#doom mapping

So, at the time the map was created, it was still the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet. It's presence there was meant to creep you out if you knew your Internet lore. That spooky song no one could find. It fits the map's story and aesthetics; psychological horror meant to invoke a bygone era that you can't quite grasp, only to contort it into a fever dream you can't trust.

But then people found it. It's a song by a German band called FEX. The lyrics, previously a cryptic puzzle, now tell a real story. It's grounded itself in reality. And I think that's fitting. Where is it placed in the map? Before the Gas Station in the Altered House backyard.

Just before Happiness is fought for.

And what plays before?

A song people fought to find, that's about (as I interpret it) someone unsatisfied with their life, unhappy with the world and with themselves, longing for a purpose.

A song about someone fighting for their happiness.

Almost finished reading house of leaves.

Anyone know if there’s a genre for this sort of horror or any suggestions? I’m looking for more things with the same vibe as the following;

House of leaves

Myhouse.wad

This house has people in it

Skinamarink (I highly recommend checking out Kyle Edward Ball’s other works on YouTube while high at “bitesizednightmares”)

Heck (Kyle’s much shorter YouTube-version of skinamarink)

Now that I’m almost finished, I’ve been having very strange and intense dreams reminiscent and even referencing some of these things

i'm doing this because there's someone in my class who's a really big streamer (around 10 viewers per stream, i know, HUGE) and he said he'd play smth if i made smth.

He's called Sonikebaww and he likes sonic (really surprising) so here's the first map for now (still missing the weapons, ammo and life)

Not a huge amount happened this week, but on the other hand I guess I'm not surprised. And yet, now that this is all written... It kind of is a lot of stuff.

If I can be a little bit honest with you,

I May Or May Not Be Tweaking Out

But hey, who isn't? Either way, I don't know how anyone in the US is getting work done at a time like this. I'm doing my best in spite of everything.

Let's get to the roundup.

Why Does Your DOOM Level Look Like That?

Because I'm cool is why. I'm breaking new ground all the time in these Damn Domains.

But seriously, I've really enjoyed using dev textures for my levels. I used them in the last map I made, but I've switched to the more saturated version of the dev art texture pack.

It's very satisfying to not only be able to put something down in a level, but to also know that it's for sure a placeholder. And I find the busy work of texturing and lighting at the end of a level's development surprisingly preferable to doing it simultaneously alongside level design and playtesting.

What's going on with these poor monsters, you ask? We'll talk about it next week when I go over the theming of my levels.

How Would YOU Solve Permadeath In An SPRG?

Yes, you. Specifically. And before you ask, yes, I am still thinking about SRPGs.

This is a conversation I had on a small indie dev forum, and I really liked the conversation I had. I watched a bunch of Youtube videos about it beforehand, centered around permadeath in the Fire Emblem games. Here's the main points:

Permadeath has been in the series since the very first entry.

The game compensated for it by having characters get minimal development outside of initial recruit conversations, and giving you many, many units to use if one dies.

Since Fire Emblem 4, characters (the ones not on the front of the box) began to be much more fleshed out, both in story and in gameplay, which discouraged letting units die. The game was harder (but not impossible) with lost units, and the story was less interesting, and typically units began to have more and more of a merit to being kept alive (needing certain units to unlock hidden chapters, items, or even recruit other characters.)

This trend continues steadily across the series: Notably with Fire Emblem Awakening and its direct predecessor New Mystery, which introduced the “Casual Mode.” In this mode, units don’t actually die permanently, they return at the battle’s end safe and sound.

Finally, the recent Fire Emblem: Three Houses puts so much stock into your characters, with so little options to replace them, that the permadeath-embracing “Classic Mode” is all but a formality.

I don’t know what Engage is doing. Not playing that toothpaste-hair game.

And my opinions:

I always hated the double standard with enemy versus player units. You can invest in your own, but 99% of enemy units are faceless goons that your characters gladly slaughter in dozens, if not hundreds. It always struck me as dehumanizing.

I never really felt like the games embraced the mechanic, despite the series being so known for it. Characters don’t get a bonus from being vengeful at seeing friends and family die. They don’t mourn the units past maybe the moment they expire. They don’t even get to recover the bodies and possessions of the dead unit.

I’m interested to see alternative approaches. I heard Dark Deity gives struck-down units a permanent scar/wound that hampers their stats. Maybe some way to protect the characters you care about most? Later FE games introduced basically a turn-by-turn rewind mechanic, which I’ve grown tired of as a band-aid to a deeper problem.

Some responses, if you care to read:

All this is set against the backdrop of me finally reaching the last chapter of part 1 in Genealogy:

It's getting real.

Album News

Ain't no album news.

(nah, but I did get some crucial vocals recorded after like, weeks of putting them off.)

Now it's time for something new on this blog I haven't done before. Get ready for the:

Where I show off cool stuff that I find, or stuff me and my friends are working on!

First a big shoutout to the Levitating Little Kitty you see there, as he was gracious enough to use his likeness for that image.

Nathaniel Jones: Strategy Game Longplay Demo

Look how far this man has come. It may be a bit hard to parse because of the placeholder art, but make no mistake: There is a full-blown Strategy RPG in the making here, and NJ should be super proud of his work in just a few months.

Dice'n Goblins: A Dicey Dungeon Crawler

Someone in a forum I'm in made this, and it's just fucking awesome. It's so impressive. Please check it out, it just came out on Steam and there's a demo.