Project Legacy - Still in need of help!

[Agentbromsnor]

Hello guys and girls,

I haven't had a lot of time to map lately, but when I had some spare time in the evening I put together a small map that resembles a hallway of an old house (or mansion, rather). I used custom textures and dynamic lights to make the level come alive, and I intend to make this scary. If this works, I might even use this as a project for school!

But the thing is, I don't have a concrete idea yet of what I want to do with it. I know I want it to be scary, but I don't want to expand it into a whole level or a mapset or something. The level has to be just this hallway, and I would like to use some kind of script to make the game scary.

I thought about having the doors triggering some kind of sound whenever the player comes near them, but I don't know if that will work convincing in the end product. I would very much like to know what you think of this, and your ideas, thoughts and suggestions!

Here are some screenshots to give you an impression:
http://imageshack.us/a/img267/1859/screenshotdoom201209141.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img803/1859/screenshotdoom201209141.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img7/1859/screenshotdoom201209141.png

Hope you like it!

[Walter confetti]

cool texture usage but... meh, i'm not convicted at all.

[Krispy]

Have you played Who Dun It? Lots of great hallway examples in that wad.

http://storage2.static.itmages.ru/i/12/0606/h_1338996407_8766194_aac53f80e1.png

[Agentbromsnor]

Krispy said:

Have you played Who Dun It? Lots of great hallway examples in that wad.

http://storage2.static.itmages.ru/i/12/0606/h_1338996407_8766194_aac53f80e1.png

I played it and I liked alot of the map designs! I thought about creating a level for Who Dun It before, but I'm not sure if my designs are good enough.
I think the style is simular to my hallway, but I'm not using any texture packs, just custom textures I found on the internet.

Its not really the design that I need advice on; I can always change the design of my level. What I'm mostly looking for here is advice on how to make it more scary. I'd like this one room to be more like an experience rather than playing a game.

I'm pretty sure you guys have know the game Slender? My idea is to take that principle simple level design (in this case a hallway), and have a script that will give the player a 'new' scary experience everytime he plays it.

I hope this makes sense!

walter confalonieri said:

cool texture usage but... meh, i'm not convicted at all.

How do you mean? Do you feel that the level is still missing something?

[Death Egg]

Maybe have hands reach out from under the floorboards or down from the ceiling?

[Widow]

Have you ever thought of making a wad in a nursing home?Loosely based on a silly horror flick called Bubba Hotep?Also like your idea very much.

[Fletcher`]

grouchbag said:

Have you ever thought of making a wad in a nursing home?Loosely based on a silly horror flick called Bubba Hotep?Also like your idea very much.

Oh my god did you watch our movie last night?

[Widow]

Which one?Bubba Hotep?

[Fletcher`]

grouchbag said:

Which one?Bubba Hotep?

Yeah! Its the one where old Elvis in a nursing home battles a mummy.. with black JFK. I can totally see this as a doom map for zdoom. Thankyou. Thank you very much!

[MSPaintR0cks]

Make a spooky house map whichs shifts and changes around the architecture while you are walking around in it! :D

[Widow]

Youre very welcome!

[Agentbromsnor]

TrueDude said:

Maybe have hands reach out from under the floorboards or down from the ceiling?

That sounds pretty neat, but I want it to be something that is 'repeatable'.

[Agentbromsnor]

MSPaintR0cks said:

Make a spooky house map whichs shifts and changes around the architecture while you are walking around in it! :D

I could make the door on the other side teleport the player to the beginning again? I don't know if thats cliche, but it might seem like an endless loop of hallways.

[mouldy]

What you could try is making it so when the player turns a few corners the layout changes behind him in the bits he was in earlier, so the map seems to be always changing without the player seeing the change. Then the corridor leads back to the beginning but its different. If you can make it so there is never a dead end it would be like the player is wandering through endless random corridors, not sure how fun that would be...

[Agentbromsnor]

mouldy said:

What you could try is making it so when the player turns a few corners the layout changes behind him in the bits he was in earlier, so the map seems to be always changing without the player seeing the change. Then the corridor leads back to the beginning but its different. If you can make it so there is never a dead end it would be like the player is wandering through endless random corridors, not sure how fun that would be...

Something like that would be managable I think. Maybe if I added a script that randomly creates an effect in one of the rooms (spawning a monster, or at least something scary) it could be a nice finish.

[Walter confetti]

Agentbromsnor said:

How do you mean? Do you feel that the level is still missing something?

Yes, exactly. If your project involves much more than walking in creepy hallways (oh wait, actually i play a game based upon creepy interconnected hallways and rooms, ah ah!) but adding more variety and exploration stuff (like, you know, go inside the rooms in this place, find clues, fight monsters, searching things and similar stuff...) it could be a nice project for me...

But if your aim is just walking in some creepy hallways, well this could be a great disappointing...

[Agentbromsnor]

walter confalonieri said:

Yes, exactly. If your project involves much more than walking in creepy hallways (oh wait, actually i play a game based upon creepy interconnected hallways and rooms, ah ah!) but adding more variety and exploration stuff (like, you know, go inside the rooms in this place, find clues, fight monsters, searching things and similar stuff...) it could be a nice project for me...

But if your aim is just walking in some creepy hallways, well this could be a great disappointing...

I see what you mean, but my goal with this project is not to create any sort of game that you can win, but more an 'experience'. The player just has to be there in that particular location, and let the experience do the rest. I know this would normally sound like lazy gamedesign, but I would like to see if I can create a minimalistic but scary experience.

I don't mind adding more hallways by the way, or something that connects to a room.

[Antroid]

Slender is crap, you are much better off looking into that first SCP game with the neverending grey stairwell (not the second revision with the stupid brick hallways). That was as minimalistic as it gets, and yet pretty spooky. The general idea is that you know something's gonna happen to you, but do not know exactly when, so you're kept tense.

[Agentbromsnor]

Antroid said:

Slender is crap, you are much better off looking into that first SCP game with the neverending grey stairwell (not the second revision with the stupid brick hallways). That was as minimalistic as it gets, and yet pretty spooky. The general idea is that you know something's gonna happen to you, but do not know exactly when, so you're kept tense.

Yes, I know that game too! :)

Are there any people with script experience who can help me with how to construct a script like that?

[Walter confetti]

Agentbromsnor said:

I see what you mean, but my goal with this project is not to create any sort of game that you can win, but more an 'experience'. The player just has to be there in that particular location, and let the experience do the rest. I know this would normally sound like lazy gamedesign, but I would like to see if I can create a minimalistic but scary experience.

I don't mind adding more hallways by the way, or something that connects to a room.

Ok, get it.
Let's see what you can get out from this idea...

[Agentbromsnor]

Mega bump!

Okay, I've been very lazy when it comes to this little project, but I created this short video to give you guys an impression of how far I am:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd3E3DntjLk

[Agentbromsnor]

Opinions anybody? :)

[schwerpunk]

Looks interesting... Not really the kind of WAD I would usually play, but definitely a cool little demo. Kind of reminds me of Amnesia actually, heh. Would probably work well for an RPG or survival horror mod.

[Agentbromsnor]

schwerpunk said:

Looks interesting... Not really the kind of WAD I would usually play, but definitely a cool little demo. Kind of reminds me of Amnesia actually, heh. Would probably work well for an RPG or survival horror mod.

Thanks! My intention was to make it a bit like Amnesia, but I intend this little mod as a prototype for a first person survival horror game concept that I'm working on with friends.

I have to say though, that the resources of the WAD are a bit messy... The textures are in a seperate WAD. I know its not that big of a deal, but the perfectionist in me wants it in the main PWAD. :P

[Agentbromsnor]

Just letting everybody know that I made a fancy ModDB page for this!

http://www.moddb.com/mods/project-legacy

Go me!

[Agentbromsnor]

Updated the ModDB page. :D

[Agentbromsnor]

Posted yet another update on the ModDB page!

Also, I would like to mention that I'm still looking for people to help me out with this project! Right now, I have Cacowad helping me out with decorate and model stuff, but I don't want to put too much pressure on him so perhaps it would be nice to have somebody on board who knows a thing or two about ACS.

If you feel up for the challenge, please send me a PM with your MSN adress, so we can stay in touch. :) If you do, I will send you an updated version of the WAD(s) once a week.