A few years ago, I thought of a blood map pack that would recreate some familiar locations from relatively recent 2D games like Hotline Miami, Katana Zero and Gunpoint. What originally started as a simple conversion, ended up turning into something completely different. It took a few years for me to actually begin working on this project, so a lot of ideas I've had when I started working on it were... obscured. The first prototype maps I've created dated back to 2018, so, I simply started with a blank slate again. While I was working, I came up with some ideas that will hopefully make things interesting for people who, like me, have been replaying blood enough times to memorize a lot of small things. I think this map pack would benefit greatly from including various gameplay and build-related intricacies that I've noticed over the years. For example, 'Gods' trilogy used quite a few tricks to create a memorable experience, I'm hoping to prepare and carefully unwrap that experience for you in this map pack. The plan is to have each map introduce something new for the player to consider, with every second map having slower pace and more focus on the atmosphere.
The maps are blocky and lacking in detail mostly because I was focusing on gameplay aspects more than visual design. I've noticed that a lot of levels like to follow this logic of blind key hunting, sometimes the experience is properly directed, so the player doesn't have to wander around an empty level searching for keys, but most of the time, people make their levels in the most convoluted ways imaginable, no thanks to doom's level design sins, there I've said it, sins! Clearing out a level THEN searching for new enemies to kill is never fun! There's no fun if pacing is HALTED because my stupid ass doesn't know the author's intended logic! So I thought, hey, what if there was no logic? What if every key you find is part of a sequence that can be skipped? What if there are more than two ways to reach the exit? Y'know, like in the real world? Heresy! Impossible! I know. TLDR: Immersive simulation logic instead of mindless key hunting, because some designers never learn when to stop bringing literal doom into their doom-style level design.
There's been a few changes to the structure (and the story) since I've originally made this post. One thing I can tell your right now is that it will feature some of the 'nightmare levels' from blood 2. Expect at least 2 episodes to come out at once. I won't tell you 'when it's done', because I don't know yet. Once it's done it's done, I'll make a few announcements like this down the line, most of them will likely be progress reports before I reveal the thing properly, then I'll make another post for a public release (you'd think I'd release this thing without people testing it first? no way!) The next announcement will be a bit less vague than this. I'm using xmapedit. The maps will probably require nblood or raze in order to run properly. Right now, most of the work is being done to support only these ports, once I'm done with the mapset, I will try to make it compatible but no promises! The maps are already using some modern features, which means there may not be support for dos version/fresh supply. Sorry.
