Development

[Fredrik]

Like some of you may have noticed, I haven't gotten anywhere with my 1337 (measure of multitude, not quality :P ) projects recently. This is partially because I don't know what direction to take with each project, but I think I've come to conclude a proposal now.


Pain

This was supposed to be a 32-level megawad with special themes to the episodes. The first episode was supposed to be ice-tech themed, the second episode lava-tech, and the third episode hell. Well, I've decided to keep Pain a 32-level megawad, but it'll now be rid of most story and theme elements. The levels will be randomly tech/hell-themed, with most tech at the start and more hell towards the end of the game. In other words, like most megawads :D Pain will be doom2.exe compatible and of course the best thing ever.

Despite this change, I do have 4 very cool levels (three by me and one by Wim Vanrie) finished already. They are old though so I'll have to touch them up visually and improve the design a bit as well.

Demo of first 11 levels will be released when finished.


Deep Freeze (codename)

I've moved the ice theme from Pain here now. This is going to be a PC for ZDoom with 4-5 levels. Each level is going to be huge with lots of scripting. There will be monster and weapon modifications, but I don't know to what extent, it depends on whether DoomScript ever gets done or not. The project doesn't depend on such modifications, though, so it can pretty much be done with what's out today. This project also features a new palette, all textures will be made from scratch (and most of them will be high-res), interactive music in MP3 format or similar, and lots more.

This project is still in its early stages, currently with only the palette, some ~50 textures, and a player sprite replacement done.


Citadel of the Tranquil Radish

One level for ZDoom. The biggest ever. The most monsters ever. The ultimate CPU killer. Guaranteed to have the most annoying and painfully enjoyable gameplay ever. The music replacement I've made for this one is also the best song ever, hands down. The level is like 10% finished, so expect a 2004 release (though I'll try to finish it faster, of course).


Vrack 3

The stuff I've made for it already is getting outdated in technical terms, I don't know what'll happen to this level. Maybe it'll get released, maybe not :P It's unfortunately not a high priority for me right now.


So, what do you people think? I'd appreciate feedback regarding these moves...

[myk]

That happens to me, I work on stuff and then it becomes apparent that only some of the ideas I began with were really good, so things change, yet some ideas grow and eventually predominate in the designs while others die or are shifted to other projects. Not that I'm into many, just 2, with another two only conceptually ready, but not practically started. For instance, I have these sprites from one of my initial ideas ("SOH" a shores of hell remake) and luckily I kept them, for now they are useful for a DEH mod I am coming up with. Also, my other project has stuff from a discarded idea (incidentially an "arctic" type project I had started based on NiGHTMARE's textures and some others.)

Among your projects the one that would interest me most would be Pain, as I'm almost entirely dedicated to doom/doom2, and it would be nice to see what you can come up with after having worked with less restrictive but more complex engines (Vracks and whatnot.) Falling back to plain doom from there may give you fresh mapping perspectives. The other projects may also be nice to see, especially if they are something innovative like COECITS was, although not as much from a player's pont of view (in my case.) Also, keep on working on the music side, COECITS's MIDI fit in well, adding to the map's strangeness. Sometimes "classical" music may feel out of place in DOOM, but not in COECITS's case.

[magikal]

Hmm, I think sometimes we can be our own worst enemies when it comes to pride in what we do (I'm talking generally now), especially when what we have already done is so well respected.It can stop us from commiting ourselves to something we may fear is less than 'perfect'(In our eyes).Sometimes we forget commiting ourselves leads to learning much more than non-commitment, even though what we do may not be as well received as we would have liked.
Also there are times I think we have to remember that it's not necessarily the greatest thing to be bigger or newer or more radical in some respect as to what's gone before, 'perfection' or 'the best' is more often a fine balance of what has already been done and is usually as or more difficult to achieve than something 'new'.(ime)
I'm most interested in Vrack3 because 1 & especially 2 are superlative maps with fine balance.
Fred, I look forward to whatever you release, good luck.

[Little Faith]

The shift in direction of Pain seems to be a wise choice.


Please don't ditch Vrack3 just because it doesn't have the latest technical features. Those screenies still have me longing for a release.

[Lobo]

Why don't you try and concentrate on just ONE of them. The more projects you've got, the less likely you are to finish them.

[myk]

Lobo said:

Why don't you try and concentrate on just ONE of them. The more projects you've got, the less likely you are to finish them.

Ah... reasonable but cheap advice; the creative mind cannot be withheld.

[DooMBoy]

Dude, just finish Vrack3 and I'll be happy :)

[Black Void]

If you ask me, they all sound good, but deep freeze really got my attention. I enjoy playing zdoom levels and when they're arctic zdoom levels, that's even better.