Yep...so I'm gonna do one too...

[Eponasoft]

OK so I guess I am going to join the noob train and try my hand at a megawad myself. :) Yeah I know most people never complete them, but I'm at least going to give it an honest effort. I released a small four-map wad awhile back; two of the maps from it will be in my megawad, namely MAP02 and MAP04. The other two I'm not going to reuse, as they were both pretty suck...my MAP01 was the first map I ever did and was too short, and MAP03 was completely uninspired, boring, and too much of a slaughter for speedrunners.

I started designing a castle-based MAP01 awhile back, and figured I would keep at it for this. So that will be the first map. As I scrapped the original MAP03, I started designing a new one today. I also made some modifications to MAP04; one of the pits was made more shallow and I added some extra areas. It'll get further expansion later on. MAP02 will get some sprucing up, and the acid pit near the end will be revised a little.

I have no idea how to take screenshots. :( I use odamex and vavoom and have never been able to figure out how to do screenies in either program. Once I figure it out, I'll post some screenies. I'll also release some prototypes of the megawad for evaluation; I've played quite a few other megawads now and have some good ideas for designs but am always looking for suggestions for improvement. I'm not the best mapper and never will be but I at least want to make something that people can enjoy.

I have no intention of making insanely difficult slaughtermaps, so don't ask. :) There will be no ritual Cyberdemon abuse, no rooms with 200 Revenants and Arch-viles, and I'll try to keep the pits and hitscanners to a minimum. There will be a lot of new textures, and I will try to bring in some unique enemies as well. MAP04 really gave me the chance to experiment with non-linear play, so I will be sure to fully exploit that technique as well.

I don't have a name for this yet but I'm sure either I'll come up with one or someone will suggest one that works. :)

[SyntherAugustus]

Maybe you should work on working on single maps first.

[Eponasoft]

I've done single maps as well but have never released them because they were experiments to test things out. But whenever I do a single map, I think of a way it could fit into a larger scenario; I guess too many years in game design has that effect. :O

[pavera]

Took the words right from my mouth. Making a quality, balanced megawad is quite a daunting task. This is the reason most people never finish them, it takes an incredible amount of time, effort, patience, and not to mention, creative energy to come up with something interesting for 32 maps.

[ArmouredBlood]

Krispavera said:

Took the words right from my mouth. Making a quality, balanced megawad is quite a daunting task. This is the reason most people never finish them, it takes an incredible amount of time, effort, patience, and not to mention, creative energy to come up with something interesting for 32 maps.

Yar ... I'm working on only an episode and I'm already feeling a bit out, I'm just glad it switches themes up every so often, doing 10 straight techbase maps would kill me -.-

@ epona: Just remember that if you feel like making a map that doesn't fit anywhere in your wad it's a good break to take and will probably give you more ideas on some maps for your megawad.

[Eponasoft]

The main theme of my project will be castles...I'm a huge fan of all things medieval and archaic.

ArmouredBlood, I'll have to remember that. Thanks. :)

Well, here's one of the test wads I did awhile back. I attempted to convert one of my maps from Two Lords to the DOOM format. Of course, the games are so radically different that it didn't come out quite right but it was just a test map after all. It was not completely textured properly, and is missing a lot of items...and of course, the enemies, weapons, and pickups are totally different. MAP01 is a recreation of ACT 01 in Two Lords. MAP21 is the beginning of a remake of ACT 01 and was where I discovered the inconsistency of sector type 12.

http://www.eponasoft.com/tl.zip

[DuckReconMajor]

I say go for it. You'll probably either get bored five maps in or produce something no one wants to play, but it'll be a beneficial experience for you in my opinion.

[Snarboo]

You don't have to make a megawad to create a larger experience. Consider working on large, single maps first, then try and put them together if you create a series. Working on 32 maps is quite a workload unless you're making tiny maps.

[Kyka]

I would also add, have a strong plan/direction before you start.

It is best to know what you are going to do for each episode in advance, otherwise, you will be creating much more work for yourself when you have to go redo things. And redoing things that you have already done is a pain in the butt.

Good luck with it tho. :)

[40oz]

It's a lot of work. I wanted to make Motornerve into a full blown megawad, but it reached up to 21 maps before I ran out of good ideas.

5 maps is not exactly a landmark for a megawad by the way.

[Eponasoft]

Thanks for all the comments, everyone. :) Every little bit helps.

I still haven't found out how to take screenshots. :( Does anyone know how to do screenshots in odamex or vavoom? I tried vavoom's "screenshot" console command but it seemed to do nothing. And I could probably use ksnapshot to do screenies in odamex, though I would have to run it windowed and with the mouse disabled. So I tried prboom and it appears to take screenshots but I have no idea where they end up, if it's even working at all...

EDIT: Nevermind...prboom's original configuration was hard to read so I reassigned the screenshot key. It saves the shots in my home directory. So hooray, now I can take screenies! :) So here are a few based on what I've been working on today. Of course, they are still rather early, so bear that in mind...


This is the first set of enemies I placed in MAP03. The room isn't really all that fancy compared to some of y'alls but I thought it was okay for now. I hope these show up; had to add an exception for this site to allow remote linking.


Same room after everything is dead.


The start of a chapel.


Inside the chapel-in-progress; some of the textures on this bench are wrong but this is the only one close to completion so far. I got this idea from Heretic.

[Snarboo]

Those are some interesting looking textures, especially the black marble looking flat.

I think some of the shots could use a bit more detail, mainly height variation to break up the visuals. The round room might look better if you created a smaller sector inside of it and raised the ceiling or something. Try adding windows or little rooms on the side in the Chapel, too. I'd say you have a good start though!

[Eponasoft]

That's a great idea for the round room...I'll see how good that looks. As for the chapel, I have plans to add stained glass windows to it, as well as an altar and some candlesticks. These shots are very early shots, so there's plenty to be done. :) I'm probably going to make the stained glass window texture myself; I don't feel like snagging the one from Heretic or using one that's already been used elsewhere. I would like to eventually replace just about all the textures in the game, but not quite all; there are a few that are pretty good in the original DOOM II texture set that would work well for certain parts of my design.

I've been thinking about doing this for quite awhile now...I think it was the notion that "every noob tries and fails to make a megawad" that really made me want to do this. I'm one of those people who loves to defy the status quo, even if I don't reach the final destination. Yeah I know it's a lot of work, but hard work has been a part of my life for almost 3 decades now so no issues there. :)

Thanks again everyone for the comments. Good or bad, I take everything in stride. :) I'll probably post some more screenshots later in the week; don't want to do too much hype or show off too much stuff this early, just enough to let everyone know that I am dead serious about this project and am hoping I have the conviction to see it through to the end.

[purist]

I think everyone should do one! Even if you just chip at it from time to time between other projects. I've been stuck on MAP08 of my ZDoom project for months now but I'll never fully abandon it.

[Eponasoft]

I had some free time this evening so I worked on MAP03 a bit more. I've wanted to complete the chapel so I worked to that end. Here's a couple more shots, courtesy of prboom.





The chapel is starting to take shape now...I just wish there were some chandeliers like in Heretic that I could use...well, I guess I could always just swipe the Heretic ones. :)

[Dutch Doomer]

Good luck, you will need it. This project is probably going to take you one or two years to complate.

[pavera]

Eponasoft said:

The chapel is starting to take shape now...I just wish there were some chandeliers like in Heretic that I could use...well, I guess I could always just swipe the Heretic ones. :)

You could always just make it a Heretic wad... :>

[Eponasoft]

dutch devil said:

Good luck, you will need it. This project is probably going to take you one or two years to complate.

I expect to take that long, or longer. :)

Krispavera, I would, but I'm not really a fan of messing with Heretic...

[Eponasoft]

OK so I did some experimenting with lighting. These shots were used with a sector light setting of only 64, with the rest of the light for the areas coming from the light sources.





Shots taken with Vavoom, as it's the only source port on my system capable of using DECORATE.

EDIT: Almost forgot...the newer version of the "round room":



Has new enemies as well...it features a modified version of the "Cultist" enemy found on realm667.

[Dee]

wow very nice and promising! keep sending screens!!! i'll beta test if you need it

[PRIMEVAL]

Very nice, looking forward to the end result!

[Khorus]

The new textures and wand look pretty bad imo. Map construction looks rather average, but you'll get better in time.

[Gez]

Eponasoft said:

I've done single maps as well but have never released them because they were experiments to test things out. But whenever I do a single map, I think of a way it could fit into a larger scenario; I guess too many years in game design has that effect. :O

Well, then try something intermediary between "single-map" and "megawad". Like, say, something in the 3--6 maps.

[Eponasoft]

Khorus said:

The new textures and wand look pretty bad imo. Map construction looks rather average, but you'll get better in time.

I'm not happy with the wall texture, and the marble floor texture is a little too strong. I'll replace both eventually. The wand is from realm667 and didn't come in wad form, so I built all the necessary data myself; it was more of an experiment in putting together weapons in DECORATE. The architecture isn't the best but it's improved...I look at my original MAP01 from a few months ago and it looks so juvenile even to me. Playing other pwads helps with ideas.

Gez said:

Well, then try something intermediary between "single-map" and "megawad". Like, say, something in the 3--6 maps.

Yeah...for now, I'm just going to concentrate on MAP01 through MAP06. Most of my work has been MAP03, as I already have working MAP02 and MAP04 (they need expansion, of course). Of course, I decided to bite the bullet and make a brutal MAP30 that doesn't feature the head of Romero hidden behind big ugly. I might also scrap the in-progress MAP01 since it's construction is far inferior to things I do now, and I've had other ideas for how to make the entrance of a castle, including the use of a 3D bridge. I'll give that a try eventually.

Oh and I should mention that I do use quite a few custom monsters and weapons from realm667, but all of them are modified so it's not possible to just have them in their original, independent wadfiles. The Cultist, for example...I slowed down his projectile (20 is too fast for the number of them I use, so I made it 15 instead), changed his text a bit, and might replace his samples. He now also drops a health bonus. Imp Warlord and Tentacle got similar modifications.

[PRIMEVAL]

Are you going to be using the original music for this or are you going to be needing new music? If you want, I can probably help you out. ;)

[Eponasoft]

PRIMEVAL said:

Are you going to be using the original music for this or are you going to be needing new music? If you want, I can probably help you out. ;)

At the moment, I'm using MOD soundtracks composed by XTD. MIDI doesn't play on my system (no MIDI device driver) so most pwads I play with MIDI in them are silent. I'd certainly be interested in hearing what you can do though...what format do you use?

EDIT: I'm going to release a preliminary build of this in a couple of days. I am probably going to remove the existing MAP01 for now, since I plan on replacing it with a new one. But MAP02, MAP03, MAP04, and MAP30 are all going to be in the pwad. MAP03 is presently unfinishable but I will see if I can make it at least completable within the next 48 hours. If not then I will simply put in a dummy end so it can be passed.

[PRIMEVAL]

I only have experience with MIDI, mp3/wav, and a little bit of OGG. Some of my material can be heard here.

[Eponasoft]

Hrm...I don't hear anything on that page. Got any direct links?

[myk]

Eponasoft said:
MIDI doesn't play on my system (no MIDI device driver)

What system is that?

[PRIMEVAL]

Myspace is sucking more and more these days...

No direct links, but there are songs for download and stream here, a bit more friendly than myspace. First 4 tracks are stream only, but the rest can be downloaded.