The Bone Furnace | My Second Doom 2 Map

[Axamoretl]

I am happy to say I have released my second ever Doom 2 WAD, and even submitted it for 2024 RAMP. This one is extremely scaled down versus my first map, Spillways, taking about 10-12 minutes to beat in full.

 

Notes:

-Mouselook and jump are enabled

-Jump required to beat level

-No Wallhump/Mandatory Secrets

 

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AgUo_eRwAQLOAMd0YfyOwIAro_LO-h_u/view?usp=drive_link

 

Story: You awaken in a small dark room with no recollection how you got there. As you leave the room you discover you're in a catacomb. Ahead of you lies dark tunnels, cavernous rooms, and a terrible secret.

 

 

[PROTO32TYPE]

Not easy but good.

[watto3699]

One of the better "first maps" I've played in a long time.

You've got a solid grasp of the editor and scripting features, though an excessive use of 3D floors which lead to interruptions with the gameplay at times.

Spoiler

I especially liked what you did in the boss room with the corpses that drop from the ceiling

The sliding boss door was pretty neat as well

 

My only gripe is the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Large areas with easily out maneuvered melee enemies, mostly "meat wall" monster closets and a stark lack of weapon variation.

These are all common areas that newer mappers struggle with, and are flaws that are slowly cut away with practise.

Best part, gameplay-wise, was the boss room. The layout was designed with the monsters in mind, which made it a lot more fun.

 

Good stuff! Sorry for blog posting

[Axamoretl]

12 hours ago, watto3699 said:

One of the better "first maps" I've played in a long time.

You've got a solid grasp of the editor and scripting features, though an excessive use of 3D floors which lead to interruptions with the gameplay at times.

  Reveal hidden contents

I especially liked what you did in the boss room with the corpses that drop from the ceiling

The sliding boss door was pretty neat as well

I'm glad you enjoyed. My first map was a lot more ambitious (see linked), so for this one I wanted to pare it down to something my more contained and refined. Which sections had 3D floors that caused flow breaks?

 

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My only gripe is the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Large areas with easily out maneuvered melee enemies, mostly "meat wall" monster closets and a stark lack of weapon variation.

 

These are all common areas that newer mappers struggle with, and are flaws that are slowly cut away with practise.

 

Does this refer to the "bone room" and the "tomb" sections? There is a room I felt I could do a bit more with which was the second fight with the 2 pinkies. Though, I was worried any more enemies might just make that room congested and unfun.

 

I am unfamiliar with the "meat wall monster closet" phrasing. Does that refer to a closet with just a ton of enemies shoved in?

 

Which rooms felt like they needed better monster placement did you feel?

 

For the weapons, I wanted the map to be focused on the shotgun, with 2 other weapons gainable as optional. The map can be beaten without them, but getting them does give the player a bit of an easier time if used at the right moment.

 

Spoiler

The chaingun is best saved for the pain elementals, but can only be gained by fighting and killing the revenant in the side room (also has a secret activator for the rocket launcher, which is best saved for the final fight room, and requires the player to come back to a previous room to get before the fight)

 

I also designed the map to be beatable without engaging in any of the fights, except the last one. But, the more fights you engage in, the more secrets/weapons you can unlock, and the easier the map gets.

 

Quote

Best part, gameplay-wise, was the boss room. The layout was designed with the monsters in mind, which made it a lot more fun.

 

Good stuff! Sorry for blog posting

 

Nah this is exactly the kinda feedback I'm looking for. I like detailed analysis because it helps understand how people view and play maps. I did try and build each room around the enemies in them, so I am definitely curious to hear which ones didn't hit that mark and why.

 

It also helps me refine my style and output!

 

Thanks for the feedback! Glad you enjoyed the map.

[watto3699]

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I am unfamiliar with the "meat wall monster closet" phrasing. Does that refer to a closet with just a ton of enemies shoved in?

Its more in reference to how the player is exposed to enemies. Having a wall drop down to reveal a new batch of monsters comes with a few cons; it gets old quick, and as you become a better mapper, you'll notice it's an ineffective way to realise encounter ideas. Same applies, but to a lesser extent with teleporting enemies in.

 

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Which sections had 3D floors that caused flow breaks?

Noticed pinky demons getting stuck at random points throughout the level, don't remember exactly where.

 

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I was worried any more enemies might just make that room congested and unfun.

This is important, a lot of newer mappers make this mistake, and it's good that you've recognised this yourself.

Best advice I can give is, try to do more with less. It isn't always the case that more enemies means a more difficult map, depending on what weapons the player has and what monsters he's fighting, there is the possibility it just makes things tedious.

 

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For the weapons, I wanted the map to be focused on the shotgun, with 2 other weapons gainable as optional.

This is fine, nothing inherently wrong with this. However, you run the risk of your map becoming repetitive, especially if you're fighting scores of bullet sponge enemies.

Take into consideration the monster's health and attack type when deciding what weapons you're giving to the player.

 

As an aside, I'd recommend you use the BOOM format while learning level design. I know there isn't as many options, and scripting is boiled down to what you can do with a voodoo doll, but I recommend it for a couple of reasons.

First one, and the biggest, the more widely compatible your map is with different source ports, the more people will play it and while learning, you'll need as much feedback as possible. For this reason I'd also recommend joining Doom Mapping discords and when possible, asking for demos. Secondly, your sole focus will be map design. It's easy to get distracted by scripting and superfluous additions to lighting when your first priority should be making an enjoyable map. I'm not saying, never use UDMF again, but to come back to it when you've got a better grasp on level design.

 

Sorry for blog posting again. I'll follow you account to see what else you get up to in the future, have a good night <3

[Austinado]

Pressing Start on the video, starts the gameplay

 

 

[Axamoretl]

40 minutes ago, Austinado said:

Pressing Start on the video, starts the gameplay

 

 

 

Glad you enjoyed! Also happy someone liked my use of slopes. They are easily the hardest thing to get right imo. The bone room has one section that took me 30 minutes alone to get it looking and feeling right.

[LadyMistDragon]

Sorry I didn't finish. I should probably say that single-shotgunning Arch-viles with lots of guys around in a fairly open space is generally a bad idea, although maybe there's a super shotgun in a secret somewhere. On the plus side, I was afraid of something horrible after having played too much crap recently from the beginning but thankfully, there's more to this map! Scripting is simple but well done.