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Toxic Trouble is just a quick single-map project I decided to do more as an exercise more than anything else. I wanted some practice with the idea of "never just one problem", so I tried to make sure most of the major encounters have the player dealing with multiple problems at once. Granted, that's pretty easy to do with Doom 2's enemy roster, but the key here is this time I'm doing it on purpose. This was also the first time I designed a map specifically around the Hurt Me Plenty skill. Usually I design around Ultra-Violence and just make it easier from there, but here I decided to actually treat the "Normal" skill as the default. With all that said, the map should hopefully be reasonably difficult, but nothing ridiculous. DOWNLOAD HERE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yq5tab0srt9qmbc/Toxic Trouble.wad?dl=0 Music is "Going Down the Fastway" from Rise of the Triad. Also uses Cage's Texture Pack because it's always great. Uses the UDMF map format, so it requires GZDoom... I think. JUMPING: No. CROUCHING: No. FREELOOK: Yes. RECOMMENDED DIFFICULTY: Hurt Me Plenty COMPATIBILITY WARNING- This map uses an integrated weapon mod that replaces the chaingun, and thus will likely break most other weapon mods. If you want to use some kind of a gameplay mod with this map, use THIS download link instead: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbod0d1hlsgrlc8/Toxic Trouble - NoWeaponMod.wad?dl=0

I am being brutally mauled 😀

(Inspired by this thread on the Accursed Farms forums) For context: If you've ever seen the youtube series Ross's Game Dungeon, you're likely familiar with his "awards" segment, where he gives a game upwards of 3 awards. These aren't something as basic as "good music", they're usually done to highlight aspects of the game that stuck out to him. Some of my favorites include- "Gold Ore" - the game has a concept brimming with potential that no game since has tried to refine. "Best Story by a Six Year Old" - The story throws everything at the wall without any attempt to tie the elements together "Dog Monarchy" - The game has the standout innovation of including a ruling class of dogs. "Best Exploding Cows" - Need I explain more? Sometimes the awards do contain more general statements of how he feels about the game, such as "Gaming Crack", "Love & Hate", and "All-Time Favorite". So this thread is just for anyone to create their personal set of awards for a game. Share what interesting or bizarre stuff you find noteworthy about some of the games you've played. Here's some that I made to get started: Far Cry 5 [Coziest Game Where You Still Get to Shoot Dozens of People] - I've never played a full-on shooter game that felt this comfy before or since. The whole game, from the environmental design, to your interactions with NPCs, to the ability to relax and go fishing or hunting, everything just gives a sense of hominess and community that almost reminds me of Animal Crossing on a certain level. But the core gameplay still revolves around shooting people and beating them with a shovel. I guess "Cult of the Lamb" is something that more deliberately tries to replicate this dichotomy, but in that game it almost feels like the division between "comfy community builder" and "murderous cult leader" is played up for laughs. Meanwhile, FC5 merges the coziness with the combat pretty seamlessly. [Love & Hate] - Far Cry's formula (at least post FC3) is kind of like comfort food to me. It's not likely that anything using this formula will break one of my all time favorites, but it's very easy for me to like. It doesn't take much for me to get absorbed in the gameplay loop and environments. Unfortunately, FC5, seems really opposed to me doing that. Not only does the game stop you dead in your tracks to force you into the story missions, but as you make progress in each section, the game repeatedly adds more and more hazards to annoy you. Especially the planes. Once you're close enough to a boss fight, you start getting hounded by planes circling the area 24/7, and no matter how many you shoot down, they'll always keep coming. But once you do clear a sector, then it goes too far in the other direction and nullifies ALL random enemy spawns, which just makes exploration feel a little less exciting. This all leads to a gameplay pattern where every chapter of the game starts at its best and ends at its worst, which almost makes me dread playing the missions and making progress. [Diabolus Ex Nuke] - The game's become kind of infamous for its ending, and spoiler alert, it sucks. It just sucks. If you decide to keep fighting the cult leader, which you are obviously going to do given how much work it took to get to him in the first place, nuclear war starts. For some fucking reason. There might be radio broadcasts about political tensions being high, but that still doesn't explain why you only get hit with a nuke if you decide to kill this random cult leader in Montana. F.E.A.R. 2 [Whiny Game Engine] - You might recall in Ross's video for Revenant, he called it one of the most temperamental games ever made. Well, FEAR 2 is definitely up there.. Instead of behaving differently depending on a series of tiny differences in your system, FEAR 2 has two modes of behaving- it runs or it doesn't. And all too often, FEAR 2 chooses "It doesn't". I suspect this is less prevalent on other machines, but man, there are SO MANY things that can cause the game to just refuse to launch. I've had times where it just works without a hitch, sometimes it only runs if I set the game to my native resolution ahead of time, but other times I'll try reinstalling both my graphics AND audio drivers, and it STILL won't work. There is such a long laundry list of things that can cause this game to boot up to a black screen that this alone makes it hard to recommend someone buy the PC version. [Minority Report] - Most people seem to regard FEAR 2 as an inferior sequel... I am not most people. I mean sure, I agree that some things aren't as good, such as bullet time being a bit less polished, and the horror elements not being as strong. But on the whole? I think it's a tighter and more enjoyable experience than its predecessor in a myriad of ways. Environments feel much more varied and interesting, the combat is still a ton of fun, the slide kick is way, WAY easier to pull off and therefore is infinitely useful. Hell, I even like the inclusion of proper aim down sights (Although they still should have added an option to disable it). And even if the horror elements are less prevalent than before, I didn't really care since I didn't think the first game was even remotely scary. There was a handful of moments in extraction point that creeped me out a little, but other than that, I have no fucking idea what people are talking about when they say FEAR is a superb horror experience. It really never was. So having the sequel recognize that and use the horror as more of a thematic anchor felt like the right direction for me. And all that makes the "Whiny Game Engine" award all the more frustrating, because I WOULD play it a lot more if it would let me. [What?] - Yeah, I'm not gonna try to defend the ending. Whoever drafted that is a crazy person. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger [Death of the Author] - I've seen games and movies where the narrator is telling the story in past tense as we watch the events transpire. I've never played a game where the narrator slowly has an existential crisis while telling the story, watching the gameworld fall apart as he drops everything to ponder his mortality for a moment before someone gets him back on subject. [Drawn to the Horizon] - The vistas in this game are absolute top-notch stuff. Even if this game's sketch-outline aesthetic isn't your favorite, you have to respect the artistry that goes into these landscapes. I mean just look at these mountains here, the sense of scale is stunning. [All-Time Favorite] - I did not in a million years expect this to become one of my favorite shooters. Like, it's a budget 4-hour title that uses the common modern shooter tropes of regenerating health and ADS (not that those are inherently bad, just often slapped into games without understanding what makes them work) and has a very slim selection of weapons. Now I have played Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood and enjoyed that quite a bit, so I was at least expecting this to be good. But sweet friggin' christmas... When you successfully dodge a bullet before being thrust into bullet time, turning the tables and clearing out everyone in the room, followed by the main character pausing the story to go take a piss... You'll understand. Everything in this game just fits together perfectly in a campaign that is all-killer, no-filler. Go play this. Xenogears Just one for this game, but it's a good one: [Best Game that I Never Want to Play] - Do you ever look at a game, appreciate the aesthetic, tone, characters, and story, and then think to yourself: "Too bad it's in a genre that I don't give a flying shit about actually playing". That's the vibe I get from Xenogears all over. Even as someone who doesn't usually like this game's brand of super metaphysical narrative, I found myself supremely interested in the game's world and characters. Not to mention the overall art direction is just fantastic across the board. Unfortunately, it also uses just about every JRPG gameplay trope that I don't care for. Static turn-based combat, random encounters, bad pacing between cutscenes and gameplay, all of that sort of thing. While there are some people who do enjoy or at least tolerate this style of gameplay, I'm not one of them. But hey, if someone were to make a fan game in this universe that plays completely differently, I'd be all over that like frosting on cake.

Ah, yes. Thank you for reminding me to update that.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l0gqybzypj8djsn2b12xq/spectacle_creep_build7A.zip?rlkey=6yn4j333oqzrdqvrgyp8ihx42&dl=0 So after I finished the UDMF remaster of E1M3, I got kinda carried around with the idea of remaking more Doom 1 maps. I'm still not sure how many of these maps I'm going to work on, I guess like any modding project, development will cease when I'm tired of working on it. In the mean time, this is making for a very good comfort project while I'm back at college. The basic conceit of this remake is that I'm going for a sort of "Architectural re-imagining" of classic Doom levels, with a more detailed version of the vanilla aesthetic. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from how Black Mesa added additional scripting and environmental details to the classic Half-Life maps. Now featuring: Hell to Pay difficulty! Adds more enemies and has stricter resource management. Hopefully will make the episode 1 enemies not quite so easy. Revised Nightmare difficulty! Replaces respawning monsters with making them deal twice the damage. Optional Gameplay mod! New weapons sprites and some light combat rebalancing. *** Compatibility & Rules: -Can currently only confirm this works with GZDoom -CROUCHING - 100% ALLOWED -JUMPING - ABSOLUTELY NOT -CROSSHAIR - RECCOMMENDED FOR ADDON MOD -I doubt you need freelook on, just be aware that I always test maps with it enabled. *** Currently completed maps: E1M1 E1M2 E1M3 E1M4 E1M5 E1M9 Custom textures are: -IDTex pack (what I assume is a collection of beta textures, I dunno, I just know it wasn't very organized and I had to remove a bunch of stuff because they overwrote a bunch of useful textures) -Cage's pack -DrDoctor's texture pack -A few textures from TheHambourgeois, StalkerBlade, and DoomDude -Various texture assets from 32in24 -A few modified Quake 3 and Half-Life textures -Some stuff I made myself Custom music: -The Doom 3 Intro theme -"At Doom's Gate" cover done by Nemistade -"The Imp's Song" cover done by Ransu, Ashley Carr (RIP), Sonic Clang, and TiberiumSoul -"Dark Halls" cover done by Matias Lehtoranta -"Suspense" cover done by Andrey Avkhimovich -Some music from Shane's HD Doom Music pack is being used as placeholders. -Intermission music is the Quake 3 victory theme -Menu Music is Aubrey Hodge's Doom 64/PSX Theme (20th Anniversary Edition) -Brief stinger from Deus Ex: Invisible War For best atmosphere: -Make sure decals are enabled! -Bloom is recommended -Sector lighting: "Doom" mode (Mapinfo will set it to this by default) Screenshots: Gameplay Teaser: Compatibility warning: -There's some weird graphical heckery when rendering in software mode (although it is still playable) -There are multiple textures and lighting effects that go off-palette, and thus some areas might look bizarre when rendering with Doom's original color palette. -You may experience frame drops if you have a very low-end computer *** MUSICAL TALENT WANTED! How YOU can contribute to Spectacle Creep! I'm currently searching for any musicians willing to contribute remixes to Spectacle Creep! I'm mostly looking for music that leans more into making the original Doom music feel atmospheric while also being willing to add a bit more of a melody to some of the more repetitive tracks. The tone I'm going for is somewhere in between Doom 1 and Doom 3, so keep that in mind. I recommend looking at the E1M3 and E1M5 remixes I've already included for reference, as well as the soundtrack for the 3DO port. While I definitely think there's room in Spectacle Creep for fast and aggressive electric guitars, I'd like for the music to have a bit more going on than that. Bear in mind that I sadly can't pay you, so this is just if you want to be a part of the project and help make Spectacle Creep as good as it can be. Here are the open slots where I need remixes: -E1M4 -E1M6 -E1M8 -E1M9 This slot is open, but not necessarily needed: -Intermission - I'm currently using the Quake 3 victory music. While I'm okay with leaving it like that, If you want to create a remix of the intermission theme for this WAD or even something more original, I'd be happy to use it. These slots are taken and being worked on: ~~~ These slots are complete: -E1M1 -E1M2 -E1M3 -E1M5 -E1M7 If you're interested in contributing music to the project, please feel free to send me a DM through Doomworld or post something in the thread. Also if you have already made some music that you feel would fit the project, feel free to show me what you have and I will consider including it in a future version.

After suddenly getting the urge to try and compose music again for the first time in a year, I decided to setup one of these "a place to post music I made" threads. I'm still very new to composing music and I'm interested to get feedback on what I've made and how it can be touched up / improved upon. So far, here are the one's that I'm currently willing to share: "Back to the Grindstone" (This is the one I made most recently after not doing any music stuff for a year) "Filleted and Confused" "Home Free" (This is probably the best of the lot, but only because it basically copies the structure, tempo, and drums of Questionable Ethics 1 from the Black Mesa OST) "Thinking About Tomorrow" (I forgot I composed this one with something other than the default Windows soundfont so the "Bowed Pad" instrument sounds like crap, here is an MP3 of what it's supposed to sound like.) I'll post more of these as I make them below. Right now, I'm not planning on uploading these to any particular platform or doing an organized release, I'm really just doing this to get feedback and pointers.

Here's another one I just cooked up: I call it "Tactical Superiority" https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mkigru0bf1ntvyns29tzy/Tactical-Superiority.mid?rlkey=ncyqgvx46gfj0q7pc6qaf33df&dl=0 I was going for a sort of "planning our next move" kinda vibe, and I think I got it in a cartoonish sort of way.

Another one, this one just an untitled C Minor Track- https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/144p6zw6chvbevx0nrcxv/C-Minor-Song.mid?rlkey=6pcvd4vsod5xnpawb34runt8q&dl=0 I started out trying to make something inspired by the track Holy Forest track from King's Field 4 (See video below), but it kinda wound up going in a totally different direction.

Quake. I honestly cannot fully explain why. I have a lot of respect for the game and I do like the lovecraftian atmosphere they're going for, but something about the complete package just fucking bores me. I didn't even care for the expansion episode that came with the remaster, which had a bunch of varying level themes that break up the brown monotony. Something about the combat just does not do it for me. I mean for one, there's the really spongey enemies, but I've played games that had a similarly tanky roster that didn't make me want to stop playing. I think it's a combination of that with everything feeling generally primitive in a way I don't get from Doom.

Little bat bean fella

Okay, I need to ask one very important question: What is the easiest method of playing this mod with any kind of freelook? I understand why freelook isn't supported in the remaster since it's officially considered cheating and also it can cause some graphical problems, but full stop I cannot play without it. I get something akin to simulation sickness where I start to feel out of sync with the character and it makes me really, REALLY uncomfortable for some reason. I can't get used to playing with it turned off. I've heard about a fan patch that adds freelook into the remaster but I couldn't get it to work. Now I know that the mod was created for the original Doom64EX port, which... I think is compatible with GZDoom? (You'll have to bear with me because I know very little about the various Doom 64 ports. I've only beaten the game through a mod made for the ZDoom family and I've since forgotten what it was called.) But I'm fairly certain that version is out of date with the newer stuff added here. Although I've heard that the EX+ port is compatible with the remaster version? Or did someone make a separate version of this mod for said port that I need to download somewhere else. I don't know, if anyone can just point me towards what I need to download I would massively appreciate it.

-MaxResDefault -DoomedKiddo -Decomposable -Grafted Zach -Dave -Jonathan Merciless -Crusty Rustington -Walter's Party Hat -Office-Sil -Immortimer -Broken Cobblestone Generator -TWELValive

Some custom Doomguy status bar faces I made recently. I'm almost certain that people have made the first 3 rows before, but here's my version, I guess. The one I'm most proud of is the new "OUCH" face, since I always thought the original one looked kinda cursed. Also instead of Doomguy having eyes that randomly shift from plain black to blue to brown, I just made it an ambiguous grey. But I'm not posting the other faces that had that change since it's literally a 2 pixel difference.

There's a lot of different possible answers to "How do you design a level from the ground up?", and is hard to give advice on because that's primarily based on how your own mind works. All I can really advise mappers in that regard is to try a bunch of different methods that people use and stick with whichever one works best. Perhaps a better question to ask is "What makes a level layout engaging?", because there is a much deeper discussion to be had there. However, not too long ago I heard a very useful piece of advice that I will paraphrase as: "Unless you are trying to introduce a new idea to the player, make sure they always have more than one problem to deal with." This video by Josh Strife Hayes is what got me thinking about it: The basic idea here is that if a player has only one problem happening at any given moment, gameplay becomes a very basic process of "if X then Y", which gets boring very quickly. You need to have a good understanding of what each enemy or hazard expects from the player and then create your encounters by letting these elements intersect with each other. In Doom 2, it's very easy to do this without even realizing it, just pit the player against differing combinations of enemies on a regular basis. But consciously thinking about how each enemy can create unique challenges, and what those challenges mean when used in tandem with another enemy or environmental hazard is the recipe for creating fun gameplay.

Ultimately, I suppose it depends a lot on what the map is trying to achieve. I put "a little" because I do, if nothing else, expect the map to not be a complete eyesore. I can't really describe what makes a map a complete eyesore to me, just that I know it when I see it. TBH, a few Doom 2 levels lean so hard into looking like abstract doom engine nonsense that they kind of breach this threshold to me. Outside of that, I think that good aesthetics can add a lot to a mapset and help create a rich atmosphere or make the world seem more believable. If you're heavily prioritizing immersion or trying to create a really striking visual style, then yeah it's important to make sure your environmental design can cash that check. Just remember that no matter what you're working on, your visuals won't matter if your gameplay is trash.

This is an instance of me getting an idea for something that I'm not particularly interested (certainly not motivated) to work on, but I thought the idea itself was cool enough to share. And hey, who knows what the future may hold, so why not write it down. The basic idea I had in mind was that this would be a horror game that forgoes the common trope of there being a supernatural or sci-fi element to create monsters and drive the scares. No, the game would be designed to feel like a mostly plausible scenario. You're just some random civilian with minimal knowledge of firearms and no combat training, and for some reason or another, there is a bunch of armed soldiers in the building trying to kill you. Yeah I haven't really thought too much on what the context of this would be... I don't know if they're hunting you specifically or just anyone in the area, I also don't know if this would be a real government entity or some private entity. So for now I'll just call them the "Goon Squad". Anyway, the structure I had in mind was that it would be laid out somewhat like a classic Resident Evil game, where you'd have to traverse back and fourth through an interconnected structure solving puzzles and trying to survive. And the gameplay would be a first person shooter with very light milsim elements. And I do mean light, like mainly stuff related to bullets being wasted if you reload to early, having to hold still and wait for a second while you bandage yourself, that sort of thing. Just enough to make you feel sufficiently de-powered. Furthermore, I think the thing about this concept that intrigues me the most is that the people you're fighting aren't just mindless zombies. The Goon Squad would (hopefully) be fairly intelligent and act like a coordinated group of soldiers. Meaning they'd scan areas looking for movement, they'd radio in backup if you're spotted, and even if they don't get the opportunity... if you get in a fight with them and the bullets start flying, people are gonna know. If you fire off a shot and kill a soldier, everyone in your quarter of the building is going to be like "What the fuck was that?" and immediately run to your position. So if you're forced to get in a gunfight, you will likely have to either try and hide somewhere, get the hell outta dodge, or maybe try and find a vantage point where you can pick off anyone who comes in. Although if you do that last thing too much, then when new members of the Goon Squad are sent in, they'll start throwing flashbangs into a room before investigating. And maybe as you get closer towards the end of the game, we can slowly give the player a certain degree of empowerment. Like reloading is a little faster, your character is able to keep the gun more steady while aiming down the sights, maybe you found a silencer for your pistol, that sort of thing. I should also mention that aesthetically, we'd still be going for a distinctly "horror" atmosphere. Not using sci-fi monsters or ghosts or whatever doesn't prevent us from using some creepy lighting and chilling sound designs. Also I do like the idea of giving the Goon Squad that "illuminated gas mask" look, sort of like the HECU have in Half-Life, and the Helgast troops in the Killzone series. I can definitely get down with the idea of giving them uniforms that have a subtle alien look to them, just as long as they clearly behave like human soldiers. I suppose the one major issue I see with this idea is just that it would be too difficult, and I can see two possible ways to remedy that- 1: You make actually encountering a soldier a rare occurrence for a large chunk of the game. So the soldiers would usually just be in a group of 2 or 3, and there'd only ever be like 4 or 5 groups in the building at any given time. Or 2: Widen the map up significantly so you can give soldiers a wide birth. You would have to stealth through areas in a manner closer to something like Far Cry. Now maybe a game like this does exist and I'm just not aware of it, but I don't think I've ever seen a game come close to this. I mean already, the idea of a game structured like Resident Evil but with exclusively human enemies is not something I've ever heard of, let alone one where the AI is designed to respond in a way actual soldiers would. The only game I've heard of that seems to even be in the ball park conceptually is... This War of Mine...? Which is a 2D survival game. But from what I understand, that's mainly meant to be a commentary on what being in a warzone does to civilians and their families... and with the premise I just outlined, you definitely could go in that direction thematically, but that's not really what made me think this was such a cool concept. I mostly just like the idea of creating horror simply by being outnumbered and outgunned, all while using enemies that aren't something we'd typically call "creepy". Let me know if you've heard of a game that's done something like this, I definitely think this idea has potential and it'd be really cool if someone's already done it.

Shit, now that you mention it, yeah. The structure I described is pretty similar to Metal Gear Solid. I suppose the major distinction I was thinking of would be, 1- It leverages the player character's lack of combat experience, and 2- It uses the atmosphere and sound design to make the prospect of fighting human enemies scary and not just tense.

I finally beat all 5 episodes of Heretic, Smite-Meister difficulty. (This post probably would have worked better if I took a screencap of the final end-of-episode screen, but I forgot and I'm not gonna spend another 10 minutes circle-strafing malotaurs just to get a picture of that.) Honestly really glad I finally played through it from start to finish. Previously I had only played the first episode and maybe got one or two maps into the second before I got distracted with something else. While I still prefer the overall "feel" of Doom's combat, Heretic is a really solid shooter that's aged much better than I expected. One of these days I'll also look into some custom maps people have made for it, but first- S T R I F E.

Ooooh, I just recently had another idea that could spawn from this: If you shoot somebody while there's soldiers directly above you, you'll get an audio cue of them noticing the gunshot, realizing where you are, before they start blind firing through the floor. Ideally you would make the first couple shots scripted to miss so you would have a moment to react even if you didn't understand what was being telegraphed.

Something that I keep forgetting is that GZDoom has normal/specular map support, but all the mods I've seen that really make use of it are those "HD Texture Packs" that mess with the art style in a way that I don't really like. I'm wondering if anyone's made a texture pack that leaves all of the base textures intact and just adds normal maps to them. I've seen a mod like this that works for Zandronum by seemingly auto-generating normal maps for everything, but not for base GZDoom.

Y'know, this concept is something that I've been thinking a lot about recently. And I think if we're to argue that the core "essence" of Doom lies in its classic entries and the sequels are iterations of that essence, here's how I'd illustrate it: Doom 3 and Doom 2016/Eternal are two halves of Classic Doom's core identity. Doom 3 is probably closer to what they were originally going for when creating the originals, being a dark romp through a sci-fi environment watching it progressively get overtaken by demonic influences. But feels the need to significantly slow the combat down in the service of that goal. New Doom iterates on the aspects of Classic Doom that people remember, fast-paced action, no reloading, ripping and tearing, etc. I believe LGR described the concept as "Zeitgeist Doom" in that it's more a sequel to Doom as it exists in the cultural identity rather than a sequel to what Doom was at the time. Which is certainly a very clever way of updating a franchise for the modern era, and I think does a lot to give New Doom a distinct identity from Old Doom. But like I said earlier... to me, each of these things only represent half of the essence of classic Doom. They don't feel reductive in any way because they each supplement their missing half with something new. But to me, the "essence" of Doom is a combination of 1: B-Horror atmosphere and aesthetics, 2: Demons and weird Hell magic, 3: Sci-Fi and Space Marines, and 4: That classic fast-paced action. Every Doom game gets #2 and #3 right on some level, but I have yet to see a modern iteration of Doom that really does both #1 and #4 on that list simultaneously. And the classic games aren't usually remembered for that first thing because they simply weren't implemented in a way that holds up nowadays... And that kinda sucks.

Actually, y'know what... fuck it, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go with the plan of "making the start of each level connect directly with the previous one". I'll create a rough version of this idea and pass a pre-release build around with some playtesters.

Okay, so I've recently had an idea but I wanted to get some feedback on it before I move forward. I'm thinking about adding some short starting areas with more ambient music, similar to what I did with E1M1. I got the idea after doing a Doom 3 replay and really appreciating the moments where the game chose to slow down and let you take in the atmosphere. (Here's some screenshots I took for inspiration): I think having these segments be at the beginning of each level would probably be for the best, as it segments it out and allows me to stay faithful to the original once you get into the main chunk. The music would be one of the ambient pieces from Doom 3 or perhaps some other game, and then would shift into the real track for the level as you make it through the entrance. Furthermore, these opening segments would be very light in terms of combat, instead gameplay would focus on a short and simple puzzle, if even that. The bottom line is I wouldn't want too much action going on before you get into the actual level, as I think that would dilute the idea of being "Classic Doom maps remade". I do really want to get people's thoughts on this though, as I'm not sure if I should go through with this idea, how I should handle it, or how significant these portions should be. Because while I think the opening segment in E1M1 is really good for setting the tone of the mod, having it in all of the levels might make the experience feel like it's straying too much from the original. It also might be that having these short segments devoid of significant content might get monotonous by the end. I might end up only doing something really small for a couple of the levels where I feel it's most appropriate. Or, the most extreme extent I'd be willing to take this idea is to try and have these areas bridge the gap between the exit door in one level to the entry door of the next. Like you exit the Hangar and you'd get to physically walk your way to the Nuclear Plant. I think something like that could really enhance the experience of the mod by making it a full unbroken journey, or it could water everything down by reducing the percentage of time spent in the actual remade stages. I don't know. I'm really conflicted on this idea, as you can see. Let me know what you think.