#since it's text-based and i'm borrowing from rpgs

[fysa]

i got some friends to play lancer for the first time and they still blew each other up even when blast 1 radius was shown. ❤️

[doom-nerdo-666]

How to make a good Doom movie/show/adaptation (Maybe)

(For an image, i was thinking of either the PSP thing or the toys based off Sarge, Reaper, Pinky and an Imp)

"Why would anyone want another one?"

I'm just saying this IF there ever is a good reason to make one.

I know this topic can be overdone here but i feel like what's written below may or may not be more interesting than something like "John Wick with demons", because i tried to take it a bit more seriously (Even if the end result is a bit bloated and unfocused).

Try to follow "Doom standards" and explore the series beyond just surface level knowledge of it.

Leave it to actual passionate fans instead of studios or companies that don't see much in Doom.

Might as well go with animation in case live action isn't enough for the series' aesthetics, designs or spirit.

Give the impression that the movie or miniseries takes place inside a game.

First person segments, of course.

"Face segments" inside Doomguy's helmet, based off MCU's Tony Stark/Iron Man face scenes, to represent his HUD face, with holographic status bar/interface stuff next to him (Health, ammo, keys etc).

Narrator could be the "they are rage" voice who also represents the classic games' intermission text screens and talks in second person, to Doomguy.

Balance between humanizing Doomguy/Doom Marine/Slayer and keeping him "limited", such as not making him talk, along with showcasing his strenghts but also his struggles and difficulties at times because people want a hero they root for.

Occasional focus on other characters like the Resurrection of Evil lady scientist, that one Doom 2 RPG scientist dude, Kira Morgan, Quake 3's Crash and Phobos, Samuel Hayden, Olivia Pierce, Betruger, Night Sentinel and some others that existed in the "Doom universe" or any Doom material that can be borrowed.

Each Doom game is different and has something to it even if it's something as minor as a level name or some random sprites, so maybe don't restrict it to just one single portrayal of the series (Might as well go full on MetaDoom).

Action scenes that fit Doom's theme and setting, but not really gameplay stuff, like Doomguy or someone throwing a barrel at someone (Whether or not id themselves will make that a gameplay feature is unknown).

Humor and drama done right and properly executed (Not like anyone wants a sob story out of Doom, but nobody wants "MCU style writing" either).

Easter eggs and references are always neat but fuck reusing the "scientist named after Carmack" bit.

Occasional scenes of isolation to fit the "one person vs multiple enemies" part of Doom and horror focus.

Maybe create some new weapons and enemies to expand Doom a little bit (And also a little bit of inspiration for modders).

Make use of a variety of weapons and enemies, since they are different enough to create different scenarios.

Do "stepped/capped"/low framerate animation at times, like when some enemies die, so they can mimick their classic death animation sequences.

Actually use most designs from the games, from not making UAC guards look like generic SWAT officers (Even Doom 3 didn't really felt like this outside the Z-sec) to actually capturing an abstract, crazy Hell inspired by the games, but specially the classic Inferno (Because just rock landscapes isn't enough when there's also evil castles and a crazy mix of metal and flesh).

Find ways to translate gameplay moments into story like someone having to use a radsuit to cross a river of acid but the suit is running out.

Have a scene of some crew of marines stuck on a maze and trying to find the key, while some die from some traps.

Have a horror scene by introducing the Archvile, where he shows his powers in front of UAC folks who are then blasted by his fire blast and the resurrected demons.

Something that actually tries and ends up fun, even if still heavily flawed. Because these movies don't feel like they're trying harder, as if they took the series at face value and don't consider any idea or design interesting/iconic enough. Some say Doom cannot work simply because of it being a mainly gameplay focused series, which underestimates Doom, like it wasn't a series that spawned millions of vanilla Wads and was an extension to Wolfenstein 3D's otherwise more limited formula. Later games even introduce some new material as well. If any Youtuber ever makes a "Why can't a Doom movie work?" type of video, you may wanna look at this.

At least we can hope for some cool fan movies and animations, like people doing cool stuff with SFM/3D animation or that one "Doom Tribute" collab on Newgrounds.

I also almost forgot about a 90's Doom movie that never came to be

You might find info on it from MarphyBlack/SlappyCromwell on Twitter but it had concept art and maybe some models.

Edit: I made a very small post about it here.

You'd probably think of it as an extended version of the cut 3DO FMV scenes.

So in an alt timeline, we could have had a potentially more faithfull movie than the one from 2005 or Annihilation.

But at least those movies may've had some influence on fan content like the FreeDoom guy's face being based off Karl Urban or the BFG10K from Skulltag based off the movie's BFG.

In other news, wasn't there supposed to be a comic book taking place between Doom 2016 and Eternal?

[doorbloggr]

Friday 1/10/21 - Media Recommendations #20

Contents: Deltarune

I'd been meaning to get to this one for ages, so once again, I think to make it easier on myself, and my readers, today I am only recommending the latest videogame creation of Toby Fox. This ended up being quite an extensive article, so I split it into sections:

MY CONTEXT

OVERVIEW/PREMISE

GAMEPLAY

PRESENTATION

CONCLUSION

Deltarune (Chapter 1+2)

Toby Fox

1. MY CONTEXT

So context for my own gaming experience going into Deltarune, I have never actually played Undertale. Back when Undertale was getting big, it was only a PC game I think, and I just don't play games on PC. I probably should but yeah nah. Soon after it got popular however, I watched a comprehensive Lets Play of Undertale by Rubber Ross and Barry Kramer, and their voices for Sans and Papyrus are still to this day how I imagine those characters. Through that Lets Play, I experienced both the Pacifist and Genocide runs, and got intimately well acquainted with the characters and world Toby Fox had created, and how the actions of the player can shape how we save or ruin that world.

As a general context, I have always been a person who likes the idea of turn-based, random encounter fantasy RPGs, but the deepest I really got was Pokémon. I've been trying to change that recently, and after beating Monster Hunter Stories 2 a while back, I wanted to try more of the genre. Turn based battles are a lot more my speed than pure skill, like fighting games I've become sick of, and RPGs seem to be big on story, so when I heard the Deltarune demo had an update, I thought this is finally the time to jump into that world.

Going forward in this review, I'm gonna try and stay broad and unspecific with my descriptions, so as to not spoil. I may discuss some gameplay themes and characters, but I'm avoiding giving specifics away. I really think you need to experience all parts of the game yourself first.

Minor Spoilers for Undertale and Deltarune Ahead

2. OVERVIEW/PREMISE

Deltarune is a project of love. Pure charm and personality ooze from every aspect of the game. Dialogue is clever and snarky, and that charm even leaks into item and location flavour text. The setting and themes are fun, but with a bloodstained silver lining that is best appreciated by mature audiences. I guess I should just explain the premise?

Deltarune puts you in the shoes of a human named Kris. For unexplained reasons you live in a world of monsters and you are the only human. And by monsters, I mean curious looking critters of a variety of shapes and sizes, since, there is really nothing monstrous about them. One day at school, Kris and classmate Susie end up being transported to a whole different world where dark fountains construct monstrous subworlds, and it is up to the chosen ones, the lightners Susie, Kris and darkner (dark world native) Prince Ralsei, to seal the evils of this dark alternate world.

Deltarune is still a work in progress, and as the subtitle of this article suggests, 2 Chapters of a possible 7(?) have been released, and it is unknown at the time of writing if the rest will come out when the game is done, or as more standalone chapters.

3. GAMEPLAY

Deltarune borrows a lot of theming and game loop premise from its parent game Undertale. The tag line of Undertale was: the RPG where noone has to die. This is because the encounter based battle system is built on two courses of action to take. You may FIGHT enemies and reduce their HP to zero, or you may ACT, and talk the enemy into leaving the battle. Deltarune is built on this same system, but with extra layers. Kris is the stand in for the Undertale MC, who has the options to FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, SPARE, or GUARD. Most of those options were in Undertale too, but Guarding is a new addition where you earn Tension Points, or TP, for not engaging the enemy at all.

This TP is used for extra powerful ACT actions, or for special moves of the other party members. This is the main big difference in gameplay loop. Since the player controls a party now rather than just one person, each party member can specialise in different action types. Kris's ACT can incorporate input from other party members; Susie for toughness and Ralsei for softness, in general. Susie is the powerhouse, and if you chose the violent route, she does more damage. Ralsei is the Mage, and can heal allies, as well as use magic to resolve fights peacefully. Those extra abilities use TP.

In most turn based RPGs, there is a back and forth, where the player chooses actions, and sometimes there is a timing aspect to how well those actions perform, and then there's the enemy's turn, where most of the time you just have to wait and let it happen. Undertale and Deltarune have this truly unique system where the soul of the party members, represented by a heart, is directly controlled on the enemy's turn. It's a mini game unique to every enemy type, where you must move the heart around to dodge their attacks, and how good you dodge will decide whether you take a lot of damage, or even none at all. Deltarune adds an extra layer onto this, where if you make the dodge closer, so that the enemy only JUST misses, you earn TP, and open up more options for your next turn. I found this extra detail really endearing, and I made a lot more riskier moves than if there was no incentive to.

I probably mentioned it above, but just to close out this section, the option to either ACT or FIGHT opens up two types of play. Chapter 1, being a sort of intro part, does not differentiate, but the distinction becomes important later. ACTing to SPARE an enemy earns you money, and in Chapter 2, will lead to befriending monsters. FIGHTing will also earn you EXP in Chapter 2, making your options to hurt enemies more powerful. In Undertale, this difference in playstyle actually changed the ending in real time, and from what we know of Deltarune, it is likely going to be the same case.

4. PRESENTATION

Undertale had this unique visual charm to it that may have been a limitation of its Independent Development, but it was probably also a stylistic choice. Deltarune builds on the same type of artstyle, adorable pixel sprite graphics that bring a lot more colour and depth than its predecessor.

Many, but not all characters have little character portraits in their textboxes, and they change expressions to match the situation, and its so cute.

Character and enemy design are so top-notch. A team of designers have been brought on this time, and every one of them have brought gold to the table. Every random battle encounter is dripping with personality, as you learn how best to sweet talk your way out of battle, or how to best destroy them. Most recurring NPCs are lovable, and those who you hate, you love to hate. Dialogue is witty and hilarious, and the writing is fun.

The chiptune style soundtrack is phenomenal. Although I think Undertale's common enemy battle them was more memorable, that may just be that I have become more familiar with it. All character and boss battle themes are so catchy and energetic. Toby Fox is a master of high energy... fun music. It gets stuck in your head, and your brain bounces around at high velocity.

5. CONCLUSION

Ok so this review is already like 3 times longer than a normal Media Recommendation Article, and like 5 times longer than I planned it to be for this one game, so I should probably wrap it up here. Deltarune is a game experience I put off playing for way too long, and now I can't hold my excitement for when the next part comes out. And important to keep in mind, it is essentially a demo, in that it is just a taste of what's to come, but it is a damn meaty demo that will keep you engaged for many hours.

Chapters 1 and 2 are packaged together as a free game on most game platforms at this point, so there's nothing really stopping you from giving it a try. I don't usually rate my recommendations, but since I wrote this more like a review, I might as well...

Deltarune Chapter 1+2: 9/10

Please play it!