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Katamori

Idea: Recreating Hashima, the Japanese "ghost island" in Doom?

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Today I read a very interesting article about an abandoned island near Japan. Sadly I can't remember it's name (maybe Hashima) but I can explain anything else: this island became the center of interest in the last years of the 19th century, when Japanese people have discovered the coal under the sea bottom around the island. Corporations went to the island and made mines, and a whole city, when population started to grow. During WW2, even Chinese and Korean slaves were forced to work here - because of this fact, some people called this place "Island of Hell". In the 50's, the island became awfully crowded; also, it had own schools, theatres, temple, etc. One decade later, the mines have depleted and supply stopped, so people left the island very quickly. Now, it's like a "ghost island" for about 40-50 years, and entering the island is forbidden.

Here's a shot about the island:


I think because of the interesting layout, it's a great base to a Doom map, including seaport, airport, a big city with several big height transfers, buildings upon themselves, and also, I can imagine a gigantic underground cave to the mines with waterfalls.

Do you think this is inspirational, or I'm just a creative fool? :o)

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Katamori said:

Do you think this is inspirational, or I'm just a creative fool? :o)

Why can't be both? I think this would a really productive project if you can keep your enthusiasm for the following 4 months.

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Cell said:

Why can't be both? I think this would a really productive project if you can keep your enthusiasm for the following 4 months.


Lol, you're right. I can imagine it even with your mapping skills, by the way.

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Dunno if I'd make it all one map. It might be better if it could be broken up into smaller parts. I'm seeing a lot of areas that would be fine as individual levels. You could still make the entire island out of the parts but it would be more like a megawad rather than one giant hour-long level.

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It's a small place, so a single map would be sufficient.

http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/earns/hashima.html

Motor vehicles were nonexistent. As one former miner put it, one could walk between any two points on the island in less time than it took to finish a cigarette. Umbrellas were also unnecessary: a labyrinth of corridors and staircases connected all the apartment blocks and served as the island's highway system.

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Pottus: thanks!
Shadow Dweller: I think the surface itself definitely worth 1-2, maybe 3 giant maps. That would have a very nice "lookout".

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It's a very interesting idea. I've liked the story of it, and for doom it would be good in a single map or more. If "more" is the choice, we could help you to do so. I could help, I'm not the more experienced Mapper around here, but I could.

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Katamori said:

I think the surface itself definitely worth 1-2, maybe 3 giant maps. That would have a very nice "lookout".

That could make for an interesting project. With a bit of work the surface maps could be hubbed to allow (more or less) unimpeded movement on the surface.

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I would break this up in a way similar to Strife, with hubs and an overmap of the surface area and then buildings of interest or tunnel systems accessible as separate maps.

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PRIMEVAL said:

It'll be a hefty single map, but I'd like to see that. Definitely not Vanilla that way X)


I could do it in vanilla, no problem. Place isn't much bigger than Doom II "Downtown" or "Industrial Zone", and there have been vanilla PWADs much larger back in the day (the city maps in Dark Covenant, for example).

It really just comes down to the mapping style (abstract like those maps above, or lots of details that chew up resources).

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Wow, Pottus, these stuff are amazing!

Sadly I don't have time to do anything because I'm going to move to dormitory in the weekend and then, I'll use computer hardly ever.

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The sad thing is that my colleague's ambitions often go further than the endurance of his enthusiasm.

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That's fascinating. I'd definitely play a map based on this. Not sure why you'd make a 3-map hub rather than just one large map; I'm assuming most people run decent machines considering how cheap high-end performance is these days.

Also, room-over-room would be epic, otherwise you'd have to be clever with the buildings. A series of room-over-room buildings on a map like that would be the closest any map has ever come to my vision of Doom 2: Hell on Earth.

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I think the setting is very interesting, very much so.

There are some videos on Youtube of some documentary where this guy goes back to the island he grew up on, and takes the camera crew basically on a tour through various parts of the island. Such a creepy and surreal place...

There's even this staircase they called the "stairway to hell", which I found quite humorous considering the island seems ideal for a Doom map.

This is how I see the island being transposed into a map:

- A focus on exploration. Uncovering why you are here and what your goal is.
- An intense horror atmosphere, perhaps initial feelings of isolation and loneliness.
- One huge map for the surface, with the ultimate goal of getting into the mines.
- And one smaller, but large map underground where the final conflict takes place.

Someone not long ago started making a map of a dilapidated suburban area, with heavy custom texture use that really made the map look run-down and abandoned. I can't remember the thread where it was posted, but the author was considering retexturing or abandoning it. I think that same feel and style would work very well here.

Whatever happens with the idea, don't skimp on the quality control. Put everything into it and make it an epic adventure! This is too cool to fuck up. :p

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I think this should ideally be a zdoom level since it can do many of the horror effects I'd like in this kind of mod. Creepy visions are always good, y'know random blood running down the walls one minute and the next everything's fine.

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I don't think an exact recreation would be all that great (face it, Doom is not the engine for this, nor are real locations very fun to play), but it's certainly a good inspiration for a map. Maybe throw in some Kowloon Walled City elements too. I'd make it way, way smaller than the real island.

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david_a said:

I'd make it way, way smaller than the real island.

The island's only 480 by 160 metres, or 17,280 by 5,760 map points if you stick to the Doom metrics. I've transcribed a fairly detailed (if slightly inaccurate) layout I found through Google Images into DB2 at what turns out to be just over 1/10th scale (3.75 pixels per meter). Have one more contour line to add before starting on elevation (which will also be 1/10th scale), if the end result doesn't look too shabby I'll post more screenshots and take it to full-scale for detailing.


(1440x900 - 321k)

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That looks pretty good, If I can make one suggestion to make things easier. Once you scale it up any buildings that are on an angle copy out and align the rotation in a work spot outside of the map. It will be far easier to work on the grid than trying to screw about with odd ball angles. In this fashion you make your map modular which will assist in editing.

If you notice in the pictures as well the sea wall is sloped slightly with sporadic piles of rocks up against the bottom of the sea wall make sure you put in the sectors to get the slope effect of the wall.

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