Classic Map Series 1 - DMBellToll news

Howdy Folks!

While we have still been busy working hard on the Multiplayer update, we had a little aside. Stored within the DNF Museum, there is a Keith Schuler map called ForWhomTheBellTolls or DMBellToll. One of our members “DeltaQDelta” had been poking around and found it again and brought it to the Multiplayer Team. This was a map that Keith had made for an Unreal Mapping contest on Planet Unreal in which he got second place. Unfortunately all we have left of this is a 3D Realms News update from Joe Siegler on July 3, 1998 which read;

Keith Schuler in Unreal Design Contest

Our own monkey man Keith Schuler recently entered the Unreal Level Design contest over on Planet Unreal. His level was titled For Whom the Bell Tolls, and you can check it out on Planet Unreal's Contest Pages. You can also download Keith's level there as well.

George Broussard also had this to say about the map...

"Duke Nukem Forever map designer Keith Schuler recently made a deathmatch map for Unreal called "For Whom the Bell Tolls". He made the map to get familiar with level design using the Unreal engine (since we switched to Unreal from Quake 2). Keith submitted the map to the UDC level design contest over at planetquake.com. He won 2nd place with an entry that only took him 3 days to complete.

The Snarf Unreal Map Emporium (Unrealed.com) keeps a daily list of the top 20 most popular maps available for download. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" is currently number one! Great job Keith. We look forward to your Duke Nukem Forever maps."

Posted by Joe Siegler on July 3, 1998 at 1:00 PM

Unfortunately the links in the article we were unable to access through the Wayback Machine. Or at least not close enough to the date listed. Thankfully though, what we do have is the map itself and it's accompanying ReadMe.

DMBellToll is a two floor, two lane map where the player goes through what seems to be an old Nali temple (In the original map, there is a crucified Nali above a lava pit). Loading into the map for the first time you are immediately drawn to the map's namesake. There is a Big Bell atop of the map that can be seen from multiple points in the map. Shooting the bell opens a big door that leads to an outdoor part of the map with a power weapon. Shooting the Bell serves two purposes, the allowing of a player to grab the power weapon and alerting all the players that someone is getting it. What’s very interesting is that this later on translated into BellTollRemix with the outdoor area needing the player to shoot the door panel to get the door to open, also alerting other players that someone is coming back in from outside.

We reached out to Keith to ask him a few questions about the map and to see if we could include it in our release and he had this to say;

“If memory serves these are both just Unreal 1 maps and not Duke Content. I made these maps when we were switching from the Quake engine to the Unreal Engine, to learn the editor and tools. I remember setting bot loose in DMBellToll, ghosting outside the map, and just watching them fight each other to learn how they behaved.

If memory serves, and it’s getting really hazy here, both maps had some sort of gimmick. This was something I always try to do with my DM maps to make them unique: make a mechanic in the map that added a component to a match that wouldn’t be in other maps.

In DM-BellToll, there was a bell you could shoot or otherwise interact with to ring it. I don’t remember what happened when you ran the bell but it probably opened a compartment where a valuable item spawned. But the bell ringing would alert everyone in the map that you did it, so expect a fight.”

The map really shows off some of the cool original textures and how stylized things like the lava and water were at the time. There are some really pretty visuals on this map in the skybox, library and lava pit room. Even other cool secrets similar to the bell like a hidden compartment inside of the Library.

It was very cool to chat with Keith and confirm that this was, in fact, one of the first maps that had been made while getting adjusted to the Unreal Engine switch. You’ll notice that in our chat he vaguely mentions a second map. This one the team was also able to find, so while we were asking him about BellToll, we asked him about it as well;

“Ascension is hazier for me. I think there was someplace a place could go to “Ascend” (i.e. pick up multiple powerups and becoming super powered) but I have a hard time remembering anything besides that.”

DM-AscensionClassic another cool map that will be bundled with the “Duke it Out” update as it requires one of the fixes the new update includes to run properly. It is also another map with a fun gimmick, there are 3 switches throughout the map which open a series of doors leading to a fourth switch. Once that switch is opened it lifts a protective barrier that reveals a teleporter that “Ascends” you where you pick up Max Health, a power weapon, and some other things.

Our plan is to form both of these into proper “Duke” maps as well, replacing the original textures to look like something that actually came from DNF.

In the meantime though, please checkout and enjoy DM-BellTollClassic here! We included both the original map files for Unreal along with the modified files and needed packs to get it to work in DNF.