If you have just stumbled across this post, I recommend starting with part 1.

With the original STELLAR.wad level a mess I retreated to a nice empty level, still looking for a nice, short BASE style level to kick of my little map collection. Since thinking about space ships along the lines of Doom hadn’t really worked out for me I decided to try something closer to something I was a lot more familiar with, at least when I was young – Marathon.

I hadn’t played Arrival in probably 10 years so starting off just from my memory I ended up with something that looked like this.

You started at the bottom of the map, overlooking what was supposed to be a docking bay. I had forgotten the docking bay area in Marathon was off the hallway after the start room rather than right next to it, but regardless, this game me a starting point. The idea was for the player to the upper left blue square, get a key and return to the half-started maze to reach an exit the player could see from the big arena room. Super simple!

You’ll note that I don’t have any sketches for this one, I figured the map would be so simple it wasn’t really needed. If I had taken the time to plan this map out in more detail it might have gone somewhere. Instead I tried slamming the better parts of the first map into this one to save some time.

This version of the map didn’t last long though because of a chat I had at work one day – basically I was bemoaning the failure of STELLAR.wad and how the idea of criss-crossing over a star shaped room at different levels seemed to have become more about the side areas and puzzles. It occurred to me that the center of the star could be the thing that moves, rather than having these complex paths outside of the main arena. The whole center just needed to be the size of a good platform.

That evening I set about trying to work out a star shape that was a good scale over to the side in Tiny.wad. In short order I got the exaggerated shape of the star in there and the maze section attached via teleporter.

You can find this version here: Tiny_StarStarted.wad

With the first lift->switch->raise center platform worked out I quickly started adding in bits to the level, many of them recycled from my other attempts, including taking the bottom bit from my Marathon experiment.

Its pretty easy to see how the original start for the level was grafted onto the star shape. Note that the first lift (marked in yellow on both screenshots) got moved to be directly across from the player entrance to the center of the star. I was worried about the pillar blocking the view but decided the player would see it no matter what if they ran around the room rather than to their left where it could possibly be harder to find. Plus, this let me keep the lift floor texture on the grid. Most of the elements here are still present in the finished version but I had a few problems.

• Not enough points! – In this build of the map the center pillar was supposed to open and reveal the level exit because I didn’t have enough points to work in a teleporter room. All the points were used up just getting it to the level of the computer room in the upper left. (note: That is another room stolen from the original Stellar that I added towards the end, although the trap there was added for this map)
• Too many dead rooms at the start – To create the feeling of a ship in the same way Marathon did I felt like there needed to be several room with machines and cargo at the start, otherwise it was just a bunch of hallways full of enemies. The side rooms were good for feel but not for player flow.
• Start points were too narrow – Just as I feared with the first map, the pointy bits of the star were too narrow for good gameplay. I had already expanded them in a few places but was wary of losing the star shape on the automap.

Over the next few days I set about finding solutions to these problems, leading to the final stand-alone version of the level.

In this map the side areas at the start are blocked off and the player learns they need the blue key to reach the exit RIGHT AWAY. This creates clear goal through the language of Doom (exit door texture, blue markings etc) rather than the old goal of “Reach the teleporter” which works just fine when you have terminals or audio logs but not with the toolset in vanilla Ultimate Doom.

These rooms become available later, when you use the central teleporter to reach what used to be a throw-away computer space. The storage area got a whole twisted computer maze attached leading to the “sacrifice room”. See, by this point I had settled on the idea that the player character didn’t understand where these monsters came from and only discovers this sort of hidden ritual space with monsters buried in the ship at the end of the level. I REALLY didn’t want any Demons earlier in the level but the enemy palette of Ultimate Doom is just too limited. I used the Pinkie Demons since they seemed the least magical and kept the Imps/Cacos in the final area only.

You can get this version of the map here: Tiny_BeforeFinalPush.wad

Aside: One thing that really helped this level come together for me was adding in some secrets that I like a lot somewhat early. This could be a personal thing, but I feel like secrets are a major element in making a Doom level feel complete. It gives the player a reason to explore, to try things out and really get a sense for how the space works. My original Stellar.wad didn’t have any secrets in it when I put the level down and I think that really hurt how I thought about the space. In the whole player path there wasn’t really a single choice except for some meaningless dead-ends.

From here I would go on to piecing together the levels into a single wad file, only to discover that I REALLY didn’t like finishing Solar Sacrifice and getting dumped into E1M4. Against my better judgement I started working on some Transition Maps and a final boss arena – head on to Part 5.

If you have just stumbled across this post, I recommend starting with part 1.

The second level I started for my wad is called Solar Sacrifice and actually appears as the third proper level. My goal was to use sun shapes to form towers in a large open map to contrast with the carefully controlled flow from Lunar Palace. The general idea was to open up the central sun spire to finally lower the barrier around the “Shattered Sun” in the lower left corner to battle the boss and clear the level.

In the end this level is my favorite but it went though a number of significant revisions to the flow that are harder to articulate just in top town maps. I hope I’m able to convey the process in a way that is intelligible to someone who hasn’t spent several weeks staring at this mess of sectors.

The first key would be inside a castle at the north of the map which was accessed via a rocky path up the cliffs. You can see the first version of the interior in the lower right, connected where the [A] is on the larger layout map. When the player exited the castle at the other end there would a switch that opened a part of the Central Sun Spire, unleashing a wave of enemies.

The second key would be through the connection marked [B]. There you would find a a lift up to a cliff where they would teleport between some spires inside the main area to a “flame tower” with imps in platforms that move up and down. At the top would be the blue key.

I quickly realized that path was far too short compared to the castle route so I made the addition of the Sun Temple in a new addition to the central cave. This would give more space for combat before getting the key. You can see the revised main cave layout sketched in above along with one of the bonus spires.

Unfortunately I don’t have as many versions of this map saved off but I can talk through some of the changes from the original sketch.

Lava Everywhere!: I added lava all over around the Sun Spire because once I made it large enough to look impressive there was just way too much open ground for the player to run around on. It was easy to get lost at the beginning of the level. By reducing the ground and having connections grow over time the player is a lot easier to funnel towards the objectives.

Castle -> Sun Spire: My idea of lining up the castle exit with the central sun spire just never worked out very well. The interior of the castle would have to be SO big that it was almost its own level and the enemies spawning far in the distance weren’t very threatening unless I spawned a million Cacodemons. Instead I shifted the Sun Spire over and used the idea of a series of teleports from original path [B] to connect the castle to the “flame tower”. I felt safe stealing this idea from [B] because the new timed lowering key in the center of the sun temple provided enough gameplay.

Separated Paths: You may notice that I have marked the Blue Key switch with a box outline in both of the editor shots so far – that is because it is the pivot for the player path through the first part of the level. In the original sketch I had both Red and Blue switches next to each other at the start but in the final version the paths are separated. The blue key instead reveals a path towards the Sun Temple which provides the Red Key. This makes each key part of a loop that cleanly leads the player to the next step. I wish the end of [B] was 100% guaranteed to be seen before getting the key but fixing that issue would require major surgery. I ended up adding the large chunk of rock that rises after getting the Red Key to try patching this issue.

Flame Tower: The idea of a bunch of Imps moving up and down on platforms flashing high contrast red was really exciting but I could never get it to work well. Additionally the [B} ended up with a bunch of Imp’s up high were the player couldn’t get since they don’t drop ammo but have ranged attacks. I kept the tower idea but instead had the platforms just rise up to reveal first Baron of the level.

[A] Path Return: My original sketch doesn’t have a return route from the Key at the top of the flame tower. In the final version I added a cave that connects back to the starting path, this way the player comes back to the Blue Switch head on, exactly the same way they discovered it the first time. It also gave me the chance to ensure the player gets the chain-gun if they miss the optional one earlier.

Length: Playing through the level throughout development I started to worry there were too many ideas crammed into the level and it was getting too long. Since I was pretty happy with the core of routes [A] and [B] I added a Cyberdemon boss inside the Sun Spire and revealed him from the Red Key Switch. This made the entire “Shattered Sun” area in the original sketch optional, a space you only could find via a secret. At the time I was thinking it would lead to the secret level and only be accessible after entering the Cyberdemon area.

You can download that version here: SUN_BeforeFinalPush.wad

Ultimately I couldn’t let myself cut corners and just throw away the reveal of a whole new area on a secret leading to a level I hadn’t even built yet, so in a final push one weekend I turned the exit near the Cyberdemon into a Yellow Key and put in a new switch station.

There were countless little changes in that last push but this was by far the biggest. The old secret route to unlock the alternate exit instead became the home of the BFG9000 which makes the final fight a lot easier. I thought I had saved the smallest, easiest level for last, but Stellar Void would prove to be the hardest idea to translate into the game of all – continue on to Part 3!