Hanging Gardens DM Map – Before and After (Screenshots)

Casey

I’ve been making Doom maps since 2009 and it’s always interesting looking at my past work and admiring how much I’ve improved since then. It’s also fun seeing the hidden gems I made. I decided to take a deathmatch level I created in May 2016 and update it to make it look and play better. It was originally called “Ruined Garden” but I decided to add a little play on words with “Hanging Garden” because of the foliage and gore decorations.

This level will made available in the future with an upcoming deathmatch map pack I will be releasing.

Here are before and after screenshots with commentary!

Original – Inside Hall
Updated – Inside Hall – Has a much better ceiling, added some water and a waterfall, and the area is much bigger. Many of the updated areas are bigger because the original was very claustrophobic.
Original – Chaingun/dirt room – This room always reminded me of a barn and I decided to change that.
Updated – Chaingun/Dirt Room – Weapon pickup areas are more detailed, the stairs are much easier to traverse. Added some cover on the upper portion as well.
Original – Outside Corner – I always loved this area but it seemed kind of tight.
Updated – Outside Corner – Now with a pond! It’s a lot more fun to fight in this little area now.
Original – SSG Slope – I always liked this area too. Not much going on here.
Updated – SSG Slope – There is now a cliff over the SSG just to added some detail.
Original – Center Rocket Launcher Area – For being an area with a rocket launcher it was always super small and made it a little unfair.
Updated – Center Rocket Launcher Area – Bigger, more detailed, and more fairness. There still isn’t any cover here but we don’t want to make the rocket launcher too safe to acquire.
Original – Entrance to Cave and Slope – I always thought the original cave was boring and ugly.
Updated – Entrance to Cave – Now the cave looks like a cave!
Original – Split Level Inside Area – Too small and the items sucked.
Updated – Split Level Inside Area – Better items, new grenade launcher area, hidden armor that makes you a target if you slow down to grab it, and a much bigger area to play.
Original – Vine Fence – I love this area but looking back it had a lot of room for improvement.
Updated – Vine Fence- Much prettier now and has a more “garden” feel to it.
Original – Boring Sloped Ceiling
Updated – Awesome ceiling made with sectors. This took a couple hours to complete one morning where I couldn’t sleep. I wanted a cool ceiling and couldn’t use slopes because of the added floor detail in this area.
Original – Clever barn door idea but interrupted deathmatch gameplay because it was a small door and you could easily get stuck on the edge of the doors.
Updated – Still wanted to use the door texture because it looks cool but made them into pocket doors I guess lol