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Cut content: Levels

Last time I talked about the different weapons that didn’t make it into the game. This time I want to talk about a few ideas for stages that got changed or just didn’t make it in because of time.

Spire

The spire used to be a level from miniDoom1. It was that vertical level that was mostly red, this was the only level that didn’t have a name from any Doom level and I wanted to keep it in miniDoom2. I wanted a vertical level and my first idea was: climb a tree. I remember there being some weird dead trees in the first room of hell in classic Doom. So then I thought: climb a giant dead tree with ruins along the way. I don’t know, the idea sounded solid in my head.

I want dead trees and lava??

The poor artist tried rendering my mad ravings into textures. But in the end he had a better idea: FLESH. We changed the whole theme of the level to fleshy spires with meaty acidic interiors and a few ruins. Much cooler, and that’s why you need a team to challenge your ideas.

Fleshy is waaay more interesting

The great miniDoom DLC

Early on I wanted there to be 3 maps, with 6 levels each to achieve the great 666. We ended up with 2 maps with 6 levels, 4 trials and a bonus level. Most of the unused ideas I just spliced into the bonus level Pandemonium. But we also discussed the possibility of adding a third map later as a sort of free DLC or expansion. And for a time it was real in our minds, but later due to the huge time and effort it took to develop the game we realized it would be pretty much impossible.

The theoretical map of the expansion

So the idea of the “DLC” was to add a map in space around the 2 tiny moons of mars Phobos and Deimos. The story wouldn’t  follow hell on earth, it would follow the Doom64 story. The demons where defeated in the moon bases, but a powerful demon that revives all of them appears:  the Mother Demon.

The Mother Demon, from Doom64’s map “the Absolution”

Your mission is to go to the moons and guess what? RIP AND TEAR until they are empty again. The gameplay would include low gravity areas, the perils of outer space and new enemies of course.

 

The Arena

Just a mockup

The idea of the arena was an infinite level where you could test your skills in a series of never ending rooms where the difficulty would ramp. You would clear a room, get some health back then try to clear another more difficult room. There would be no reward just accumulate as many kills as you can so you can brag about your high score haha. There was a bit of work put into this before we realized it was too late to include it in the game. I’m actually toying with the idea of completing it and adding it to the next version of the game… what do you guys think? I took a long needed break from miniDoom but I’m feeling sort of refreshed nowadays.

See you next time; I’ll talk about enemies that didn’t make it into the game.

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MiniDoom 2, The Collector’s Edition?

So, an amazing fan (M Skot Adams), which probably should now be considered a honorary member of the team, made this UNBELIEVABLY amazing physical version of our silly game!

There’s a lot of things we could have hoped for our game, a “Limited Deluxe Collector’s Edition” has most certainly surpassed any of our expectations =)

Indie development taken to the final frontier, the real world!

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Cut content: Weapons

Hi, I wanted to do a few blog posts about the things that didn’t make it into the game. And there are MANY. So I’ve decided to split these posts into categories. The first one is WEAPONS.

Many months ago, when the weapons were still being selected, the original idea was to have 12 selectable weapons (with the supershotgun being a separate weapon from the shotgun).

This means there were meant to be three weapons that used ammo, and three that used energy cells. And what was this third weapon? Well there was a lot of discussion.

Heavy assault riffle

It was supposed to be a weapons with very fast projectiles that where very large. It had a similar function to the plasma in that it assisted aiming with its large projectiles, but was weaker. An early-game weapon.

Hellshot

Same weapon but with different look, used the hellshot from the DOOM2016  multiplayer because it looked better for using energy cells.

Hellshot mark 2

Ended up giving the large projectiles to the plasma and removing its homing capabilities. And made the hellshot a VERY homing weapon. Turned out this weapon was boring as hell. In the end the functionality of the hellshot, was split into the EMG Pistol and plasma riffle.

Hellshot graphics were reused as the Icon of Sin stage 2 attacks.

Lightning GUN

So the plasma riffle was an early game weapon, but it was too powerfull for that. To compensate for this, the player starts with a low energy cell count. I also nerfed the plasma riffle, opting for placing an upgrade for it in later stages. Back then I thought the upgrade could turn the plasma into the lightning gun, also from D2016. But I didn’t know if the homing would translate well into a hitscan weapon. In the end there wasn’t enough time to develop this weapon and it was dropped for the plasma riffle MK2. Which upgrades the fire rate, projectile speed and damage of the plasma.

Flame Thrower

Rockets where dangerous to use up close, so I knew a flame thrower-like weapon was needed. But no matter how much I looked I couldn’t find one in a doom game. The full story of this is explained in the Dark Claw dev post, but yeah the dark claw ended up being the flame thrower because using rockets for its ammo, this weapon ran out too quickly especially since it also shared ammo with grenades, quickly exhausting your options for splash damage, which is vital  in the later stages.

Also the Dark Claw used to be purple since the hellshot was red.

BFG Upgrade

I thought about adding a newer version of the BFG that shot a projectile that would shoot lightning at close enemies, like the BFG froom DOOM3 and onward. Also dropped out of time constrains. We said it could be cool for a future expansion. But now the idea of an expansion seems a bit grim considering the massive effort this game took.

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Changes in patch 1.3.0

Dodge mechanic buffed

After finishing a dodge you will retain its invulnerability for a moment, this will allow you to better recover from it. You can now cancel the dodge animation by jumping, you will retain the invulnerability as if you finished the dodge (so kind of an aerial dodge). To compensate for the buff, the time you have to wait between dodges has been prolonged a bit.

roll or jump through em’

So the dodge is pretty damn important in the game. Due to the large hitbox of the player and enemies, you will soon find yourself in a place where you can’t jump over or duck under an attack.

We want to encourage dodging by making it more powerful and giving it more visual feedback (might add some more effects later). So dodge has to be a very short animation because you lose control of your character, and I wanted to buff it but keep it short and fast. These changes should make it a lot more appealing.

Dark Claw changes

The projectile speed has been increased, this means the effective range has also been increased. To compensate, its ridiculously high damage has been lowered a bit.

making it less Overpowered and more usefull

Also the dark claw can no longer be obtained early in the Dig Site. I thought it might have been an interesting secret to have, but it turns out that obtaining the weapon outside its tutorial area leads to players not learning how to use it or when it is powerful.

Also clearer tutorials and many other minor changes. So dont forget to update.

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Secret hunting in miniDoom2

In need for upgrades? Or you want those pesky runes? Well there are always a few tells when a secret is nearby.

First of all never forget this:

Thats quite literal

When you see health bonuses they will be pointing to a secret or a secret might be nearby. On the other hand armor bonuses will usually mark the main level route.

Like in classic Doom, the basic is being aware for suspicious textures. But also blood spatters in the walls or background are usually present with secret paths. Or just anything that looks like a door.

oddly shaped like a door….

Sometimes its the same texture, but there is blood…

And after all that. What are runes for? Well they unlock a map in the overworld. And inside that map, they unlock special doors. Each one of these doors contains a reward. The more runes the door needs the more powerful the reward.

What could be behind door number 1? Well its not one of those regular upgrades

Happy hunting.