any megawad advice?

[rebdoomin]

Hey guys its me again.
I am making my first doomII mega.wad! Do Any of you guys have advice? I already put in some bad ass metallica music All 32 levels of it.

[Ixnatifual]

My advice is... 32 levels is a lot to make on your own.

[Use]

And 32 levels is way too many to be hearing shitty metallica music.

[Phil1984]

Focus on making single level releases......

[myk]

rebdoomin said:
Do Any of you guys have advice?

Take your time. Years, I mean.

[deathbringer]

Dont make a megawad. Or at least make it in wee 5-level chunks and then release them all together when you're finished. If you never finish all 32 (almost certian) at least there will be something to play.

[LexiMax]

Don't

[Dutch Doomer]

Find some team members to speed up the progress good luck you will need it.

[shotgunmasacre2]

I agree with the others, if you believe that you can make a meagwad then you may want to start on an easier project such as a single map or map set. Dutch also has a good point in that if you DO try this you may want to enlist some others in you attempt.

[ReX]

One word: Slige. Heh.

But seriously, 32 maps is a very ambitious project for one person, particularly if you want the maps to be good.

[shotgunmasacre2]

ReX said:

One word: Slige. Heh.

Wow!! That would be THE BEST WAD EVER!!!!

[Craigs]

My advice: Don't make a 32 level megawad. It would take AT LEAST 10 years to make a decent 32 level megawad on your own. Take a look at all the "Megawads" people tried to make on their own, without help. All of them were complete failures. If you want to make a 32 level megawad, you REALLY need to know what you're going to do, how you're gonna do it, what kind of theme you want, EVERYTHING. 32 songs is not a very good start either. You haven't really released anything yet (at least none that I've played) and I don't really know what all you can do. release something small first, a single map specificly so you can focus on something simple.

[Hobbs]

Craigs said:

My advice: Don't make a 32 level megawad. It would take AT LEAST 10 years to make a decent 32 level megawad on your own. Take a look at all the "Megawads" people tried to make on their own, without help. All of them were complete failures.

I take it you have never seen wads like TVR, Scythe, or Scythe 2

[Craigs]

edit: Sorry for the double post. My browser fucked up

Erik Alm did NOT make the first Scythe all by himself. Torn also helped him make it.

[kristus]

Yes, Torn made one map. That sure took the workload off Erik and made it possble for him to really focus on those 31 maps that was left.

[Hobbs]

Craigs said:

Erik Alm did NOT make the first Scythe all by himself. Torn also helped him make it.

Actually a lot of people did. But if you want to be pedantic almost nobody has ever made any PWAD (just as the map, I wont even go into other shit) by themselves, because they would have had to make the map editor they used as well as the map for them to have had no outside help.

[myk]

One man "full IWAD" megawads?

NJDoom by Enjay, Rebirth by Vader, TWZone by Paul Corfiatis, Marswar by Nathan Lineback, to name some more.

There are also mant two man wads of similar caliber. If two can make one, one needs only more time (about twice).

I'm working on one myself, so I wouldn't personally ridicule another doing so. It's just a matter of having patience and working on it pretty consistently.

[Craigs]

myk said:

One man "full IWAD" megawads?

NJDoom by Enjay, Rebirth by Vader, TWZone by Paul Corfiatis, Marswar by Nathan Lineback, to name some more.

There are also mant two man wads of similar caliber. If two can make one, one needs only more time (about twice).

I'm working on one myself, so I wouldn't personally ridicule another doing so. It's just a matter of having patience and working on it pretty consistently.

Point taken. I'm an idiot.

[Grazza]

myk said:

Marswar by Nathan Lineback

Marswar included quite a number of maps that Nathan Lineback had not made from scratch - some were just very slightly modified versions of maps by other people.

But to those listed can be added Demonfear (by Adam Windsor), Fragport (by Ultimate Doomer), Herian/Herian2 by Ian Wilson, World of Death by Morten Stromsvold, Vile Flesh by Gwyn Williams, Armadosia by David Rivette, and the various DSV wads by Kaiser. In fact, overall, I tend to enjoy one-man and two-man megawads (which include HR and KS) more than ones made by a large team, as the more consistent theming and "vision" more than compensate for the fact that the mappers will have had more time to perfect their designs in a large-team project.

Having said that, most of those guys had made some maps prior to attempting their megaproject. Start by making one map, seeking opinions on it, and then releasing it when you're sure it is ready. Then build on that, using the feedback you get. There is also a danger that when you get near the end of the project (several years and hundreds of hours of effort down the line), you'll become really critical of your early work (like Shtbag did, even though his early maps were more than competent).

[Kristian Ronge]

myk said:
One man "full IWAD" megawads?
[...]Marswar by Nathan Lineback

Grazza already mentioned the incorrectness of this statement (sorry, should've read all replies before replying!). Map 25, for instance, is a very slightly reworked version of 11bones, by Damon brodie.

[Craigs]

Kristian Ronge said:

Grazza already mentioned the incorrectness of this statement (sorry, should've read all replies before replying!). Map 25, for instance, is a very slightly reworked version of 11bones, by Damon brodie.

Didn't marswar also have a level that was stolen straight out of Heretic and retextured?

[Vegeta]

The truth is you have to be a gifted DOOM designer to make a good 32 level megawad on your own. For the rest of us, the result is a bunch of maps (or single one) with good quality, or a shitload (32 or whatever the initial number was) of shitty maps. Between them all kind of hibrid variants as gradient from one point to the other.


If you plan to upload your wads (not an obligation) I think the best choice is releasing episode per episode. Yet megawads with half shitty maps, but all kind of new features or whatever you want, and keep them for personal joy is also very satisfying (I still can have a lot of fun with some of these I made years ago).

An alternative could be to make a megawad with an innovative gameplay, so nobody would pay much attention to the quality of the maps (unless they're pure crap), and focus on gameplay (if it's good).

[kristus]

The first project I ever made was a Megawad TC (and I mean a real TC, not one of those projects that add a few new sprites and call themselves a TC). Took me ages, and it was pretty sloppy. But I did it. :p I had a friend to help though, he made three maps and a few peices of graphics while I made everything else.

[rebdoomin]

k tnx guys ill keep this all in mind.
im going to make single releases but still ill put them all in a 32 level mega.wad when im done. One level will lead to another. I allready made three of the 5 levels.

[GGG]

Unless you've had YEARS of practice with Doom editing, don't expect to churn out a good, complete map in less than 10 hours of work. Unless it's really short.

[ReX]

GGG said:

Unless you've had YEARS of practice with Doom editing, don't expect to churn out a good, complete map in less than 10 hours of work.

10 hours? Heck it often takes me several hours just to play-test my level and tweak the health/ammo/enemy balance.

[Use]

Just play some of the maps on his site. That should put this megawad nonsense to rest.

[printz]

You said "advice" in the title? It's this: don't put yourself into a rigid theme. Make all the details up in the mind, THEN do the practice.
I for example managed to finish E1M1 of my 36-level megawad, which is quite small, but lasts awhile, because it's not linear. Now I'm stuck at E1M2 thinking what would work well in a phobos mine (not that it's easy.)

Take your time.

[myk]

Use3D said:
Just play some of the maps on his site. That should put this megawad nonsense to rest.

It doesn't mean he couldn't finish a megawad, though, just that it might not end up on many people's best wads lists.

[Use]

myk said:

It doesn't mean he couldn't finish a megawad, though, just that it might not end up on many people's best wads lists.

Yeah you're right, that was a little coldhearted.