Howdy pioneers! Amorphous Euphoria is Doom Universe's first original community project and made for limit-removing ports. The "theme" of this project is free-form artistic expression! Anything goes! However do note that this is NOT a speedmap project.

Copying my recent posts here:
I should be more clear that I'm not looking for quick speedmaps but want maps that have a quality to them and that despite what the map entails, it's polished and done to the best of the mapper's ability. Absolute freedom can be a paralyzing idea, so instead think that if you've ever had an idea for a map but lack a reason to make it or a theme it would be appropriate for then this is the WAD to put that idea forward to.

Textures are mostly stock with Doom 1 textures inside of Doom 2, with water/lavafall textures, Doom Universe logo textures, and alphabet strings to write custom messages with. If you want a whole new look then it's up to you on how to weave that together with what's provided

Rules:

1. Limit Removing format. This means regular Doom in Doom 2 format. Complevel 2 and I'll be testing in Crispy Doom.
2. Implement difficulty settings for very difficult maps (or otherwise at your discretion). If people have trouble beating it then give some extra power-ups and such on lower difficulties.

Please take a listen to the MIDIs included in the WAD as they deserve to be heard and I hope you find something you like! You can use any MIDI you like that isn't included in the resources as long as it doesn't hurt consistency/hurts my ears. If the MIDI you want doesn't come with the SKY you want then feel free to fix it over to the slot you need.

If you have a custom website or any place you host your personal content you want to share then we can make a custom texture for your map to implement it in. Example:

There isn't a set date for when mapping for this will end so I'll think about that a month or two later. However I do want to wrap this up come April.
3/12/2022 - I've decided to keep this open until it's a megawad full of awesome maps to make sure it's a worthwhile release that people will seek out. The ultimate 90s-ish-esque map compilation! Updates on project releasing/future actual deadlines pending.

4/10/2022 - It will be done sometime this year for sure though. Not enough maps have been submitted yet for me to know where this may be headed.

5/16/2022 - Thinking a release date should be some time around August - October. Will give a heads up if I settle on this.

Trello Board: https://trello.com/b/1Ntm1H0z/amorphous-euphoria

>>>DOWNLOAD THE RESOURCES HERE<<< Includes a map I made in the MAP15 slot.

Show me how you groove!

It would be fun to work on collab maps in real time together. Having another person involved would speed things up just by having a blend of competitive creative multitasking constantly switching from making a plain room to putting it off to the side to detail another part and your mapping partner might take that plain section and figure out what to do with it until it all comes together.

Howdy! This is a WAD that changes the pain states of each monster to a bright pink, as well as a dehacked patch inside to make them all fullbright/Always Lit as well. Some of the pain frames could use some polish or a re-do but I'll leave it as is for now. Enjoy! Special thanks to @MattFright for the idea.

Download:
SCT_FlashDamage.wad

GIF of it in action:

Sweet!

A good puzzle is one where the difficulty is just right from which the player will derive satisfaction from clearing it, feeling smart from having them use their brain even just a little. Show the goal/cheese/carrot on the stick and have them figure out how to get there. It's a lot like designing secrets, but with special attention and care.

Your adversary is the map, more so than the monsters in it.

Several common puzzle types in Doom:
Pattern puzzles:

• Finding discrepancies in patterns, memorizing them, or discovering them all on your own towards the path of success. Examples would be finding which of several torches is a different color from the rest, memorizing a sequence of teleporters, or hearing a lift activate when moving over a line.

Combat puzzles:

• How monsters will interact with the level geometry and actors themselves. Examples would be provoking infighting, calculating what monsters to alert in sequence, or just plain ol' slaughter but I wouldn't know anything about that because I don't play slaughter.

Navigational puzzles:

• Reaching your destination solely though the map geometry from leading a mouse to cheese, timed lifts or crusher passing, to platforming. Examples would be parkour secrets where riding along a ledge awards curiosity, finding which crates you have to climb up to reach your destination, or jumping down from on high to land somewhere you couldn't cross directly.

Play with sector height, brightness levels, thing placement, or even chains of linedef triggers. Anything you can think of to provide a sense of satisfactory noggin' joggin' depth in the map design of your level; and it's not like the bar of what's called a puzzle in Doom is all that high either!

Theoretically ambitious puzzles:
More ambitious puzzles are the kind that are deliberately vague and may require multiple attempts to reach a definite solution. These are harder to design with their deliberate cryptic nature but if done well are sure to be appreciated. Providing not just a goal, but a sudden obstacle will turn on a player's critical thinking switch. When requiring a set of actions to get from point A to point B, there should also be things that reverse those actions, which will require the player to think critically. For example, a switch could open a door into a new area, but if the player crosses a bridge, it shuts the door. Now the player has to think of a way to get through the door without using the bridge.

A different kind of puzzle I'd like to see done are narrative puzzles (that I would like to ask of people to make some of in the future) where the hints are derived from environmental storytelling or through information dumps of text the likes you would see in Doom 3's info terminals and PDA e-mails. Anyone should be able to figure these out with some sleuthing. Execution will be challenging but I think I'll be satisfied with just the joy of the craft itself.

It is even possible to utilize powerups such as the Light Amplification Goggles and Invulnerability sphere to play with how they change the lighting in a level. In fact the Radiation Suit can be used to read hidden messages written on the walls and whatnot. You can do this with palette/colormap changes.

Be a kind dungeon master:
It's okay to have obscure puzzles, the kind that people grill Eternal Doom for but I'm confident that such ambitions can be better designed through proper subtle hints towards the correct line of thinking in the map design itself or otherwise.

• If your puzzle is somewhat esoteric then make sure you lock the player inside of the puzzle room until they solve it. It'll be bad for everyone if the player wanders outside of the area not knowing what to do thinking the solution is elsewhere. Make sure there's a logic to it throughout because madman adventure game logic is hardly ever satisfying. I learned this lesson after making my DBP11: Lilywhite Lilith map. No one likes being lost or watching others be lost. It gets old and quickly!

• Make sure the player has an idea of what a switch did, that the player isn't allowed to wander wayward in search of a solution that doesn't exist, and there the player isn't overwhelmed by an abundance of teleporters and switches to confuse oneself with. If I see 20 switches and 8 teleporters all at once I'll just panic!

• Provide the player with a sense of progress. If the player does something that's related to reaching the goal, you can provide some health bonuses, but its better to unleash some monsters to kill to prevent the player from dying of boredom!

Thank you for reading:
Most of what I've written are my own words but it's still a mess of pilfered content. Additional credits go to @JadingTsunami for bringing the Radiation Suit trick to my attention and @40oz for some of his do's and don'ts I've also used as a checklist as seen in this thread.

Alright then let's get to it. Sorry about my absence. This map will take some brainpower (to map anyway).

c.eev.ee/doom-text-generator/
^your essential doom text tool

https://www.gamers.org/cgi/IdgamesUpload.html
^ idgames uploader

app.monopro.org/pixel/
^ this pixelates images

auri.ga/5000generator/
^(really big) pachinko font?

codepo8.github.io/logo-o-matic/#goto-vic2nfggames.com/games/fontmaker/
^(large) Commodore fonts

https://nfggames.com/games/fontmaker/
^ (small) arcade fonts

I really liked the trollface monster -- a curious creature indeed! Funny WAD pk3

Only if it's something personal related to you or your map such as advertising your personal content like a website, YouTube channel, your own custom message graphic to say something or give a hint for your map or even a drawing of yours. Typical custom textures that other people would likely want to use are not allowed as this is a strictly stock texture affair. I hope you can find a way to have fun using them regardless if you give it a try (another purpose of my included MAP15 was to show that you really can do anything you want with them, though I'm not saying you have to try making it crazy looking. Just you do you!).

BTW I've included zips with more MIDIs in the second post.

@benchy Wasn't able to finish (playing without saves anyway) but I've recorded a demo for you of my keyboard turning gameplay here : rockbunker1.lmp Demo recorded in DSDA-Doom

I completely missed the rocket launcher the first time and then even the second time until I went back to the room to see it was in the middle (guess the sector it's on needs to be really bright?). I'm not sure if it was always there or if I just simply kept missing it. Lack of cover with the chaingunners on the second starting encounter was kind of tough but I'll just assume that's intended. Cool map! I don't play slaughter (and also prefer an easier time) so the increasingly sinister and tight encounters got a bit too much for me where I died last.

If you're dissatisfied with the linearity of your map then consider avoiding symmetrical item placement, as once you know what's on one side of the map then you know what's on the other end too. Not saying to avoid it all the time but that's something to think about as it can make a map predictable. Another thing to note is that in the first area where you're fighting pinkies with mancubi on the sides the shell ammo pickups can be pretty hard to see. I think after the first teleporter there was a backpack behind the player as well that I don't think I picked up my first time playing. Just letting you know that some of the ammo can be missed if you intend for it all to be collected while maintaining a carefully curated ammo balance.

And it's done! Plays on MAP27 for the music. Please let me know what you think!

SCT_PickledSundayV1.wad

note to self for next version:
fix texture alignment, make exit door unable to be opened by monsters, better inner lift textures.

Also I made a Trello Board for this project to help keep track of things

Alright then let's get to it. Sorry about my absence. This map will take some brainpower (to map anyway).

@chrisjeplace Oooh very creative I loved all the little details you've made. Very promising, keep it up and thanks for sharing! It's all good!

@Walter-c Would you be okay with me merging different version of your map together? Basically to get a better balance of the map between what it was at the start and what it is now.

@kvsari Nice! Thank you for the update. I died at the end due to rocketing myself when the archvile teleported away but that's alright. Good map! I struggle to even have anything to nitpick about, though that may just be due to the fatigue of playing the map I commented on above. Here's my demo and sorry about the little pause near the end: kvsariv2.lmp

@r3d_belmont456 @R3D_Belmont456

OK I played it and I even beat it this time with the help of savescumming for half an hour. The hitscanner snipers in the red room alcoves outside of it are health leeches shooting at you from afar in darkness. When you enter the spidermastermind room to get cover you're assaulted by hitscanners from both sides and it'd e nice if that wasn't the case, in that it would probably work better with projectile monsters like imps that throw fireballs you can dodge instead of having to just tank more damage because the cover only accounts against the spidermastermind and not all the other hitscanners. I still question how much ammo there is since I'm sure I had to find secrets to get the ammo I needed. I didn't even think I pressed the switches in the rooms since they look they've already been pressed since I'm used to them not being lit up at first. Was a pain to get through but I managed.

The commander keen in the barrel revenant room I only noticed due to infinite height blocking my pathing over the secret door.

I reached the final room and it's a clusterfuck. Encounter design is messy and isn't presented well.

For that I recommend you keep the archviles away from the towers perhaps with a barrier of monster blocking lines. Remove the lost soul/pain elementals there entirely as they do nothing but throw bodies to block and trap you. Minor but effective monster nerfs. When you're the map creator you know where everything is and balance around the way you play your own map. As you get better at playing your own map you make it harder and harder to compensate.

EDIT: removed my really long rant. Final version is okay.

Here's my demo it's probably an hour long: belmontv3.lmp

Good music to daydream to.

@walter-c Thanks for the update. It flowed better, though the amount of cell ammo is excessive now and the opposition is too little now. Not much reason to enter the "weak" room. Thanks for the re-do on that final area too. I don't really have anything else to say so you can just watch the demo:
waltc333.lmp

@walter-c I'm unable to download your map. Mediafire keeps making me wait and it never starts downloading anything so I'd like to ask you to upload it elsewhere. You can upload and attach files to your posts if that will work well for you.

@r3d_belmont456 Thank you for the map! Mt. Erebus is neat indeed. I didn't finish it. I wanted to but the barrel revenant tunnels started pissing me off. So starting with that the real issues I have are the revenants that come in from across a line of barrels with the chance to blow them up before they come around to me. The other issue is that the teleporter going into and out of that barrel challenge room is in the same direction of the teleporter so the monsters left alive in the main area of the map gather in the same corner so even if I do pass it I just get trapped by them when leaving. This is of course because I want to do that room first thing because it's the most difficult part of the map, hesitating to call it challenging due to the prevalence of RNG and dying to it at any point later on in the map feels like an instant death trap. It's not the most polished thing but I do like it since it is at least original and earnest effort went into it. Instead of another green armor a blue armor would be appreciated instead for a reward and wouldn't be so samey. Since the room is mostly just barrels it could easily do with some more detail, perhaps a in-door pyramid on the ceiling and such. Most of the map is pretty bare-bones looking, lacking lighting variation and (decoration) detail so it feels pretty vanilla too when even a few simple but effective touches would do nicely to spice it up and not feel so boxy. Remember that it's your map and that bringing things to the point where you're comfortable and satisfied with it matters most.

The map is kind of buggy and glitchy in that my weapons and collision hit invisible walls in the middle of the map in random areas. Things probably got screwy in development so my duct-tape answer to fix that is to open a new map and copy and paste what you've already made into it to start over in that sense. I could write more but it's just issue with the basic visuals and lack of polish. More preferential desires would be wanting a plasma rifle to stun-lock the spider mastermind so I don't have to wait for the crusher to kill it and risk dying trying to help as I did.

Here's an FDA (first demo attempt): belmont1.lmp