Doom: The Devil's Tattoo - Action Shooter vs. Gothic Horror

[CJacobsSA]

Hello! My name is CJacobs and I'm a fairly recent addition to the Doom modding community. I started making maps back in June-ish, and this is my very first actual release. The Devil's Tattoo will be an eerie, Southern Gothic-inspired trip to the depths of hell. Part fast-paced Doom action, part slow-paced horror action, it'll thrill you from start to finish. Or at least, that's the goal.

Includes 6 totally custom-made new weapons!

The first and second maps are available right now! It will eventually have 12 maps and a couple secret ones- at least, that's what I have planned at the moment. The final release will probably restructure a few things, this is mostly to demonstrate the general speed of the campaign as well as its aesthetic and some of its gameplay elements.

Please let me know what you think! I'm still a relative novice, so I have a lot of room to learn and grow, so I welcome your reactions and feedback.









More screenshots will be forthcoming as I make more maps.



NOTE: This was made for and tested in the latest 2.0 release of GZDoom. If you use another port to play this, it may look weird or be totally broken. Sorry!

CAMPAIGN DEMO MAP: THE MANOR
[DROPBOX LINK] Manor Demo.rar, 20 MB - Version 0.0.4.0 (10/25)

CHANGELOG:

0.0.4.0 - Too Old To Die Young - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQNFcYvILJE
-------

+ IMPLEMENTED THE SECOND LEVEL: BOOKENDS
+ The golden Revolver now fires a custom exploding bulletpuff so that it is a hitscan weapon again (Thanks, The Kins)
+ Added a bunch of decoration to the first level
+ Added more depth to the outside of the mansion and some more grass stuff
+ The Rocket Launcher's firing corkscrew is still messed up, I was unable to figure out how to fix it. I'll mess around with it more!



Sound
Tango Gameworks - Weapon Sounds (from The Evil Within)

Music
Scattle, "Remorse" - MAP01, The Manor
Carpenter Brut, "Roller Mobster" - MAP01, The Manor
LiPi Sound, "Abyss" - MAP02, Bookends

Graphics
Unknown Doom Forum User (Sorry!) - Revolver Pickup Sprite Base
Bloody Acid - Double-Shotgun Pickup Sprite Base
Graaicko - Machine Gun & Rocket Launcher Pickup Sprite Base
Gothic Team - Gothic Texture Pack
Abbuw - Horizontal Wood Texture
Aguares - Tile Floor Texture
NiGHTMARE - Several Hell-Themed Textures
Zrrion the insect & Mr.Enchanter - Base/Stone Textures

Scripts
Ghastly_Dragon, Tormentor667 - Rain Simple Script
Gez - Arena enemy spawn script fix

[Boomstick]

I enjoyed the first level way more than I should've - great mod so far. You might wanna fix the sprites ASAP though.

[Kinsie]

This is good fun so far! Some nice encounter design.

One thought so far, though: Locked doors should always have some sort of visual indicator as to what key opens them. The Id maps use the DOORRED/BLU/YEL textures on the walls around locked doors, but this doesn't mean that's the only way: custom door textures or using the coloured torch props are other options.

[CJacobsSA]

I enjoyed the first level way more than I should've - great mod so far. You might wanna fix the sprites ASAP though.

Thanks! Glad you liked it! What do you mean about the sprites, though? Is something actually broken, or are you talking about my gun sprites? Because if it's the latter, don't worry, adding some depth to them is on my to-do list.

edit: Ohhh, I think I know what you mean. The sprites were designed with the default hud in mind, so they probably don't go all the way down the screen if you're using the alternate hud. I'll make sure to extend Doomguy's stubby arms a bit for future updates.

Any other advice on how I can improve the gun sprites is welcome, by the way, I'm not much of an artist so I'll take any comments about them to heart.

This is good fun so far! Some nice encounter design.

One thought so far, though: Locked doors should always have some sort of visual indicator as to what key opens them. The Id maps use the DOORRED/BLU/YEL textures on the walls around locked doors, but this doesn't mean that's the only way: custom door textures or using the coloured torch props are other options.

Yeah, I was considering doing what I did for the big red key door and put a doorred/etc texture in the doorframe, but it kinda clashed with the aesthetic a bit. Customizing the doors themselves is a better idea, I'll try that out.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Part fast-paced Doom action, part slow-paced horror action

So, Painkiller?

[Gez]

The bottom of the water areas shouldn't use the water texture, it just looks weird if your eyes can go under the surface (crouch in the deepest part of the blue key area, or just dive into the pit behind the red door).

The gold revolver arena fight kind of wore out its welcome I felt. Also the door didn't open at the end. Looking at the script, I think the problem is that the thing that was supposed to spawn on spot 150 didn't spawn? I don't actually see a spot with tag 150... And please use the MT_ constants when you spawn things by their spawn number.

Code: Select all

	Thing_SpawnFacing(150, 1, 0, 102);
	SetMusic("*", 0);
	Thing_SetSpecial(102, ACS_Execute, 11, 0, 0);

My advice: use a real ACS spawn function such as [wiki]SpawnSpotFacing[/wiki], and get their return value.

Take something like this:

Code: Select all

	int bozo = 0;
	do 
	{
		delay(35);
		bozo = SpawnSpotFacing("ShotgunGuy", 150, 102);
	} while (bozo == 0);
	SetMusic("*", 0);
	Thing_SetSpecial(102, ACS_Execute, 11, 0, 0);

This way, the script won't proceed until it has spawned the bozo. If there's something that blocks the spot and prevents spawning (a monster or the player) then it'll just wait and try again. (Note the order: I put the delay before the spawn instruction, so that once it does spawn, it gets the special immediately. If the delay was after the spawn instruction, there could be a risk that a quick enough player would kill the bozo before it gets its special associated, and get stuck.)

[ReX]

I like the color theme: wood & red carpeting

One minor point: Your original post mentioned "depths of hell", so I assumed the skies would be those of the latter levels of DooM. Still, it all looks good.

[CJacobsSA]

The bottom of the water areas shouldn't use the water texture, it just looks weird if your eyes can go under the surface (crouch in the deepest part of the blue key area, or just dive into the pit behind the red door).

The gold revolver arena fight kind of wore out its welcome I felt. Also the door didn't open at the end. Looking at the script, I think the problem is that the thing that was supposed to spawn on spot 150 didn't spawn? I don't actually see a spot with tag 150... And please use the MT_ constants when you spawn things by their spawn number.

Code: Select all

	Thing_SpawnFacing(150, 1, 0, 102);
	SetMusic("*", 0);
	Thing_SetSpecial(102, ACS_Execute, 11, 0, 0);

My advice: use a real ACS spawn function such as [wiki]SpawnSpotFacing[/wiki], and get their return value.

Take something like this:

Code: Select all

	int bozo = 0;
	do 
	{
		delay(35);
		bozo = SpawnSpotFacing("ShotgunGuy", 150, 102);
	} while (bozo == 0);
	SetMusic("*", 0);
	Thing_SetSpecial(102, ACS_Execute, 11, 0, 0);

This way, the script won't proceed until it has spawned the bozo. If there's something that blocks the spot and prevents spawning (a monster or the player) then it'll just wait and try again. (Note the order: I put the delay before the spawn instruction, so that once it does spawn, it gets the special immediately. If the delay was after the spawn instruction, there could be a risk that a quick enough player would kill the bozo before it gets its special associated, and get stuck.)

Ahh, good idea, thank you. I'll add this to my scripts! As for feeling like the event goes on a bit too long, yeah I'm inclined to agree with you. I might edit the song a bit so that one of the 'verses' is shorter or removed and change the length of the event to match.

edit: And, yeah, the water area's textures being weird is because I had no idea where swimmable water took its textures from. Now that I know I'll go back in and fix that. :v

I like the color theme: wood & red carpeting

One minor point: Your original post mentioned "depths of hell", so I assumed the skies would be those of the latter levels of DooM. Still, it all looks good.

Glad you like the aesthetic! I really like the wood texture set even if it is a bit limiting, future levels probably will incorporate more custom textures so as to keep things fresh. We're not in the depths of hell yet! It's gonna take a while before you get there.

Part fast-paced Doom action, part slow-paced horror action

So, Painkiller?

That is one of my influences, yeah! Love that game.

[CJacobsSA]

I've released an update! Version 0.0.1.0 is now downloadable from the OP.

CHANGELOG:

+ Changed floor texture in underwater segments to not be a water texture
+ Added an extra script function to ensure the last enemy in the arena segment spawns (Thanks, Gez)
+ Extended Doomguy's arms a bit so that the sprites go all the way down the screen if you're using the alt hud
+ A couple teeny tiny linedef rearrangements to prevent rendering errors in the main lobby of the manor

I'm working on making custom doors for the ones that have key locks as per The Kins' suggestion, so that'll be in the next update.

[CJacobsSA]

Another update has been released! Check the OP for a fresh download.

CHANGELOG:

0.0.2.0 - Papillon, Editors
-------

+ Added some vines to the side of the mansion for flavor
+ Added color-specific doors to the manor lobby (Thanks for the suggestion, The Kins)
+ Added a custom flat for the underside of doors
+ Added TEXTURES, ANIMDEFS lumps and relevant folders
+ More tweaks to the gun animations so they're a bit smoother looking
+ Try typing IDFA to see the rest of the weapons if you haven't!

[Mav3rick]

Hey man, i played and is very good level, and since is a WIP, the few tips i can provide are

1.. more variety, the outside need more trees, some gargoyles too, some candles will no be bad, also the grass is most of the time the same, even that manor will be perfect at nite with some nice light efects it will be really creepy/spooky
2.. all is too brown, need to get some other textures and even more sprite to fill the emptyness and lack of colors, some dead bodies here and there, some spider web here and there, even you can make some parts of the manor like old old ones with broken stuff
3.. the pistol feel very slow and the machine gun too maybe raise a little their speed?
4.. weapon sprite are good but they seem to have a odd slow response when they need to shoot
5.. the SSG have a slow fire rate and i mean really slow, the rocket launcher shot rockets few inchs to the left of the sprite (it center yet the rocket apears to the left) and the other pistol after been fired it have a little lower move

[CJacobsSA]

Thanks for the feedback! Generally for the weapons I wanted to use them to control the pacing of fights a bit, so they all fire slightly slower than vanilla Doom's weapons (except for the shotgun). I think I might speed the revolver up just a bit, just to make the early section of the map go a bit faster, since once the player gets their hands on the gold one it's no longer usable anyway.

And yeah, I agree that the wood texture set is a bit uniform in color. I'll try adding some of the stuff you suggested to spruce it up a bit.

edit: And as for the RL bug you mentioned, I think I can solve it preeetty easily maybe. The rocket projectiles have a special corkscrew kinda thing on them so they spin in flight, but that results in them coming out a bit left of the barrel. So I'll just... move them to the right a bit! :v

[Gez]

For bringing in notes of color and the locked door textures, you could look into using the PANBLUE/PANRED textures. Since there's no PANYEL stock texture, here's one:


Also, there was a Doomworld thread about mansion-themed maps. You can take a look at it for inspiration. I recommend Derceto and Braham Manor (Braham is for Vavoom, an old and dead port, but it should work okay in GZDoom).

[CJacobsSA]

Man, some of those are very impressive. I suddenly feel very amateurish! I'll definitely have to take some notes on some of these. You only see the outside of the manor for a couple minutes at best but it should certainly look impressive and imposing. I'll also probably add more detail to the inside as well.

[Gez]

A couple of issues I've noticed in the latest version:

Odd texture alignment: the panels wallpaper around the angles.


The problem here should be self-evident: