[WIP] Doom: Another World

[Josh771]

Based on Another World, the atmospheric adventure platforming game created by French game designer Éric Chahi in 1991

Download Link: anotherworld.pk3 (4.72 MB)

Doom: Another World is a gameplay mod that brings the unique gunplay of Another World to Doom's pseudo-3D, first-person perspective. It is planned to be a TC (complete with atmospheric environments and puzzles) if I can scrounge up enough art assets. Spriters and texture artists are welcome to offer their services if they'd like.

Current Features

• A demo map demonstrating new textures and an ambient music track (by yours truly)
• Fully featured alien handgun from original game
• Zombies play the role of aliens with new attacks and unrelenting tactics
• No HUD; health is binary and ammunition is depicted via a blinking indicator on your weapon
• Pickups on map removed; mostly itemless gameplay
• Multiplayer compatible (not Zandronum)

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Sound effects from Another World
Angled Handgun sprites by SidDoyle
Centered Handgun sprites by Sgt. Shivers
ACS/Decorate by SidDoyle

Big thanks to Éric Chahi for creating Another World and making an incredible contribution to gaming history.

[comet1337_old]

tried it out, its pretty neat and works like i expected it to work
but i think the shield is a little too thin
maybe have it spawn like 5 of them in a fan shape in front of the payer and increase the size of the shield?

[Josh771]

tried it out, its pretty neat and works like i expected it to work
but i think the shield is a little too thin
maybe have it spawn like 5 of them in a fan shape in front of the payer and increase the size of the shield?

That's not a bad idea at all. I'll work on making the shield cover you better.

EDIT: Done. The pistol now produces a fan of 4 shield units.

[RikohZX]

When you said overpowered, boy did you mean it. Two charged shots can kill a Cyberdemon, and just one a Mastermind. Ridiculously amusing to just tear a path through an army of enemies with what seems like a simple pew-pew. Of course, I imagine an Another World conversion or mod would be ludicrously difficult if the aliens had the exact same gun.

[Gez]

In Another World, pretty much everything causes instadeath. To simulate the Another World experience faithfully, in addition to the overpowered gun, you also need to mod your health to 1% max, no armor.

You had to renew the shield regularly too because each hit made it lose some particles and eventually it disappeared.

Note that in this mod, you can kill yourself by firing a charged shot point-blank at a wall. Pretty sure this didn't happen in AW.

[Josh771]

Well, I'm playing around with making sprites for the aliens... but I think I'm going to need a real monster spriter to finish rotations/animations on this madness. May not happen.

@Gez, I realize already how the original worked. I'm not claiming 100% faithfulness, although I wouldn't mind it. I'm still playing around with this and tweaking it, so I may try to re-implement the shield using actual particles and revise the charged shot so that you can't splatter yourself with it.

I may as well make a player class that starts only with this gun, remove pickups from the map, and leave the player at 1% health. That really would be a step in the right direction. I might make this into a TC in enough time...

[Josh771]

Alright! The shield is now particle-based, the charged shot cannot damage the one who fired it, and the player now has a single, fragile point of health. All health/armor/weapon/ammo pickups have been removed. Makes for an interesting "mini" TC, in a way.

[Reactor]

I like the idea so much Another World was a very enjoyable and nice adventure game wit' an exciting storyline. If you would re-create its story in Doom, that'd be truly awesome. I would like to point out a few things, however.
- Some of the riddles and puzzles in Another World were quite illogical. Make sure you'll at least give some hints or clues.
- The hard-coded stuff will be hard to make (like, hanging on the vine)
- Will involve a vehicle level, and thus, at least 4-5 different weapons (the arena scene wit' the juggernaut)
- The pistol is overpowered, I say make its firepower less lethal, and try to implement Doom weapons as alien weapons instead. Another World's system was one-hit death, that'd certainly not work in Doom.
- You'll need to create many environmental hazards, like stalagmites, falling stones, steamchuffs and of course,fall damage
- Destructible walls and some destructible doors
- Some aliens must also have carpet bombs to throw
- Those creatures in the caverns should be 3D-models as you'll actually have to look up and down to notice'em and they look fugly as sprites when you do.

All in all, if you wish to recreate Another World, it'll be a TON of work, but its popularity will surely skyrocket!

[Josh771]

I like the idea so much Another World was a very enjoyable and nice adventure game wit' an exciting storyline. If you would re-create its story in Doom, that'd be truly awesome. I would like to point out a few things, however.
- Some of the riddles and puzzles in Another World were quite illogical. Make sure you'll at least give some hints or clues.
- The hard-coded stuff will be hard to make (like, hanging on the vine)
- Will involve a vehicle level, and thus, at least 4-5 different weapons (the arena scene wit' the juggernaut)
- The pistol is overpowered, I say make its firepower less lethal, and try to implement Doom weapons as alien weapons instead. Another World's system was one-hit death, that'd certainly not work in Doom.
- You'll need to create many environmental hazards, like stalagmites, falling stones, steamchuffs and of course,fall damage
- Destructible walls and some destructible doors
- Some aliens must also have carpet bombs to throw
- Those creatures in the caverns should be 3D-models as you'll actually have to look up and down to notice'em and they look fugly as sprites when you do.

All in all, if you wish to recreate Another World, it'll be a TON of work, but its popularity will surely skyrocket!

That's quite a laundry list of things to do; frankly, I don't know if I'm up for it without some considerable help from others.

On your point about the overpowered pistol, I dunno. I actually like the way the one-hit kill shenanigans are playing out right now, as I've now got the former humans using shields and firing lasers. I think I'd be straying too much from the feel of Another World if either monsters or the player took more than one shot to kill. Perhaps I can make it less overpowered by forcing the player to pause every time he shoots, since you couldn't run-n-gun in Another World.

The carpet bombs are a definite must if I ever have a finished sprite set for the aliens.

In other news, I've just uploaded the latest version of this. Zombiemen, shotgun guys, and chaingun guys all fire lasers and place shields now. The shotgun guy has a slight chance to fire a charged shot at you, and the chaingun guy has an even greater chance to do so.

[Reactor]

Well, Another World was just like that...it focuses heavily on environmental hazards and one-shot kills, whilst Doom doesn't really have environmental hazards apart from oozing pools of turd, and most characters will take tremendous damage to kill. One-hit deaths would be plausible, and Doomified Another World would also be easier since you can save whenever you wish. One-hit kills would definitively work at falling stones, stalagmites, and those creatures inside the caverns - if they catch you, they chew you up for good. That big black lion-like monster should also be lethal, but the maggots with the venomous stingers aren't.

Using zombiemen and shotgun guys is a neat idea, I remember at the start, the aliens also carry rifles. Later, they all carry pistols. If I were you, I'd also add a few automated turret guns which also shoot lasers, and they'd require a megablast to destroy.
In this mod, it's good to actually see how many shots you have left. In the original game, it was damn annoying that you can't see how much energy left in yer pistol.

I see what I can assist you with...I have animated rocks which'd work nicely as falling stones, and sound effects.

[Josh771]

If I were you, I'd also add a few automated turret guns which also shoot lasers, and they'd require a megablast to destroy.

Sounds interesting. I might be able to add that, though I'm not sure which monster I'd replace with it. Custom maps would be in order; I need a good texture pack full of grey-blue rocks, stones, and metals. As for those little slug fellas, I already thought I could have those rarely replace health or armor bonuses, so that every now and then you've got a little venomous slug wandering in a room.

In this mod, it's good to actually see how many shots you have left. In the original game, it was damn annoying that you can't see how much energy left in yer pistol.

Yeah, I haven't implemented any kind of ammunition here. This pistol just fires forever, which is kind of necessary unless I had maps with chargers in them. I'd rather not use ammo pickups -- just feels out of place with Another World.

I see what I can assist you with...I have animated rocks which'd work nicely as falling stones, and sound effects.

Well, that's a start. Big factors here are going to be monster sprites, which I haven't got the confidence to rotate, and textures/artwork in general. My spriting skills, while not the worst, are not exactly fantastic. I'm sure I can draw up one of those stinger slugs, though.

Right now, I'm just taking things easy with this, but I appreciate your enthusiasm; I think I'd like as well as you to see this thing become a reality. It'd be really neat to make a mapset resembling the environments from Another World and to script the thing all the way through with its appropriate story and puzzles, but it's a huge task that I'd originally not even planned on.

Basically, I'm fine with mapping and coding, but sprites aren't necessarily my strong point and I'm going to need a lot of artwork to make something like this. Until then, I'm going to just make a little gameplay mod out of this.

EDIT: I've just uploaded another tweak! The player can no longer move and charge his pistol at the same time. I'm not so sure about this one, I'll have to play with it some more. The biggest implication here is that you must place shields in an open area before you can safely attempt to use a charged shot; you can't simply charge it and turn the corner anymore.

[Reactor]

Enthusiasm is limitless, as I really like that game, and even its remake Yuh, monster sprites will be a real btch. Shotgun guys might be a good start, as they're bald and their dress is somewhat similar (though they STILL require significant sprite editing). As for hooded aliens at the start, you could use the acolyte from Blood with black cloak.

The huge black beast can be created by recoloring that four-legged M&M monster, I forgot its name. Its size is big enough, as the original Demon is a tad small. Of course, until you have the enemies you wish, you can just replace'em with Demons. As for turrets, well, you just have to code that enemy, as Doom doesn't feature static enemies originally, apart from the Boss-Brain

What I'm not sure about is how can you make your alien buddy following you and do the things he did in the original game. That'll require tremendous amounts of heavy AI scripting. (in return, the vehicle level will be much easier as you don't actually need to move around with the juggernaut).

All in all, this mod/TC will be truly a fine idea I support it!

[Josh771]

Little mostly-aesthetic update: gave the pistol brightmaps and a properly lit muzzleflash. Reduced explosive radii of rockets and explosive barrels. Added custom skill levels.

EDIT: Updated some more. Shields are now placed closer to you (more accurately) and have 50% more particles. They are also slightly narrower. All in all, placing a single shield should buy you more protection than before but should be destructible enough that you don't end up having endless shield battles with distant foes. Just make sure you shoot faster than them.

[Gez]

This little mod is very timely because, for this weekend, GOG has a promotion on French games and among other titles, Another World is 70% off. (You can also get LBA for free.)

[Josh771]

Another update! I've made the AI much more difficult to deal with. Zombies now drop shields anytime they see you after breaking LOS. They also do not wander away from behind the shield unless you break LOS. Also, shotgunners and chaingunners will now retaliate with charged shots if you charge your pistol all the way up.