https://jp.itch.io/doom-marked-proto
The readme included in that ZIP explains it pretty well:
Yesterday I streamed some gameplay and discussion of this prototype. It's long and rambly, and I talk with some of the stream viewers about various design topics. At around 19:28 in I jump into MAP16 which is a bit more chaotic and interesting than the first few maps. At 47:41 I show my solution for beating MAP30. At 49:20 I talk about the story concept.
In "The Marked" you play as a fallen Arch-Vile, cast out of Hell by a power struggle and stripped of your powers.
You're completely without any direct attack capability, but as one of Hell's former generals you can manipulate and command its minions, gradually reclaiming its armies for yourself.
Designed to work with any vanilla Doom level. Play through Ultimate Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom's campaigns for a parallel story chronicling your quest for revenge.
---
Abilities - each # key selects:
(1) Wraithform: Become temporarily spectral, allowing you to move through enemies and objects. Good for when you're boxed in or a monster is blocking a tight corridor. Charge (shown in purple on HUD) refills slowly.
(2) Reflect: Project a shield that reflects enemy projectiles back at them. Charge (shown in red on the HUD) refills slowly.
(3) Enrage (red): Any monster hit by this projectile will attack its closest comrade. The same monster can't be Enraged twice.
(4) Distract (green): Projectile creates a phantom image of the hated Hellwalker that all nearby enemies will attack immediately. Dissipates after a short time.
(5) Raise (gold): Your old familiar resurrect ability, restored. Raise fallen monsters to fight for you.
(6) Bind (blue): Holds a monster in place for a short time and prevent it from attacking. Bound enemies still take damage.
You start with Wraithform, Reflect, and Enrage; the other three abilities must be found in the world.
---
Prototype caveats:
This is a VERY rough build with placeholder visuals and many bugs, offered mainly for concept and design feedback. See my TODO list inside the PK3 for the current roadmap.
This requires a relatively current build of ZDoom/GZDoom.
The floating skull indicators that show up on any monster who's Enraged, Bound, or Risen all show up at the same height, which means for taller monsters like Revenants they'll be partly submerged in their bodies.
I haven't done a custom HUD yet so you'll want to use the "Alternate HUD" to see your mana counts for the 4 abilities that require it.
I'm posting this here now because the idea is still forming and I wanted to see what you experienced Doomers thought of it. Right now it feels fun to me in a way that's very different from vanilla Doom's gun-tastic glory (or any of dozens of amazing weapon/gameplay mods out there), but I'm biased.
I think it's probably cool enough to dress up with proper art, sound, HUD, etc, once the design is finalized. If any kickass sprite or audio artists are interested in providing assets, let me know.
Thanks to #zdoom IRC for help and teaching on many DECORATE matters. Thanks to Kinsie and various Realm667 mods for examples of how to do various things.
Here's my current list of "design ideas to consider":
- monster summoning - would feel hella cool, how to give that ability without it becoming too OP and/or complicated?
- "grab" friendly monster pokemon-style, despawns it (probably trigger its death script), becomes an inventory item you can re-deploy into the world elsewhere (even on another level)
- keep players from turtling or crawling through levels in a boring conservative way
- raised monsters become hostile again after a while?
- does weapon/ammo paradigm suck for this? maybe make all abilities cooldown-based instead of ammo-based?
- downside: even less incentive to find secrets / caches
