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Enjoy...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzca6ilss32hjbb/rj3-dlcdems.zip?dl=0 Good maps folks! It's a shame they weren't all in the original pak :) Wow ! Great maps !
I like especially ionous's map. Skacky's is awesome too. It's hard on my video card, but still playable. Negke's map is good, but corridors and rooms are too small to my taste and not enough details (it feels old school). Thanks a lot guys, you are awesome ! Putting the RETRO in Retrojam3DLC, with his "giant floating pyramid maze suspended in blood red thunderstorm the way Id did it".
Great maps, each one was fun and impressive. Sad how negke still has his tarbaby fetish though! Got a bit lost on ionous', but loved the feeling of (warpspasmishrectangular). The decals(?) on skacky's rock plus the secrets were fun.
As usual, the "retro" part is debatable, but nevertheless these are some awesome maps. Nice job, guys. Here, have some demos.
ionous: Unique style with a fitting title. As Shambler put it, "so many lights, yet so little light", heh. It's a bit on the dark side, but adjusting gamma a little did the trick. Good brushwork and details, though also somewhat samey in places. However, I never really feel lost, so it's fine. The many white spots put some strain on my eyes after a while. Gameplay is fine, except it maybe suffers a bit from the fact that the floor grates cripple the monsters' movement (otoh occasionally much in my favor). Fiend super jumps can be a problem. skacky: Same style as your other map, but the Ziggurat Kelltigo setting is a nice twist. Looks very cool, a bit like a sane version of a Tronyn map. Lots of details and good shapes (in ionous' map, too). Fun gameplay and nice secrets - I actually managed to find a few for a change! Skacky: good fun, lots of space to jump around, very vertical vertigo
negke: quite fun, although a bit cramped for my tastes, but still enjoyable. Secrets were quite difficult to find! couldn't load ionous' map with Fitzquake demos for those who care about that sorta thing thanks for excellent maps!
demos (skill 1 blind): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9SGXU6l13PrdzRUd0MxNjhXZmM/view?usp=sharing http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/retrosham3dlc_demos.zip
Great maps all round. Very good variety in the theme. Great maps. I liked Ionous' style, though too busy in places to read the whole map. Negke's map felt most oldskool which is good for this mapjam. I'm not a big fan of base enemies in runic maps, but it was fine. Skacky's map is very nice and vertical, enjoyed it a lot, I even managed to find 5 secrets in it.
There's seems to be something about my map and its layout that makes it somewhat confusing or difficult to navigate. Some potential issues, some of which I was aware of, that probably could have been avoided. Though I also found that at times people aren't observant enough of the environment which adds to the problem, of course.
I think what complicates things for the player is that progression is predominantly vertical rather than horizonta, and the player moves through the level in a vertical zigzac pattern - not floor by floor, but often skipping a floor in-between, and visiting areas multiple times in random order. Three main issues come to mind: general navigation between floors, finding the key doors, and finding the elevator. The fence in the central atrium is meant to get the idea of vertical progression across. The player starts right in front of it and his first goal is to lower it, teaching him that the way forward is to jump down. The window next to the button lets the player see the fence lower and open up access to the lower floor. However, the problem here is the tarbaby ambush which often distracts the player just too much. I wanted the encounter to feel natural so I refrained from having the monster wake up after the button action, but as it stands, it spots the player a second too late if he runs straight for the button (if checking out the window first, everything works out). In most cases, the player won't interrupt the movement, but press the button and then turn around to deal with the monster, thereby missing the crucial part where the fence lowers. It shouldn't be that much of a problem since it's circular layout with no other way to proceed, but apparently it is, leading several players to run around in circles clueless and not inspecting the atrium again (despite the fact that new enemies appear there). Another possible complication might be that the player has to jump down an 'unnatural' height which implies fall damage, so some players may be hesitant to try. One only learns about the water mechanic that negates the fall damage after jumping. A similar setup is the nailgun ambush. The window is meant to help players getting an idea of the layout/structure and locate the lift after lowering it, but the ambush takes away their attention from the window. Seems barely anyone returns to the window afterwards. Originally, the nailgun was placed in the center of the room, but it was even harder to see. When players have learned they need to jump down the pit, some tend to get stuck on the circular lower floor as well, not realizing the only way back up is through the jump pads in the silver/gold key towers. And then need to jump down again to reach the central floor. That's part of the reason there are shortcuts from the top of the towers back to the respective doors. The player passes by each of the key doors at least once, so I was hoping he'd remember where it was. Gold door is a little bit tricky, because, again, there are monsters that take up the players attention, although he'll likely walk by the door a second time with a means to kill the zombies. The shortcut down to the gold door requires the player to jump down a hole again, which doesn't work as well as with the silver key shortcut, because while it doesn't do fall damage, the height looks just a little bit too big, so many people tend to refrain from taking this route. Finally, the elevator is another thing that may cause some players to get confused for a while. Ideally, one visits the elevator shaft once, spots the deactivated platform above, and recognizes it through the window next to its activation button. Then there's the additional window in the nailgun room to suggest one has to go further down. The level also puts a fresh zombie close to the lowered elevator and plays its wakeup sound as a reminder of the zombie corridor on the ground floor. Admittedly, it's a bit hit-and-miss. In conclusion: look up, jump down, be observant. Or something. Oh yes, as usual here's a 100% demo if someone's interested.
in your map negke. But not terribly so.
I think the map is just a bit more labyrinthe than we're used to from newer maps. It's very much old school in feel. Damn, I'm getting to old for all this action... died in all maps but had great fun... Ionous didn't work very nice with
Anyway finish then all but recorded first demos to all http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/tr_retrojam3dlc.rar thanks for mapping time Best Regard Rui Aka Trinca > people aren't observant enough of the environment
Yah.. your last few maps have been tough to navigate. And this one and another, gameplay is crowded for me. Loved Ionous' block staircase - secrets 3/6, including sixth :) Skacky's skybox and pyramids. skacky's has very cool gameplay and probably the only one with retro design/visuals :)
ionous - holy hell, what detailing! I did get a weird brushwork/models 'popping' type buyg in quakespasm where things like grilles and light fittings would disappear and then re-appear when I got close to them though. Leaving that aside, amazing map all round. Nice gameplay mix too. skacky - liked this a lot more than the standard retrojam3 map because the gameplay was less grindy and more fun. Some serious visuals too, especially in the vertical direction. without the glitch I mention above, would love to hear it.
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