DESCRIPTION

Jungle Spirits is my attempt to create a levelset very strong in atmosphere and setting. Non-linear level design is employed here to steer the gameplay into a Hexen-like direction with emphasis on exploration. There are no “puzzles” as such.

With this set, I aimed to change up my mapping approach just a bit. I felt that a lot of Jenesis, which at the point of me starting this project was 3 years old or so, was very boxy and linear, particularly my earliest efforts, as in the ones that appeared in Part 1 of that set.

However, again I went with speedmapping, as it puts me under a certain pressure to not focus on the minutiae of mapping and ensures that I get something done promptly, and let my creativity out in a way that can quickly be realised before I run out of ideas or patience. In the case of the first map of this set, this resulted in a large scenic view with an abundance of negative space – larger-scale stuff is something I’ve not dabbled in very much before, and it was almost entirely absent in Jenesis.

I was also not too familiar with creating caves and organic structures of that sort, so a natural non-clean setting like a wild, watery jungle will allow me to hone those skills too. I felt that large structures would also help me be mindful when placing monsters and building level progression. Jenesis featured demons, chaingunners and revenants on the very first map – I wish to take it much slower with these maps.

Jungle Spirit has therefore been something of a stepping stone for me, just to see what I’m capable of when I change up the formula a bit, although I’m sure I’ll fall back on my old tropes before too long. 😛 I still very much want an entertaining mapset, but in a wholly different way to Jenesis, which was at times extremely brutal and bordered on slaughter-style, which unfortunately is a playstyle I just can’t seem to get into.