Fastest megawads or level sets ever created (decent quality)?

[Nash]

I need inspiration. What are some of the fastest level projects that have been made? With actually decent quality (as in, no joke WADs or the same map copied 99 times with minimal variation, etc, basically no gimmicks - I mean ACTUAL levels).

 

By "fastest" I mean, creation time. Like for example, a full level pack made in 7 days or anything to that effect.

[Shepardus]

There's 5minmap which according to the text file was "5 minutes per map, probably a day or two total of people working on maps," and D5DA which was inspired by 5minmap.

[CoolerDoomeR]

I only know "Boaty McBoat" wad that created in 1 month with 16 levels.

 

[Faceman2000]

Deathless, by @Jimmy, was made in a week.

[RHhe82]

I’m currently playing Mayan Reynolds, and I believe the accompanied text file says it was done in 7 days. The pack contains 8 maps (I think the last one is a credits map, though).

 

I found that inspirational from a mappers’ point of view, because I really like what they’ve done. A solid, solid mapset.

[Endless]

Jimmy is pretty much a master of speedmapping.

• Deathless, complete megawad made in just 9 days.
• Jenesis, made in a few months.
• ISOLATION, not sure but I think it counts.

Some of the Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions are also quite solid. Most tend to be gimmicky but every once in a while they make some really impressive sets. ASS 13 is one of my favorites.

 

Scythe is pretty much a given. Was made in around one month, I believe.

 

The 32in24 series is all speedmapping in 24 hours, and these are (most of the time) quality sets. Although, not sure if it's what you're looking for since they're made for multiplayer.

[Csucskos]

I don't understand, please can you explain? Why you think it's good inspiration to look at good wads made in a short time period? I know, for me it'd be really demotivating seeing how other people do better things than me, much faster. My ideology is, if it takes time, then so be it better late than never.

[RHhe82]

10 minutes ago, Csucskos said:

I don't understand, please can you explain? Why you think it's good inspiration to look at good wads made in a short time period? I know, for me it'd be really demotivating seeing how other people do better things than me, much faster. My ideology is, if it takes time, then so be it better late than never.

I can’t speak for OP, but personally inspiration lies in the fact that fast quality wads are proof that it doesn’t take a meticulously crafted grand magnum opus to produce a great map. While my skills are lacking, fast made maps reveals it to be possible to accomplish stuff enjoyed by others with the time I have.

 

(If Sunlusts, Sunders and such were reported to have been made ”in a couple of days”, I’d be more devastated, but when we talk about quality wads, we talk about a wider range of great wads, don’t we?)

[Nash]

On 3/18/2022 at 5:14 PM, Csucskos said:

I don't understand, please can you explain? Why you think it's good inspiration to look at good wads made in a short time period? I know, for me it'd be really demotivating seeing how other people do better things than me, much faster. My ideology is, if it takes time, then so be it better late than never.

 

Personal challenge. I like making things fast. Quake clone in 10 days was just the beginning. =P

So the next step is, "make things fast, but also good".

[Bauul]

Team Rocket: Blasting Off At The Speed Of Mapping is the obvious one that jumps to mind: Dragonfly, Jimmy, M_Tropp and AD_79 made an entire 32-map megawad in 24 hours.

 

Additionally you could include various speed-mapping community projects where everyone spends just a few hours mapping and the results are compiled into a mapset.

 

However, you could argue in terms of working-hours spent, these are probably longer than the examples listed in the thread because of how many people are involved.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Bauul

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Seconding everything @Endless said. The ASS wads and Scythe are a lot of fun. I really enjoyed ASS7 and ASS60. I personally took part in 62 and 63, but I can't say my maps were any good heh. Very gimmicky and make me look like a beginner. 

 

Also, a shameful self plug: 

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/rlt

 

This is my first attempt at a speedmapping episode, and it got pretty good feedback here on Doomworld. It's not nearly as good as some of the ASS maps, and certainly isn't Scythe. That said, it was seven maps made in about 5.5 hours. I usually take forever on my maps. 

 

Another example are the awesome Three Hours of Agony wads by French Doomers. There's three of them and in my opinion, they get better as they go along. Really solid stuff.

 

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/3_heures_d'agonie

 

Another speedmapping wad is Heroes' Tales, by the Russian Community. It's 33, very good maps all made in four hours. They did revisit them to bug fix and clean up the levels though (something RLT.wad really could've used heh). Oh it's also the TNT.WAD IWAD, so don't forget that. I am also warning that a few if the maps weren't speed maps, but the majority of the wad was made in four hours. 

 

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Heroes'_Tales

 

Hope that helps. Good thread idea, I personally love playing speedmaps.

[OniriA]

Scythe 

[LadyMistDragon]

180 Minutes Por Vivre. I can't tell you if most of the maps were largely completed in one setting but it's INCREDIBLY impressive how some maps of fairly large scope could be essentially constructed within a roughly 3 1/2 hour time span.

[Nefelibeta]

7 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

180 Minutes Por Vivre. I can't tell you if most of the maps were largely completed in one setting but it's INCREDIBLY impressive how some maps of fairly large scope could be essentially constructed within a roughly 3 1/2 hour time span.

Off topic but somebody should host another speed map project of high quality. There needs to be more.

[Pechudin]

There was the Tenth Gear and Half Moon, hosted by @Dub Bag, which are maps created in 10 and 30 minutes, respectively.

[Bridgeburner56]

Slightly longer but Mapwich 1 was a 2 week build time which was (largely) adhered to. And there are some seriously thicc maps here.
 

 

[valkiriforce]

Surprised no one has mentioned AUGER;ZENITH since that was done in about a month. Most of the DBProjects have a similar timeframe.

[Crusader No Regret]

Khorus' Speedy Shit, while not the fastest made out there, does fit the spirit of the inquiry.  As valkiriforce already brought up, DBP series generally have short development times too.

[spineapple tea]

On 3/18/2022 at 3:23 AM, Endless said:

Scythe is pretty much a given. Was made in around one month, I believe.

More specifically, "25 days of building, 25 days of slacking off" according to scythe.txt. Very impressive for less than a month of work.

[galileo31dos01]

Hellevator and Skulltiverse, mapping time frame of three days and a week or so respectively.