: Zerofuchs (To Be Started)

26:

27:

28:

29:

30:

31: Zehena (Playable)

32: DoomGappy (provisional)

Current Author Listing:

BeefyBoi

dmh094

DoctorNuriel

DoomGappy
Ezo Fuzz

Matt Eldrydge
Murski

purple_ruberoid
Zehena
Zerofuchs

Edited Tuesday at 11:04 PM by Zerofuchs : Updated authors and maps

[Walter confetti]

27 minutes ago, Zerofuchs said:

Map Time Limit: 4 Minutes

Is this the playtime or the mapping time?

Good luck with your project!

[Zerofuchs]

Just now, Walter confetti said:

Is this the playtime or the mapping time?

Good luck with your project!

Play time, to be clear :P
Mapping time is maybe a day or two per map, but I'm not really counting.

[DoomGappy]

If I have any ideas I'll do a map, but with how I'm currently full of things I can't promise it. Regardless, I wish you a happy project! 

[Zerofuchs]

Ping for visibility, will keep these to once every 2-3 days or so until kickoff date, unless there's activity.
Here's hoping you get an inspiration for a quick map DoomGappy ;)

[DoomGappy]

6 minutes ago, Zerofuchs said:

Ping for visibility, will keep these to once every 2-3 days or so until kickoff date, unless there's activity.
Here's hoping you get an inspiration for a quick map DoomGappy ;)

I actually have two ideas but I'm so busy with stuff that I don't know if I'll be able to make them. If you're content with some speedmaps, here is what I have in mind.

 

1 - Where the hell are my keys

A crate maze inside a 1024x1024 grid where you have lost your keys. They are, as always, in the most unlikely place.

 

2 - lunch line

Doomguy is stuck in line with a bunch of pinkies and other demons and he has to go fast to get his lunch or will die of hunger (a crusher kills a voodoo doll off screen according to a timer). 

 

I'll see if I can do these before the month is over, but I'm really prioritizing finishing up my stuff because I don't want to leave people hanging all the time. 

[Matt Eldrydge]

Sign me up for map 02 at the moment, I've been meaning to make more short maps and already have been working on that front.

 

Will comment again when I have a map to show.

[Zerofuchs]

No worries Gappy, appreciate the interest and prior commitments come first :)

If the capacity isn't there I may take my own stab at idea #2, seems... topical lol.

I'll put you down for Map02 @Matt Eldrydge - will look forward to your update.

Edited September 17 by Zerofuchs

[DoomGappy]

1 minute ago, Zerofuchs said:

No worries, appreciate the interest and prior commitments come first :) 

If the capacity isn't there I may take my own stab at idea #2, seems... topical lol.

Please do! That will give me se more time to try and do #1 too!

[MFG38]

FYI, PrBoom+ doesn't support MBF21. Just saying in case this does target cl21 rather than cl9.

[Zerofuchs]

8 minutes ago, MFG38 said:

FYI, PrBoom+ doesn't support MBF21. Just saying in case this does target cl21 rather than cl9.

 

Hm yea I got confused with the wiki stuff, since I'm personally targeting PRBoom+ over DSDA then cl9 is fine... or cl11 I guess, unless there's a reason to aim for the older standard?

[MFG38]

3 minutes ago, Zerofuchs said:

Hm yea I got confused with the wiki stuff, since I'm personally targeting PRBoom+ over DSDA then cl9 is fine... or cl11 I guess, unless there's a reason to aim for the older standard?

 

cl11 is really only useful over cl9 if you intend to use custom DeHackEd monsters and whatnot, since it adds a few codepointers that aren't available in cl9. If not, cl9 will most likely suffice.

[DoomGappy]

10 minutes ago, Zerofuchs said:

 

Hm yea I got confused with the wiki stuff, since I'm personally targeting PRBoom+ over DSDA then cl9 is fine... or cl11 I guess, unless there's a reason to aim for the older standard?

Complevel 11 is MBF, not MBF21. I think it would be best to just make it a boom wad (complevel 9) so that you get to target PRBoom+ and Dsda that way. 

[Zerofuchs]

Just now, DoomGappy said:

Complevel 11 is MBF, not MBF21. I think it would be best to just make it a boom wad (complevel 9) so that you get to target PRBoom+ and Dsda that way. 

 

yea was asking if it would be better to switch from 21 (MBF21) to Boom or plain MBF, already updated OP and going with cl9 in this case as opinions seem to favour it as good enough for most stuff.

[DoctorNuriel]

I'd like to take map 03 please! :)

[Zerofuchs]

30 minutes ago, DoctorNuriel said:

I'd like to take map 03 please! :)

 

Ye be welcome to it, and thanks for signing up :) 

 

[DoomGappy]

I might be cooking...

 

 

[Matt Eldrydge]

Hey @Zerofuchs, I was about to get started but noticed the start date - are we supposed to start mapping on October 1st or are we free to go ahead with it?

[Zerofuchs]

19 minutes ago, Matt Eldrydge said:

Hey @Zerofuchs, I was about to get started but noticed the start date - are we supposed to start mapping on October 1st or are we free to go ahead with it?

I'm trying to stick to the NaNoWadMo challenge timeline myself but it's certainly not a hard rule, if you feel the urge do some mapping now then Go 2 It :)

 

[Zerofuchs]

General update:
May or may not have started work a little early on another map in the set. Because why not eh?

A fair number of slots left if anyone wants to take. Don't need to pick a map number now if you are interested. Wonder if maybe a hub would be better, make it a doomcutesy kind of mall...

May ask to borrow a few nice signboard and poster textures to use as patches for such a hub, if I can get it working. 
 

[Ezo Fuzz]

Heya @Zerofuchs

I'd be interested in taking up a slot. A month for a bite-sized entry seems chill :3

 

Typically I work best with limitations. If you (or another member) has some creative ideas for a theme or restriction to apply, I'd be happy to hear.

General notes on Enemy count, map size limit would be great, so I don't get ahead of myself ;)

[Zerofuchs]

Hey @Ezo Fuzz thanks for joining in :)
The only real limitation is playtime - UV-Max should take less than 4 minutes or so, although of course playtime will vary. 
That and the snack-sized nature suggest maybe one or two core encounters or puzzles rather than anything too expansive.

As for themes... it is a party pack but anything lunchtime themed would be cool. A Doomcute fast food place staffed by Imps and managed by a grouchy Archvile maybe? 

It's currently Plutonia only as far as textures go but I'm considering whether to try and get a custom texture pack together... I'm not much of an artist but hopefully some of the public stuff can be used with appropriate credit. Plenty of good sprites on the forums and on realm667...

[Ezo Fuzz]

@Zerofuchs

Oh I didn't pick up on the theme apparantly, but that's neat!

Haven't mapped for plutonia before either, so excited to see what I can do.

 

As for textures, yeah having a few food related textures would be nice for everyone to use.

I usually create additional textures incrementally while mapping. If I get around to doing that, I will share them!

 

As for difficulty: I'd say put me up for one of the medium maps. Maybe Map 12?

 

[Ezo Fuzz]

No joke, I got an idea for the map in a dream last night.

"Lil' Imp's Hot Dog Stand"

 

I'll be sketching out some ideas on paper and getting started Oct 1st ✌

[Zerofuchs]

Awesome :D although perhaps we shouldn't inquire too closely as to how the sausage is made...

[Zehena]

Hey! can I take map 31? if I can, thanks!

[Zerofuchs]

35 minutes ago, Zehena said:

Hey! can I take map 31? if I can, thanks!

The secret map be yours.
Don't forget an exit for the super secret map :P

[Zehena]

11 minutes ago, Zerofuchs said:

The secret map be yours.
Don't forget an exit for the super secret map :P

Okay, And Thanks. wait can i also add a normal exit or just the super secret exit?

[Zehena]

Wait can i have the penultimate level too? (map29)

Edited September 28 by Zehena : chips

[Zerofuchs]

On 9/27/2024 at 12:42 PM, Zehena said:

Okay, And Thanks. wait can i also add a normal exit or just the super secret exit?

 Not much of a super secret exit if it's the only exit is it?

 

11 hours ago, Zehena said:

Wait can i have the penultimate level too? (map29)

Yebo, more the merrier and I encourage multiple slots.