Hi all, I hope this thread doesn't come across as a bit tacky, since I'm a new user barging in plugging something I made, but I think it's relevant to people's interests in here and I'm looking for feedback and discussion about it so hopefully it's ok with you all!
I suppose I should introduce myself, hi, I'm ArcturusDeluxe, I'm in my 30s and from the UK and I had an Amiga 1200 back in the day. It was cool and I have a lot of fond memories of it. Not sure where my particular machine ended up, so I emulate it these days. Good times. Anyway, I made a thing!
Long story short, I've remade (and very slightly reimagined) AB3D using the current GZDoom engine. It's (pretty much) finished too, you can go and download it and play through all 16 levels. Obviously there will be inherent differences since it's using a different engine, so don't expect an exact 1:1 remake just with higher resolution. It's its own game really, but I've tried hard to keep it pretty faithful to the original.
I did specifically add and change things though, to hopefully enhance the experience a bit, here's a few of note:
I drew a lot of new graphics - many of the aliens now have diagonal view angles and some have been completely overhauled. The art style on the regular troopers is less cartoony and fits in a bit better, for example, and the trooper variants that wield plasma guns and shotguns are now way more distinguishable. The spawny tentacle chaps have also been redrawn at a bigger scale as they appeared too small in the Doom engine. Some monsters now have death animations where they didn't before.
Enemy behaviour is different and more Doom-like, they will generally chase you down more aggressively. Honestly this is partly due to my lack of ZScript knowledge, but it is arguably better in a lot of cases. The boss fights have been purposely overhauled though - the robot boss is slower but now has a couple of different attacks, and the alien queen at the end now has multiple phases and the fight escalates as it goes along.
The weapons have new view sprites, and a knife weapon that didn't make it into the final game has been added for when you run out of ammo.
The maps also have a few changes, some shortcuts have been added to reduce backtracking, and now have visual enhancements like better texture alignment and coloured lighting effects.
I added some additional sound effects and I remixed some of Bjorn Lynne's music tracks made for the original game as well. No regular in-game music yet, but there is boss fight music!
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So basically I'm looking for any feedback, particularly on the difficulty balance right now. Is it too hard or too easy? There are no difficulty levels implemented currently, since the original didn't have any, but it's something I want to add, and I'd like to make sure I get 'normal' difficulty right first. Any other feedback would be greatly appreciated of course, especially if you find any bugs or major issues. Either way I hope you enjoy it!
You DON'T need a copy of doom2.wad to play. The download link below includes a current Windows 64-bit version of GZDoom - just run gzdoom.exe and you're away! Or if you already have GZDoom set up, you can copy the osiris.ipk3 file to wherever you keep your IWADS (such as doom2.wad etc). If you have Mac or Linux you'll have to download your own version of GZDoom, but just drop the ipk3 in the same folder and it should find it.
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It seems I can't directly link to the file here due to where its currently hosted, so please take a look at the thread on ZDoom.org for the download link:
Main project thread on ZDoom.org - check here for download, information and updates!
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A few more screenshots:
