Context out-of-context: I was just talking with my buddy and he made a joke about some video he saw of a ‘game room’ where you have to jump on lit squares on the floor (https://old.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/r6vfcj/guy_wins_super_difficult_game_all_on_his_own/). He made the joke that it was basically a real live run of a “SAVE BRITNEY BOUND MADNESS 2009 final”.
It took me to call up the reference, but then I remembered: that was a fairly common StarCraft Broodwar 'use map settings' custom map type - a 'bound', but with just the most typical clickbaity title you could manage for a starcraft map in 2005.
I then felt inspired to recall the different genres that thrived within the UMS world of broodwar back in the day. (might still be churning around?)
**### Thread purpose:
What are novel genres of 'gameplay' that you have experienced (possibly exclusively) within the realm of custom maps / user created mods, and what did you find noteworthy about them?**
I'll share some of my recollections from BW UMS maps.
### 'Bounds' Maps
I think the name comes from being bound towards something (homeward bound, east bound, etc), but these generally were referred to as a 'Bound'. The gameplay was effectively a obstacle course but with intricate timing involved. The unit you are given varied per map (often a zergling since they are responsive), but typically the mechanics involved some unit being spawned and destroyed immediately to create a visual 'explosion' that corresponds to a lethal area to the player. This is a high tier example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG7kUJk-BAw
Having spent a reasonable chunk of time playing FF14 between the last time I thought about a bound and now, I think the basic aoe mechanics have some archaic roots in this kind of map. I'm probably just blowing smoke, though.
### Evolves
You have a floating, invincible spawn point, and a main base bunker that can fire out in defense. Your spawn point creates units indefinitely, ignoring typical 'supply' limits for the game. Depending on the map, you may have a set of 8 or 9 pads in the corner of the map with beacons that you can move a unit onto to 'mass control' all of your units to attack that quadrant of the map. As you kill opposing units you earn points that then eventually level you up to spawn a different kind of unit. (scroll through different moments in that video to get a sense)
https://youtu.be/ckAD0IYy7jc
The numbers of units involved was so high that it really became a game about concavity and jumping on the opportunities presented by an advantageous unit. With up to I dunno, 8? players typically even if you have a ground only unit vs someone with a flying unit, either you or they level up past it relatively quickly, so those imbalances eventually worked out. The biggest 'problem' was from units like the scout who shot relatively slow projectile missiles, and the game literally couldn't handle rendering bullets for that many units, so you could end up in a big backlog where both sides are spawning huge numbers of scouts but only a handful are shooting. Once somone leveled up and got a hitscan attack, you quickly moved past it.
The movable spawn point and ability to both individually command units and use the mass command attacks made this one of my favorite genres.
### Golems
A similar initial setup as Evolves (spawn point, bunker as your main base), but the main difference was that you earned units in a side area of the map with a 'menu' interface for spending those units to buy 'Golems' to attack your enemies. These were all unique-ish units, with some different spell casting abilities and utility. I don't remember if all 'Golems' maps were this way, but often you had to move multiple units onto a set of 4 pads at once to input some combo to get the golem you want (e.g. 2,0,1,1 units would give a tank or something). This added in a kind of 'secret lingo' that you could gradually learn, and different maps had different combos.
The music in this video and the people being degenerate is era-appropriate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FW5Oeh0_fM
This also had similar 'mass attack' mechanics, but usually you didn't have a movable spawn point. This heads into the 'hero' genre.
### "Dynasty Warriors"
I only really put it together now, but I have moderate confidence that this genre of map is a proto-DOTA. Lanes, creep, heroes you choose and level up, some with spells. Often without spells, though, since we are talking broodwar, unless the map maker got super fancy with triggers. There were versions of 'warrior' type games that were more cooperative PVE sorts of things, but there definitely were lane-based PVP games as well. I can't find any good footage of these examples, however.
### Honorable mentions
Sunken / lurker defense (x-way) - The number and variety of tower defense maps were insane in BW. That was a huge time sink for me and my friends, great fun, many with "send garbage to your opponent" mechanisms, others with cooperative bents.
Madness / blood - like evolves or golems with less mechanics. The names were pretty hilarious. My favorite was Mcdonalds Tasty Madness where all units just had names of condiments and fast food items, otherwise were just unmodified starcraft units.
Trick maps - "Do you know how to float a drone?" Kind of like a bounds map but segments that are all based on different ways to break the game.
Super curious to hear other oddball game 'genres' people have experienced in other games.