Blocks of Doom II
| Blocks of Doom II | |
|---|---|
| Author | James "Jimmy" Paddock |
| Port | ZDoom |
| IWAD | 
|
| Status | Open Development |
| Link | Blocks II Development forums |
Blocks of Doom II is a mod-in-progress started by James "Jimmy" Paddock. It aims to recreate - or rather, approximate - the gameplay of the Windows version of the classic puzzle game Chip's Challenge.
The 'II' in the name comes from the fact that this mod is something of a sequel to the "Blocks of Doooom" level for TurboCharged ARCADE!, the download for which can be found here.
See below for more information, and how to be a part of it!
The team
Current team
- Jimmy - Project Founder
- carlcyber - Scripting
- Starscream - Levels/Tilesets
- Dreadopp - Levels/Tilesets
- Lord_Z - Levels/Tilesets
- ZDG - Levels
- lukas - Levels
The project is open development, so more additions to the team are always welcome! Register now at the forums and make your contributions!
The concept
The player is dropped onto a 16×16 grid filled with blocks at an arbitrary location. There are several types of block (tiles), and the formation of tiles creates a 2D puzzle, maze or obstacle course that the player must escape from by finding the exit tile. In order to do this he must run around the grid collecting power spheres (shown as normal blur spheres). Once he collects the right amount, the exit exposes itself, and the player must then walk over it (after finding the appropriate path to it) to end the level. They then progress to the next level.
Other levels will require the player to kill all the monsters or simply find their way out of the puzzle to the exit square, rather than collecting spheres.
Worlds
Each map in Blocks of Doom II constitutes one world. Each world has a set number of levels (it is important not to confuse levels and maps), and the player will complete a world if he beats all of its levels. The final level is often much harder than its preceders, sometimes containing a boss fight with a particularly powerful monster.
There are two separate "episodes" planned for the final release.
Main episode
This is the main plot-driven (kinda) episode of the WAD. There are 20 levels per world (80 in total, plus four secret levels), all of which will be built by Jimmy (predominantly) and his team of level designers.
- World 1: Terra — This is where the first wave of puzzles will be dealt with, on an island in the middle of the sea.
- World 2: Egypt — You have been sent to the Great Pyramid for the next myriad of puzzles! Expect to get punished severely by the Pyramid's devilish traps and hazards if you're not careful.
- World 3: Castle — On this massive castle turret high above the skyline, you'll be pitted against all kinds of new hazardous obstacles.
- World 4: Hell — Your final stop on this journey involving insanely difficult puzzles concludes here - in the depths of Hell itself! These will be the hardest levels yet so be fully alert, monsters and hazards will be flying at you from all directions!
- Secret World: Ice — This world can only be accessed by getting all the spheres in all of the levels of a regular world, then you will be warped here to play one bonus level which you must beat before progressing to the next world. Be careful; almost every tile here is low-friction, so watch your step or you'll be sent sliding into certain death!
User episode
This is an episode of four worlds containing 15 levels apiece (60 total) and built by the Blocks II level designers (and, if all goes to plan, the general ZDoom community), from the ground up. It will be shorter but also considerably harder than the main episode.
The four tilesets to be used have been decided. Construction on its maps will start after the main episode is completed.
- User World 1: Paradise — Some kind of UAC training simulation containing a number of vile traps guaranteed to frustrate inexperienced players.
- User World 2: Tech — This large computer station has been designed to contain a number of traps and environmental hazards designed to fool even the most dextrous players.
- User World 3: Dark Carnival — This evil circus is filled with the cries of the damned souls who once walked over its unholy soil. Expect the unexpected.
- User World 4: Void — You have finally made it to the Ultimate Challenge — The Void. Move or die.
Levels
More than 144 levels are planned for the full release, which will not be any time soon, so don't even bother asking. :P
See the full level list.
Tilesets
Default tiles
These are the tiles that World 1: Terra will introduce you to, and will always appear in at least one level in the rest of the worlds, so get used to seeing them.
- Floor — Your average rock, sand, grit or grass tile that the player can walk over with ease.
- Wall — These walls block your way if you're on the ground, but they can also be walked upon.
- Lava — Avoid these walls - walking into or over them will kill you instantly. However, if you have a pair of fire boots you may walk over them; and you may bump into their walls if you possess a fire suit.
- Slime — Like lava, this will kill you, but you must instead find the slime boots or slime suit to be immune to it.
- Elevator — Walking into this will cause it to drop down and then move back up again, allowing you to move onto higher platforms.
- Wood — These frail tiles will collapse slowly if you walk over them. Once on top of them, you have only a very short space of time to jump off them again. Failure to do so may result in you getting stuck and unable to progress.
- Gravel — The player may walk freely over these, but monsters cannot. Beware! While standing on the tile, monsters can still shoot at you, or claw you if you're standing too close to them.
- Doors — These look like colored versions of the regular walls. They can be lowered if a key of the same color has been found.
- Thieves — Make sure you're not carrying anything useful before encountering a thief - these shifty-looking tiles will take all your boots and suits if you walk over them.
- Force Floors — These animated conveyor belts "force" the player in the direction they indicate. They can be overcome by having suction boots in your possession.
- Ice — Once on an ice tile, the player will slide in one direction until they land on another tile. They will also bounce off any walls they hit. However, they may walk freely over these frozen tiles if they have ice boots.
- Teleporters — Walking over these will transport the player to another spot on the grid. Most of the time this will be on top of another teleporter so you can warp back to your previous location.
- Exit — This flashing blue and red tile is what you must find to exit the level once the objective has been completed.
Additional tiles
You will encounter these tiles in the later worlds. Some of them will be unique to just one world; others may pop up in every world from time to time. They are listed here by the order in which they are first introduced.
World 2
- Trap Button — Walking onto this tile will trigger an array of things to happen. There are several colors of button, all of which have their own effect.
- Clone Machine — These things create (or spit out) the object shown on top of them. They are triggered by red trap buttons.
- Quicksand — The player walks slower through this stuff.
- Card Thieves — This shady character will snag your precious keycards if you step on him. Luckily, he's not interested in your accessories (boots and suits).
World 3
- Water — Like quicksand, slows the player down, but not monsters.
- Glass — Players have a very hard time walking on this smooth, slippery stuff.
- Fake Walls — There are two visually identical variations of this wall, which look like slightly discolored regular walls. One will become a regular wall if it's bumped by the player - the other will disappear. Only when inspected does it become clear which they are.
- Hidden Walls — These deceptive walls are totally invisible at first - even monsters can walk over them - but they will immediately appear once the player bumps into them.
- Hot Rock — At first, looks like fractured rock, but turns into seething lava once the player has stepped on and then off of it. You often won't get fireboots to backtrack over these tiles.
World 4
- Gore — Like quicksand, slows the player down, but not monsters.
User World 1
- Skin — Like quicksand, slows the player down, but not monsters.
- All Key Door — A locked door that requires at least one of all four keys to open. It also removes your green key.
- Insta-kill Lava — Looks much like lava except the tile's sides scroll. Particularly deadly, as it kills you even if your fire boots are present.
- Fake Lava Bridge — Another tile that looks like lava, except this one doesn't kill the player and instead collapses like a wooden bridge tile.
- Lava Elevator — Looks like an elevator but has a fullbright floor, and does lava damage that can be protected against with fire boots.
- Slime Exit — Looks like an exit but the tile's sides don't scroll, and instead of exiting the level does slime damage to the player.
Traps
All manner of obstacles will bar your path to the exit tile. They include (but are not limited to):
- Mines — These small, spiked balls of death bounce off walls and will explode on contact with monsters, other traps, AND players! They spell instant death for anything foolhardy enough to blunder into them.
- Stone Heads — These stone replicas of those farty gasbags you used to blast with shotgun pellets are here mainly to annoy you. They take up the space of one whole tile, so they will block off crucial passages if placed awkwardly, and will reverse direction, rolling forward until they impact a wall, if their respective blue trap button is triggered, during which time they are fatal to monsters and players alike.
- Fire Barrels — There are two variants of these traps, the first one stays where it is and burns quietly until hit by a monster projectile or triggered by a yellow trap button; then it spits out fireballs in all directions, burning players alive and severely scalding other monsters. The second one can be pushed around by the player and can only be triggered by the button.
- Pulsars — These static balls of sentient energy stay utterly still and damage anything that comes near them. If they get hit by a monster's projectile or mine, they explode violently, so stand back!