How much planning do you do when making a wad?

[Foofoo]

do you draw level ideas up on paper? do you write like a 20 page outline of your story/idea? do you scrape level architecture out of mashed potato? whatwhatWHAT??

[kristus]

Whenever I've made wads, I've pretty much made it up as I went along, sometimes it came back to bite me in the ass though.

[Foofoo]

same here. whatever i've made that was more or less good was made by sheer accident :S

[Dco16]

The levels in SQWIREL 1 were made on the fly, which was disasterous because of my lack of mapping skills at the time.
Phobos Orbital - planned.
New Nightmare - sorta planned on paper, but I put a bunch of the better areas in on the fly.
Next Nightmare - Heavily heavily planned on paper, excluding the last parts.

[Foofoo]

by 'planned on paper' how? you wrote ideas down? drew pictures of how you want certain rooms to look to the player?

[Use]

Many old maps from megawad (1999 and before) were all done on paper. But I'm able to imagine an entire layout and keep most of the important parts/details retained for many, many moons. Kinda like a drawing but only in me noggin'. I have layouts that I planned years ago for maps that haven't been built yet still memorized...this is why I never have mapper's block. Anytime I sit at the editor I have something to make, weather it be new or 5 years old.

[Xanthier]

Use3D said:

Many old maps from megawad (1999 and before) were all done on paper. But I'm able to imagine an entire layout and keep most of the important parts/details retained for many, many moons. Kinda like a drawing but only in me noggin'. I have layouts that I planned years ago for maps that haven't been built yet still memorized...this is why I never have mapper's block. Anytime I sit at the editor I have something to make, weather it be new or 5 years old.

You my friend, are gifted.

[Nmn]

Lots of drawing, lots of concept art, lots of scrapping, lots of writing.
Always
:)

[Sporku]

I just make whatever plops in my head. It seems to work quite well. In fact, 99.5% of the maps I've made were done that way!

[jerkboy69]

I do as little as possible.

What wit the amount of actual methodology I put into my work, I need all the help I can to actually keep it fresh, I guess. This is, of course, just paranoia, but there is a very real danger of things becoming stale through over-planning, like many a WAD which has been ruined from far too tough a section, where a good puzzle or enemy encounter has been "over-produced", due to constant attention from mappers who are used to it, and forget how good it is.

Keep it spontaneous. ;)

[DOOM Anomaly]

For some maps I draw them out on paper a few times. One time in a big plain layout, another with details of items and triggers and such. Then I map it out according to the drawing, changing things as I see fit.

For other maps I just think about them, then map them slowly. Carefully looking at it and thinking if it fits my desire. :D


Unfortuately all the planning doesn't yield very great results. :D

[Lizardcommando]

For enemy sprites, I usually draw concept sketches. For guns, I usually make it up in my head in terms of what they do and how they look like in game. I sometimes make concept sketches for guns, but not often though.

For maps, I make it up in my head and keep a mental picture of what the level looks like.

[wildweasel]

My mapping is usually done on the spot, based on whatever textures I have available to me. That being said, I have a hard time picking texture packs.

[Vile1011]

I tried mapping on paper first, but it never works. I need something I can mold: whenever I try to draw a map on paper I just wind up erasing it 50 times.

My current project is being built around encounters. I think up the types of battles I want and the type of architecture that would most befit them. I play maps out in my head long before I ever start up an editor. The detailing I do on the fly.

[Pure Hellspawn]

I wonder if the Ultimate Doomer planned his Super Sonic Wad. That wad is on my top five when it comes to favorite wads.

[Scuba Steve]

I used to keep a notebook next to my bed and write down any ideas that came to me. I'd sketch out large map areas or unique ideas to implement as scripted events. I work by thinking what I want, then finding out if it's possible in Doom. At night I would sketch ideas while watching movies, shows or playing games thinking "Yeah A giant organic wall with a giant imp head. Oh and it shoots Fetal Imps" or watching the Thing and thinking "I need a head with tentacles."

[Foofoo]

and ripping off contra and metal slug and stuff right? :p *hugs action doom*

[Bashe]

My wads are never usually elaborate (either sound or graphics wads) but when I'm planning to do a decorate weapon. Usually I just think of the frames and sounds and stuff in my head and see if I can find those sounds to use.

[TwinBeast]

I don't usually plan my maps before I do them, at least not too much before, because if I do that and can't start mapping, I'll just get annoyed. But I don't really know about that, because I don't do that. I always plan them on the fly. At the moment I have planned to have some big city map with lots of advertisements.

Monsters and weapons I plan usually much earlier than maps. In my biking trip I planned a new monster, some low level human criminal. I planned it will have some light brown shirt and grey pants and a woolly hat. Instead of a woolly hat, I made him have a sun/fishing hat. But everything else in it looks just like I had planned.

Sounds I always make after I have done a map, monster or a weapon. When I'm doing the map, I think what kind of sounds the place makes and then I make that kind of sounds. Same thing with monsters and weapons. While doing them, I think how they will sound.

[Negatronica]

I never plan. Sometimes I might have a vague mental image of one aspect I want to implement, then I just start creating things that complement that idea.

A good example is that I wanted to add some insects flying around to add ambience to a map. Once I made them I messed around with different themes till I created a dark swampish setting, with custom made dead trees everywhere.

Same holds true with music, I just start messing around and once I create something that sounds cool I just add other things to complement it. Also, sometimes I'll make a MIDI and then make a level that fits the music or vice versa.

[TheDarkArchon]

I just make things up as I go along, though I had made a rough sequence of events for my current map (Demonic Mines, yes, I know the name sucks)

[myk]

I use a lot of planning for the general design aspects, and can spend a lot of time coming up with general layout and texturing ideas for a map, or other game concepts, so I keep a text file with notes on things to do or info on things to keep track of. Though map editing itself is a more practical matter and takes place mostly in the map editor.

But also, I spend a lot of time playing other wads (or just the plain game) or watching demos where part of my observations are in relation to editing and my wad.

[DooMBoy]

For every map I ever made I've either made up everything in the editor as I mapped, or got ideas by looking at other maps when I was stumped, or a little or both. Sometimes it's been the latter more the former I regret to say.
Works for me.

[Pure Hellspawn]

Even shitty maps have planning. Just look at mine. It sucks shit and I spend a little time planning on it. Of course,

[Doom Marine]

Pencil and paper, a theme, plan the fights and routes, then I start mapping.

[Ed]

A level is inspired by music, just as I try to make music inspired by a place. I make a list of certain songs with the general atmosphere I'm trying to transcribe into the map itself.. if I can remember correctly:

Sin City: old Misfits, Obituary, Celtic Frost

Sin City 2: I remember I listened to NIN exclusively durring the entire build of this wad, infact, the original .mids were that of NIN. I thought, in the end, people would get bored with hearing every song from the pit of 94'..

[kristus]

likewise, music is what fuels my inspiration. For instance, Fanatics album Limits, was the sole contributor to the idea of Phobia popping into my head.

[Ismaele]

I haven't ever planned my levels and I think I won't every plan any level! ;) I just sit in front of my computer and let my imagination run... so that I can immediately put my ideas on the monitor of my computer, led by the "Doom muse"... ;) ...and my inspiration. As for the latter, I take inspiration both from other "Doom (2)" levels and from reality, as well as my fancy, as I wrote above. Just sometimes I plan something... but in my mind! ;) Sometimes great ideas emerge in my mind, so I remember them and I put them in a .WAD, when I have the occasion.

[Pure Hellspawn]

now that I am making a ZDoom wad using DECORATE (monster resource wad) and ACS (scripting) i can tell you that the answer is some in my case.