#ramp2023

So, DavidXNewton on youtube got to play the first of my two levels for RAMP 2023 and it went better than I could have hoped for~ The fucking DREAM of anyone who makes horror content is to accidentally tap into childhood fears to help sell your ideas~ I got lucky as hell. XD

Check it out here. My level is Tiny Tek, the third one in this video!

Back to [1/?]

Immediately upon finishing the room, most of the design philosophies of the map became clear to me. Angled platforms and stairs, steep verticality, the map layout looping back upon itself to guide the player where they need to go - everything was there for me to toy with. With my goalpost clearly set in stone, I started building another room. Then another. Then a couple more.

That's not to say the goalpost wasn't moving during this - around this time in the project's discord server, I had discussed the idea of adding optional, normally locked armories throughout the map, which could be open via switches off the intended path. The people there thought it was a good idea, so I'd put in some effort in incorporating those.

At some point, I’d built enough that I was happy with uploading an unfinished version to RAMP. This was a forgivable decision, since the site had an option to mark a map as work in progress, and other people were already doing something the same thing. I compiled everything into one .WAD file, even went through the effort of composing a music track for the map, and after some deliberation, uploaded the map and claimed the MAP21 slot.

I didn't catch any breath after that, and pretty much immediately went back to building more of the rooms out. It'd already been a few days since I'd started the map by this point, but that didn't deter me. Either the prospect of being part of a community project, or the admittedly faraway but still ever-present deadline, had me dead-set on making this map.

Over the course of the next week or so, the map exponentially grew in complexity, until eventually, there were enough rooms for me to be happy with the progress that was made. I'll admit, I wasn't sure what I was expecting to make when walking into the project, but something of this density had never crossed my mind.

It was a marvel to me. Nothing I'd put together before this reached this point. In retrospect, there are one or two things I did miss out on - some areas could've been more populated, but I didn't want to spend too much time on this map and risk not finishing it. So, on June 7th, with the finished product at the ready, I took to the website once again and re-uploaded the map, unticking the WIP flag.

I've been a Doom aficionado for a few years now. I've truly adored every moment I've had with the game so far, and I don't plan on leaving it behind any time soon.

That being said, I never actually contributed much to the game in any meaningful way. Everything I did with the game was either never finished (I have like, 10+ scrapped projects), very short, or was just me playing the game. The most I did up to this point was release a not-even-1-minute demo, and beat Doom II on UV with no mid-level saves.

That changed about two months ago, with the announcement of RAMP 2023 - the third installment of the series open to essentially anyone invested in the game and it's modding scene. Around this time, I was battling with a now scrapped project, and seriously debating what I wanted to do with the game. I stumbled across the announcement video, and something about the possibility of getting my foot in the Doom community's hypothetical door coaxed me into dropping what I was working on and giving it a try.

With myself convinced, I joined the discord server, opened Ultimate Doom Builder, and started drawing a room. I'm not entirely sure what possessed me during the construction of this said room, because it wasn't anything like how I was building rooms before - but when it was finished, something about it gave me confidence. I'd finish this damn thing if it killed me. Fortunately, it didn't.

The first room, as of the finished version.