And here it is, the first official announcement of my new project entitled “Supplice“. Some of you may already know about it since I’ve hinted at it here and there. Supplice is the project I’ve dreamed of putting together for the past few years now. It officially started on June 14th of 2009 and has undergone quite a few changes since it’s conception. As of now I have finalized almost all of my goals for the project.

Supplice will be a Boom compatible megawad with a mountainous number of features for Doom II. It will have many influences taken from the look and feel of games like Doom 64 and Quake. I’m treating the entire project as if it were a part of the Doom lineage, and as such there is a new story and other things to reflect this. There will also be a bunch of new monsters, some new weapons, a horde of new graphics, and many other changes that will help to bring about the look and atmosphere I’m shooting for. More importantly, it will be a culmination of all the mapping techniques I’ve learned since I started building maps for Doom. And I plan on having a blast putting it together.

From here on out you can look over the main project goals of Supplice as well as some possible FAQ’s I thought people might have.

Goals

• To create, from scratch, a set of 32+ maps for Doom II in Boom format for singleplayer and, possibly, COOP.
• The set will be split into 6 episodic sets of 5 maps each, with the player being killed at the end of each episode (ala Scythe II). Maps will be playable from pistol start as well as map by map.
• The main design focus of the maps will be on interesting layouts and architecture with moderate amounts of detailing. The gameplay will shift somewhere between moderate to slaughterfests and probably everything in-between.
• I’m shooting for a different atmosphere and feel from Doom for the maps; similar to Doom 64 in many aspects. To help facilitate this, there will be many new graphics, sprites, sounds, a new texture set and hopefully an entirely new soundtrack.
• There will be a number of new monsters and even some enhanced weaponry. The majority of the Doom II resources (weapons, monsters) will remain in-tact. The idea is to mix-up and add-to Doom II’s gameplay potential.

To summarize, this will be a project between a few fellow Doomers who enjoy making new content for the game. It will focus on gameplay, architecture, and visuals. It will have it’s own feel and atmosphere but at the same time will still be connected to the Doom feeling. Most of all, it will be a project that will allow me to use and put into practice what I have learned so far in regards to mapping…as well as a new learning experience. And we’re going to have fun with it!

I’m sure some of you will have questions, so I put together a FAQ. Click “Show” to open the spoiler and view the FAQ.

F.A.Q.

Show »

Once the project progresses more and has something to show, I will probably start some project threads and a WIP page so everyone can keep up with the development. Until then, any announcements regarding Supplice will be relegated to Mekworx, so please feel free to spread the word . Also be sure to check out the Supplice design page; I will be archiving all of the project information as well as screenshots there.

Got any other questions or comments? Feel free to send them!

I honestly have no idea how many people visit my site on a regular…or I should say “semi-regular” basis. Looking at the mean number of comments I get per post, it looks as though it’s not many. Although I have to say it’s more than some other blogs, and I can’t really count comments as visits. I guess it helps that I try to update and make posts on a regular base . Either way, I’ve really been itching to get the site as up-to-date with content as soon as I possibly could. I had the Design page’s template up and ready to go not so long after the site was first launched, but from that point on I haven’t touched it. The same goes for the rest of the site’s content. That is, until about a month ago.

I finally got the time and commitment to get content up and bugs fixed. I focused on getting the Design page updated first as it required the most work and time. I’m happy to report that the page is 99% complete and up-to-date! Entries are separated by personal projects and contributions I’ve made, the status of said project, and it’s release date (if it exists). There is a page for each project, and each page has some screenshots of the maps that I made for the project as well as a brief description, a download link (if available) and other bits of information pertinent to the project. Comments are enabled for the pages, so feel free to leave a comment or two! I need to go back through each page and make spelling and grammar fixes and whatnot. There are also a couple map sets that I submitted to /idgames a while back that use the wrong file name and readmes, so I need to get that fixed sometime soon. It took quite a while to get the Design page to where it is now; I had to take and upload a massive number of screenshots as well as write up a bunch of buffer text to describe each project. Not to mention I had to reorganize everything in a neat and easy to look up format. Otherwise though, it’s organized the way I wanted it and it contains just about all of the stuff I’ve released and worked on since I started Doom modding, so definitely check it out. Oh, and I have to give credit to Agent Spork since I basically stole his layout style from his site for my Design page

I focused on my new page next – the Resources page. Originally I was going to have the resources part of the Design page. Then I decided that it would make more sense and make it easier to navigate around the site contents if resources had it’s own page and sub-pages. And so, that’s what I did! At the moment, there are three sections in the Resources page; Fonts, Textures, and Everything Else. Ever since I started making font sets for Doom, certain people have asked if I planned on releasing them. Well, there ya go folks…a whole page dedicated to my releasable fonts! More fonts will come in the future once they are releasable. The Textures page should be pretty straightforward. Admittedly I haven’t really released or been known for textures packs. Right now the only pack available for download is the CR8 Quake texture pack that I converted for use in Doom a while back. I do have some other texture packs that I plan on converting eventually, and I also hope to possibly try my hand at custom textures for Doom someday. And then as for everything else…well, that’s where I’ll put up pretty much everything else! Such things will in include old sprite edits, graphics, etc that I’ve done over the years. Most of it will likely be sub-par . I haven’t gotten around to getting that page up yet since I haven’t had the time to organize all of that stuff. Anyways, I hope to be expanding and adding-to the Resources page soon.

And then there’s the new Info page. Be forewarned; it contains graphics that may startle or permanently scar a child’s mind. Heh, but this page is relatively simple and, I’d say, pretty important. You can read some bits about me, what I enjoy doing, and what my future plans are. You can also find some contact info there as well. Oh and the picture…yea. Well, I figured it would be a good idea at the time…hell if I know why now. I might update it later on with a better picture….actually, that might be an impossibility as I usually take horrible pictures. Either way, you get to see my ugly mug…so yay for that, right?

Finally, I made some bug fixes and enhancements to the theme. I’ve forgotten what most of them were now, but they were all for the better. One thing I could not figure out how to fix for the life of me was this:Click this link for great justice! I’m using a pretty hi-res, widescreen resolution on my laptop (1920×1200) but I think it should show up on any resolution screen. What I’m talking about is the image in that post, and how it cuts into the area below it. I was fixing my text wrapping on this theme when I noticed that bug. The text wrap now works as it should, but when it comes to non-text elements, I can’t seem to figure out how to make them wrap around the image correctly. Any help with this bug (pretty sure it would be CSS related) would really be appreciated. I spent hours trying to get it fixed with no luck . Otherwise, I think the theme is just about bug free as it’s going to get for the time being.

Oh wait, I almost forgot! I updated and made more of the cute little cube emots! In particular, I like how my spinny buddy came out

So yea, finally! I’m glad I got this stuff up, organized, and up to date. Honestly I was putting this post off until I got every single bit of content posted and up to date, but now I’m not sure when I’ll get that chance. And there are still some things that need fixing and adding since I first finished, but that should be relatively easy to do now that there’s an organized template. Please feel free to browse the site without too much fear of running into an empty page. I worked pretty hard on it and it would be really cool to have people dig through that stuff. And hey, let me know if you spot any bugs, spelling errors, inconsistencies….anything of that nature

I’ve been working pretty diligently on my new, technically unannounced Doom project “Supplice” for the past few days, trying to put the whole Project Vega cancellation business behind me. The project has been progressing very well and should be ready for map production relatively soon. I’m really excited to start working on it since it’s been a while since I’ve done any serious mapping. I’ve been meaning to make an official public announcement that will explain the project in further detail as well as list off the current goals, since the majority of them have been ironed out and finalized. But instead of doing that, I’m going to do one of my mundane, boring “the latest game I’m playing” reviews . Lucky you!

Oh who am I kidding? No one reads these things…oh well!

It’s no surprise that I’m generally behind the crowd when it comes to game releases and news. I don’t really consider that a bad thing though. My tardiness allows me to scope out some of the games I keep my eyes on to see if they are worth purchasing, which is usually a good thing. Half the time when I take the plunge and drop 40-60 bucks on a game as soon as it comes out, I’m disappointed in said game. And then a month later the game drops in price 10 bucks or more . So when I first saw that Sega was making a sequel to it’s DS Sonic Rush game, I was half excited and half apprehensive that the game wouldn’t be that good. The original Sonic Rush was actually an excellent Sonic game in a recent flood of very poor Sonic-related releases on other platforms over the past few years. It was the first game I purchased for my DS, and it was a good purchase indeed. Unlike the mish-mash of half-baked gameplay concepts and poor execution that littered almost every next-gen Sonic release beyond Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Rush was actually loyal to the roots of the original games. It’s fast-paced, 2D, and focuses on navigating around the levels with speed very much in mind. There are some new things here and there that are new for gameplay, but they don’t detract from the game. Such things include a storyline that’s conveyed in a similar fashion as the Adventure games, a new character that’s part of the story but plays almost exactly like Sonic, and duel screen play that makes the levels feel much more expansive than if they were delegated to a single screen. Quite an excellent game. If you own a DS and your a fan of the old school Sonic games, I definitely recommend gabbing Sonic Rush.

The sequel, entitled Sonic Rush Adventure, is a direct sequel to the first game, story wise. It was released in 2007, so it’s been pretty big gap from when the game was announced to when I actually bought the game. The gameplay mechanics from the first game are all preserved here. However, there are a number of additions and changes within the rest of the game. The story has us starting off with Sonic and Tails getting sucked into a vortex while in search of some energy signal. They awaken to find that they are on an island. From this point on, the story is driven by our hero’s attempts to find a way back home. There are a number of new characters introduced into the game, including the main antagonist of the game, Captain Whisker. He basically looks like a robotic version of Dr. Eggman. While the story is nice and all, it’s not really where your attention is going to be attracted. I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but it is fairly interesting…atleast within the confines of a Sonic game. The meat of the game, the actual gameplay, is just as solid as it’s predecessor. Level progression works a little differently though; in order for Sonic to find a way back home, they have to roam around the seas around them for clues and resources. The exploration of the sea around you is part of the gameplay. You start off with a small jetski type of craft to explore a limited area around you. As you find new islands and beat levels, you are rewarded with materials. Tails uses these materials to build new watercraft which have different abilities and ranges. The act of sailing out to new areas in the sea is actually a minigame on it’s own, and each craft is a different sort of minigame. For instance, the jetski is somewhat like a race minigame. You control the jetski with your stylus and you have to maneuver around obstacles and traps all while collecting rings and powerups. Another gameplay element that anyone who’s a fan of Sonic games will be looking for is the Chaos Emerald minigames. And yes, they do exist in Sonic Rush Adventure as well! You have to search the sea to find and then win various races against one of the game’s antagonists to win back some of the mystical jewels. The races are pretty damn tough, but they should be given it’s to obtain one of the emeralds. One other cool aspect to the game is the addition of missions. There are a total of 100 missions, although I have yet to unlock them all. They add a bit more replay-ability to the game and, for me, are a welcome addition.

All in all, it’s a very good game. I’d even say better than the prequel. If only I could say that about all sequels . The core gameplay and level design is, overall, more solid than Sonic Rush. The boss battles are pretty neat and somewhat original, which is really great. The minigames from exploring the seas around you are generally fun and interesting, and they don’t get too repetitive as you’ve got a number of vehicle options to choose from as you progress through the game. I love the art direction in most of the 2D Sonic games, and this one is no exception. The level designs and themes are varied, fun to look at and fun to play in! And they can be quite challenging at times, but never usually to the point of frustration. The addition of the tricks system, tension gauge, and the “Super Boost” from the original Sonic Rush game (actually, I think it goes as far back as Sonic Advance 2 as far as the tricks system is concerned), is probably one of the best new things added to the Sonic franchise since the ability to do the Spin Dash. The Super Boost lets you tear through levels and enemies, and that added layer of speed really tops of the gameplay. As far as negatives go, there really aren’t that many at all. The story isn’t anything to write home about and it doesn’t contribute a whole lot to the game, but it’s not that bad. Plus you can pretty much skip the entire story if you want, which is good. Not so much a negative, but one thing I’m not to partial to is the soundtrack (for both games). I’m a huge fan of the soundtracks for the earlier, original Sonic games. However ever since Sonic Adventure, Sega has took a different direction for the soundtracks for their Sonic titles. For the Sonic Rush and Adventure games, it seems they are catering to the hip-hop crowd somewhat. While I don’t dislike the sound track entirely, it doesn’t come off as what would fit with the Sonic theme. But that’s just some oldschool game player bias…quite unimportant in the musical capacity. This is an A+ DS title in my honest opinion, and I highly recommend it to anyone. You might have a bit of trouble finding a copy without grabbing it off the internet though. The game is no longer in production and I had to hop around 5 or 6 different Game Stop’s until I finally came across, believe it or not, a brand new copy of the game. If your as big of a Sonic fan as I am, especially of the oldschool titles, then I highly recommend you track down a copy.

I’m still very much a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan despite some of the more lackluster releases in recent years. I mean, I grew up and fell in love with the game! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see when a company does something right with their old but popular franchises, and the Sonic Rush series is just that. Nostalgia always grips me in times like this. And wouldn’t ya know it…the timing couldn’t be better! Sega is releasing a collection of the 4 classic Sonic titles for the DS…quite appropriately called the Sonic Classic Collection. It’s supposed to be released sometime in March and I’ll be jumping all over it like white on rice. I lost my Genesis and all of my Sonic games for it years ago, so I have no problem shelling out some money to buy them again for my DS. I’m also looking to grab the Sonic Advance threequel as I missed the latter two games in that series when they were released.

Ninjaedit

It has come to my attention that Sega just made an announcement about it’s new game, Sonic 4. However, this is not a big 3D Sonic game that Sega has been crapping out over the past few years. In fact, it’s going to be a 2D sidescroller using a very similar gameplay formula that the original Genesis games used. It seems that Sega is following the formula of Capcom and it’s recent release of Megaman 9 in oldschool form. Oh my, I hope this trend continues . The game is supposed to be a direct sequel to Sonic & Knuckles and that’s something that really gets me excited. Hopefully that’ll just be another indication that the game will be as fun as the original games. Here’s a wikipedia article on the game and it’s background so far. Heh, I couldn’t have timed this blog post any better

I got some down time today to get on the computer while working, only to be shocked at what I saw when I took a look at the Vega Development Blog. Project Vega has been canceled. Wow

Carnevil, the project leader (if you weren’t aware), had finally finished up the publisher demo a few days ago and also found a legit name for the game. From what I saw on his Twitter, he was trying to find a willing publisher, although it was proving difficult to get in contact with any of the companies. That was two days ago, I believe. Today I get online only to see this. And my heart sank . The short version is this: it would be nigh impossible to find a publisher given what we have so far. So in order to get one of those publisher’s attention for funding, the game would have to be in a state where it would not need funding. Yea, it’s a viscous cycle. The problem is that none of us, myself included, can put all of our time into getting the game to that point without some sort of income coming from it. Carn probably has the time, but not the skills or talent to make textures, models, maps, or the art required to get the game to that point.

And so, it seems that Carn is pretty much dead set on dropping the project entirely. Where does this leave me right now? I’ve already said it a couple times now (read my comment there), but with this turn of events I’m seriously second guessing my plans to go into the game development industry. Aside from the occasional lucky indie game developers who make a break into the industry, no one really cares about anything else other than the big name games being made by the big name companies because they make big time profits. And that was one reason why I was stoked to get a chance to work with Carn on his project. It would be my chance to get into an environment where I wouldn’t be drowned out in a huge development team, where I and everyone else would have a say, and where ideas are genuinely heard. I dread working for a giant soulless company and would much rather take a risk and go into business with someone. I have no idea if I’ll ever get that opportunity again. Right now, I’m just not nearly as excited as I use to be about the possibility of going into a game design career.

So I’ve been pondering what I’m going to be doing form here on out. I have been thinking about trying to finish up college starting this coming spring, personal issues willing. I was working on a game design degree the last time I was in class so I’ll probably finish that up. I’d also like to possibly do something in relation to Architecture and then use the knowledge from that for level design. I’ll probably also start to focus on Doom stuff again. I was conscripted to contribute to The Shores of ZDoom, although after I started Vega (and due to the lack of activity of TSoZD at the time) I sorta fell into the background of that project. But now that I’m no longer working on Vega, I will probably try to help out with that effort. There’s also Vaporware, although I was never really planning on dropping from that project. And then there’s Supplice, and now that there’s no longer a Project Vega, I’ll be hitting it pretty hard. My man Jimmy91 has been helping me out with it. I’ve made mention of Supplice here and there, but not enough to really go into depth about it. It’s still in the planning/pre-alpha stages, but once I have my goals all set in stone, I’ll be making a post about it here. Also, I’ve had my eye on Quake I for a while now since I got a taste of 3D mapping from Vega. Now that I won’t be able to get my 3D mapping fix, I think I’m going to get my hands wet with Quake mapping some day soon.

It’s always sad to see something that you are genuinely interested and that you’ve got lots of work into go down the tubes. I felt the same way when I eventually made the decision to cancel Sabbat Martyr II. But that’s the way it goes sometimes, and the best thing for you do to is to look forward.

Staying up later than I should, I was just about to head off to bed right before I decided to take a quick wander over to my beloved GameHits forum from the years of yonder. 9 times out of 10, nothing new is posted; the forum has been buried by all of the dust it’s collecting these days. Occasionally an oldie AC friend from those golden days will post something, making me giddy with nostalgia. But most of the time it’s a ghost town. Sorta sad really.

Until I saw this thread. I’m sure if you’ve ever had a conversation with me, I’ve brought up that I’m a pretty crazy Armored Core fan. As of late though, AC4 and its sequel has left me kinda trigger-shy when it comes to From Software’s newest ventures in it’s super Japanese robot killing franchise. AC4 was ok and it’s sequel was slightly better, but they weren’t really up to snuff when I compare the fun times I had with Master of Arena, Another Age, and Silent Line, quite possibly the 3 best Armored Core games to date (in my entirely humble and unbiased opinion, of course ). Yes, I am a bitter fanboy who longs for the old days of Armored Core….shaddup . Heh, I won’t even begin to get into a long-winded rant about AC here; unless you’ve played the game or have been active in it’s community, I would just be wasting my breathe. But even given my past experiences with the next-gen Armored Core games, I always secretly held out hope that they would continue the franchise with a 5th lineup. It’s actually one of the biggest reason why I even bothered purchasing a 360. The AC franchise hasn’t been all that popular here in the states; the AC3 and SL years were the “golden” years as far as stateside popularity is concerned. I wasn’t even sure if they would port AC:For Answer to the states or not, and I was somewhat relieved when they did, even though I was expecting pretty much the same dismal flavor of game that was given to us in AC4. And my hope that they will port AC5 stateside is pretty much just as bleak as it stands right now. I guess I’ll just have to sit back and see what the news brings. Needless to say, I’m glad I stayed up late. Although I’m pretty sure all glad and happy feelings will be long gone when I have to wake up in 3 hours