2.5 years of hiding the secret places wasn't something that would stop Radar from finding them all in just a few days after the release! He also managed to do it in only 34 minutes while playing on Come Get Some difficulty setting, which is really impressive considering the level's size and scope! Check his video out below:
Moreover, if you don't have better plans for the last Saturday of 2023, you can chime in and watch The Legend of Devon's live streaming of the map - tomorrow, December the 30th 2023, over at his channel:
His streams are really worth it, in particular if you are into level design or even interested in starting. There are usually some of the more experienced Duke 3D mappers present discussing the ins and outs of the level design. I should be there as well with some author's commentary, at least for the first hour or so! Here's what Devon has to say in the announcement of his stream:
I spent so long on this thumbnail. I knew I wanted to play this level, but I couldn't for the life of me think of a neat idea for a thumbnail. So I spent hours in the trenches of free to use art editing program to create endless iterations and versions before stumbling down the cliché YouTube thumbnail with a random circle. I'm typing this so you all understand the pain I went through to make sure I adhered to my to-do list! It's 1:13 AM as I'm typing this, I'm dead tired, but I was determined to not quit until a thumbnail was made! Could I have just gone ahead and slapped the Duke 3D box art down and call it a day? Yes. Would it have made the same impact algorithm wise? Absolutely.
I'm getting off-topic, after all, we are here to celebrate the newest release by Alex Pistol (Ledsbourne) the creator of passed stream levels, Submachine and Der Zorn Gottes (check those levels out as well) who has given us Simpler Times! Unlike passed streams where I'm usually going in blind, I'm not here! Which means I already know some amazing things I want to cover!
What we do in these streams is showcase user created content to show what kind of passion and creativity this niche community has crafted to show others what Duke Nukem 3D has to offer for any Retro Boom Shooter FPS lovers, or even old Duke Fans (like myself) who may have not dipped their toes into the user content world. Additionally, we take a look at how these 2.5D games create their 3D world from a level design perspective as I try to learn from those who came before me since I'm currently making a map of my own for Duke Nukem 3D using Mapster32, the included level editor for eDuke32.
Or maybe he just fires up Mapster32 and looks for the sectors tagged secret..... That's what i've been doing :D