oh no... circus666 is back with a vengeance

[Negatronica]

I have started on a sequel to Happy Time Circus (circus666.wad). This time I'm going for a slightly darker atmosphere. The map will take place in an abandoned town, atleast to begin with. In terms of gameplay there will be less (maybe no) massive assaults and more scary moments. The project is in it's infancy right now.

Heres a typical pic of what the rooms will look like:

Heres what the outside will look like (not done, but the idea is there):


Anyone have any suggestions relating to level design, atmosphere, gameplay, enemies, ect..? Or if anyone is interested in actually particpating in the project let me know.

I'm thinking about making decorate weapons since everything else is being replaced but I'm not sure how many people will be able to play it then. To the best of my understanding theres only the unofficial zdoom build that supports it so maybe I'll pass.

[kristus]

I thought the unofficial Zdoom build made it possible to make weapons reload and such crap. But I dunno.

[Bashe]

It can, you just have to know how. If you need help simply refer to the Zdoom wiki and search for "creating weapons" or something like that.

Anyways, I liked the original, but I didn't like the random clown attacks. More scary moments FTW.

[SyntherAugustus]

yay a sequel!

[shotgunmasacre2]

Yes I will be looking foward to this one, the original was one of my favorite wads ever.

[Jehar]

Just for epilepsy value, I loved the original. Unless you had it set to do exactly the opposite, don't skimp out on the flashing lights ;)

[Negatronica]

Bashe said:

Anyways, I liked the original, but I didn't like the random clown attacks. More scary moments FTW.

Do you mean the clowns that moved really fast or the ones that shot those missiles?

Jehar said:

Just for epilepsy value, I loved the original. Unless you had it set to do exactly the opposite, don't skimp out on the flashing lights ;)

I'll have various effects, including flashing multi-color lights. I won't have large underdetailed rooms though, I'll have to find another way to pull it off. My current idea is to have various parts of the neighborhood 'clowned.'Like some disease thats spreading. Some rooms will be flashing and their physical demensions will be all distorted.

I have created weapons before using decorate, it was another project I was working on. It only works with the unofficial build though. I think I'll hold off on the weapons in this project unless an official build is released. If anybody is interested in seeing what I made using decorate weapons I can provide a link.

[shotgunmasacre2]

Hey SHTBAG667 I would like to see these weapons as well as learn how you were able to do these weapons via decorate. Thanks.

[Negatronica]

shotgunmasacre2 said:

Hey SHTBAG667 I would like to see these weapons as well as learn how you were able to do these weapons via decorate. Thanks.

Alright, heres the link: http://sbag667.doomwadstation.com/
I couldn't get a direct link to the file working so when you go to my site you'll see a link to it in the center of the page.

As mentioned above, you'll need that unofficial build for zdoom. Also note that this was a joke wad and whats more is that it is an inside joke wad. It was designed to intimidate my little brother in deathmatch. Just mentioning this level to him brings fear to his eyes. The level is an unfinished version of my old house, weapons are household items (BB guns, fireworks, ect..).

[shotgunmasacre2]

Hey SHTBGG I played the wad. Funny as hell, I lol'ed for awhile. Now this is my real question, how do you create these weapons in decorate? I always wanted to create my own weapons and as you mentioned you did so in decorate.
EDIT:
Oh, BTW, while I was on your site I saw something called Total Annihilation I looked to see what this was. I downloaded one of the maps but couldnt figure out what it was for. What are these maps?

[doom2day]

shotgunmasacre2 asked:

Oh, BTW, while I was on your site I saw something called Total Annihilation I looked to see what this was. I downloaded one of the maps but couldnt figure out what it was for. What are these maps?

These maps are not for doom. They are for the RTS game Total Annihilation.

How about starting with just the fist?

[Vegeta]

Not a suggestion but a reminder, circus aren't only about clowns and balloons, just look at the goons from Batman 2 to see what I'm talking about, with a more hellish/evil/ghostly look some scary stuff can be done. The ghost of a chimp, the ghost of little kids with parents that are just there looking the show and walking in some rooms, a room with the dead bodies of all the people that now are ghosts and an atmosphere that points that they were murdered or died in some way like that, and now torment anyone who enter the circus, a clown that shoot piles of guts from it's mouth could be scary too ;.)

[Zeg-Vok]

Go for the torches that light by themselves!

[Nightmare Doom]

Here's a idea for a new enemy

A Killer Ventriloquist doll (Just imagine a creepy doll just pops out of nowhere in the shadows or simply you see an inanimate clown doll sitting on a chair but when get something the doll comes to life and spits out guts at you...)

[Optimus]

Yey, I can't wait to play this! More scary Doom maps please!!!

p.s. Btw,. I've just gone to your site and saw the screenshot from that WAD I was playing some days ago (Yesterday's Nightmare). This is amazing stuff! I love such unique architectures with the shadow, it looked preety beatifull when I looked out in the open area from above! I am gonna download your other WADs now :) (Nothing to do with this thread, but I've just seen the screenshots again and decided to mention :)

[Dittohead]

Looks really nice. Keep up the good work as usual.

[Negatronica]

shotgunmasacre2 said:

Hey SHTBGG I played the wad. Funny as hell, I lol'ed for awhile. Now this is my real question, how do you create these weapons in decorate? I always wanted to create my own weapons and as you mentioned you did so in decorate.
EDIT:
Oh, BTW, while I was on your site I saw something called Total Annihilation I looked to see what this was. I downloaded one of the maps but couldnt figure out what it was for. What are these maps?

The best advice I can give for decorate weapons is just reverse engineer my decorate lump and visit http://www.zdoom.org/wiki/index.php?title=Creating_new_weapons

As for the circus level: I haven't added new monsters yet (I'll probably make some kind of ghost that moves through trees and walls) but I have made lots of progress on the level. Most the decorations are destructable. For example theres bottles lying around that shatter when shot. Theres also powerline transformers that explode when shot. No point to that but it looks and sounds cool.

[Snarboo]

This all sounds very cool, Shtbag. I haven't played the original wad, but I certainly plan on it. :)

As for the nifty little decorate weapons mod you made, would it be okay if I made something similar, or used some resources from your mod in mine? The graphics you've made are really good. I especially like the BB gun. The reason I'm asking this is because I want to make a weapons mod that uses toys, fireworks, and BB/Airsoft guns to replace the standard arsenal.

Edit:
Just finished playing Circus666, and all I have to say is WOW! I really liked it. Great atmosphere, awesome custom monsters(I made my dad have a WTF?! moment when I told him I was fighting evil balloons >:), just a great level in general. I loved the music and ambient sounds too. I have to say I'm really eager for a sequal.

With that said, I do have some constructive criticism. I'll list in them in no particular order for easier reading:
*More evil balloon colors FTW
*Less flashing rooms. For the most part, I feel you used them properly, ie in a way that confuses and disorients the player, which is great for atmosphere. However, when used too often, they become very annoying and frustrating while playing.
*Less hard to hit, small, and fast enemies. The battle at the end with the thousands(!) of balloons and a couple of clown heads is a good example of what I mean. They stop being cool or scary the moment you fight so many, and are then just annoying.
*More health and ammo. Self explanatory. This ties into the horde battle. I don't feel you gave the player sufficient ammo or health to defeat the huge hordes of enemies, and you even made a more powerful weapon, such as the BFG, hidden from the player in a secret area. I had to cheat and type kill monsters in the console just to get through the horde. The battle right after the horde with the Pennywise heads was fine, though.

I'm sure you've heard this all before, but I thought I would tell you this in case it helps, especially with the sequal. I have to say that overall, the level was really great, and keep up the awesome atmosphere and ideas. :D

If you're going to add new weapons, the only thing I recommend is don't go too overboard. I would have weapons that a person could really get their hands on in an abandoned city that's being overrun by an evil circus. Stuff like revolvers, maybe an axe, or a lever action rifle. Also, maybe you could have a "clownified" or circus themed device as one of the more powerful weapons? Would be kind of cool to have a cotton candy launcher or some such. :)

[Negatronica]

Snarboo said:

This all sounds very cool, Shtbag. I haven't played the original wad, but I certainly plan on it. :)

As for the nifty little decorate weapons mod you made, would it be okay if I made something similar, or used some resources from your mod in mine? The graphics you've made are really good. I especially like the BB gun. The reason I'm asking this is because I want to make a weapons mod that uses toys, fireworks, and BB/Airsoft guns to replace the standard arsenal.

Sure, go ahead.. As long as you mention my name in the credits somewhere I don't mind at all.

[Snarboo]

Shtbag667 said:

As long as you mention my name in the credits somewhere I don't mind at all.

Definitely. :) Thanks!

[Negatronica]

Snarboo said:

*More evil balloon colors FTW

*Less flashing rooms.

*Less hard to hit, small, and fast enemies.

*More health and ammo.

*I would like to be able to create different color evil balloons by somehow changing the pallete via decorate. I don't know if its possible but if it is it would save room. Till I figure that out I won't start drawing new sprites.

*I know there were too many flashing underdetailed rooms, the first one was kind of a joke wad anyways. I will have some flashing stuff but most the level will be dark and eerie.

*I have redone the skulls from scratch. They're twice the size so they are easier to hit. I won't use hordes of them though.

*I never considered there not being enough health. Ofcourse since I made it I know where everything is. Maybe I relied on popping the green balloons to much? They give out health randomly when popped.

I glad everyone is looking forward to this, I'll try to make this an improvement over the original in as many ways as possible (except maybe epilepsy).

[Snarboo]

Shtbag667 said:

*I never considered there not being enough health. Ofcourse since I made it I know where everything is. Maybe I relied on popping the green balloons to much? They give out health randomly when popped.

Ah, I see! I didn't know that. I'll have to use this to my advantage next time.

[KwadDamyj]

A sequel? Awesome. I loved the first one. =^D Very spooky and often frightening. The new weapons look like a hoot!

[Vegeta]

Look at this, you may find something useful for your mod.
http://images.google.com.ar/images?svnum=10&hl=es&lr=&q=evil+clown

[Snarboo]

If you need some inspiration for clown or circus themed enemies, try downloading the demo for Kiss: Psycho Circus. That game had mostly circus inspired enemies, which I felt were really well designed.

[St. Doom]

Good luck! I loved it very much!I would hope you would use more kinds of foes,thou

[Negatronica]

St. Doom said:

Good luck! I loved it very much!I would hope you would use more kinds of foes,thou

Thanks. I'm working on new enemies which will take awhile with all those sprites. I've taken Vegeta's advice and am searching for images. Ofcourse the down side to that is you only have one initial image and then you have to draw the other 4 angles, death frames ect..

I understand that only having a few different enemies will make the map boring so I will make as many new enemies as possible. Thats what I'm working on right now.

[Chopkinsca]

Shtbag667 said:

*I would like to be able to create different color evil balloons by somehow changing the pallete via decorate. I don't know if its possible but if it is it would save room. Till I figure that out I won't start drawing new sprites.

I don't know much on any decorate way of pre-setting colours, but I do know you can use colour translations. Creattranslation() defines the colourin an open script. You then use thing_setTranslation() to change the monster's colours.


The start of the first wad had great atmosphere. It would be cool to explore a town that is as you said 'clowned' and find clues that lead you to the circus which is the last area.