I've seen the topic come up a few times about how mappers keep organized while making nonlinear doom maps, so I figured I'd share some of my layout scribblings I've made over the years. I'm a fan of drawing arrows and jotting down notes onto a screenshot of the layout while brainstorming routes the player might take through the level, generally after I have a basic outline of the map but before I've committed to any proper detailing. Examples:
FCFF MAP01:
FCFF MAP06:
WORMWOOD MAP02:
WORMWOOD_EU MAP04:
MAGNOLIA MAP31:
MAGNOLIA MAP03:
WORMWOOD ]|[ MAP03:
Hi, could you tell me more about your mapping process? For instance, do you usually have gameplay in mind first or do you simply draw shapes first? Do you usually adjust sector heights in the middle of drawing layouts or after it? I'm asking this because I'm having a lot of troubles building more complex layouts. I often need to do tons of adjustments afterwards and the results don't really satisfy me much. Thanks.
Greetings. It varies from map to map so it doesn't feel like something I could summarize as a single process, but when it comes to the big nonlinear things I've made like magnolia_03 or wormwood3_03 I generally start by vomiting out a good amount of lines and shapes just to get some raw material to work with. Sometimes the shapes are designed to accommodate specific gameplay ideas, sometimes just completely random shapes that were fun to draw. After that I spend a bit of time organizing the shapes together into a single object, and then building on them once inspiration for how a player will progress through the space presents itself. A few years back I wrote a brief post on doomworld describing magnolia_03 in a bit more detail: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/106679/?tab=comments#comment-1998716
Hope this helps!
Always been curious, as someone working on my own wad atm. What’s your viewpoints on how secret’s should be implemented in maps. I realize Magnolia was more so intended to troll Hmp maxers really. But outside that, what are your views/opinions?