I'm giving you permission to delete your bad ideas (Doom Mapping Tip)

[@Dark_Jaguar]

I'm reminded of a quote from Shigeru Miyamoto: "Just because it's a good idea doesn't mean it has to go in the game." This is giving permission not just to delete your bad ideas, but your good ones too if they just don't seem to fit the flow of the rest of the level or even the whole game. Maybe just store that good idea in a folder for a later project.

[@hrnekbezucha]

If I deleted all my bad ideas, I wouldn't have anything left to release. I'm never satisfied with my maps, there's always something to improve, something could be done better. So either I shove the whole thing in the bin after weeks/months of work, or I make it "good enough," and actually release it. Yes, I agree that being overly attached is bad, delete stuff when it needs to be. But also, the pursuit of perfection is an exercise in futility.

[@LVENdead]

In the case of this video, it's less about destroying when you don't feel satisfied and more about doing so when you feel very stuck. I agree the pursuit of perfection is kind of a pointless endeavor, perfection is an asymptote with a diminishing return for how much resources you devote to it. I have many maps in my graveyard, I don't think it's bad to abandon something and move on, but I also agree that your prevailing concern needs to be fueling whatever it is that gives you energy to finish something. This video is about adding a tool to your toolkit rather than prescribing a wholesale paradigm for mapping.

[@doomvision8075]

As I've gone from being a beginner to slightly more intermediate, I've become a lot more comfortable with reworking areas quite significantly, or just flat out deleting them and starting again. Iteration can be really satisfying!

[@LVENdead]

It really helps taking the pressure off knowing that an idea doesn't have to be the one you end up using in your finished map

[@EyesofWrath]

I give everyone permission to delete revenant ambushes.

[@LVENdead]

💀💀💀

[@janbittner1465]

Say no to boners.

[@Scypek]

Get rid of bad ideas. Put them away. Cut them out and save them in a separate file somewhere. Select all the pretty but dumb sectors and save them as a doombuilder prefab. Destroying data can very easily be a terrible idea, but shelving it has no downsides. If it ever turns out to be good after all, you can always re-add it. Once I have the questionable design tucked away somewhere, THEN it feels liberating to me when I tear the main thing apart to streamline it. It really does feel real good then, like I get to have my cake and eat it.

[@Alfwin]

Reminds me of the art channel Drawfee, and their mantra "Delete your art!" And honestly it's pretty good advice. Man, I really hope I'm able to get back to DOOM mapping soon. The spark's still there, but idk I must have some kinda seasonal depression and the ideas just aren't flowing.

[@LVENdead]

I wondered where you went, you were on a good streak with mapping for a while. I've been thinking about doing a map on mapper's block or blank page syndrome to help get something going when you don't have ideas, maybe it's worth actually trying to make it. I hope you get back into maps again soon!

[@Alfwin]

@@LVENdead Well, I think that sounds like a great idea - I'm sure we all get mapper's block from time to time, so any resource offering guidance on dealing with it would surely help a lot of people! I'm starting to dip my toes back into the waters of DOOM mapping - I miss it, and I miss the Doomworld community! And honestly, this video has already helped give me the push I needed - time to let go of the map that's got me stumped, take the good ideas from it, and use them to build something new!

[@Dark_Jaguar]

I'm reminded of that cliche cartoon scene where the crazed artist or writer or whoever stares at pages and pages of whatever they've been working at, nods their heads a few times, then gets an outraged look on their face before crumpling it all up and tossing it in the trash. There's a reason it's a cliche!

[@Knifeworld]

A great tip that would have saved me a lot of time on a few of my maps!

[@deathdealer312]

I've deleted entire levels and rebuilt them after finding out they just dont work. Its very liberating, tbh

[@StabbeyTheClown]

My map "Control Tower" was a Hub + 3 design, with the "hub" part actually being the outside edge of the playable space, meaning that space for the map was constrained to whatever fit inside the circle. The final challenge being a large arena, that restricted the space further. One wing, I originally designed to make use of that space by having a bunch of cramped narrow duct-like passages which was a lot of switch puzzles with some hitscanner closets as well. At a certain point, it was going to make an unexpected transition to a hellish area. People HATED the cramped corridors and said it was repetitive and not fun, so I completely scrapped the area and rebuilt something better. The only trace of the original grey maze is a short part which has the transition to the hellish area. My map "More Tricks and Traps Than You Require" originally had a large section which was going to be a sub-hub where you needed to solve three rooms (one of which had its own sub-hub), then have a big arena fight to get a key. It was just too much stuff for one key. I completely stripped out the sub-hub concept out into its own map ("Nukage Treatment Pools"), and replaced it with two sections, a hedge maze (based on one part of the sub-sub-hub), and a large open room with stairs around the outside of a sunken area to where you needed to go. Even that was still too much, so I cut out the open room and replaced it with something simpler and shorter.

[@LVENdead]

That's tough when you have to scrap something because it doesn't land with players, but that's the way she goes sometimes!

[@andrewdwilliams]

I recently started a large outdoor map set on the shore of a lava lake. It was HUGE. I didn't quite know what to do with all that space. I discovered when I tried playtesting a few ideas that the clipping was going wrong; this was because the map was just too damn big, so I started over with a much smaller scale - it didn't have the clipping bug, and I could figure out what I was doing with it. Kind of a forced restart, but it was exactly what I needed to do.

[@Rooster_Gold]

Thanks for the tip & good looking map, I have issues making mine circular like that and having height differentials. Mine are always linear & flat, and I wind up deleting the entire map.

[@turtleperson3538]

Bet. [deletes my entire megawad project]

[@LVENdead]

RIP

[@Evolatic]

Super interesting.

[@ClippyClippington]

Analyze my maps next

[@LVENdead]

Which one

[@ClippyClippington]

All

[@LVENdead]

@@ClippyClippington pass

[@DJV_TF]

I'm about to delete a Lot of stuff in my maps now

[@nolan412]

Have you heard of git?

[@LVENdead]

I know of it but I'm not a developer so not overly familiar with it

[@OGYouTubeEnjoyer]

Permission rejected.

[@LVENdead]

😮

[@Dante666-br3cj]

I don't need your garbage permission!

[@LVENdead]

Nobody needs it, but everybody wants it, including you.

[@Dante666-br3cj]

@@LVENdead Then you should follow your own advice and delete this whole map because it's not very good.

[@LVENdead]

I know you're excited about that little bit of attention I gave you but don't let it go to your head. It took you four days to come up with that response, nobody is lining up to hear what you have to say about anything. 🤡

[@Dante666-br3cj]

@@LVENdead Oh really? Nice response, worthy of a 4th grader. But let me explain how things are outside of your imaginary world. People who live their lives, instead of wasting them on KZbin and Doomworld, sometime take longer to respond because they're not on their computers every single day. And please, don't overrate yourself so much, you're an absolute nobody... nobody here and nobody on Doomworld, so your "little bit of attention" means nothing to me.

[@LVENdead]

My attention means nothing to you and yet here you are, making the conscious decision to come to my KZbin comments and boost my engagement and feed the algorithm with your participation. I'm all for it. You can easily prove to me how little this matters to you by just not responding to this reply, but you can't stay away because you crave my attention.

[@alicelittle2516]

No.

[@LVENdead]

Ok.