MAP11 : Violent Playground (Grandma Strikes Again!) by AnArchaicApparatus
Author's Comments:


GRAND MA!?!?!?!???

JETSONS!???????!????



Anyways, long story short, Novaseer was making a spare or two given the state of
the project & all the folks sitting on their slots/otherwise dropping out due
to whatever complications late-game, so I started making this map with no-monsters
bit-by-bit, then took a detour to make a map for D!Zone Community Project* over the
next few days, and returned to finish this map & shove monsters in whatever nooks
and crannies needed em.


I would kinda consider this one of my speedmap things, even if it took a few days
from start to finish, cos I was pretty much throwing stuff together in that sort
of no-nonsense 'getter-done way.

Like with MAP32, I didn't aim for a specific theme, and pretty much used whatever
textures look cool, though in this case it was without knowing what slot this
was gonna be used in. I was kinda doing a 90's-base sort of thing spiritually
and geometrically just out of habit & because it's fun, and gladly leaned into
throw-textures-at-the-wall themeless jamming for the purpose of making it fit
into whatever slot might be empty whenever it might be called to the front.

Also, this is probably my best/favorite attempt at a non-linear map! A good bit of
interconnectivity, room-over-room stuff fitting naturally into everything,
a few simple optional-and-mandatory puzzles alike, etc. I've tried a similar
room-over-room heavy non-linear kind of structure almost a decade ago, in a
Scythe X inspired romp, but abandoned it like so many other projects at the time.


Most of this was meant to be kinda a breather between all the massive maps that
were towering up, and just by virtue of a lot of this map being only 178 monsters on UV,
and a lot of them being optional due to the non-linear layout paired with an
unbroken path to the exit, etc.


My original idea for this map was that I would do a multi-tiered mapping challenge:

- One area stacking multiple challenges together:
  > Taking the 1024x1024 idea a bit further, and making a 512x512 box
  > 10 sectors maximum
  > Potentially using only one wall texture, and one floor/ceiling flat
    + This overall area would probably be used to fiddle with making a puzzle
      within said limited confines, and fiddling w' linedef actions and so on.
- Once the previous area was done, that tiny area would connect to an area outside
  of it, which would be made in a limited amount of time, maybe a few hours maximum

It obviously didn't turn out like that, but I might wanna do that in the future.
Feel free to rip it off though, cos now that this is packaged with NOVA IV,
you can't escape the evidence!!! Nyahhahhahaaa!!!!-

-also, because it'd be dumb to hoard an idea like this. Sharing is caring, after all.
Feel free to DM me on DoomWorld if ya do something like that after reading this.


I had some other name ideas on a lil ripped bit of paper for as I was working on
what the map ended up being, but that's probably either under my bed/on the floor/on my desk
somewhere, or got thrown away. Regardless, here's those early name ideas:

- De La Kuti and the Mysterious Magic Groove Machine + The Colorful Solution
  Strikes Back
- Tym Hallderman
- Lauras Lesbian Express
- Sophies Spectacular Spinning Short Scenario
- Tiny Revenge
- Mr. Boom Overdoses on Scriptables


Yeah, not much to talk about here compared to MAP32 (and nowhere near as much torture
for an unsuspecting reader expecting some fun blurbs.)
  



*now renamed in-development to D!Zone Bronze based on the Titlepic I made for it
as of time of writing, and I gotta get on playtesting for it soonly.
 
----

UPDATE APRIL/21-23/2025:

Given that Pigeons got shoved into a secret slot for reasons that I elaborated on in that entry,
it gave me a lil reminder about this map still being in a normal slot, so I kinda just started adding
a new room, and noodled a few more paths and stuff from there, with the main things that I wanted to
do being the, "vent," thing and its additional nonlinear paths, and the start/end area being
a kinda rocky, natural area to actually ground the episode theming a bit.

Pretty much just last-minute changes to make it a bit more interesting on its own, and make it
contextually fit a bit more.

----

RC3 UPDATE - November/14/2025 (It's not gonna be long before the drop, as-of-writing)

Thanks to Dusty for updating their dev commentary, or I would've forgor.


At the point I was getting on the reworks, I was pretty burned out on MAP32 related stuff, and wanted to
make sure this map was more servicable before getting back on the gigamap, since it was initially
pretty much a pseudo-speedmap.


The main ways I buffed this odd doodad of a map were:
- Add even more non-linear paths/areas for the player to take, with the aim of generating as few
  identical-pathed playthroughs by different players as plausible.
  > Making the, "vent," area entered from most areas that it can be exited was a big part in it
    which Arsinikk suggested.*
- Little arrows everywhere pointing the player towards where they can get the red key, so they can
  just go straight to it and leave if they want
- Nuker!!! Just a button to evicerate almost every monster remaining on the map
  > I've wanted to use this idea for a very specific personal-project map probably for years, but
    never got to it. The first time I actually implimented this concept was for the trench
    in Lilys section of MAP32, since one pesky chaingunner (it was always a chaingunner) kept
    teleporting into it & making 100%'ing kills annoying. 
- Beefed up combat
- Add an actual more-whole sort of starting area (and move the choose-your-weapon there instead of
  near the exit, to make sure the player can have something no matter where they go); The link
  to V1perK1llers map with the teleporter exit was one of the main reasons I made it:
  > The original idea that I sketched out a bit before scrapping was instead to have the player
    start in area inspired by Eternity E2M3 w' a watery pool below the waterfalls at the start,
    and come up via the rocks working as a lift. I got a good way through working at it before
    just dropping it for some reason.
- Outro section that links to Dustys map
  > This was probably inspired by people like Prof. Bloom and/or Vortale reacting with,
    "Huh, that's it? okay." when going into the cave & immediately exiting.
- Rework to Novaseers composition Manifold, mainly to add drums as-per Arsinikks advise**,
  though I added other stuff like, "the Bobby Prince changes," and new instrumental layers.
  > I thought the original had its uniqueness to it from the lack of percussion, but
    it seemed a good change to make for here at least.
- A few misc. quality of life improvements, namely making the hellish areas lift actually
  easily accessible after doing the semi-puzzle thing.
- Using up some of the milder patch-based textures that I made for MAP32 at the time, since
  I liked them enough to not want to waste especially the ones that might've been only used
  in one or two sections in spite of being nondescript enough to use wherever.



The file for reworking was created 30/August, and the RC3 version was submitted 19/October,
and I was probably doing other stuff like my Ship of Theseus II submission during that specific
timeframe in the interim - it's not like it took that long to rework this map of all things lmao,
though I do recall it taking more time than I would have liked it to. No bother though.





The slight rename from Grandma Strikes Again to Violent Playground (Grandma Strikes Again!) was two-parts:


The Violent Playground part was both since it describes the map to a tee in terms of flow and gameplay,
and to honor Douglas McCarthy - mostly known for the seminal EBM/Electronic band Nitzer Ebb (whos track
Violent Playground is included on That Total Age,) though has worked with Alan Wilders Recoil project,
Terence Fixmer, etc. He passed away 11/June/2025 after a period of taking a break from performing
due to cirrhosis complications, from which he succumbed.


The ! added to the original title Grandma Strikes Again was suggested by Tamara Mochaccina when she
playtested the revised version of the map right before I shared it in the server when I mentioned
the name change, and that the old title would be in parentheses.

On that note, I do find it amusing that the first time I actually got to watch someone over-the-shoulder
in a playtest for one of the maps I worked on for this WAD, it was this one instead of MAP32, which
was so loosely tested in that regard (people played it but not in a VC and without taking videos,) that
after RC1 dropped, many of the issues I noticed from Vortales early-on stream playthrough
probably would have been noticed if I had the opportunity to do so even once (not to discredit
Vortale at all, of course.)

Thanks to Tamara, she cool and do cool stuff... Go play Underhalls.pk3 or something, will ya?






** "There's a pretty cool stairway you can find that takes you to various parts of the map...
However while I thought this was cool, it feels a bit un-utilised as you can't go back when you fall down
from it into the other sections... The result is just a corridor that is one-way, that isn't that useful
for inter-connectivity, which I think is a bit of a waste."

*** "This is another map where I IDMUS'd. I will say this music track is leagues better than MAP33's,
but I feel like half of the music track doesn't have drums, which I think is a shame and undersells
the midi a bit."

- Excerpts from Arsinikks May/22 full-WAD writeup in the release thread,
  less than a month after RC1s release