What makes a good doom level

But with that being said, typically, if a map proves to be difficult to navigate, lacks in polish visibly and the gameplay is very rough, chances are, it may indeed not be a great map to experience. Worse if it is buggy or has serious progression issues.

On top of all that, I sometimes have more fun with crappy maps. To use a prominent example, wow. Really cramped corridors being overused sucks. Inescapable death pits suck. Excessive use of copy-paste sucks. The same colour everywhere with practically no variation can suck. In DM, in addition to the first points: wandering around with a pistol sucks, having not enough or too many spawn points sucks, invulnerability and invisibility suck, and maps that are too long and sprawling suck.

How do you think I learned they suck?! Bad maps are in general "overextended" in certain aspects - e. It's like with food Additionally if there's too much "showing off" in your creation it automatically looses its magic and may become a wannabe "master piece" as in "early mapping syndrome". An easy test would be watching the author playin the map - I bet many bad maps have never been really played from start to finish and the "encounters" and scenery are vague and dissonant.

There's also the difference between an old bad map where the author lacked experience and tools golden era and the really bad maps where the tools are good and it's just a polished turd. Just a note, if you plan on making realistic, or "plausibly real" maps won't automatically stick you in the shit bin, providing your levels are interesting, and you have consistent custom textures to use with it, don't just jump in when making them either, plan them out like you are gardening on paper, make sure there is a flow, and coherent structure i.

Still these are tips that can fit to any style of project. I think ultimately the only thing that really matters regarding if a map is good or not is simply Is it fun to play? From what i've been able to ascertain, only thing that is entirely objective is that a map is poor if it has technical flaws that make it unplayable.

Anything beyond that is opinion, of which there is a spectrum, probably with a curve bulging in the middle if drawn in graph. But the bulge in no way objectifies the opinions of the majority. Everyone's taste is their own, shaped by their character and life experiences. Don't listen to the majority, nor the minority. Only yourself when deciding how you want to map - popular or not, the map will find its audience.

All I am going to say is "Practice a lot". I made many crappy maps and never released them here. First of all it's really important that the gameplay is fun, the combat has to be good and fast-paced, and also don't allow the player to stand in one spot, for example have areas blend in instead of making maps that are just room after room so in order to survive you have to dodge enemies while taking out hitscanners.

That's my personal formula but people like it so I felt like I could be helpful here I love all TNT: Evilution and most modern mapset kinda bored me being most of them all interconnected and dance waltzing.

That's pretty much it. I play games to have fun, ain't got time for maps that make me less happy than I was before I played them. I think the main thing for me is if a map get's boring after a few minutes, it's a map I don't really wanna play. By this I don't mean every map should have tons of enemies, but the appropriate enemy placement is so important.

A map, in a loose sense, is a lot like a movie in a way -- it's an experience rooted in emotions and feelings. Movies can differ lots in what they offer and try to do, and similarly, good maps can too. Some are great at conveying pressure-cooker style fun and excitement, others transmit a great sense of calm and peacefulness.

Some sink you in awe and immersion, others are deeply creepy and horrifying. Some make you laugh, some make you cry. Some are deeply satisfying "kinetically" -- they accentuate the positive experiences of Doom's weapon feel and movement. Wiki community. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Tips for creating good WADs. View source. History Talk 8. Do you like this video? What type of level a person finds good depends on a subjective point of view.

The following tips are based on the level design principles of widely popular and well-received Doom levels. If you intend to create a good, basic Doom level, you should at the very least include some monsters , weapons , ammo and health pickups in it.

How you place them is especially important. Here are some general tips for good item placement:. Make sure that your map is playable from a pistol start. If you start the map with a battle with some tough monsters, make sure to give the player a more powerful weapon - or an escape route, so they can run away and engage the enemies later on.

When placing monsters, it should be kept in mind that well-received levels and level sets usually get progressively harder toward the end. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.

Learn how your comment data is processed. Starting a new map? As such, you need to consider your theme before you can really make a start mapping. As you can see, once you establish a theme and the tropes of the theme, you have plenty to work with. To help us, the mapper, make a level which both looks good and plays good, we need to ask ourselves more questions.