Squenched Avacausage - a Doom II mapset

It's 5 A.M., cloudy and threatening to rain as you drive down the desert highway, your ancient, beloved truck's engine furious about how long it's been driven. You aren't looking forward to going back to work after a time away from the big city, but this might just give you an excuse to put it off.

And then with a final wail and muffled thud, it gives up, and streaks of flame flash through the gaps in the hood. You didn't know it was even possible for an engine to fail like that. Extended vacation it is, then. You debate how long of a walk it might be to find the nearest payphone so you don't get fired, as your truck slowly rolls to a stop.

... In front of a large structure. Hm. Maybe they have a phone?

You climb out of the truck, but pause. There's a tingle in the air, and you feel like you're being watched. If the corps taught you anything, it was to never, ever, ignore that feeling...

At the edge of perception, you swear you hear a distant, howling scream. You can smell cooked meat and ozone. Something's not right.

You turn back and take your sidearm and a few magazines out of the glovebox. Just in case.

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Hi!

Squenched Avacausage is some sort of Doom project I've been working on since the end of 2021. It is a quest through the strange and unsettling world of SquenchCon International Food-Similar Products Ltd. and its many (evil) subsidiaries.

Its levels generally focus on rather close quarters combat and are around 10-20 minutes in length, except for the first, which is closer to 25. I have tried to think outside the box a bit with mechanics and design as well as architecture in particular. I guess I set out to try and make something new and different and experimental, at least to the extent that's possible with a game with such a heritage. Above all though - fun.

I would describe the difficulty as ranging from  "moderate" to "evil". I kind of built it at just a little bit above my own skill ceiling, such as it is.

The current Bite 2 version contains 19 maps, of which three are shorter intermission + slight puzzle sequences, and two are secret levels.

Special thanks to my test subjects for putting up with my cruel design choices (it's for the greater good)

For asset and soundtrack credits and other details, please refer to the readme file.

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Notes on engine compatibility:

This WAD has been designed to be run with Boom-compatible source ports. I have tested it with Nugget Doom 3.3.0, complevel 9, for "ground truth" compatibility, as well as with GZDoom g4.14.2, using both Boom and default compat modes. Testing has also been done with the Doom + Doom II port - there are a few oddities there, but nothing that affects gameplay.

Also, the levels were designed with having jumping and crouching disabled, and this is enforced via the GZDoom MAPINFO entry. Vertical aiming is preferred to be disabled too, but is less important.

There's presently no difficulty scaling - all settings are equivalent to UV difficulty right now. I really want to get this added eventually though!! Bite 3 for sure oh god!!

Also I have no intention to support multiplayer (deathmatch or co-op), for a lot of reasons, such as every bit of level logic catching on fire. Sorry!

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P.S. - if you enjoy my particular mishmash of nonsense, you can get me my very own avacausage on ko-fi to help support this and other completely unrelated nonsense:

https://ko-fi.com/novaplusplus