Sidescroller Design

[Arioch]

Captain Mellow has posted the first design document for a Doom "sidescroller" that he will be working on, over at Mellow Land Productions. At this point, however, he still hasn't decided whether to make it a sidescroller or give it an isometric view.

[Bloodshedder]

I'd say definitely give it an isometric view. It would be cool to have something like Doom that's comparable to Diablo.

[Guest KikassAssassin]

I know it's not Doom, but has anyone here played Target Quake? Basically, it's a side-scrolling shooter mod for Quake and Quake 3 (Quake one's single player, Quake 3's multiplayer, obviously). It seems pretty similar to what he's talking about here... except that this actually uses the Quake engine.

I wonder if it would be possible to do something similar with Doom? Use a Doom source port that has a 3rd person view available, set the camera angle to the side, code in a crosshair to show where you're aiming, and create some levels with a 2-D format (with a "tunnel" boundary using impassible linedefs to keep the player and monsters from moving out of the 2D plane), and wala! A side scrolling Doom game.

Good thing about this is, you wouldn't have to worry about any legal trouble from id :)

[Guest Captain Napalm]

Go with 2d Scroller, like that cool Quake Sidescroller! Diablo sucks anyway IMO and a 2D shootemup would be way cooler.

[Guest KikassAssassin]

hmm... now that I read further into the design doc, it seems like doing all the stuff he wants to do in the game could be pretty difficult to achieve in the Doom engine. Still, I think a side-scrolling Doom mod would be pretty cool to have, anyway.

[Guest Fanatic]

I agree, isometric view would be fresh for DOOM. I like the idea!

Hell, why not do both, and make it do you can switch views, or choose which view before you start?

[Guest NunoC]

NightFang has done that with SmashDM, but the project was cancelled a while ago.

I think an isometric view would be nice. Also, you wouldn't probably be foxed if you forced the program to only run if Doom is present.

[Guest NunoC]

There's an error in the design doc. Captain Mellow states in Philosophy #2 that he'll ignore any elements from the Doom novels, but the character's name ("Flynn") comes from them.

BTW: if this gets to be isometric, a good game to... er, steal... ideas from would be Crusader. Otherwise, I think Abuse is the best bet.

[captmellow]

Ah, I forgot about that. Actually, given the mileu, it probably wouldn't be Flynn anyway. More like one of his descendants.

[Guest NunoC]

OK, sorry for the wiseassness :)

[wavelength]

A Doom sidescroller would be so sweet. Forget isometrics, stick with a sidescroller design. That way everybody can relate to it and it would be easier to learn, and making levels would be something everyone could enjoy, not just corporate nazis we have around here who make extremely difficult doom editing programs that only they understand because they fear change and real creativity ::cough:: so anywho.

[msquid]

It's ass-kicking, it's free at all the abandonwarez sites, it's very open and has it's own lisp (methinks) interpreter built in it. I guess weapons and all the graphics could be changed/reprogrammed. It supports all the resolutions and comes with a built-in level editor. It was designed by one of the former id employees, remember?

[Julian]

Use Abuse: if you intend to make a side scroller rather than an iso game, it has everything you need.

[captmellow]

Agreed, the Abuse engine would rock. If I were a coder.

However, I'm using Multimedia Fusion. Sort of a poor man's Flash, coded by the French guys at Clickteam.com. Destroyer is using Game Factory, another klik app. There's a pretty huge klik community, & coders are adding extensions for MMF to add quite a few functions.

I am leaning towards sidescroller myself (easier to map for), but thinking of the more complex maps possible w/ isometric is also appealing.

[NightFang]

Just read those design docs, sounds like an awesome plan! Everything you described can be done in the doom engine.

But, IMO, if you want, you can dust off the SmashDM source code, update it and that would work perfectly!

About 3/4 of the engine your describing is already there

[Adam Hegyi]

Now I'm fairly surprised no one has mentioned the Russian made DOOM 2D yet...

[Guest necrotrash]

definitely, definitely sidescroller. next to DOOM, this type of game is the ultimate video-nasty experience. Flashback rocked!

[Guest Nash]

Hmmm... you got a big project there Mellow. Good luck man!

I'm an MMF user too, if you need any help feel free to ask me; I have Kliking experience since 1994.

[Guest BlackTerror]

I'm not entirely opposed to the side-scroller idea, but I just think that it would be easier to implement all of your indeas in an isometric engine. Most side scrollers don't look as good as isometric games, though I'm sure you'd do your best, and isometric games just offer more possiblities in map design.

I like your culture ideas, by the way. Rather Fallout-esque; interesting.

[Linguica]

Woo, Flashback...

[captmellow]

Hey there Nash, I just checked your site over there with Marcello. He's a pillar of the klik community--I rely on a few of his objects. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned your own Doom sidescroller--the screenshot looks good.

[Guest Firewater]

what is a side scroller? or an isometric?

[wavelength]

Well now that you mention it Doom 2D would rock on the Abuse engine/game, if you don't feel like starting from scratch.
Questions: What the heck is a "klik"? And does anyone know where I could download The Game Factory? ::cough:: And how do I access the level editor in Abuse, I never knew it was there when I played it.

[BillyBlaze]

For my 2 pence worth I'd have to say a side scroller is the best way. I'd definitely check out the Metal Slug series for some inspiration as these are IMO the best side scrollers available.
Abuse?
Look further than Abuse. There's a world of other games out there.
There's got to be enough sprite artists, game designers and budding coders knocking around these forums to get this game written.
Good luck.

[Law]

To program all of those ideas on your own would take only, say, a couple of years. You do it in that time would require you having no social life what so ever by working on it for 8 hours a day. 8 hours left after going to work, and some sleep.
I think your idea is too ambitious.
And what are you going to program the game in? Visual Basic, Delphi, C,C++, Visual C?
I hope you don't use Games Factory, for gods sake. You could do it in Abuse okay, but your ridiculous ship combat would be unlikly there.

[Guest Nash]

The term is all related the "point & click multimedia authoring tools" from Clickteam. Visit http://www.clickteam.com/ to learn more.

PS: K&P, C&C and TGF sucks.
PPS: Do not underestimate Multimedia Fusion.

[Law]

Actually I was being too harch again. If you manage to write an isometric game that would be impressive. But these click a game programs are just cheating, and you'll never have as much power over your program as writing from scratch.

[Guest Nash]

Try this and judge how powerful the Klik products can be.

http://www.cellosoft.com/nash/DED2.zip

Be sure to read the README. =D

[Guest Sir Robin]

That russian side-scroller DooM was not that good really... I remember you could swin in it though...

[Guest Nash]

Where can I get that Russian game?