THE GHOUL'S FOREST - MOD COMPAT VERSION RELEASED

[Clownman]

Enter the woods once more and relive the nightmare.
WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! CONTAINS JUMPSCARES!



STORY

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It is the late 18th century. You're a hunter. And a damn good one at that. You are known for your accomplishments in the wilderness, Your hometown sees you as a hero, The armor you wear was constructed by the royal family itself... but somehow, it's just not enough for you. One day you overhear news of a man being executed for scaring the public with foolish lies of a screaming monster in the haunted woods, You never knew much about that place other than the entire kingdom was desperately told not to go there, Anyone who did enter either never came back, or returned either mentally unstable or with severe wounds. The only thing you can really remember was years-old news of an insane Jester whom was taken there and promptly beheaded for the crime of mass-killing innocents. You now begin to wonder. Perhaps there was more to the forbidden forest than people said? What if such a beast existed? Could this be the challenge of your life you have been awaiting all these years of your career? You grab your bow and head out for the woods, Thoughts of the ultimate prize filling your mind and ready for the hunt of your life... However you end up searching all day only to find nothing. Not wanting to entirely give up, You decide to set up camp for the night and continue the search tomorrow. Just as you are about to get into your tent and go to sleep however, you start hearing noises in the distance...

The Ghoul's Forest is sort of a fan-remake/enhancement of CutmanMike's Ghoul's Forest 3 updated for modern audiences. Explore and freeroam a new map with more content than ever before, State of the art special effects and lighting effects. Relive the nightmare of 2007 like never before!

The reason I made this, aside from being a little loveletter to Cutty himself is that the original Ghoul 3 certainly has shown it's age and watching people play it today, I just wanted to give them a slightly "refreshed" experience. (It also doesn't help several of the mods mechanics/features are broken in the latest versions of GZDoom, Namely the dynamic lights and also now not being able to switch weapons properly.) I have tried to make Ghoul mods in the past but I mostly never finished them or lost them, and even then a lot of the times they proved too ambitious for me. I settled on a simple enhancement/remake to test out most of what I have learned from modding for G/ZDoom as a whole. Enhancing sounds and graphics to a few gameplay changes, I'm hoping you guys will enjoy this. 2 years later I decided to update it and pack it with the content and whatnot I wanted to achieve back in 2017.

New features include the following:
-Gone are the fists, You now have a hunting knife. If you can actually beat the whole game with this, I applaud you. It will 1-shot ghouls granted you gotta be careful because they will also one-shot YOU.
-New landmarks throughout the forest including a glowing pond (rumored to have souls swimming though it's waters), A house in ruin with a ritual circle and an aztec shrine.
-IcyTux's Ghouls from the fan-favorite addon for Ghoul 3 are here along with one extra one, See below for details.
-BRIGHTMAPS
-Extended version of the original BGM by Bouncy
-Lighter replaced with a torch
-Tons of bugfixes since the last version
-No more snuff/gore from Yurei, Replaced with a singular image and a less loud scream.
-New death animations if you die from certain ghouls
-New effects
-Redone sounds
-Player-defined gender voice clips.
-Hopefully a fairly simple remaster on a classic that can make it more playable and enjoyable for today's generation.

CREDITS

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Cutmanmike - Original Ghoul Trilogy creator and whom this mod is dedicated to.
BouncyTEM - Music, An extended version of the OST taken from both the Skulltag edition and the original Ghoul 3 meshed into one.
TheEyesOfTheHawk (DeviantArt) - Sjas's new face.
Batandy - Jitterskull's new makeover, First appeared in his other mod known as "Ghoul Station".
IcyTux - Skybox and additional Ghouls + graphics
Team Psykskallar - Several graphics and sounds, From Afraid of Monsters
SiliconWolf/Capcom - Resident Evil 4 textures
Raven Software - Graphics
Zygo - Weapon coding
DoomKiller - Weapon coding
Neoworm - Graphics
Ichor - Graphics
Gothic - Graphics
ETTiNGRiNDER - Graphics
Adeon - Map edit base, Originally based off a survival modification of Ghoul 3
WildWeasel - HUD code
Nash - Gore
DezzTech - Special Effects
DenisBelmondo - Footstep code and sounds

THE GHOULS

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GAMEPLAY

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Before you ask: Yes, Yurei's snuff gore images have been removed and replaced. The sound effect when she kills you shouldn't wreck your speakers either. I warn you that it's still a jumpscare though. (Surprise, Surprise.)

Download: ZIP package with Freedoom IWAD + Recommended settings
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ipsyc8bv ... st.7z/file
(RECOMMENDED) controls as all these features are kind of necessary:
Shift: Run (Or turning on Caps Lock to always run.)
Mouse: Aim (Make sure mouselook is turned ON, The bow has auto-aim disabled now. )
F: Jump

Download: Standalone PK3
https://www.mediafire.com/file/8v2m623v ... e.pk3/file

Download: Mod-compatible version (for weapon packs and player replacements)
https://www.mediafire.com/file/eukg4hn7 ... t.pk3/file

To those having issues with the game being too dark: Go to "Display Settings", Then "Hardware Renderer" and set the sector light mode to "STANDARD"

Thank you all for your support. If you find any issues, Please report them to this thread. I hope to update this over time and give a few touch ups here and there.

[Clownman]

Small update devlog featuring some changes to the original code for the actor objects along with the new HUD.

[Agentbromsnor]

I wonder what this version will add to the series. I always thought it would be cool to expand on the game, but from what I can see it seems more like a reworking of some sort. I'm curious to see how this is going to progress.

[jdagenet]

*Something new haunts the forest*
*Shows footage of Jitterskull*

I'm a huge of fan of the ghouls forest series, specifically GvH so I'm curious to see what this is going to bring.
Is there any chance we can get like a changelog or like a features planned? Both videos don't advertise anything different from the original.

[Clownman]

Basically what I wanted to do was give people a more "updated" experience to play Ghoul 3, along with some new content hopefully. I'm still working on trying to get some better fire effects for things like the Ghoul Deaths right now because so far I fear they don't cover up the sprites enough (like Jitterskull) or lag the game too much.

[Batandy]

If you want, feel free to use any resources from my old Ghoul Station (viewtopic.php?f=47&t=37280).
I'm a fan of the original and i'm excited to see what you'll bring to this new iteration

[IvanDobrovski]

Basically what I wanted to do was give people a more "updated" experience to play Ghoul 3, along with some new content hopefully. I'm still working on trying to get some better fire effects for things like the Ghoul Deaths right now because so far I fear they don't cover up the sprites enough (like Jitterskull) or lag the game too much.

Try attaching less GL lights to your flames, that's usually what drops the fps. Use one actor to create the lights (or a few, but not as many that all flames cast lights) and it should be good in terms of fps.

[Clownman]

Got some footage showcasing some of the new effects I was talking about, Along with testing out Batandy's Jitterskull.

[nazakomu]

I honestly cannot wait for this! It's one of my favorite mods of all time and brings back a good abundance of memories. I used to always watch +FRIENDLY actors from a personal mod fight off the ghouls all the time and it was so entertaining!

[unRyker]

The Ghouls Forest is one of those mods that has a cult following which always seemed peculiar to me. The grueling gameplay of any and all ghouls being able to strike a lethal shot on the player while they must take them all on (albeit one at a time) with multiple and limited arrows/ammo is the good and only best thing I found that I enjoyed out of the trilogy. Since this is a remake, I hope to see the story play a better and more significant role! Hopefully, my criticism of the original will make you consider some changes you can make.

The story and time progression between the original three is incomprehensible and the five ghouls rely on a jumpscare to primarily discourage the player from dying. Yeah, they all have their own unique silhouettes and sounds-- but they all function the same to the player and they don't play much differently other than just how they look. This means it offers a limited replayability right off the start because it's really only the visuals that change-- not ghoul behavior. In the end, you're just shooting 'em dead either way trying not to become a pile of flesh. The only subversions on how the ghouls attack would be the Jitterskull (homing, smooth attack, jittery laggy passive movement) and the boss of Ghoul 3 which is self explanatory. Sjas, the creeper and Choke must make a beeline to you to kill (Zig-zagging dance movements optional, but not required for them).

This means that everything is slightly predictable, and this is the Ghoul's Forest cliche list:

• There must be only one ghoul at a time.
• To add onto the first point, they're always the big bad, there's no such thing as little ghoul henchmen or whatever to keep you on your toes.
• They're always pissed off at you. And they know where you are at all times right from the get-go! That means you can run, but you can't hide.
• Sp00ky, audible noise while approaching the player. Better make obnoxiously loud whispering noises when I'm clearly meant to be a stealth ghoul. (Choke was the only exception)
• Loud sound (or other visual methods) to punish the player on death.
• Really damn fast, if not: hard to track your aim on the ghouls to score a shot.
• Dark forest (can't really be fault for that, but a ghoul that only rises during the day could be a nice change of scene. Even if instead of black fog, it's just white)
• Player starts out with a weapon of some kind, because why not?
• Not to mention the player's already camping with no explanation whatsoever.
• Halloween mask ghoul sprite edited with MSPAINT? If not: let's use an already existing movie villain. From a classic movie. That everyone knows about.

Of course, that may be what makes Ghoul's Forest the way it is- but it's been just the same. Since it's a reboot, I'd like to see something different or add something new to the Ghoul's Forest other than a new map/new weapon as countless other fan mods already did the change to death. Some actual story and flow would be nice so you can actually be immersed rather than only be in it for the cheap scares.

However, as it's a reboot of Ghoul 3, that could make Ghoul 1 and 2 null. Just because, why is it in the first 2 you get a double barrel, but in the last (assumingly the prequel to the first two) you get a bow and... A lighter? And not only that, the final boss disgusted me rather than scared me with how it killed the player. It was clear that it was just a gorepost in WAD form at that point.

The Ghoul series always lacked a good story, scenery variation and a variation of how monsters behave. Good luck, and I'll be looking forward to playing it!

[Clownman]

Thanks for your comments. I have always wanted to introduce a more advanced take on the Ghoul formula too, but me being a newbie and this being my first actual "project" I plan on actually fully releasing is something that kind of bogs me down. It's definently something I would love to do possibly in the future, though it may end up moving away from the Doom engine. I wanted to keep things simple rather than being over-ambitious. I've attempted to make a Ghoul WAD like 15 times in the past 7 years or so in some way shape or form, None of which got released because I wanted to make the forest more expansive and decorated as best as I could.

I plan on making this focus more on fun than just the scare though, so expect some new/different Ghouls to be thrown in. Truth be told, I have thought about adding some sort of cutscene events for when you begin and after you beat the game. Yurei's screamer images are also removed. I think it would be more interesting if we saw and heard horrible things happening to your player character rather than just usual jumpscares too. - So different "actual" death animations is something I have planned.

To me, The Ghoul's Forest always holds a place in my heart especially as most horror games have become "run from scary monster and pussy around with a flashlight", It was less of facing your fears like what I think a true horror game should do, Because you don't just want something to be scary but you want a fun game as well. I was considering adding humanoid ghouls but at the same time I don't want to get all clashy. ((GVH Multiverse did this and it sucks safe to say.)) Besides that I'm not sure what I could really add other than parodies of existing horror villians and creatures like a guy wearing a hockey mask and a chainsaw or a creepy puppet that flails it's limbs everywhere. Maybe I COULD bug somebody like Bloax to make me some creepy shit considering he made this demonic abomination haha.

[nazakomu]

The story and time progression between the original three is incomprehensible and the five ghouls rely on a jumpscare to primarily discourage the player from dying.

I definitely have to agree, it would have been much better if it actually had more of a story, so this could potentially give this project a good chance to incorporate one that fits best with the way it was imagined back then. This also gives me a few substantial ideas like the player having to perform certain tasks for certain events rather than just run around freely in the forest, or having one of the ghouls do something really intriguing like hiding somewhere so that it waits to ambush the player!

Yeah, they all have their own unique silhouettes and sounds-- but they all function the same to the player and they don't play much differently other than just how they look.

A few months after ZScript got into the stable builds of GZDoom, I was actually contemplating about making a copy of GF3 and doing conducting a simple DECORATE-to-ZScript conversion and then doing some cool stuff like altering the ghouls' movements and attacks to behave differently to make things feel renewed and interesting. I actually did already offer the author of this project if he wanted me to do any ZScript within it through the ZDF Discord, so that's still on the table at well!

This means it offers a limited replayability right off the start because it's really only the visuals that change-- not ghoul behavior.

Exactly! I think I was pretty attached to the visuals when I was younger and that was what caused the replayability to remain for an extensive time, but as time passed, it began to become unappealing just because of it continuing to be the same thing. There was also a few other minute factors that played into allowing the replayability to remain strong for me similarly to what I said previously (being able to watch the ghouls fight off +FRIENDLY actors from a personal mod), or being able to play with a gameplay/weapons mod too.

In the end with the cliche list, I agree that plenty of them should be addressed with this project! Icy addon for GF3 brought the first cliche to a halt by making 3 ghouls spawn at a specific point if I recall correctly.

Being able to hide would be somewhat interesting but to my knowledge - half of these ghouls are capable of getting anywhere by not clipping.

The sounds were something that made the ghouls iconic and unique, so them being changed would not really be the best in my opinion though I do believe that Cutman using his own voice to create those noises was pretty humorous but it still succeeded pretty well! And considering Cutman's original purpose for this was to make it horror, it should come as no surprise that there is jumpscare and ear-rape-esque noises for the death to punish the player. With it being the intention and goal to scare the player, this project could take a different approach but then it wouldn't really feel right.

The 'forestry during daylight' setting is feasible, but I'd wager that it would allow things to be seen visually unless you do something to compromise that issue, for example, making the "render distance" a certain value for the ghouls so that they fade in at a certain distance to the player's view. This would obvously take some modification of the actors (or classes, if ZScript) too! But as for the concept of one of the ghouls being chosen to come out during the day (I'd say, Choke of course would be a splendid candidate for this situation considering he comes last in GF3), I would definitely enjoy something new like that!

A new weapon would be lovely! Though it would not really fit Cutman's idea of the original scenario; you play as a hunter whom owns a bow. And with all of the other ghoul mods, they did what I feel was an atrocious job with trying to incorporate new weapons...

And with everything else remaining in unRyker's post, I also agree. I have always found aversion and disfavoring of the screamers that emitted from Yurei on death.. Even though I can understand why such graphic images were used to fulfill such context, I would still feel awful for the younger audiences that might have played the game and ended up seeing them pretty clearly. To clarify, when I first played GF3 and was very close to beating it, I saw those and immediately jumped into XWE after closing ZDoom to remove the images because I felt like it was overdoing it. But I subtly would give an exception for the sound considering it fits well, though please, if they remain, lower those decibels by a few at least!

But anyway, I honestly cannot wait for this and I wish Clownman the best for the project and I hope that some of these cliches will be resolved as well as some of the suggestions being seen in this project!

[Clownman]

Trust me, The Yurei is having her death reworked. No dead babies or actual gore photos plus no speaker-wrecking loud ass scream. =P

I already found a simple yet effective image from an old Internet tale to fit the pop up of course.

If you know of the SMW hack simply titled "M A R I O" you may know what it is. ;P

[AlphaSoraKun]

I'm actually having some good expectations for a halloween retrospective of one of my favorite halloween mods.

This looks promising, you've definitely got me hyped for a GF3 Reboot.

[Ethril]

If you know of the SMW hack simply titled "M A R I O" you may know what it is. ;P

Man, that's gonna take way too long to kill you.

Player Character: *pew pew*
Sjas & co.: BLAAAaaAAgaKGKHHHgfkhfh *dead*
PC: Ok, I think I got them all, do I have to fight the boss now?
Yurei: sup n00b
PC: what
*boop*
ÿØÿà JFIF H H ÿþ 1find me find me find me find me find me find meÿÛ C
PC: what
PC: Did you just send me a weird text file?
Yurei: お前はもう死んでいる
Yurei: (translator's note: omae wa mou shindeiru)
PC: Whatever, nerd.
PC: stupid fuckin weeb ghosts im too american for this shit
Yurei: bye lol

LATER, BACK AT HOME...

PC: i wonder what happens if i open that text file as an image
PC: OH SHIT ITS A SPOOKY FACE ASDFGSSDFSfsdgslk;kl; *dead*