I've got a map almost ready. It would be awesome if someone could take a look at it, mostly visually, and comment on "good level design" without playing it, before I do the final gameplay balancing. It would probably mean notargetting through it following the player path and pointing out stuff that doesn't work.

Gameplay currently has only hard, and it should be nightmarishly hard. I would like to balance it after all geo changes... 

is your e-mail still accurate? catweasel...sth sth...????

check it or mail me your new one maikfranzxaver at g mail d co m. Please. 

Test Compilation I

Back in April, the team at KillPixel Games doubled in size with the addition of a programmer. Since then, the project has gone from being handful of mockups and documents to becoming an actual, functioning prototype. These are the first fruits. The next test compilation will be gameplay oriented, whereas this is more general in nature.

Although early in production, any feedback is welcome! I would also like to take this opportunity to ask a few specific questions:

Are you interested in retro-styled FPS games?

If so, what is something you want to see in this type of game?

What is something you do not want to see?

Probably unnecessary disclaimer: some of the temp sounds contained in this demonstration are property of Id Software.

P.S. this isn't an official announcement, but is a sneak-peak for the quake community. Please keep that in mind if you choose to share this material. Thanks! 

1. I am definitely interested. :)

2. Good monster and weapon variety, and good weapon SFX. The SFX in particular is very important as it affects the feel of the whole game a LOT, imo.

3. Procedural/Random generation of levels! I don't expect that you'll make that mistake, but I think it bears saying anyway; "unlimited levels" do not maketh for a good game. Actual handcrafted maps, even if they're not the best or most interesting out there, are always much more fun to play on and engage with. 

No Random levels please 

looks great!

I'd love to see some magic and other runic style weapons. Magic weapons Ala American McGee's Alice had a great arcadey feel whilst remaining fps-y

Give the character a little air control and give us a level editor XD

Don't make it feel too techy- we have a shit tonne of other tech fps already.
I wouldn't bother about multiplayer unless you're including coop.

I'm looking forward to seeing more. 

I'm liking the early steps so far. I would definitely encourage you to take some inspiration from Blood and add horror-inspired themes. 

1. We're on a Quake 1 forum, so I'm guessing pretty much everyone here would answer "yes" to this question.

2. Doom/Q1 style of fast-paced movement.

3. Being limited to a "realistic" carry-2-weapons-only gameplay.

Other than that, what Pritchard said. 

Thanks for the input, guys. I think we're on the same page, more or less.

Procedural level generation
This is the most common response. No danger of his, hand-crafted levels all the way.

Don't make it feel too techy- we have a shit tonne of other tech fps already.
Agreed. The first few drafts were straight-up sci-fi/tech. That idea was ditched for a variety of reasons.

I would definitely encourage you to take some inspiration from Blood and add horror-inspired themes
That's the intent, though not 'classic' horror mythos and tropes.

Being limited to a "realistic" carry-2-weapons-only gameplay.
Agreed. 

One thing I thought of that I forgot to mention...

When I saw the monsters in your latest video I was reminded of "living" technology. It would be awesome to see some "living" guns, like some of the weapons in HL / or the dragon gun in Undying. 

Ya the green ball launcher from Opposing Force was such a cool idea! 

yeah, that's a cool idea. I've tossed that one around a bit. I was thinking something along the lines of prey 2006 but more decrepit and bony, not so gooey and insectoid. 

Chasm wad and fanhouse vents added to quaketastic.

I'm not sure, I tried the chasm wad without and with an extra textures file with tga's. It looks as if they are slightly different, but in the sky and m1/2 it is hardly worth mentioning. 

Madfox, maybe see if you can video the monster models using this:

http://www.chasmaction.com/files/demos/1.02%201996-07-04/MONSTERS/ 

It would be awesome to see some "living" guns 

 

A medieval map, between 30-45min of play, ~230 monsters on hard, ~120 on normal, less on easy. 

 

if that's what you mean by "very" hard. 

...I haven't been able to offer much to the community for quite some time, but if you need an 'easy' tester then my hand is in the air. 

 

thanks for the file.

Fact is that most programs only work under DOS6.4. So to have acces I have to try them on another computer. I've managed to extract the textures, sounds and most other files, but for *.ani files there are no editors anymore. Also the *.30 files are hardly editable. I tried the editor but it's an advantage to get it working.

It reminds me of the first Doom editor which also gave me a hard challenge. I don't think I can get a grip on them, but at least it's worth trying. 

People keep mentioning it, are you trying to actually convert them to Quake? That would be fairly awesome if true! 

What is something you want to see in this type of game?
Honestly all I'd recommend is ensure the overall style and feel isn't simply a quake replica; art direction will go a long way here too. Personally I'd start with the weaponary as an example, maybe focus more on the arcane (since Quake's were very normal/techy) or some combination of two styles like that shotgun shown in the video with the... glyphs?

What is something you do not want to see?
Walking into a room, forced to backpeddle to gun them down, progress forward, rinse repeat. Common mistake I see in "retro fps" attempts. I'm perfectly fine being forced to keep on the move, area denial and such, but that's done through varied enemy types and properly designed encounters.

Art related suggestion
I understand its probably too early to bring up art related stuff, but I feel this is still worth mentioning so it can be thought about earlier than later in regards to, not only visual style but also gameplay;

Don't be afraid to get bold even with something as simple as ammo sprite pickups. I'm assuming those pixel shells on the floor are temporary, but do ensure even these item types look visually appealing and have distinctive silhouettes which can be recognised from across any room/distance, even if the item art needs to be larger than you currently have it. A few pixellated blocks will eventually be lost amongst the scenery I fear. Here's a rough example I whipped together to showcase exactly what I'm thinking. 

Doom-era retro is not my personal taste, but in the context of that, your stuff looks very good and pisses all over most of the so-called retro stuff that actually gets released. Simply because of the theme, consistency, art style, atmosphere, etc. Everything about that little test video is completely harmonious from the gun to the trees and rain etc. The semi-modern effects are nice in it too.