Favorite Mappers of the 00's

[Ralphis]

After seeing 40oz's thread dedicated to 90s mappers, I thought it would be a good idea to do the same for the 2000s now that they're over. So, list your favorite mappers and some of their notable works from 2000-2009.

Here are my fav 5 (alphabetically):

• Matt "RottKing" Cibulas - Dynamite DM, UDMX, lots of great CTF maps
  
• Fredrik Johansson - Vrack series, Castle of Eternal Carrot in the Sky
  
• Christopher Lutz - Phobos: Anomaly Reborn, Reclaimation (Heretic), The Dying End (Remake)
  
• Dylan "Toke" McIntosh - Vex, moo series, lots of great 1on1 maps
  
• Mike "Cyb" Watson - Massmouth series, Void, Zort, Urban Brawl
  

Honorable mention goes to Tarin (Boris) who created the fbase series which inspired me in the early 2000s.

All five of these guys were pushing boundaries in their respective areas of mapping while they mapped in the 2000s, and they did it in a tasteful, sincere way.

[vdgg]

Fredrik - I concur
Chris Lutz - I concur, though I would find his best maps in Caverns of Darkness
so I have 3 spots left. In no particular order,
The Flange Peddler - CC2 MAP07
Gusta - PL2 MAP17,18,09,05... Ksutra.wad
BPRD - CC2 MAP24, Equinox

Honorable mention to Kristian Aro, Paul Corfiatis and Nokturnus

[Phml]

Out of many, many great mappers, Erik Alm, Alexander S. and Insane Gazebo are the ones who stood out to me (and still do of course, as all three of them are still mapping). No point mentioning their works as it is pretty well known, except maybe for Insane Gazebo (the man behind Sunder).

[dew]

gusta and erik alm for keeping the classic style alive and fresh in anything they touch;
cyb for his sheer genius, his wads are the only real reason why i keep zdoom installed;
rottking, mostly for cchest3 map12. black rain is one of the most epic levels i've ever played and it's scandalously overlooked;
hellbent, he singlehandedly spams quality dm/ffa designs, however weird he might sometimes be, he's unparalleled in that.

[40oz]

I'd have to go with Erik Alm and Rottking

[darkreaver]

Among many others I`d say Anders Johnsen, though some of the maps may have been made before 2000, or been worked on from before to after 2000

Also the dudes that made Speed of Doom, who was that again? Joshy? Cant remember, wont bother checking.

[Khorus]

Kristus - Phobia: The Age, Nimrod: Ixnay on the Hombre and Project Doom

Fiend - Needs More Detail series

Use3D - Nilla Doom and various CC maps

[StoneFrog]

Kristus, for striking a wonderful balance between detail, flow, and intense gameplay.

gusta, for being fucking insane.

[Intel17]

I don't have too much pwad playing experience, but I *really* like Erik Alm's Scythe and Hell Revealed (forget their names).

[Philnemba]

Paul Corfiatis - For creating 2002: A Doom Odyssey and Whispers of Satan

Eric Alm - For the Scythe megawad series

Huy Pham(AKA Doom Marine) - For Dues Vult 1 and 2

Gusta - For Kama Sutra

Esa Repo(AKA Espi) - For Suspended in Dusk and Back to Basics

[aldiboronti]

I'd add:

Jan van der Veken (Classic Episode, Classic Episode 2 and his work on The Darkening and Darkening 2)

Chris Hansen (CH_Retro, Highlow maps and others)

BTW is there something in the water up there that makes Scandinavians such awesome Doom mappers?

[scalliano]

In no particular order:

Kaiser - for his numerous console projects and the greatest joekwad trilogy of all time.
Ixnatifual - for putting the "Doom" back into "ZDoom".
Agent Spork - for Ultimate Simplicity, a WAD which somehow manages to feel like it belongs on a console.
Tormentor667 - for UTnT, Sapphire, City Of The Damned 2 and managing to showcase what GZDoom is truly capable of whilst maintaining a good level of gameplay too.
Gunrock for Project Slipgate and Dissolution, two excellent Quake-inspired eps.

[Kaiser]

scalliano said:

In no particular order:

Kaiser - for his numerous console projects and the greatest joekwad trilogy of all time.

I wish I wouldn't be remembered for those

[Super Jamie]

Khorus said:

Fiend - Needs More Detail series

Fuck yes!

Also:
Eternal for Remain1
SlayeR for everything he's ever released
Vader for The Rebirth

[Doom Marine]

Andy Johnsen - AV Map08, AV Map18, AV Map26, AV Map29
His legendary Dooming exploits combined with an extraordinary artistic talent makes him my favorite mapper bar none.

The layouts and fights in his maps shows incredible depth and understanding of the combat elements, like Hell Revealed, but more refined and artistically sharper.

Studying Andy's levels, there's something really simple and clear about them, from how the player enter a room to how the fights progress, there is no magic trick, just solid layouts with a lucid understanding of how a fight is to be presented.

Andy Johnsen is to Doom mapping what Bobby Fischer is to Chess!

Kim Malde - AV Map20
AV Map20, AKA the Egyptian map, is one of the most beautiful, immersive Doom Map I've had the chance to play. Even more impressive is the fact that it's Doom2.exe compatible.

Fredrik Johansson - Vrack3
Fredrik created his own "clean" tech theme, beginning with vrack, evolving into vrack2, and culminating in vrack3.

Upon witnessing vrack3, the player is treated with a complex display of light, metal, and all shades of grey that ever existed in Doom. The layout is very node-like, full of interconnectedness that gives the player plenty of "Eureka" moments as he loops through the various atriums only to find himself back at a familiar area, but with newly opened doors. The logic in Vrack3's layout is mathematically beautiful.

On another note, Vrack3, I observe, is a window into Fredrik's huge brain (and ego), it is highly cerebral and at the same time, elegant.

Erik Alm - Scythe, Scythe II
When it comes to the combination of speed and quality in a project, Mr. Alm deliver in spades. Not only does he produce a huge volume of work in a very short time, his works are some of the best as well! From the E1-styled techbases to the ginormous hell dungeons, his versatility as a mapper is second to none.

Vader - Blackrock, Thunderpeak
In terms of visual fidelity, Vader's map is not matched by anything else currently out there. The thematic grandeur of Blackrock is awe inspiring.

Espi - Suspended in Dusk
Playing through Espi's maps, it feels like he's had this easy-going natural talent that "just feels right." A way to describe SID is E1-ish, but it is different enough that we can call it "Espi-themed."

The fights are not too hard, not too easy, not too big, not too little, feels "just right." In terms of layout and architecture, if you ever wanted to study texturing or proportions in a map, see SID.

BPRD - Jar Jar's Last Pinapple Fritter, Equinox, Grove
Malcolm Sailor - ChordG, Chord3
Gusta & _MethoD_ - Kama Sutra
Christopher Lutz - The Dying End

[Jodwin]

Erik Alm for the original Scythe 2 release. The other Scythes are nice too, but the original Scythe 2 (as in, map01-map28) is magical.

Ruba for Killing Adventure.

Doom Marine for Deus Vult 2. I find it a bit too convoluted at times in design which detracts from the gameplay, but when it works it really does work.

Kristian Aro for his maps in Whispers of Satan. He might not have had as many maps in as Paul did, but quality > quantity.

TimeOfDeath. When I was playing online more actively in mid 00s, most of that time was spent on Drown in Blood (and the rest on brit11, gothic and gothic2). In retrospect it might not be that great anymore, but back then it was the shit for me.

[DeathevokatioN]

Kristus, for Curse of D'sparil.

Vader, for Rebirth.

Joshy and Darkwave0000 for Speed of Doom.

Espi for Suspended in Dusk.

Anyone and everyone (except for Chris Wright, because his maps aren't that fun) who still makes classic styled Doom maps that are fun to play as well as cool to navigate through, where the variety is in the gameplay and layout. I've also played some mapsets from low profile mappers that have a 3 star average that totally blow me away.

[High Flyin' Ryan]

I've always been a fan of classic Doom maps. Being newer to mapping and not knowing a lot about ACS and other various ZDoom features, I attempt to keep my maps classic.

With that said some of my favorite mappers are those who make maps that are classic styled.

My picks for favorite mappers of 00s:

40oz and Super Jamie for UAC Ultra. This wad completely drowns out anything bad you could think of to say about it.

Erik Alm whom started my favorite series to play over and over again, the Scythe series.

The many authors of Hell Revealed 2.

Those are the favorites of mine that I can pull off the top of my head. There have been a lot of great mappers and authors to come out. Plutonia 2 was really good.

I also really enjoy playing the Claustrophobia 1024 series over and over.

[Super Jamie]

Eric Alm is an incredible mapper. Not only can he pull off multiple visual styles extremely well, he can make maps of differing, progressive difficulties very consistently. That's something I struggle with as I find it hard to judge when I'm making a map too easy/hard for players not as good as me and, perhaps more importantly, too easy/hard for players better than me.

I'm also gonna say Dutch Devil. Of all the maps he's made, I think I've not enjoyed two, and they were early ones.

[dew]

uhm... authors of curse of d'sparil, speed of doom, uac ultra... doesn't 2010 belong to 10's already? :p

[Vegeta]

In no particular order.

-Kaiser for CIF3, one of the few megawads I played from start to finish enjoying every single level. Not to mention the best DECORATE I have never seen.

-Scuba Steve, whatever he does for DOOM is always fun and fresh.

-Vader, great sprite artist combined with professional level designing skills. If he only added new monsters for Rebirth (the new baron and zombieman IMO are more of skins than actual new monsters), it would be a dream that came true.
It'd be cool if he make a revisited version of Rebirth adding a couple new monsters, and what not.

[Dutch Doomer]

I have many favoutite mappers, here is a few from the top of my head. The Doom community has alot of talent in my opinion, I'm glad to be part of it :p

Vader
Agent Spork
Espi
Erik Alm
Paul Corfaitis
Kristian Aro
Kaiser
Scuba Steve
Russel Pearson
Doom Dude
Doom Marine
Kristus
Mechadon
Joshy

[Guest]

Vader. Thunderpeak still blows me away, just to name one example.

Agent Spork. Ultimate Simplicity. 'nuff said.

Dutch Devil. 'nuff said.

Insane Gazebo. Sunder. I have playtested the latest, as yet unreleased map from Sunder, and even by Sunder's already high standards, it is just amazing.

esselfortium. Should have got a mention here somewhere. Always does quality work, and mapping is no exception to that.

Torm667. I have enjoyed a lot of his work. Austerity and uTNT particularly.

Alexander S. for HellGround and that big map with the 4 cyberdemons at the start. Forgotten the name just now. Very original, and lots of fun to blast through.

These are just a few off the top of my head. There are many others whose maps I have really enjoyed, some just recently: Erik Alm, zarkyb, Mechadon, Espi, Super Jamie and 40oz for UAC ultra, and last of all, whoever did map 11 from Alien Vendetta. Still my favorite map of all time.

High Flyin' Ryan said:

I also really enjoy playing the Claustrophobia 1024 series over and over.

Yes! I got a mention. Well, sort of. I did do several maps for this, so that is kind of a mention. Close enough. Thanks dude. lol.

[Never_Again]

Espi, Chris Hansen and Andy Stewart.

[Mechadon]

There are many mappers whom I look up to as well as enjoy playing their works. I know I can't think of and name all of them here, so I'll do the big ones (in no particular order).

Vader
esselfortium
Espi
dutch devil
Erik Alm
Kristus
Doom Marine
Agent Spork
brinks
Afterglow (though maybe he should be in the 90's thread :P)

As far as my influences go, those are the guys that have given me the most inspiration when it comes to mapping. There are many other mappers whose works I greatly enjoy too though.

And also lol my name was actually mentioned in here! That's pretty cool :)

[jute]

DeathevokatioN said:

I've also played some mapsets from low profile mappers that have a 3 star average that totally blow me away.

Name them for our collective benefit.

[High Flyin' Ryan]

Kyka said:

Yes! I got a mention. Well, sort of. I did do several maps for this, so that is kind of a mention. Close enough. Thanks dude. lol.

Well the maps are all really good in the series. Both the first release and the sequel. A big inspiration to a classic series I have started. Although, I'm no where near as good at mapping, but I still enjoy trying to please classic map fans. Haha.

I hope to see another Claustrophobia.

[RestlessRodent]

I like AV, AV is nice, I don't think I beat it yet but I did get very far, but then I got stuck due to a map bug somewhere.

[bytor]

After being away from Doom for ten years (didn't even have a computer!), my jaw hit the floor upon seein' Vader's stuff. I kept thinking; "NO WAY DID A HUMAN DO THIS!".

[Deeforce]

1.) "Scuba" Stephen Browning
2.) Epyo
3.) Daniel "Tormentor667" Gimmer
4.) Agent (Matthew McGee) Spork
5.) Stephen Clark (The Ultimate DooMer!)
6.) Daniel
7.) Erik Alm
8.) Steven Searle
9.) Cutmanmike
10.) Jan Van der Veken
11.) Xaser "The Conqueror"
12.) Brad Carney
13.) Andrew "Ninja_of_DooM" Fernie

and myself :-P !