Anon's Notes on Level Design

Before you start reading, keep in mind that every rule has its exceptions. You don't
have to do anything in any particular way. The only real limitations you have are
your own creativity and imagination. Making a Doom map isn't solving a quiz or
ticking things off a list.

Ultimately, the rule of thumb is if you do something, do it tastefully and keep
it fair for the player. A player should triumph through their skill and their
reflexes. Also keep in mind that no amount of reading will make you a good mapper.
You need to practice. The intuition that comes from experience will be your best
guide, not a set of hard rules or a checklist.

==========================WHAT MAKES AN ENCOUNTER FUN?==========================

I'd say what makes an encounter fun is how intense it is. Shooting demons is only
fun if you're in danger. You get intense encounters by forcing the player out of
their comfort zone. If they can just hover around a room's choke point and safely
clear it out, then they will.

The other thing to keep in mind is encounters should have multiple solutions for
the player to use. If your encounter has only one strategy, the player is going
to get bored. Give them multiple ways to deal with something.

Also, you have to consider where the player will retreat to. If they're getting
overwhelmed in a particular location, their first instinct is to run somewhere
safe. This is why doors are important in DOOM's map design. They delay players
when they're retreating. Same with lifts and elevators. One way trips are a more
extreme version of this. Not only do you cut off potential areas to retreat to,
but you also cut them off from pickups/powerups.

Extremely narrow spaces have their niche in level design as well. TNT's Heck has
you wander through a thin maze, at one dead end you find your key,
and then Milo lets loose an Arch-Vile on you. That's an INTENSE encounter, you have
the space needed to block his line of sight to not die, but you're forced to deal
with him in an absolute hurry because he WILL sear you and/or raise the
monsters you just worked so hard on killing, and you can't run from him.

A good encounter isn't just player + enemy. It's player + enemy + environment.
How deadly an enemy is depends on the room they're placed in. You can make a cyberdemon
a minor obstacle depending on how you arrange a room. Or you can make an archvile
an annoying unavoidable obstacle by giving the player nowhere to hide. Which
brings us to our next point.

==========================IF I CAN'T RUN, I WILL HIDE==========================

If a player can't flee from a room, the next thing they'll do is look for a place
to take cover inside the room. This is especially important when using enemies
like chaingunners, archviles and arachnotrons. Cover should never make a player
feel too safe, however.

Cover can also be something as simple as an enemy shooting from above or below
not being able to get a bead on you due to the floor or ceiling of the space you're
in being in the way, so the enemy is a hazard to you if you stray from certain areas.

Cover is either a thin spot that can only be used briefly, or it's a spot where the
player will get trapped/cornered if they stay too long. Cover can also be something
as simple as an enemy shooting from above or below not being able to get a bead on
you due to the floor or ceiling of the space you're in being in the way, so the
enemy is a hazard to you if you stray from certain areas.

==============================ELEVATION AND ANGLES==============================

This is another important part of designing your encounter. At any given point
in a room, where can a player be attacked from? This also ties in with how you
place cover in a room. Elevation also allows you to increase the pressure on a
player, as a particular threat on a higher elevation will be able to fire over
other enemies and still reach the player.

Elevation, however, can also be used to make particular monsters less threatening.
Let's take the revenant, for example. Its homing projectiles will most likely
crash into the ground when it's on a higher elevation, making them less dangerous.
Trapping an archvile on a platform can also limit the range it can attack the
player, creating a blind spot in a certain area below its platform.


====================================LIGHTING====================================

While lighting can be used to set the mood for Doom levels, they have a much more
important role in creating contrast in the environment. By contrast, I mean lighting
is used to make particular objects and locations pop out against darker lit areas.

For example, it's used to make switches much more visible in environments where
they would otherwise blend in, as well as doors and other important locations.

=========================THE CONSISTENT USE OF TEXTURES=========================

In DOOM, particular textures are supposed to convey information to a player.
For example, if they see the red skull texture, then they think they need a red
skull to activate a particular object or door. If they see a door texture, then
they will think they can activate that door. It also has door textures which aren't
used on doors, so if the player sees it, they already know not to waste their time
trying to open it.

DOOM 2 did use the door colour strips for some other objects, such as bars you
can raise when you have the red key. This is okay too.

A common mistake with new mappers is using these textures inconsistently. Let's
say you had a level where there were multiple doors in a single room. Each door
looks exactly the same. Naturally, the player is going to try and use every single
door until they find the right one. 95% of these doors don't lead to new rooms,
they're just walls with a door texture.

Some worse examples I saw were using textures that weren't door textures at all
for doors, while the doors themselves had nothing indicating they were even there
(no indent, no use of lighting, just a flat plane). How is a player supposed to
know it's a door? (I'm looking at you Prodoomer, you unholy abscess of a wad)

There is also elevator textures. When the player sees these particular textures,
they will presume that there is an elevator there and they will try to use it.

tl;dr: Use textures consistently and use particular textures to convey information
to the player.

========================GEOMETRY TO CONVEY INFORMATION==========================

Changing the geometry of your room isn't just about how it affects encounters.
Another important thing to consider is how you use geometry to convey information
to the player.

For example, we have a switch. We want the switch to be more visible to the player.
So we create some geometry for the switch to stand out. You can also create indents
in walls to make switches stand out more.

Let's say there is an important object in your room somewhere. A key, a powerup,
a weapon pickup, whatever. If you want the player to notice it, giving its own
geometrical pedestal in the room will make it pop out way more.

Colour strips can also be used to communicate what a switch does. i.e. I hit a
switch with a red door strip and it opens a door with a red door strip.

tl;dr: If you want the player to notice something, use geometry to make it stand
out in the room.

========================WHAT DID THE FUGGING SWITCH DO?=========================

Now, this is one of my all-time pet peeves of map making. I go up to a switch, I
use it and it does something. What is that something? That's the problem.

When you have a usable object in your map, it should be immediately clear what
it does. If it opens a door on the other side of the map that's tucked away in
a tiny corner, I'm going to be angry in ways I can't describe here because Pastebin
has a built-in profanity filter. I wish I could punt Pastebin in the coont.

If you want the prime example of this problem, play Prodoomer. You'll be wandering
around, feeling like a drooling lobotomy victim and not knowing what the switch did,
even as you look through the same rooms over and over again. Probably the worst map
for this shit is Map 09: Communication Base. The level consists of you running back
and forth between eight identical rooms, hitting switches which don't seem to do
anything at all. It turns out you need to hit EVERY SINGLE SWITCH in EVERY SINGLE
ROOM, THEN press a switch at the very top of the level.

tl;dr: If a switch does something, the player should be able to see, hear or
somehow know the something it did.

=========================SIDE ROOMS - MAKE THEM MATTER==========================

A lot of bad wads I saw like to have tons and tons of side rooms the player can
visit and sell themselves as 'nonlinear'. The majority of these rooms serve no
purpose except to get the player lost and waste their ammo. A player should never
feel like their actions don't have any meaning or purpose. If they go into a room,
that room should make them feel like it was worth their time.

Just look at E1M1 of DOOM. The first side room you encounter in the entirety of
DOOM has a green armour pickup, the only one in the entire level. It also has a
secret switch that allows you to go get the blue armour instead. In higher
difficulties, it's also where you can grab a shotgun. ALL OF THESE THINGS
ARE WORTH THE TIME INVESTMENT.

If you have a side room with three enemies in it, two 1% armour pickups, three
health vials and nothing which helps the player progress through the level (a switch,
a new weapon, a strong pickup), then you might as well delete it.

===========================COPYING AND PASTING ROOMS============================

Don't do this. A player will notice it right away. They won't like it either.
There are a couple reasons why you shouldn't.

First is clarity. Each room in your level should be distinct, so the player doesn't
get lost. When it's literally the same room, how are they supposed to know
where they are? Don't say the automap, because if a level needs the automap
just to be playable, then it's a bad level.

Second is predictability. If the player already knows what happens next, then
they're going to lose interest. You have to keep them engaged and keep surprising
them.

Third is pointlessness. If a player has already cleared a room and encounters
another room exactly like it, they'll go 'But I already beat this room, why should
I do it twice?' They will think it's pointless padding. Which it is.

====================GZDOOM AND YOU: THAT'S A LOT OF FEATURES====================

If you're a bit more familar with the Doom modding scene, you've probably heard of
GZDoom by now. You've probably had a look at ZScript and it probably makes zero sense
to you. It still doesn't to me. It's all a bit overwhelming and you probably feel
like if your wad doesn't use these features, it's not worth playing. The thing about
ZDoom (and GZDoom) is, while it's technically impressive, many people get hooked up on
using these advanced features and make glorified tech demos, rather than stuff that's
fun to play.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't touch GZDoom or shouldn't try to use its more
advanced features. Just keep in mind that you should understand the fundamentals
which make Doom fun to play. Good level design and enemy placement are both timeless.
They will make your maps fun to play twenty years from now. Sharting ZDoom features
all over your wad, while it might earn you accolades from certain communities, can't
compensate for bad gameplay.

=================================SOME QUESTIONS=================================

1. What can the player see?
2. Where will the player go?
3. What obstacles will the player encounter?
4. What tools does the player have at their disposal?
5. Where can the player retreat to?
6. Where can the player take cover?

================================START PRACTICING================================

I could sit here all day writing shit about how to make a good map, but the only
way you'll improve is by practicing. Don't be afraid to put your map out there
and ask for feedback too. Feedback is the sandpaper you'll use to polish your
skills. It's gonna be rough and hurt like a bitch sometimes, but it'll be
worth it in the long run.

Good luck, Anon. I'll also play your map if you ask me to.