Ghoul School 3D for Heretic

[ImpieTwo]

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Playtest time for this 3D remake of an obscure NES game of the same name. It's a first-person action-puzzle-adventure-thing spanning four inter-connected maps. It tries to better capture the idea Scott Marshall was originally going for about ghouls living on campus and Spike having to deal with them. I think. I hope.

The school is overrun with undead the week before prom. Most of these undead are jerks, but a few seem helpful enough to give you hints rather than zombify you. Get to the bottom of the cause of the undead uprising and save your prom date (who may or may not even like you).

Shoot bad monsters. Talk to humans and good monsters. Solve puzzles and navigate spooky mazes. Try not to kill or piss off NPCs or they won't help you. Try not to let everyone at school become zombified or you'll be up to your ears in ghouls. Make dumb announcements on the school intercom. Doowutchalike.

Jumping and crouching are required.

[Ed the Bat]

I first learned of this game last summer watching a longplay on YouTube and immediately found it to be charming. I'll make some time tomorrow to play this. Can I hope Spike O'Hara is still the hero, or at least in this in some form?

[twinkieman93]

Yeah the folks in game call you Spike so I'm guessing he's the hero. I've never heard of the game this is a remake of but I think I'm gonna go check it out at some point. I played the mod already and I enjoyed my time with it a good deal but I have, like, two big gripes.

One, I feel like the baseball bat needs slightly longer range. It feels like it's too easy to whiff with it, and it makes it a little hard to use as you fight your way to a decent weapon for dealing with the green dudes.
Two, I might've just glazed over it when I was reading Dr. Femur's dialogue, but I didn't realize the library was inside the history classroom. I wandered around the school for way too long trying to figure out where the heck the library was. I only figured it out when I tried the history room door on a frustrated whim, I hadn't eve realized I'd gotten the key. It is 2AM here as I'm writing this so there's a good chance I just missed it, but yeah.

Now, as for suggestions, maybe add some altfires to the weapons to spice things up a little? Maybe have an altfire for the super soaker that's a continuous stream(the classic "pump while holding the trigger down" maneuver) that has better DPS but doesn't rip and chews through water pretty quick. The baseball bat could have a baseball-flinging altfire to give you a ranged option starting out, even if it's kind of a poopy one since you gotta retrieve your balls. The aerosol could have a Blood-esque firebomb altfire, and the mana zoop could have... well, just about anything, huh? It's magic. Dunno 'bout the rivet gun though. Maybe a charge shot that fires off a rivet so fast it rips through enemies? That might be cool.

[ImpieTwo]

One, I feel like the baseball bat needs slightly longer range. It feels like it's too easy to whiff with it, and it makes it a little hard to use as you fight your way to a decent weapon for dealing with the green dudes.

I'm inclined to agree. I'm debating whether to make it slightly stronger too. I probably won't do alt fires though, since I'm sorta doing this old school a little bit. Your idea for the bat alt fire is hilarious though.

I hadn't eve realized I'd gotten the key.

I haven't figured out how to have it make the sound when you get a key via dialogue tree. She does tell you "Take my office key" when she gives it to you, but a sound cue would help...provided I can change that damn Win95 dialogue chime. I hate it so.

Can I hope Spike O'Hara is still the hero...?

He is. His sprite even has the goofy spiked hairdo.

[Ed the Bat]

Fantastic! It wouldn't be right without the hair (his name seems to be a play on 'spiky hair', after all).

[Ed the Bat]

I sincerely apologize for the delay. I know I said I'd get to playing this on Monday, but other things came up. I'm getting to it right now, and... I'm noticing Spike is apparently a giant? Absolutely towers over other humans and monsters. Perhaps you forgot to give him the right Scale property? It's also a bit goofy to have humans hop into the air when being zombified, due to using A_DropItem instead of A_SpawnItemEx. And I'd like to ask that the ManaZoop be given the NOAUTOAIM flag, since it's affected by gravity; it's incredibly difficult to shoot enemies up on cliffs or balconies. Oh, and the raven has Corvus' voice. Not Spike's voice, nor a raven's voice. I don't think the library boss should drop a Claw Orb, either, since there's no Dragon Claw in this.

Also, I've been curious since this was first announced: what motivated you to choose Heretic as the IWAD for this?

[ImpieTwo]

I sincerely apologize for the delay. I know I said I'd get to playing this on Monday, but other things came up. I'm getting to it right now, and... I'm noticing Spike is apparently a giant? Absolutely towers over other humans and monsters. Perhaps you forgot to give him the right Scale property? It's also a bit goofy to have humans hop into the air when being zombified, due to using A_DropItem instead of A_SpawnItemEx. And I'd like to ask that the ManaZoop be given the NOAUTOAIM flag, since it's affected by gravity; it's incredibly difficult to shoot enemies up on cliffs or balconies. Oh, and the raven has Corvus' voice. Not Spike's voice, nor a raven's voice. I don't think the library boss should drop a Claw Orb, either, since there's no Dragon Claw in this.

Also, I've been curious since this was first announced: what motivated you to choose Heretic as the IWAD for this?

The Skull boss item drops was an error I corrected in a later build, cos in that version he inherits from iron lich, and I forgot he had item drops. I ended up not using the iron lich special after all, and forgot to remove the inheritence cos I'm scatterbrained as hell.

I haven't noticed any voice at all for the raven though, so that's bizarre.

And yeah I forgot to resize Spike so he's the same size as the other teens. The player is eye level with them but his sprite would definitely not be the right size.

I chose heretic for its default powerups, sounds, mechanics, and other little things.

But isn't A_SpawnitemEx prone to not dropping the object if something is too close? That's part of the reason I used A_Dropitem instead.

I'm uploading a new version later today, so sit tight.

[Ed the Bat]

You didn't give the raven a new soundclass, so he uses the default voices. This can be heard any time you press 'use' on a wall, or bounce off of a wall during flight. And Heretic's mechanics are fully available to any game in GZDoom; all code is engine-side, never in the IWADs. Using it for its graphics and sprites is valid enough, though this does somewhat limit the player audience. There are many more people who own Doom than there are who own Heretic, as I understand it. Granted, Blasphemer is always available as a free Heretic IWAD replacement, and its assets (aside from missing ones, naturally) are high quality.

I played all the way through this, and I have to say I very much like what you've done. I hope to see more in the future. Though I'll have to admit I was the tiniest bit disappointed it didn't have the Deweytron, which I love solely for its hilarious name.

[ImpieTwo]

Though I'll have to admit I was the tiniest bit disappointed it didn't have the Deweytron, which I love solely for its hilarious name.

You'll have to remind me what the Deweytron was. I might still be able to squeeze it in.

It'd be handy if Blasphemer ever actually gets finished, yeah...

[Ed the Bat]

But isn't A_SpawnitemEx prone to not dropping the object if something is too close? That's part of the reason I used A_Dropitem instead.

That's what the SFX_NOCHECKPOSITION flag is for.

You'll have to remind me what the Deweytron was. I might still be able to squeeze it in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDOz3kyAbTc&t=4m24s
It's a straight-shooting sci-fi weapon of some kind. As described in the manual, "The first of three anti-ghoulie guns, dropped by the Spirit Ridders, that will vaporize the baddies back to Halloween nightmares."

Functionally, it would probably be too similar to your rivet gun.

[ImpieTwo]

Actually made it so the death state first checks "A_NoBlocking" before spawning anything and it has the same effect, so that's what I'll use now.

Posting the updated version within the hour.

[Rachael]

This was particularly fun if nothing else at least for the aesthetics of the mapset. I will admit I was a bit frustrated trudging through some of the puzzles, though. And the respawning monsters (due to the ghosts) was also a bit frustrating, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with.

Definitely worth a play through, though!

[EddieMann]

The rivetgun seems to be a biiiiit off to the right.

[ImpieTwo]

The rivetgun seems to be a biiiiit off to the right.

The projectile or the sprite? The sprite is supposed to be cos it's not dead centered.

[ImpieTwo]

Updated the download so Albuquerque is spelled right, and also the windows at the school are translucent.