Author: djcervantes

Well its almost the end of the quarter and its time for us to wrap up everything we have learned, wrap it and  place it in one project. Nerve wracking? maybe a little….

I’ve been trying out some ideas for my project but its now time for me to finally place it in my space wad. As time gets closer i will continue to shed more light on the narrative that i am creating for my project. (If you haven’t read my narrative from my last post go ahead and read it.)

Right now I’m debating if i should make an extremely long episode or if it should be multiple levels.. Any opinions?

I’m also debating whether i should make my current map bigger too? Like add more compartments to the space ship. Yay? Nay?

For this project Im  writing out a narrative and attempting to make a level based on that…. Rather than designing a level and trying to make a story around it. I have to more research into having more doors lock or have the keys be used only once or else the levels wont flow as easily. If anyone knows how to do this please let me know.

Best wishes to all you modders!

The work we all did last week was a complete flash back for me. I believe i was the only one to who have taken the Mario Modding class a couple years ago but the stuff we learned there was very similar to what we are doing now.

Its crazy tot think that hardware hasn’t changed that much since the 1980s, you can basically do the same hardware mod to the mouse that you could do the 1985 NES controller. With a soldering iron, a breadboard,and an ardiuno you could completely change the game play of your game. But personally i don’t think i will attach my modded controller to my final project. I want my game to be mind blowing all by itself.

I will love to see the ideas people come up with for their controller/ game mod. I might be just lacking in creativity but i feel modding a mouse doesn’t have that much potential compared to an actual video game controller but i could be wrong.

This is my my controller form the Mario mod class.

 

This one may be a little late but I never made a blog regarding my Space Wad…

It may seem a little repetitive but it seems like every time I begin to work on final project, i always end up back in space. Sorry for those who are tired of this but i often come back to this because of my fascination with my favorite movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Although i did not put in any reference to HALL in this WAD i do believe i will insert him into my final project. The Space wad i showed everyone a couple weeks ago was simply a sample to let everyone get familiar with the map before i throw them into my final project.

This is the narrative of the space wad:

You are Commander Morti of the RRMS. You have been in space for decades looking for resources to bring back to your home planet. One of the most important resources you collect are these space creatures known as Alplouds. These creatures which can only live in space produce an outstanding amount of energy which can be stolen from the creatures (ultimately killing them). Even though these creatures emit a ton of energy they are almost impossible to detect. The only way to find them is to find their life resource,  “Neutronic Dwarfs”, which are similar to Neutron stars  and black holes but more stable.

Lets not kid our selves, as the controller of Commander Morti you are the villain. You exploit every resource possible and only care for your species.

-hope you enjoy

 

 

I fell a little behind on my BLOG and i realized in never posted a blog regarding my first map retexturing. When i was making my first re texture map its obvious I was inspired by Adventure Time.

The part that took me the longest in creating this map was photo shopping images. I didn’t actually insert any of my images because i wasn’t satisfied with my images. So basically I wasted a lot of time at the beginning, but i don’t mind because i found an alternative route that i found more satisfying: I put a mod within a mod. I downloaded a mine craft mod of adventure time and took out ever png that was 128 x 128.

The mod i found didn’t actually have a lot of pngs that had that size but I think i found enough for my first rextexturing project. To make it obvious what the theme of work i was I literally made a huge speed run map that spelled out “FIN & JAKE.” I know I’m no longer the biggest speed run fan but i felt this was the best way i could show case all the textures and different possible combinations.

For the project i didn’t get the chance to show last week.. i will not continue this project and i will wait to post anything on it until I get a show it.

My first doom map mod was far better than i excepted it to be.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to create a map on actual architecture. At first, I was going to create my house but then I know if created it and didn’t explicitly say that it was my house from the start then no one would get the references. So, the reason I chose to do the art annex was so that I could create something that everyone could potentially figure out on their own. I really tried to focus on creating the architecture of the building and by placing implied furniture.

The strongest of these furniture (judge by the critique) was the flesh couch in the sonic arts lab. When designing this level, I know I had to insert it into the game because for quartets I would be glued to that seat and if any cdm student every took the sonic arts class they would know that image instantly. Using the pink fleshy brain texture was by the far the funniest and most practical texture to use for the couch.

Overall I enjoyed this project, the only hard parts were creating doors and the fact that my slade was bugged and I was not able to sue the 3D world view properly because of a instant scrolling bug.

Attempting to speed run is far more difficult than i thought. And I am speed running one of the easier speed runs in the game (Episode 1 Mission 1).

Looking at http://speeddemosarchive.com/Doom.html, and seeing the top speed run record of E2, E2 of 14 seconds makes my speed run record look terrible by comparison (my record so far being 22 seconds). I actually got 19 seconds as my fastest time but I forgot to press the record button so no one will believe me without proof.

You can clearly see in my strafe running isn’t refined whatsoever but it has gotten slightly better recently. My biggest issue however in this mission is lining up with the triggers hit marker so being able to strife properly will probably only save me a couple seconds. Like most speed DOOM runners I set the difficulty to medium and disabled any cheats.

When trying to record my run with the project 3 diameters, i was unable to. It would simply show its error message and do nothing. The solutions i found online, only worked for windows XP and 7. SO as of now I only have this high res GIF.

I’m probably not the only one to do this speed run but if any one beats my unofficial 19 second time, i will be highly impressed.

 

Sandy Petersen beat you. He designed Containment area
Containment Area in The Shores of Hell is by far the best level design in your game.

I personally think this is by the best level because of the complexity behind it. There is no room to breathe you are constantly turning a cornered having to fight those lovely imps. The begging of the level looks very human, one of the most human features of the game. Starting this game, I Instantly became attached to the maze of crates.

I felt they had so much potential and made the game feel completely different. It wasn’t until I read the doom wiki that I was able to truly understand why the levels look as they did. This warehouse which used to be run by UAC were now being taken over by aliens had been altered to their liking. The crates therefore were the only truly preserved items in this level. Which is surprising because if a real battle had occurred in that warehouse the first thing to go up in smoke would be those crates. After exploring the maze, I got tired of the maze but instead fell in love with the Quadra pistons which were ¼ elevators alternating, simply for aesthetics.

As I investigated these pistons, I came to realize how human and alien they felt. The Industrial fell of the piston was the human part but the engravings on the top side of the piston looked very alien.
So yes John Romero, I was highly entertained by this level that you didn’t design.

Dear John Romero this is my very first time playing Doom and the level I chose to analyze was “Nuclear Plant.”

The reason i chose this level is because is simply because i suck at the game and it took me over 4 hours to beat the first part of the game. So the second level was enough for me.

In this level you are presented with the opportunity to either to explore a large room (of course filled with those evil gun-holding martians).  In this room you meet your best friend, the shotgun. This OP weapon gives you the power to kill your enemies in one blow with having to be perfectly center. Best weapon in the game, yup, even better than the rocket launcher that kept getting me killed.

The enormity of the room, is a little shocking for me personally. I never expected games to be this advanced for its time. Having to find keys to open specific doors, ride elevators, invisible monsters was more than I expected for a game that came out before i was born.

This level design in this episode is well thought out. In the first room you have to decide weather to go straight, left or right. On both sides you have doors but you can not access the left door without grabbing the access card that is found on the right side. One of the most important features however is located ahead of you, on the a hidden elevator inside the small tunnel.

Once you get the access card, you are able to then access the red door on the left. I love how once you enter these next rooms, the lighting change drastically , these rooms are darker and have a lot of acid that could potentially kill you.

The second to last room is by far the scariest in the level, especially with my screen resolution. The room was pitch black and a horde of monsters are there waiting to destroy you. Especially since i tried this level in the hardest setting (once).

Over all the game, specially this level, is very difficult especially with the outdated controls. But its a great game for its time.