Blog

Q: When will it be done?
A: Ahahahaaaaaaahahahahaha…ahaha…arrghhgirgle….*plop*

Q: But seriously, any idea when it will be released?
A: The development schedule is currently on an indefinite scale, so no. Ideally I would want it to be done in a somewhat timely manner (ie. a couple years at the most). But right now it’s done “when it’s done”.

Q: How far along are you now?
A: Since your reading this, it means that I’ve moved out of the pre-planning/pre-alpha stage. No mapping has been started yet; I’ve been working on getting the resources in and finalized first for a few months now. I will not begin any mapping until the largest majority of the resources are finished and ready to use. As it’s turning out, getting the resources together is a project in itself.

Q: Why are you copying Scythe II? Can’t you be original for a change?
A: Scythe II is one of my favorite megawads, and I like how it progresses with it’s episodic setup. Also, I’m really thinking of Supplice as a tangent to the Doom storyline in a way, so this setup is ideal. And no, I can never be original. You guys should know that by now.

Q: Why Boom format? Why not ZDoom or Eternity or some other, more advanced format?
A: I struggled with this question quite a bit actually. It boils down to this: Boom is highly compatible with most ports these days so it can reach a larger audience, I’m able to do just about all of my enhancements in dehacked, and mapping in Boom format is the perfect balance of simplicity with new features. If I went with a format with piles and piles of features, this project would just start to become bigger and bigger in scope. I’m only one man and it’s going to be difficult enough to do this amount of mapping on my own, so Boom’s balance is perfect.

Q: “Possibly COOP”?
A: Yea well, here’s the thing – I won’t know if it will work well in COOP until I can get some mapping and testing done. COOP is definitely a bonus and I will work hard to make it compatible. But Supplice is singleplayer first and foremost.

Q: Will you be releasing the episodes seperately, just like was done with the Scythes?
A: I wasn’t planning on it from the beginning, but I may change my mind. It all depends on how long the project ends up taking.

Q: Will you be raping my computer with insane amounts of detail?
A : I dunno…yea probably.

Q: Why are you adding new monsters and changing other things? OR *insert complaint about changing stuff here*
A: This project is not meant to be an entirely classic endevour, and as such there will be some new stuff. The weapons that will be tweaked will still function very closely to their original Doom counterparts except that they will be a little more powerful. The goal with the weapons in question is to bump up their teiring since I have always felt they were lacking in comparison to the rest of the armament. There were a number of monsters that I’m not even going to use (ie. SS Nazi, Keen, Icon of Sin, etc) and so I decided to use that as an opportunity to add some new monster behaviors. All but one [and 1/2] of the original Doom monsters will remain intact. Balance is a very big goal with all of these changes and I’m confident that they will enhance the overall experience in Supplice. If you don’t like changes or new things, then you should probably look elsewhere.

Q: Why are you bothering with a story?
A: Initially I wasn’t going to bother with a story when I first started the project. However as the project got fancier and fancier, I decided that I’d use an old fanfic I wrote a few years ago as a base for the episodes and the project as a whole. I’m almost thinking of this as a Plutonia or Doom 64 in that it will a part of the Doom line. I’m not going to spoil anything, but the story does connect in some ways to the original Doom, although not directly. In the end though, the story is more of a skeleton than a driving force of the project.

Q: What sort of gameplay can we expect?
A: Singplayer mapping is something that I, unfortunately, don’t have a whole lot of experience with right now. I really enjoy wads like Suspended in Dusk, Scythe II, and similar, so I imagine it will reflect some aspects from those map sets. I can say that the episodes will be more difficult as you progress.

Q: You said that it will have an atmosphere similar to Doom 64. What exactly do you plan on doing to achieve that?
A: Many things, actually. I’m planning on using an entirely new set of textures created by the talented esselfortium. They are a bit moodier than your normal Doom resources and they fit perfectly with my goals. There are also going to be sprite replacements for all of the weapons and many other items. The majority of the graphics (fonts, etc) will be replaced. And there’s also plans for a brand new soundtrack; ambient, dark, drone and stuff like that.

Q: How much of this work is going to be yours?
A: As much of it as possible. Originally, one goal of mine was to create anything and everything that was going to be used in the project by myself. As things changed though, the scope became a bigger and more in-depth, and I had no choice but to look outward for help. Right now I’m getting help with some of the sprite work, the textures, and the music. Some of the monster sprites are from existing projects and games.

Q: When will we see some screenshots or progress?
A: Whenever I get something worth showing. Probably not until a map or two is in progress.

Q: What does Supplice mean?
A: A quick Google search will tell you that it’s a French word meaning torture or torment. I got the idea to use it as a name for my project from Armored Core 4. It fits perfectly for a Doom project and I really like it.

Q: Aren’t you working on other projects like Vaporware, TSoZD, etc? Won’t a project of this scope take up all of your time?
A: Yes I am signed up to work on other projects, and I do plan on contributing to them even with Supplice in production. There is no question that Supplice will take an enormous amount of time to complete. However, I still plan on contributing to other projects with some good time and priority management, so no worries.

Q: You’ll never finish this, your too lazy and the workload is too huge.
A: Uh, is that a question? Barring anything serious, I have no plans on canceling this project nor changing many of the goals as they are now. The worst-case scenario is that it turns into a Mordeth

Q: Can I help? And who’s currently on the team?
A: I definitely welcome any and all help, but right now it’s going to be delegated to music/sprite work only. Later on down the line though, I will need some dedicated and discrete testers. My team currently consists of Jimmy91 (he’s helping with just about everything) and NeoWorm (hopefully will be able to do some spriting work for me). If your interested, please feel free to contact me.