Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2017 15:45:13 GMT -5
What are your preferences when it comes to map and wad names? Do you have any favorites?
I care about them a lot and try to think of new ones often. One of my main sources of inspiration is names of songs, movies, and so on. It's often difficult to tell whether something sounds good or not, but since someone else used it it must be OK, right? Sometimes I also change them a bit. For example, there was Kentucky Fried Movie, so why not make Kentucky Fried Wad? Funny and it works.
But I think it's important to be extremely careful with humor. I find it hard to get excited about 32in24 or many of Doomworld speedmapping sessions because for some reason people there like using really jokey titles that make it look like they don't take their own creations seriously at all. That can be a turnoff for me. BTSX suffers from this at times, but it has some great ones as well.
For some reason I'm strongly attracted to names that consist of just two or, especially, one word. I feel like there is something elegant about them that is lost in longer titles. And somehow the simplicity doesn't necessarily make them boring. Caged, Genesis, or Tombstone from Plutonia still sound cool to me.
I really like Wrath of Man from TVR, The Train is Approaching from KS, and Dark Apparition.
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TOS
You're trying to say you like DOS better than me, right?
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Post by TOS on Nov 24, 2017 18:23:04 GMT -5
I usually like to name my wads based on the content within the wad...or after song titles.
Example...Doom: Gore Prisons.
I named it that because the theme of the wad is progression (each map will introduce a new monster type), and if you rearrange the letters in "Progression", you can spell Gore Prisons. Futhermore, in the wad you will find an extra heavy emphasis on gory decoration. The first map of this wad is a prison I called "Guilty as Hell", which is a song by Black Sabbath.
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joe-ilya
Hey, Ron! Can we say 'fuck' in the game?
a simple word, a simple turd
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Post by joe-ilya on Nov 24, 2017 20:00:15 GMT -5
Both long and short map titles can be elegant, I find it clever when an entire sentence fits the map, like MAP29 of Community Chest 3 (For We Are Many).
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deathevokation
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Post by deathevokation on Nov 24, 2017 22:33:07 GMT -5
I really liked the map name for what was going to be my first hellish map; "Tormented Flesh on the Mount of Crucifixion".. beyond edgy, haha.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2017 4:20:59 GMT -5
I'm in the camp that uses the odd song title for maps/WADs (White Light and Blood Red come to mind). Otherwise I don't think my naming has a scheme. I've used single words, lengthy titles, vague location descriptors and more abstract names. Series or multiple map WADs tend to follow some sort of theme, but a lot of the time it's just whatever "fits".
To be honest, I'm not sure that naming actually matters to more people than the author. We've all played some sort of "base.wad", or stuff like KBOOM# where it's just the author labelling their work, to things like "Neith", which ties in with the (tongue-in-cheek) story and then the outright jokes, like most of the aforementioned speed map names.
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Post by Olroda on Nov 25, 2017 5:18:05 GMT -5
I really liked the map name for what was going to be my first hellish map; "Tormented Flesh on the Mount of Crucifixion".. beyond edgy, haha. What happened to it? With a name like that, it has to be good! |
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deathevokation
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Post by deathevokation on Nov 25, 2017 8:08:59 GMT -5
Ehh it was ok, almost every area was cool and had interesting ideas... but when I took a step back I noticed the layout was embarrassingly clumsy and linear with too much backtracking.. so I've been reworking the map into a collaboration with darkreaver for Revelations of Doom.. either it'll be a final level or the second final. I'm not sure yet.  |
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40oz
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Post by 40oz on Nov 25, 2017 13:06:16 GMT -5
I separate map names and wad titles into two different categories.
For map names, I lean on Doom 2 and The Master Levels. I like when the names either give a sense of location without being too specific, or indicate some dominating feature of the map that isn't obvious up front. I like The 'Something' names the most. Names like "The Crusher" or "The Catwalk" for example best capture the spirit of a real Doom map. Although I don't find them particularly off-putting, I'm not too fond of phrases or song lyrics as map names. Jokey map titles are okay in speedmapping events or 32in24's because they allude to the idea that the map isn't supposed to be taken very seriously. It sends mixed signals to me in a wad like BTSX for example. It says to me "yeah I don't care if you make fun of this because I'm obviously not taking this very seriously" but at the same time many of the members can write novels about how much attention went into each map and will go to the ends of the earth to defend it from criticism, so it's all very confusing to me. Lastly, puns in map names drive me crazy.
For wad titles, there are usually four qualities I like most:
1. One word titles. (Requiem, Strain, Chillax, etc.)
2. Something poetic, compound, or in a different language (Memento Mori, skepland, Eternally Yours, 3 heures d'agonie etc.)
3. Something with "Doom" in the title (Doom Resurrection, Eternal Doom, Doom32, Doom 2 Reloaded etc.)
The last thing I like I'm not really sure how to describe. I think it has to do with the actual filename of the wad. I like browsing through my archive of shovelware doom wad dumps and stumbling across a random wad title that just jumps out at me. COFFIN.WAD, SATANIC.WAD, DUNGEON1.WAD, KILLZONE.WAD, or anything of that sort. Sometimes those filenames in 8 characters or less seem to say a lot about the wad (even though 1994 wads rarely deliver on those expectations.) I don't know why but I anticipate something really cool from seeing that. I also like The Innocent Crew's abbreviations in wads like OBTIC.WAD, or SUDTIC.wad, or how Hell Revealed 2 (hr2final) and Speed of Doom (sodfinal) both have 'final' in their file name. Or Kurt Kesler's 'kmetl' series, or Malcolm Sailor's Chord series. I kinda wish I had put a bit more thought into the consistency of my wad filenames before I started mapping.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2017 13:57:21 GMT -5
I'm not really sure of the names I choose, usually I try to think of something that could be relevant to the map. I'm fine with long titles but the names of one or two words are the best and feel more iconic. Some of my favourites from non-iwads: Eternal Doom, Icarus: Alien Vanguard, Alien Vendetta (Beast Island, Toxic Touch, Misri Halek), Memento Mori 2 (Sabbath Sewer, Kings of Metal), Reverie (Stronghold Earth, Dusk Town, Cyclone Rider). Mano Laikas (by Nicolas Monti) is probably the only wad where every level has a cool name; they are very abstract, although many are obviously based on real words, but the result is that they sound like words of an unknown language.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2017 17:27:30 GMT -5
I don’t put much thought into it these days, but the right name can really add just that little bit of secret herbs and spices to the overall presentation. When I was younger though, I was going to build a megawad (in deu, ha yeah right!) and I had the theme and map names all laid out. I was going to use METALICA.WAD for the music, so the map names would be lines from the songs. Ones I can remember are “Hell Is Worth All That” “Back to the Front” “Running Blind Through Killing Fields” that sort of thing. Master of Puppets album particularly has some choice lyrical lines that would make killer map titles. But understand, if you use these ya map better be spectacular.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2017 17:53:54 GMT -5
In hindsight, I wish I'd used the ph_***** naming system for the WADs as well as the zip and text files that go on the idgames archive. Just to make sure it's all obviously mine, if nothing else.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2017 18:20:41 GMT -5
Just rembered some of the better Metallica based names: “Veins That Pump With Fear” “Hungry Violence Seeker” “Life Out of Season”
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40oz
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Post by 40oz on Nov 25, 2017 18:23:38 GMT -5
^ Sounds very cool
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TOS
You're trying to say you like DOS better than me, right?
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Post by TOS on Nov 25, 2017 23:42:26 GMT -5
Makes me want to make other Metallica themed titles...
1. The Gods Are Laughing
2. An Evil Feeling
3. Death In The Air
4. Pain Monopoly
5. Live In Fear
6. Now The World Is Gone
7. The God That Failed
Too tired to think of any more.
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xeepeep
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Post by xeepeep on Nov 26, 2017 6:44:29 GMT -5
My map titles are usually related to the plot of the map but not at all related to the map itself. E.g. "Low Memory" is actually about you being in a computer, the monsters and all that represent the nasty stuff that's taking up your computer's memory (which you need for downloading mo4r Sailor Moon hentai).
When doing random speedmaps, it's just a random collocation though. E.g. "Unexplainably Unexplorable" because that sounds kinda badass.
In serious-ass mapsets, such as BTSX, I agree that those jokey map names make the WAD even more repulsive than it already is.
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