Allie

Perhaps that was where John fought the demons... Anyways, there's a secret in E2M4 where you see a computer map, ammo, and armor contained within a 'cage'. It was literally only last week that I figured out how to open it. I would usually walk away from it and forget about opening the cage until level completion. I think it's the last secret in Ultimate Doom that I hadn't conquered, too! There's also the invulnerability trick with Sector Tag 11 (hurt and end level) that I found out about recently.

Neat stuff! I like RUSH pointing out the whole lightning-bolt aspect to it; I think that illusion creates a really cool piece. Can't wait to see what you put out later in the week, maybe trying out those planning stages you touched on!

@gaspe: The fire inside works better with the right picture, but the left picture looks nicer overall to me imo. Kinda reminds me of the Hexen belltower, actually.

Doom-wise: The first time I ever actually beat DOOM without cheating was when I played it on the first official iPhone port (it would play demos! That was so sick! I'm sad the current port's menu doesn't do that.) Forums-wise, because I might as well confess it: I open up Post Hell every now and then because I like the music that plays.

Even if you are updating the project elsewhere now, I'll be keeping tabs on it. I very much appreciate the work and enjoy it!

@scifista42 Yeah, the paper-thin building is already fixed. After posting that image I got fed up enough to change it. As for the hallway, the lamps were a last-ditch to sate my mind, but I guess I can live with it if the hallway is barren. Maybe I can change around some lightlevels or whatever.

@Jimi: I'm loving all your stuff dude! The flat textures make everything look clean and planar. I'm finishing the alpha to my Map07 replacement and I decided to have a proper "Dead Simple" style courtyard to end the map on. I'm thinking of changing sky1 to a nighttime sky lit by many bright stars and a huge full moon (so outdoor areas can still be bright). The courtyard is the best place in the map to see the sky itself, so any thoughts on that? (P.S.: I have no idea how to reliably teleport monsters in so that imp is the only threat when you see the courtyard) I also would like some advice on this little hallway: It's not important and it just leads you to a tiny little-detailed room with a vital switch, but I feel like it needs more decoration every time I pass it. Maybe even another room? Any ideas? If you want you can download it and play around or whatever. I don't want to make a new thread in WADs for a single map, especially an unfinished one. The layout's pretty much finished so that's how it'll play. Map07, difficulty options, Doom 2, 100% vanilla compatible.

Huh, I was recording with ChocoDoom v2.1.0; I guess I should have gone full vanilla to ensure better compatibility. I'll learn to make demos yet.

Hello, world! My first .WAD for you all to play and review, if you want. While working on a larger project I ran into some trouble figuring out how to add custom textures and flats. Getting frustrated, I decided to set aside time to learn the process, and in the meanwhile decompress and make some smaller DOOM maps. I settled on only giving myself 90 minutes* per map for a constraint challenge, and this is the result roughly 14 hours later. I have made no progress on my editing problems. It's for (Ultimate) DOOM and it replaces Episode 1. It's got a good emphasis on combat, not level design. You'll be running a lot. Download the zip here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/h5zy72ua0jz7o9j/90MINMAP.zip Images: (Click to see a larger version) ^Clockwise: E1M7, E1M3, E1M2, and E1M1^ *I did allow myself about 3 minutes extra "fixing" time in case I ran into any major game problems. Read the .txt for more info. Is MOSTLY compatible with vanilla DOOM, however E1M9 has a render error that bricks vanilla. I've left the map in because I can't for the life of me figure out how to fix it and I'm welcome to anyone opening it up and sleuthing around. Please enjoy if you decide to play it, and I'm always open to criticism! UPDATES: E1M7 has a secret which you can become trapped in. It's shown in one of the screenshots, so if you get trapped have your noclip cheat ready. E1M8 CAN visplane overflow for vanilla in a certain spot, but this has only occurred once in my dozens of playtests.

This was fun! I also recorded my first ever demo on this map. So you get to watch me suck at DOOM. Not my first run but the first run where I could complete the map. The geometry was pretty simple, enough for a 90s map, but it feels like a 90s map that actually had design though put into it re: textures. I liked how you punish the player for grabbing a soulsphere+armor by giving them another challenge. The starting area was pretty well thought out imo. Only a careful player would notice the real challenge waiting instead of the squad of former humans which should fall easily to a rocket launcher. The long walk over damaging nukage to the end switch is one thing I dislike about the level. But then again, that's probably the most 90s part of the entire map.

I ended up having a lot to say about this. Overall I enjoyed the experience and I can't wait to see more, but I've hidden my rambling critique under this spoiler. It's a lot, sorry! Overall, the maps were quirky and very interesting to navigate. Some design decisions hamper this however. Enemies tend to overwhelm, but I believe this to be fixable by just tweaking what enemies are encountered rather than where or how many. You've got a lot of great ideas and environments mapped out here and it's gonna be awesome to see your progress on it all. Keep mapping!

I would also recommend editing the first post with a download link now that you're ready to have us play it. I'll be playing them myself in just a few moments, but it's always nice and convenient for a playtester to have all the resources they need in the OP!

Working on maps for a project that's way too ambitious for me. My MAP07 replacement, working title "Dead Sewage", but with my current palette I'm considering just calling it "Brown is Real". Not quite interesting, especially with -nomonsters. Also, I'm surprised that the warehouse area doesn't crash vanilla, considering its amount of visplanes. [Click for a higher-quality, 600k image.] Here's an overview of the level right now.

Thanks for the playing and the info, Caleb! First off, E1M4's double soulspheres are intentional. You're running around four spiders, so the ability to instantly get to 200 health no matter what was something I wanted to put in. I double-stack soulspheres in E1M9's secret as well. The HOM bug in E1M6 is interesting. I've never been able to make that occur for me, and I'll have to mess around with it! And good job on E1M9, I usually can't maneuver well enough with the monsters to get the cyber infighting. Most importantly though thank you for the sectors which shouldn't be secret. I'm still learning, and their numbers actually help me a lot. Again, thank you for playing!

Vanilla would never spit out the visplane error for me (aside from one instance) so that's where the confusion came from. Crashes with no error reports left behind. That explanation is very helpful however! I thought visplanes were both the floor and the ceiling planes at once, rather than those two being rendered as separate entities. This would explain the issue, as when floors are factored in the arena definitely goes over the limit. Thank you!

We were so preoccupied with whether or not we could that we didn't stop to think if we should...

Job, thanks for the wonderful review! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I have no plans to stop, but to hopefully improve. It's most likely a render error. I will probably end up just redoing the arena if I ever decide to expand into the other episodes for this WAD, but I guess I'll elaborate on it here: E1M9 will load and take you to the starting area just fine. The render problem occurs when teleporting into the main arena. It will specifically brick vanilla when looking (using the exit as a 12o'clock) roughly 1-2 o'clock into the arena, or the lower lefthand corner if you're opening it in a software/looking at the map. It seems specifically to hang up on a particular linedef, vertex, or sector, because I can clip and look at the arena from other views that don't render that area and not crash. I'm questioning whether it's a visplane overflow, though, as I've only received that error once during my testing (and promptly removed a dozen sectors to ensure the number rendered couldn't exceed the holy 128) and all other tests have been a full crash with no error report. However I've redrawn quite a few sectors in that area and nothing seems to work. Limit-removing ports render the arena fine.

Oh dear, that E1M7 bug with the secret is something I never even found out. Guess that's the price you pay when testing a map you know everything about. I'll edit the OP with a note for that. I should have also changed the crusher type to not be permanent (only give you a "quick squeeze") Red key place in E1M8 requires some tricky jumping to get out of, but it's pretty cheap; It definitely should have been easier to get out of there. Your points are very accurate and I've taken note of them all. E1M1 was the first map made, and also the only one where I wasn't trying to figure out a way to make the map "interesting" at all. My obsession with speed and unnecessary combat seems to really show here. E1M9's layout is intentional, but that "step here and you die" trial-and-error level design is inexcusable. A better way to design that arena would have been to close it off and have monsters teleport in. Thank you for taking the time to review it regardless! I'm writing down key points from these reviews to learn from. I'll probably list them all later as a memento for me.

Thank you for the review! E1M3 is meant to be an "optional" level – you can either run around grabbing some supplies and exit very quickly, or get into a big fight to snatch some tasty secrets (hint: double-check everything before you leave). I guess E1M2 might be overkill for a second level, though. In E1M1 the blue-bars door does not allow you to open it in some places. This is because the raised bars are stopping you from opening the door (due to how DOOM calculates what you can and cannot "use" at any given time.) If you can't open it on the first try, just strafe back and forth while spamming the "use" key, you'll find a sweet spot. Time constraints stopped me from fixing this. The map swarms you from the moment you step off the starting area, but you actually have plenty of room and supplies. Hints: focus on the smaller guys first, who block your movement and go down easy. Try to get the cacos and barons to infight to make your life easier. There's a secret near the start. The right room has a trick which will separate the monsters from you if you figure it out. Thank you for playing!

This is absolutely beautiful. The Archvile kills me...

I might be a newbie, but I've always found that being hung up or stressed out about perfection can sometimes be (momentarily) alleviated by giving yourself a challenge. Try limiting how much time you have to map for example, dare yourself to speedmap! Theoretically it's very easy to make a level in 90 minutes. Just place down a sector, a start, and an exit switch. But you'll probably find yourself adding in random, abstract geometry, and as much of it as you can, because you've got 90 minutes goddamn it and you want to see what you can do! You can also try taking a break and playing some maps (not that you haven't tried this before.) Good choices would be simple '90s levels that cared about texture alignment (famous Serenity comes to mind) because I find they remind me that you can have simple and abstract geometry, yet still have a fun level at the end of it all; sometimes especially because of perfectionism during design. At the end of the day, remember this quote: "This isn't the olympics, it's an industry!" Perfection is perfection, but the average player just wants to have a fun time.

This level is too tough for me to beat... ...but damn, if there was ever a level that gave you hope every time it gibbed you, it's this one. Every run gets a little bit more successful! Truly a challenge but I doubt I'm ultra-violent enough for it. And to those who haven't played it: you're going to want to have a mirror nearby so you can see the look on your face once the level begins. 10/10

Well, now I feel like an idiot. When using that teleport, not once did I even think to turn around or look at the minimap. It's funny, too, since I would often look at the level feature it teleports you to and wonder, "How do I get up there...?" Entirely my fault! Erase those concerns I had with the map, I quite like it!

Adding absolutely nothing to this thread, I wanna say that Doomkid's wad is pretty dang fun to play and y'all should try it if you want what the contest is asking for! It's got great visuals and flow with fun fights; some of which try to punish you for running away. A "gauntlet" area about 3/4th of the way through was my favorite section, and felt as grueling and awesome to go through as my nickname for it suggests. The final battle was a little underwhelming due to the invincibility sphere though. Hansen's wad is also pretty fun and perfectly does what the contest asked for. It seems that you have to run over a large damaging sector in order to progress at one point, though, which can make your first playthrough impossible if you don't have enough healing items leftover. My only other real complaint is that I'm pretty sure it doesn't have door tags on an essential door's linedefs, either that or I'm just not bright enough to figure out how to open it. (It's the door leading to the blue key area and to the doors that you can open with the red key.) I think I might have joined just for the challenge had I not seen the thread after the completion date. But I don't think anything I could make would have beaten out Doomkid's entry. Congrats to the winner!

Stellar looking map! A lot of fine sector/linework which makes for good eyecandy. It was looking so pretty, in fact, that while I was admiring it I fell off the platform at the beginning and panicked so much that I died before even noticing the ladder out of the nukage. Heh. Gameplay-wise, it's pretty nice. The big "laptop arena" about halfway through was the most memorable fight, with lots of circle-strafing and objects just small enough to let revenant fireballs chase through them. My biggest complaint is everything after that, really. The dark garage fight is underwhelming if you got the BFG "secret" and, given the ammo surplus, isn't too difficult without it. The hell area was so nonlinear that it was, as Doomkid said, difficult to actually figure out where to go. Eventually you figure it out, but running around weaponless save for some berserk fists with no idea where to go is frustrating after a while. The hell area (and the wooden pathway out of it) really contrasts with the majority of the map but blends very nicely into it. It's sadly my least favorite part of the map, as very little combat has to happen in it and it isn't around for very long. Assuming I played your updated version (I believe I did, since it was downloaded after your update post) the HOM effect by the ramp is still there. I also noticed two other glitches during my play. Screens below. http://imgur.com/a/GNCSQ ^The first image in that album shows the fence by the gas station. While strafing with my back to it, I kept getting caught as if by an invisible wall and getting stopped. ^img1 and img2 is where I found a nonsolid floor that drops you into a HOM hole with a demon. img3 is what I believe to be that demon. Maybe it just shrinks you super tiny! Other than those bugs the map's lovely to play! But, since it's very nonlinear and a lot of it is devoted to optional paths with weapons/ammo in it, maybe you should make more areas 'secret' to give the player more satisfaction for exploring and finding these items? (The area guarded by a chaingunner near spawn comes to mind.) Good job!