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The song being played is "POW," Copyright bobby prince Music.
The fundamental part of creating new Wolfenstein levels is to make new maps consisting of rooms and corridors, objects and enemies. A way to do this is to use one of the map editing tools that exist. One of these, Mapedit, allows you to edit the files GAMEMAPS.WL6 and MAPHEAD.WL6. These are the Wolfenstein game files that hold level information. The MAPEDIT package also includes a tutorial on getting started, avoiding certain bugs, and making well designed levels. My intention here is to contribute to that.
To make involving levels, imagine scenes and situations. Then start to transfer these to the layouts. Combine them and let things develop. You may have certain ideas that you want to implement. By putting together your initial concepts you may achieve just that, as well as discovering possibilities for creating new types of level design features. Don't be afraid to change around your layouts, but be careful to keep what I like to call the inspired parts. Those parts that are not really worked out, but more like imagined.
To make levels develop the way you want, depends a lot on how you use the floor codes. All rooms and corridors must be assigned a floor code. Enemies on a certain type of floor code will be alarmed when a door is opened into that particular floor code and they see or hear you, or sometimes when they are warned by other guards that see you.
One way of making levels develop unpredictably is to assign the same type of floor code to certain otherwise unrelated rooms. Give the player several choices of moving and include the possibility of "moving round", that is getting to certain areas from different angles. Combine this with locked doors that the player can not get passed initially (or stuck doors) and that enemies may come out from at varying moments, and add moving guards that move from one type of floor code to another.
Know that as soon as the enemies are alarmed they may start to "wander about" and enter rooms with hitherto unalarmed floor codes, especially if the rooms are interlaced with each other. This makes for variety, but at the same time you should control it. There may be rooms with guards that you don't want to have alarmed until later (i.e. to prevent all from getting at the player at once). You can achieve this by adding "deaf" guards or combinations of "deaf" guards and stationary objects in positions where the "deaf" guards will not notice the player until later. Although alarmed guards appear to be able to move into the same squares they can not pass by unalarmed ones. Later the player will "remove" these "deaf" guards and he (and guards that are living) may then move into the hitherto blocked areas. "Deaf" guards are in themselves a good way of creating surprises. But note: "Deaf" guards may not be positioned next to doors.
You can also avoid having guards descend upon the player even after they have been alarmed by putting the entrance to their rooms in the opposite direction from where the player is at the moment (later the player will be met by a welcoming committee). Doing this you can also create special variations where the player has a choice of moving. When going into one area, he will be followed by enemies from an other when the action starts, but not vice versa. Remember that if you want enemies to go after the player when they are alarmed, the doors to their areas should NOT be in the opposite direction.
A nice feature in levels is to have rooms separated by stationary objects. Remember to assign the same floor code to areas that are separated like this or else the enemies will not notice the player. And even if a door has been opened into a certain floor code and then closed again but with the enemies still seeing the player, they will shoot at him but without hurting him. If the areas that are blocked by stationary objects are accessed through pushwalls, position "deaf" guards or "deaf" guards/stationary objects in a way that prevents alarmed enemies from moving in the way of these pushwalls later. You can use the same trick to prevent these enemies from moving into adjoining rooms with hitherto unactivated floor codes as well.
To prevent enemies from moving into certain rooms you may also block the path using stationary objects and a single pushwall, where the door to the room in question is visible to the player, or by putting the pushwall immediately in front of the door, hiding it.
When pushwalls are used it is a good rule to assign the same type of floor code on each side. If a player moves into a floor code without opening an ordinary door, the guards will not notice him before they get shot at (this includes "deaf" guards even if they stand on their own type of floor code). Although you may avoid such a situation and still use different floor codes on each side of pushwalls, I recommend that you use the same. If you use multiple pushwalls, avoid having one end up where another originally was standing (thus being push-able again) this may cause an error. One feature that you may want to include to realise certain ideas or effects is putting a pushwall immediately behind a door. IMPORTANT! Test that theses pushwalls work correctly, they may sometime cause strange graphical behavior, the result of which is that the program eventually will "hang".
General note on pushwalls: A pushwall with one vacant square behind it will move to this square. A pushwall with two vacant squares behind it will move to the second of these squares. A pushwall with three or more vacant squares behind it will move to the second OR third of these squares. In the last case it is impossible to say which of the two will happen. The same pushwall may move two squares at one instance and three at another (i.e. if you reload a game saved previous to the removing of the pushwall in question). Bear this in mind to avoid having pushwalls block doors or objects the player is supposed to reach.
Poet's Dead Guard Trick. Dead guards are the only objects that you can pass over, but that will block a pushwall. By using initially dead guards you may prevent the player from removing a pushwall from a certain side. This may be used to make a player lock himself into an area by having him block the entrance.
It can be a good addition to the game to have some levels that include rather "mazy" parts. But don't do this to an extent that makes other parts you want to include suffer. Even if a level does not look all that intricate from above, it will easily be confusing enough when you are in it.
When making big levels you may come to a point where you run out of enemies. Test the parts that are finished, sometimes you may have put more enemies in an area than you really need to achieve the difficulty you want. On the other hand don't tame down good parts. There are other ways of making the more underpopulated areas interesting, such as adding super guards or even ghosts.
Ghosts are not so dangerous when alone, but together with other types of enemies they can be a big threat since they prevent the player from hanging around in relatively safe areas (being unkillable). Unlike other enemies ghosts will start moving in your direction immediately after you open a door to their type of floor code, they don't have to see or hear you nor be in the same room (they may come at you through other doors). The important thing therefor is not where you initially put them but where they will meet the player. See to it that they don't collide too easily. They think alike and will stick together.
Levels can be made difficult at the beginning because the player at that state has no place to retreat. You may want to create the same effect later in the levels when the player enter new areas (i.e. behind doors that require keys). You may achieve this in different ways. Use the floor codes in a way that forces the player to enter deep into the new area without being able to "notify" the enemies immediately. Add stationary objects that will hinder the player's retreat once the enemies are alarmed. Or use a "Dead Guard Trick". You may also force the player into the new area by putting the health and ammo that the player may need at this state well inside it.
Where and how much you add of health, ammo and 1-ups is an important factor in making the levels turn out the way you want.
Test your levels a lot while working on them to see if they develop the way you have planned. If they don't go back to the layout and find out why. Often it may only be minor changes that are required.
(On the other hand if your levels or parts of them prove to include good effects and variations however different from what you had planned, you should keep it the way it has turned out. All good features should be kept even if they were not intentional.)
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IMPORTANT POINTS ABOUT MOVING GUARDS.
When you put several moving guards in a row you must have at least one vacant square between each or else they will cluster. If the patrol is passing through doors you have to have enough vacant squares between them to have the doors close behind one guard before the next arrives, or they will cluster after a while. Test your levels to calculate how many squares you will need between the different types of guards.
Don't put a guard immediately in front of a door he is supposed to go through. This will make it possible for both guards and the player to move through the door without opening it.
Also make sure you don't put any obstacle in the way of moving guards. If the path is blocked by a wall or a "stopping" object one out of two things will happen. Either the first guard will stop by the wall or object and by that stop the next one and so on, or if one of them starts immediately in front of the obstacle he will be able to pass through/by it and so will all other guards later and the player as well. If the obstacle is a stationary guard the moving guard immediately in front of him will pass by him, others not.
When guards are moving from one square to another diagonally both of the adjoining squares must be vacant (include no guard, "stopping" object or wall block).
Take care not to put a wall block on top of a guard or stationary object, especially not a "walk through" one. This will make it possible to pass through the wall. Don't put doors on top of anything either, and see to it that the doors have the right orientation.
You are allowed to have 64 doors (including stuck doors even if Mapedit does not count them), 399 stationary objects and 149 guards (including initially dead ones) in a level. In some cases the number of guards allowed will be reduced. See the accompanying text to Wolf-Extra about this. In addition you should avoid getting too many guards/stationary objects in the view port at the same time, some of them will not be painted. I don't know the exact number, and this should not be a big problem when creating levels, but bear it in mind when you are making extra big rooms. Again testing is the answer.
If you use 399 stationary objects the guards will not drop any item before you have reduced the initial number by picking up something. Then, or if the initial number is below 399, guards will drop items until the number reaches 399. Keep the initial number sufficiently below 399 to avoid having guards not dropping powerups. (This is not a big problem though, soon the player will have picked up enough items to remove this possibility.)
GENERAL POINTS ON BUGS.
Some types of bugs, such as having too many guards, doors etc. included, will result in error messages, others may make the program "hang", often accompanied with graphical "garbage". These types of bugs should by all means be avoided.
But some other "bugs" that I warn you about (regarding floor codes, objects etc.) CAN be used to create special effects. They are not found in any of my add-ons, but some other add-ons use them to a greater or smaller extent. My suggestion is that if you want to include effects of this kind, you should make it obvious (in some way) to the player when he comes across them that it is in fact a special effect, not a bug.
When using end game trigger objects (invisible to the player) to start the running hero, always put the exit in a northward direction, to make the end game animation look real (this cut scene will always make the hero run towards north). Make sure you have enough room for the animation to complete before the running hero reaches the exit (whether you use an outdoor image or something else) and that the path is not blocked by a wall block or an object. The original Wolfenstein uses six vacant squares beyond the end game trigger objects. See the before mentioned text file for points on the running hero vs. number of guards allowed.
When you use super guards remember that all except the Grosse family and the Fake Hitler are end game triggers.
End game triggers (objects or super guards) work on all levels.
As mentioned before the text file accompanying Wolf-Extra describes further super guard features, including the orientation of super guards, super guards vs. stationary objects and number of guards allowed. See above.
The point "orientation of super guards" does not apply to the Spear super guards, and of course only the last one of them is an end game trigger. The "Spear" ghost acts differently from the Pac Man ghosts of Wolf 3D. It starts to move when noticing the player but appears not to be able to move through doors. It can be made to temporarily vanish (only a little of the eyes remains) but reappears after a while on the same spot. When used in big numbers this ghost too can be a big threat.
ABOUT ELEVATORS.
An ordinary elevator will always take the player to the next level of the episode. Secret elevators will take the player to level 10, the secret level. It is possible to put secret elevators in all levels but you should only use them in those levels in which you find them in the original game. This is because the elevator in the secret level always takes you back to that same next level which it does in the original game.
However, if you don't want to use secret levels you can put an elevator (ordinary or secret) in level 9 and the boss (super guard) in level 10. Leaving level 9 by an elevator, you will get a message telling you that you have just finished the secret level! But you are in fact entering it. An end game trigger (object or super guard) will act as usual in level 10.
If you happen to put a secret elevator in the secret level it will act as an ordinary elevator.
Levels 19 and 20 are the secret ones in "Spear". An ordinary elevator put in level 18 will take you to level 19, and the Spear teleporter will always take you to level 21 no matter in which level you put it.
When editing Spear using Mapedit always use the first item in the list called "Elevator" the other one does not work.
As I have described, the many stationary objects in Wolfenstein can be used to achieve several level features. But they should also be included for decorative reasons, together with the different wall decorations.
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Some stationary objects in Wolfenstein are of a terrifying nature, skeletons, skulls, bones etc. I feel that the symbolic nature of these objects makes the game's describing of the Nazi terror not becoming what would have been unethical in a game. I recommend not to over-do the use of these objects. They can be made to create tension in especially gloomy or scary areas. By being used too much they lose their significance.
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It is the Nazi theme (wall patterns, objects and enemies) that makes the unique atmosphere of Wolfenstein and induces the player with the right "killer instinct".
There is no "light sourcing" in Wolfenstein, all rooms are brightly lit. Lamps should be added to create a realistic feeling. But there is no point in including lamps everywhere (gloomy mazes are best without them) even if it would have been completely dark without them in real life.
Wolfenstein is a fable. Like some kind of a dream. And as such the important thing is that it FEELS real.
There are several ceiling colors in Wolfenstein and some of them do not match all wall patterns. Likewise some wall patterns don't match each other. Unmatching ceilings and walls are disturbing and reduce the atmosphere (even if the player may not be conscious of it). Test your levels to see that colors are matching. One of the ceiling colors in Wolfenstein is a little special. The clear blue one in episode 2, floors 5 and 10. Ceilings with this color appear to be lifted off the walls, like some sort of mysterious sphere. I like to keep this impression by using only floor lamps in these levels.
Basically there are two approaches to making levels that work with the Wolfenstein engine. One is to make a game that keeps the Wolfenstein image but has entirely different layouts, another is to make a new kind of game, for example by including lots of changes to the graphics and the sound. Both approaches may give great results, but the former is to be preferred if you want to maintain the very special Wolfenstein atmosphere.
Adding wall patterns and objects from "Spear" is a good way to increase variety. The graphics used in the "Lost Episodes" have a somewhat different image. Adding these may give great results too, but beware that some objects from these episodes don't match too well those of the original. Several of the wall patterns of the "Lost Episodes" are brighter at the top. This creates fine effects when used together with ceiling lights, but again these walls will not always go too well together with the original walls.
To import and export graphical images use Wolfedit. When editing the graphics of objects and guards always leave the left and right border of the image empty, otherwise the program will hang. I made this green ghost by re-coloring the light red one. I thought that it was nicer with 4 ghosts of entirely different colors. Feel free to export this ghost from my version of the VSWAP.WL6 and use it in your add-ons.
If you don't use all the levels in a Wolfenstein episode for your add-on, empty those that you don't use. But remember to keep wall borders and starting positions in the emptied levels otherwise any demo that happens to start in any of these levels will cause the program to hang.
Sometime ago the Wolfenstein source code was released. This opened up even more possibilities for making new types of add-ons by editing the executable itself, and by that perform changes to several of the game's features.
Adding changes to the EXE, the graphics and the sound can be a good way for a level designer to realise his ideas on making great levels, and at the same time keep the identity of the original.
If you have any suggestions, comments or questions regarding these design tips or about level designing in general send me an e-mail. p-olstad@online.no
See also: Poet's Source code tutorial
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End of Level Design Tutorial (which turned out to be rather long). |
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