Abandon: Shadows of darkness: A three episode ultimate doom wad

Quick update: I just finished E3M5 map's layout! Now it is time for placements and such. I am aiming to get episode 3: Dark Abyss out and ready for feedback by the end of this month, if not then the end of December. I am committed to this and i am going to see it to the end.

But i wanted to give this quick update to let everyone know that i finished the layout for E3M5 today and i am ready to move on to the placement of enemies and such.

Update 11/17/23: I just finished doing placement for E3M8 and now E3M7, it is taking longer then expected since i am having issues with the health, weapon and ammo placement at the moment but it is getting done.

I also want to mention if i have not before (or too many times) that episode 4 is going to be made but it will be more after i rework some maps in E2 and maybe E3 but we will see. I am really proud of my self that i have mange to tuff this out for as long i have. The deadline is still set on the end of November or sometime around December i do not know which one will come first, overall there has been a lot of community projects i had to pass on because this was more on my "i need to finish this Ultimate Doom Megawad first" before i could dive in more community projects mind set.

A year ago when i first started this i had the goal of make the first three episodes then do the fourth one after i did a huge update to all the maps (currently happening) and doing a squeal using Doom 2 UDMF format for it, but for now this is priority to do before doing squeal for map set. 

I do hope you enjoy the first two episodes of this wad set and i will make another announcement if anything changes or i had to update someone on one of the maps, until then i will be working and getting this finished before deadline.  

Update 11/24/23: So i got some good news and some bad news.

Let me get the bad news out of the way first: I do not think i am going to get this finished and out the door by the end of this month, i wanted to get the placement and play testing done and out the door before doom's 30th but that is looking like it will not be met in time, i am also struggling to get it done and ready as well because i'm getting hit with burn out badly. So the November deadline is out of the question but i did have a fallback deadline (which is going to be in the good news part of this post) and i'm kinda getting sloppy with my placements because in my mind i want to finish, get it out the door and move on to doing reworks of Episode 1 and 2 maps before i do episode 4 maps.

Now for the good news: Since the november deadline got canned due to lacking on trying to get it finished i decided to give myself the end of December to get episode 3 out the door in time for the new year. I am also going to be doing some reworks on maps that need them badly and I am as a bonus going to make a teaser map for episode 4 called (In)Sanity i know smart name i know but it sounded better then what i originally had for it but that's besides the point.

I am also not going to do the squeal in UDMF format only because it would feel wrong and plus i need more time to experiment with it as well, so for now it will be done in Vanilla map format since i know it very well and i can work with the limitations before the source port go brrrrrrr. One last thing i will be asking people if they want to play test my maps because i really could use the feedback on what changes i need to do for the first two episodes.

But with that said i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and i hope to see my map set get out there once i finish episode 3.  

Update 12/05/23:

Alright i am getting closer to be done. I have three more maps to do placements in, then play test for bugs and all that good stuff.

As you can see i have a deadline set in the title, it is official Episode 3 Dark Abyss will be coming out December 31st / January 1st 2024.

The reason i choose this is because i originally wanted to release it by doom's 30th but i knew that was not going to happen so i choice the end of December for a deadline.

The post will be remade for release of episode 3 and a new title pic in the post as well. Like i've said before i am seeing this through the end and not going to drop it to do other things, i've missed out on a lot of community projects but i hope it's worth it in the end of it all.

I also didn't want this thread to die so that is why i've been giving updates very so often so it didn't die off. With that said i hope you all ready for what i am going to release by the end of the month / start of the new year.

Thank you all for sticking around even you don't say anything here. I know we all have lives outside of the internet but i still enjoy seeing people liking the posts.

Update: 12/11/23

First off, Happy 30 years of demon slaying, satanic metal music, gibtastic, breaking your knuckles on demon face's doom! Your old enough to apply for old people insurance LULZ. But for real happy 30th Doom! Here's for 30 more years of demon killing, gibbing and ass kicking.

Second: I am almost finished with the placements i have one more map to do then i can get started on balancing, weapon, health ect ect. I decided to add the BFG to E3M6 since E3M9 has one and i will say it now that the maps all of them are meant to be pistol start only. I made the maps with pistol start in mind. I will give more contexts when i post episode 3. 

Third: This is towards more the Cacoawards. I do want to give my congrats to all the winners, the runners ups, the composers ect ect ect. This year Cacoawards was wonderful to read and see all them wads, here's to another year of wads, mods, midis and all the other wonderful things this community has to offer. 

Anyways that's basically what i wanted to say. Now time for me to return to my silence and finish episode 3. 

Update 12/21/23: Read the main post for the update.

Update 1/1/24: Happy new year! Now i want to mention that i am going to be taking a break for a while, After i finished episode 3 i was going to do a map for a community project but i decided to drop out since i was dealing with brain worms and i could not focus on the map i was doing.

So in the end i do not have any plans on doing or being apart of any Community Project unless the project leader(s) wants me to come in and make a map to fill in for the empty slots but other wise i have no plans or intentions on being apart of a Community Project for now.

I also want to mention that i will be redoing the episode 3 trailer for Abandon: Shadows of darkness on my Youtube channel. I also want to get back into doing more "3 random doom wads i found on ID Games archives" as well and maybe also cover some wads from the DWC (Doom World Community). Not going to lie i kinda miss doing doom videos since i spend all of 2023 working on episode 3 of my project.

Lastly when i come back to mapping i will be redoing E1M2, E1M3 and E1M8 since i did made that promise awhile back, some of episode 2 maps might get reworks as well but who knows, when the time comes it comes. There will be an episode 4 as well but that is on the back burner for now.

With that i want to say thank you for playing my solo project doom 1 wad and if you make videos on my mapset please @ me so i can watch and jot down notes for making chances and all that stuff as well.

Bumping the thread so it dose not fall under being a dead thread

Update 01/10/24: So like my member title says i am taking a break from mapping for a bit since i am still doing irl stuff and i need time to let my solo mapping project cool down before picking it back up.

I am still going to make E4 and finish reworking more of E1 map (Expect E1M6 that is more of a ode to my Map03 in a community project) I have currently started reworking E1M2 but the time of writing i have took a break.

I also want to mention that i will be doing more doom videos as well. I started playing Beta 64 and i will make first playthroughs on that in the future As soon i fix my video editor and such.

If there is any issues with the 3 episode wad set please let me know so when i come back to do mapping i can fix them and make small updates to the maps that need fixing. But with that i will make another update in the future to this so the thread don't die off and become a lost thread.

Dude I freaking love your wad.  It has such a unique style...it has unique details I have not seen in other wads, and this combined with the layouts and combat gives it very alpha feel, and I love that.  I am very partial to Ultimate Doom (I prefer it over Doom 2) and this gives very ultimate doomy vibes with an alpha feel, if that makes any sense.  All I can say is I love it.  I look forward to you finishing episode 4, and I hope you continue to make maps for Ultimate Doom.  If you ever need someone to playtest any of your maps I will gladly do so.

2 hours ago, jgs1989 said:

Dude I freaking love your wad.  It has such a unique style...it has unique details I have not seen in other wads, and this combined with the layouts and combat gives it very alpha feel, and I love that.  I am very partial to Ultimate Doom (I prefer it over Doom 2) and this gives very ultimate doomy vibes with an alpha feel, if that makes any sense.  All I can say is I love it.  I look forward to you finishing episode 4, and I hope you continue to make maps for Ultimate Doom.  If you ever need someone to playtest any of your maps I will gladly do so.

Thanks for playing it, as far as episode 4 goes it will be made but i'm on break from mapping at the moment since i have irl stuff i am taking care of. But i am glade you like it :).