Pseudo-Community Project (Establishing details)

rofl at the vote distribution.

I'm working on a Doomer Boards community project series I think people are going to really like. I'm hoping to have it ready to announce by the new year. In my experience, community projects need some really sturdy structure and rules to motivate people into wanting to map for it (you can blame all the failed and abandoned community projects that wasted so many good mappers' time for the cynicism)

Maybe we could have a merger and co-organize it together? I could definitely use your help. I make textures and I'm working on some texture resources for the whole thing. Your fire & ice style sounds like it could be really cool. I could definitely make a set that capitalizes that theme.

whee i did it again.

Okay, so I had a couple of other possible ideas
What's even the stance of like-named wads? I know there's unofficial sequels and followups to pre-existing wads, but can we still call one of our projects? There's a couple I'd like to follow up with or play around with the idea of.

Most of our maps seem to be going for a infested/twisted/warped techbase of some descriptor or a fleshy forest.

Since we're specifically calling out Hellstar Remina, I've also expanded it's consideration to -any- Junji Ito stylized map. So that could be quite fun.

I think I'm getting pretty close to booting up the Official Doomer Boards community project thing. The tedious work is about 75% done, from here the project will basically run itself. I'll discuss it in more detail here so other people can weigh in with some suggestions or procedural changes that work better for them.

OFFICIAL DOOMER BOARDS TEAM COMMUNITY PROJECT

(sorry its a lot of reading - it will make more sense as we're doing it)

Ok so I've been taking note of what mappers seem to want to participate in, and what they actually gravitate to. My idea for a Doomer Boards community project lifts a lot of stuff from other popular community mapping events, such as Community Chest, 32in24, speedmapping compilations, and Jimmy's The Joy of Mapping. I figure a lot of mappers want the inclusivity and structure of a community project, the social gathering and low commitment of speedmapping, and serial style of being able to participate in multiple iterations of the same thing at times that are convenient for each person that 32in24 provides. They also want to learn and have fun with the process, and have the guidance of a present and motivated manager to put the whole thing together like the Joy of Mapping does. Most importantly, the completed project should be fun, consistent, and easily palatable to play, and I'm fairly sure I know how to get us there.

I belive being a good mapper is like being a good athlete. You have to keep practicing and exercising to stay good at it, so I want this thing to be thought of like a mapping gym so people can practice their skills while getting immediate and direct feedback. They can apply it to this fast and small project that will still be fun for players to play, and the mappers can take away the skills they develop to apply to their own personal projects later on.

1.) Texture Pack
2.) Part 1
3.) Part 2
4.) Part 3
5.) Final Testing

1.) This project is a recurring monthly or bi-weekly speedmapping/teambuilding event. First, each iteration of the project will have a resource pack, which will be a focused collection of similar textures and graphics to be used in conjunction with stock Doom 2 resources. It's going to be much smaller and less complicated than something like cc4-tex. To keep the whole project consistent, it is preferred that you use some of them in your map, but use them with stock Doom 2 textures too (there will rarely be enough to use exclusively). There will also be an image preview of what's in store so you can see how stuff looks together. Ideally, the finished project should have the unified feel of something like Tangerine Nightmare. Included with the resource pack will be a set of 10 midi music tracks you can pick from.

2.) On an assigned date or date range, (I'm thinking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday?) everyone gathers in a discord chat to talk and map with each other. The purpose is to simply realize an idea for the map. Focus on developing the layout, choreographing a gameplay event, or designing some sort of puzzle. The map is not supposed to be finished, or even playable by the end of the date. We just want something that's very small, and skin and bones so that it is easy to review. When you're ready to share your map, post your map in the thread with two screenshots, one in game, and one of the overhead editor view. Included with your post, you will review your own map. I think I'll make a little writing template or a questionairre to use. Essentially you'll describe the idea of your map, what you like about it, and anything you felt insecure about while you made it. It's important that you're willing to elaborate on these things the best you can. It will benefit you for Part 2, and potentially disqualify your map from the project later on if you don't display a clear and humble interest in developing your skills and helping the project as a whole.

I will be working on my own map prior to the assigned date and posting screenshots and a log of my work in progress so people can follow my lead.

3.) On a separate assigned date, we will gather together in the discord for a testing phase. Everyone who has made a map will have to post a review in the thread of at least one other map. Use the mapper's self-review as a template to fuel your response so you can address any questions or concerns the mapper has about their own map. It's important that each mapper helps with this, even if you can't think of much to write. Your own map can be disqualified from the project if you don't make an effort to participate in the testing process. I don't want to be out there to cut maps out of the project, but to reduce clutter in the mapset, it's important for everyone involved that all mappers make a concerted effort to help each other and make the project good. The date range for the testing process will be pretty lenient, and I'll use fair discretion to accept valid excuses if you absolutely cannot get to a computer to test maps with during the time. I will be participating pretty heavily in the testing process and offering my own reviews of people's maps as well.

4.) On a third assined date, we will gather in the discord chat and work on our maps once more with the intention of finishing them. Work on your map based on the review your map received, and try to get your map in a finished and completed state. Make sure all your linedef triggers and exits work, all your walls are textured and aligned, your monsters, weapons, health/ammunition is distributed fairly etc. and chat with the people who reviewed your map to get more detailed feedback on their review so you can make your map the best it can be. Once your map is finished you can post your link and a screenshot if you're nice.

5.) The last part will be a date range where we do some quick clean up and error testing of each other's maps. Post lists of bugs and errors you find with other people's maps so that the mappers can release hotfixes of their maps. We can also discuss the map order for the finished episode, and any other stuff that comes into question. When the date range is up, I'll compile the whole thing together and release it as a finished episode.

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At this time I'll leave this open to discussion, if anyone wants to comment on the structure/rules of this thing. For deciding on what texture pack to use, I think I'll arbitrarily pick a texture set for the first iteration of this project. Once we're ready for the next project, I'll offer some suggestions of texture sets I've already made and we can vote on it, or preferably let a random team member (i.e. whoever's map lands in the MAP02 slot) decide from the selection I provide.

Here's some themes I have that are pretty much done to give people an idea:

Black/Gray underwater gothic thing
Marble temples on top of mountains
Fire and ice (The icy + hematite theme Sarais suggested above)
Glowing green flesh
Orange/Gold/Red mars base
Alien Vendetta Beast Island
Hell Revealed 3
Dark Plutonia

I like that there's solid direction, some serious thought and a supplied texture pack here. I'll have to see how it works in practice, but I can only assume that with three separate date ranges I'd need to put in an appearance for, I'd flunk out at some point. Also, how mandatory would the discord participation be?

Saying that, due to my rather fluid situation at the moment, I have no idea what my availability is like for the next few months, so I'm content to be planned without.

Thanks for the input. I'll have to be considerate of people's free time. I too, have an infrequent Dooming schedule. I'd be happy to tweak it so that it's a little more realistic. I'm caught between a balance of offering newer mappers the immediate feedback and social setting of a discord channel to make mapping fun and free from confusion and anxieties, and giving more experienced mappers their independence. I'd like it if I could count on at least a few veteran mappers to be present while the project is in progress. I'm not really sure how to secure that though.

On a side note, here's another idea I thought of that I'm willing to try. What do you guys think about a perks system? Let's say members start in the project bound to certain rules:

1. You don't get to name your map
2. No custom music
3. The mapslot you land in is random
4. etc.

And by doing certain favors for the project, like reviewing x amount of maps, get y amount of likes for your submitted map, participating in three sessions in a row, or something to that effect, you can earn perks that make you exempt from one of those rules. Basically by being a helpful member to the project, you can earn certain creative design freedoms. Does that sound cool?

It could probably work to some extent if we weren't too restrictive

that pic in particular is pretty badass.  the scene falls in line with Sunder-style stuff.

On that note; we should have actual proper tutors who are willing to teach and work directly with people, not just people who copy-paste a link to the wiki. Like we didn't already go do that before asking in the first place? Come on guys, give us some credit at least. Sheesh. :-S