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Topic: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)  (Read 15270 times)

Offline LittleTemple

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Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« on: January 25, 2013, 01:28:22 »
I can’t speak for everyone of course but, at my age, I find it both interesting and amazing when a young person asks about an old computer game like DOOM.

This story is in fact so interesting, I’m having trouble picking a good place to start, so, I’ll start at the beginning!

Last summer a close friend of ours took a quick trip to France in order to bring a distant relative to the states. Our friend didn’t give too much info (she never does, FYI) and so we were naturally curious when our friend came back a few weeks later (I guess that’s what some people call a quick trip?).

As it was, the others and myself were sitting around two computers using DOOM Builder before our friend arrived with Gabrielle. Yeah I know, she sounds like the angelic blonde every father wants as a daughter but knows he’ll go through hell by the time she’s fifteen… Well, she is rather angelic and blonde but that isn’t quite the point. The point is, we met her, our friend yacked and yacked about her trip and Gabrielle seemed bored with the conversation (her English is rather poor) so she took a gander over to the computers and asked “What we were drawing”.

You might be wondering why this is in the mods and wads forum by now, but, just wait for it.
The drawing she referred to was the incomplete (and admittedly terrible) map design sitting in DOOM builder we had been fighting with all day.

To make a long story somewhat short, we found out she likes to draw and is quite good at it. Kamila ended up giving her a second boxed copy of the 2004 DOOM Collectors edition (the doom 3 preview one) and a week or so later we helped her get set up and play around with it on her own very old laptop.
We ended up explaining as best we could the whole doom builder thing again to her and she said she had found a guide by a doctor online on how to use it. (She meant DR. Sleep, I believe) so we ended up setting up DOOM builder on her laptop.

Fast forward to this evening around 5PM, she came over with our friend and had a thumb drive in her hand and said she wanted to show us something. So after dinner, Kamila copied over a wadfile called demon laden (spelt wrong of course).

All I can really say is, I’m actually stunned. I mean, at 11, I don’t think I could’ve done what she had done in a matter of months with all that learning involved. Shoot, I don’t think I could do that now =P

Anywho, it’s only two levels so far for DOOM II. They’re smallish like what you might find in the Sythe series. We just wanted to share it and see what the DOOM community thinks!

It’s mapped completely in regular DOOM2 format so the best play experience will probably come from using chocolate doom. We helped her write up a small text file for it.

Here is the link for the download:
http://files.drdteam.org/index.php/files/get/3WsnLzv77y/demonladen.zip

There’s a lot I could say but I’ve typed about 600 words already here =P

I think she avoided making a mistake unlike myself and the rest of our group by starting mapping in vanilla compatible mode first and learning how it all works instead of starting off in ZDoom or Legacy.

Anyway, feel free to post feedback and whatnot. I realize it might not be much compared to folks around here who have been mapping for 15+ years but, for an 11 year old and 6 months of tinkering with something completely new to her, it isn’t half bad in my opinion =)

Little Temple Group

EDIT:

Also, we forgot to add a part in the text file that yes

Difficulties are supported.
Coop is supported
And DM

EDIT#2

Gabrielle told us she forgot to flag difficulties on the monsters in MAP02 so in the current file, playing on different difficulty settings wont change the number of baddies in MAP02 =P Oops!

She says she'll bring by an updated version when she finishes a few more maps. Glad to know she's going to keep at it!
« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 17:36:32 by LittleTemple »

Offline Pseudoscientist

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #1 on: January 28, 2013, 02:24:48 »
All I can really say is, I’m actually stunned. I mean, at 11, I don’t think I could’ve done what she had done in a matter of months with all that learning involved. Shoot, I don’t think I could do that now =P
Why do you think so? Do you think that 11 year olds are dumb or something?
BTW, the link is broken.
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Offline LittleTemple

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #2 on: January 28, 2013, 02:59:12 »
Yes, we're aware of the broken link and we'll be fixing it when we upload a new version of the file. The forums weren't loading for us the other day so we weren't able to fix it sooner.

No, I don't think 11 year olds are dumb, actually, quite the opposite. Though I'm confused as to why you would get that idea from the part you quoted. Its just an amazing technical feat. Or at least it was when I was 11.

Offline LittleTemple

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2013, 03:53:10 »
Updated the download link.

Maps 03 and 04 are now in the zipped file =)

Offline Pseudoscientist

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #4 on: January 28, 2013, 05:16:18 »
No, I don't think 11 year olds are dumb, actually, quite the opposite. Though I'm confused as to why you would get that idea from the part you quoted. Its just an amazing technical feat. Or at least it was when I was 11.
I probably overreacted, sorry. I just don't find it amazing - children learn how to use things quickly and usually have much more free time to practise (making levels in this case). If you map a lot, eventually you'll make good levels.
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Offline LittleTemple

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #5 on: January 28, 2013, 05:19:04 »
To each their own. Like I said in the OP, I can't speak for everyone

I find her maps very interesting for someone who had never touched DOOM before six months ago, others may not =P

Offline yves

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2013, 09:45:33 »
I think the maps are amazing! They have a Doom I quality that I really like. I started playing Doom II when I was 5 (I'm currently 24) and discovered the beauty of map editing when I was 12 or so (actually, I drew many maps on paper at this time wishing that I could create my own levels and discovered, super astonished, 2 years after, that it was possible!). Of course, it was only Vanilla at this time. So, your little story just makes me already nostalgic :)

Offline LittleTemple

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2013, 17:39:15 »
Updated the link again

She emailed us a new version with added map05 and custom intermission level names. she did them herself (we were going to help her) and we might still have to because they look kinda odd to be honest.

map05 is smaller than the rest. pretty fast paced, good for adrenaline and kamila and I played 2 player DM on it before uploading the file. Works well for that too =)

Glad you like them! Kamila wants to ask her to do some maps for Dimensions =P

She actually maps more interesting levels than me... its weird!

Offline XDelusion

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #8 on: February 23, 2013, 09:10:47 »
I see she's already got an eye for lighting detail, very cool! I think she may be a natural. :)
If we lost an eye we would be sad. So the Mother too is sad, and she'll end, and the world ends... - From the Heart of the World

Offline Doomkid

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Re: Little DOOMlings still exist! (Demon laden, vanilla wad)
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2013, 22:30:19 »
These maps reek of 90's DOOM goodness. Earlier today I played Tango's maps that he made when he was 12, and now I'm playing this. That's 2 pre-teen mappers better than myself when I was a teenager.. lol.

Some will certainly say this needs more detail, but my opinion is leave the appearance as it is, or only slightly improve it. What some call "detail", I often see as a mess of pixels.

Good job!
« Last Edit: March 03, 2013, 22:31:44 by Doomkid »
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