Ja det er store ord som Bethesda finder frem i denne beskrivelse af deres SnapMap banebygger. Den kan anvendes til at alle din egen personlige shooter. Læs med her:
I’m playing a game of tower defense. Only I’m a moving turret. Holding a plasma rifle. Shooting demons. From Hell. And the best part? I’m playing DOOM.
Welcome to Onslaught, one of the dozens of modes created by the development team using SnapMap – DOOM’s powerful but easy-to-use game and level editor. In Onslaught, four players work together (while competing for resources) to stop wave after wave of progressively tougher demons. In between levels, we’d warp to a store to spend our credits on better weapons and power-ups. It was during these fleeting trips away from the battlefield (with a timer counting down the seconds before the next wave would begin) that we’d engage in some light strategizing – one of us might grab a Combat Shotgun, another might swap out his Chaingun for a Rocket Launcher. Then we’d hop back to the level and the frenetic firefight would begin anew. One of us might hold his ground by the entrance; another would guard the exit; a third roamed around picking off demons as needed; a fourth spent some credits to spawn a barrier that helps divert and diminish the demonic flow. But mostly we were madly rushing around the arena, shouting and laughing and shooting and, eventually, dying.
After a good 15 minutes of chaotic co-op play, we were finally run down by a thunderous pack of Barons of Hell. It was then that Tom Mustaine, CEO of Escalation Studios, pulled back the curtain on this mode, showing me exactly how Onslaught was built. An entire hidden room was devoted to a spaghetti bowl of logic strings, powering both the weapons store and rampaging demonic hordes. While it certainly looked complex, Mustaine promised me that I’d also be able to build something like Onslaught with a little time and experience. “It looks daunting but ultimately it’s just a pile of variables,” Mustaine says. “In fact, this level and the entire mode itself were built in under a dozen hours from scratch.”
Create, Shoot, Share
That’s the beauty of SnapMap. It takes mere minutes to work through the first few tutorials and have some fun right away. But soon enough SnapMap’s depth starts to reveal itself. And then, with just a little more time, you begin to realize the astonishing power of SnapMap. You can make single-player, co-op or multiplayer modes. You can construct unique experiences: puzzles, challenges, music makers, wacky contraptions – almost anything you can imagine. And then, with even more ease, you can share your work with the community at large, publishing your level to all players anywhere in the world.
Developed in partnership with his team from Escalation Studios (which is temporarily embedded within id Software’s headquarters), SnapMap is a personal dream come true for Mustaine. In fact, Mustaine credits DOOM for jumpstarting his career in gaming. He started out making mods for the original DOOM in 1994, and helped build Final DOOM back in the day.
“With SnapMap we give you the ability to create something from nothing,” Mustaine says. “You don’t have to be a hardcore level designer. You don’t have to read tutorials or go nuts for weeks on end. You don’t need any experience. You can literally build something within 10 minutes.”
Or, as DOOM’s Executive Producer Marty Stratton puts it, SnapMap is a lot like a favorite toy. “We dump a big box of Legos in front of you and let you create whatever you want,” Stratton says.
My own limited experience with SnapMap revealed how easy it is to build something. Indeed, in the time that it will take you to read this paragraph, I made my first level. Now, mind you, it wasn’t a very complex level. But it did have everything necessary for a complete (albeit mini) experience: a DOOM Marine, an Imp (or ten), some explosive barrels and, perhaps most important, an objective. After just a few quick decisions, followed by a few minor adjustments, I was able to jump in and play.
Of course, that initial simplicity is by design. The first few SnapMap tutorials are meant to ease people into this content-creation tool, but the depth quickly reveals itself. After just 20 minutes with SnapMap, I not only learned how to string together some elementary bits of game logic – step past a certain point and an Imp appears; push a button to open a door and spawn a wave of deadly demons – but I also fiddled with the A.I. Conductor. This powerful tool auto-populates a level with enemies based on certain constraints that you can set, allowing you to focus more on the design and layout (or simply test out your level design before you plop in the demons yourself).
This is a big part of the vision behind SnapMap: a simple way to create and share content. Oh, and did I mention how quick and easy it is download this content? That’s because every copy of DOOM comes complete with all the necessary elements, so players only need to pull a small instruction file from a speedy portal filled with endless user-generated content.
An Onslaught of Content
After working through the first four tutorial levels, my mind is already racing with ideas that’ll require me to string together complex bits of logic. But, as Stratton reminds me, SnapMap isn’t just about building levels. SnapMap is also a portal that’ll deliver an endless array of unique gameplay.
“We know that some people might never touch SnapMap from a construction perspective,” Stratton says. “That’s OK. The real benefit for a lot of DOOM fans is the additional content they can enjoy. Through SnapMap, they’ll have full access to a nearly unlimited range of experiences they can play.”
And it’s not just co-op tower defense modes like Onslaught. Other internally built levels include a take on whack-a-mole using explosive barrels; a music-making machine that included a piano big enough for one Marine to strut on, along with a drum sequencer that another player can control; an escort mission where players have to protect a zombie as it shambles through a danger-riddled level; and a 3-vs-1 multiplayer mode that pits one demon against a group of Marines. (In fact, Mustaine explained that you can set up any configuration of co-op or multiplayer using up to four players.)
“The strength of SnapMap’s logic blows me away,” says Creative Director Hugo Martin. “People are already building some obscure, weird, gamey stuff that’s really fascinating. SnapMap has the potential to deliver infinite content for people to play for years to come.”