WAD map01 preference - trial by fire or gradual ramp in diff

Hard to say now that I've participated in playtesting DBP maps, I've really come to enjoy breathers as they encourage you to playtest more, as opposed to hard stuff, which often inclines you to catch a break from testing. And when you do both back-to-back, you are like "well, I should really think if I am going to make effort to test another one" and then like "oh my, testing it is such a joy, I shouldn't have delayed that! If only I knew ahead of time how much fun it will be!"

But for my pre-DBP self, the answer was "trial by fire", indeed. Because when I am searching for a set to play, I want to estimate whether it is my thing or not, so I prefer that first map reveals what kind of set I am playing so I can either stick to it or choose another. When the set starts easy and then ramps up, I often feel betrayed, because I thought I was playing "the thing" and enjoyed it, and think I've found the right kind of set, only for it to show its true face in the very next map past the one I considered it to be my "thing", and leave with such hard feelings I want to punch a stone wall. Also, I should say that at the time I often worked overtime, and almost always went to play doom with the purpose to relax and leave behind the hard feelings that arose from work, and was definitely not intending to test my skill and definitely not challenge myself. It is usually on vacations that I played slaughtermaps and such.

My experience as a map maker is not much, but I should say that it is good to be flexible. In my personal project, I think, I will go for "trial by fire" method, but for DBPs, as they can be edited by project managers, the best thing to me seems is not going hard on controlling player experience, for such a short deadline you are bound to not have time to perfect gameplay. A curve is justified as an approach that lets you keep sanity, and also as a chance that some players will be able to try the theme without necessary going to the very end. It is actually hard to make a proper "trial by fire" that ensures that players who survived it are bound not to be disappointed with the following maps. Sunder managed to have the best of both worlds: a trial by fire start (for sure there are enough players who are detracted by the very first map) and also a difficulty curve throughout the levels.

basically what cuppy said. Plus generally if you get fucked in map01 you'll assume it's going to get even worse as it goes along which can discourage continuing with the wad.

I like when the difficulty has a gradual difficulty curve that increases as you progress in theory(!) However I think marriagecounselor is bringing up a good point of contention. There are plenty times, particularly in community projects, where the early maps set up false expectations for what the rest of the wad will play like. A lot of community wads have really easy maps for the first 5 maps or so, and then afterwards start to get really rugged gameplay wise, finishing with some crazy-murderous and unfairly hard slaughter maps that don't feel like they belong.

I also like that @vigilantdoomer is making the reminder that there are a shocking number of doom fans that actively play but have little to no engagement with the community. There is a bit of an oversaturation of new challenge maps, which is why more recently I tend to give my maps double the health and ammo I normally would at the level of difficulty I would play them in.

This is me!
A lot of times I just want to sightsee, appreciate the geometry.
I'll tell y'all the truth: most DBPs I'm playing on invincible.
Yeah, I'm a pussy 😂

I don't mind what size MAP01 is, it doesn't mean anything regarding quality and length for future maps, some of the most popular wads have inconsistently sized MAP01s, so a general audience isn't at risk regarding MAP01s.

Ancient Aliens has a short but tough map, with demanding knowledge of the cyber.
Alien Vendetta has one of the most confusing MAP01s ever, I couldn't beat it when I first started playing custom Doom maps.
The Scythe series has very short and easy MAP01s, yet it's as popular as Alien Vendetta.

Map 01 should always be simple, easy, but introducing key concepts you plan on reusing throughout the wad. Like Lemmings, but less squishy small things.

Uni thats a really cool concept I want to explore too! A good model for this imo is the design of MAP01 for No Rest for the Living. Its mostly imps, zombies and pinky demons with a couple tough monsters in it, but if you crack open the secret paths you start bringing in revenants and pain elementals into the main non-secret layout and the map becomes much larger.

Id definitely like to check out your map if/when its finished!