The Mapper Thread

[valkiriforce]

What with the abundance of topics on all the different Id Software employees, why not just talk about mappers in general? Be it from the company or the community, and those who were later to be involved in the company. :)

Dario and Milo Casali have been favorites of mine since I first played Final Doom last year. It still amazes me that two people could make such a great megawad in four months time, versus a community of mappers trying to organize everything and taking much longer to get anything done (CC4, sorry but it's true). I've also enjoyed their contributions to other megawads like TNT and Memento Mori and feel they've really discovered their own style with their earlier maps.

Another couple mappers I thoroughly enjoy the works of are Sverre Kvernmo and Jim Flynn. Sverre's maps for The Master Levels are very innovative and possibly the most creative maps I've ever played (with exception of Bad Dream). Jim Flynn on the other hand has such massive creations and I love exploring his maps. The Titan series really is probably one of my favorites, alone with the Enigma episode. His Eternal Doom levels were insane when I already felt he couldn't possibly be any greater. I actually wish my mapping were more Jim Flynn influenced cause he seems to have a thing with taking full advantage of Doom's linedef actions and creating a wonderful adventure along the way. Sverre's Eternal Doom levels were great, too, by the way. :)

[Sigvatr]

Malcolm Sailor goes down as my favorite mapper of all time, id Software or not. His maps had a very good balance in them betweeen detail and good gameplay.

One of the things I liked about his maps was how he used relatively few monsters to create some of the hardest maps you will ever play. His ammo placement was so carefully placed that hunting for health and ammo becomes one of the most important aspects of playing his maps, and this is something many people disregard these days; usually by just throwing shitloads of ammo on the floor.

Ultimately, CHORDG is my favorite map of all time. All in all it does so many important things excellently: monster use and placement, atmosphere, detail, ammo and health. It's like the perfect Doom challenge to me and I never find it boring.

[Nameless]

Whilst speaking of lesser known mappers: Anyone know if Haggay Niv has made any other map, other then the one he made for Hell Revealed.

[valkiriforce]

No, I think Hell Revealed was his only contribution. I checked both the idgames database and google. Everything points to Hell Revealed.

To mention some other great authors: Iikka Keranen & Anthony Czerwonka. From what I've played their levels still seem pretty high-quality gameplay-wise. I've played their levels through Dystopia 3 & Requiem, but I've not yet looked into whether they've made other maps (which I'm sure they have). I did try some maps from Malcolm Sailor, pretty fun stuff, by the way. I really liked CHORD_NG, reminded me of The Silos from Memento Mori II for some reason.

[Khorus]

Well. I'd say Use3D is one of my favourite level designers. Kristus was very influencial to me back in 2005-2006 too.

[Foodles]

Erik Alm, you have to respect a guy who can make 2 megawads almost single handedly, and such great maps too, Epsi as well, Suspended In Dusk was amazing as was the Shrine, hav'nt played any of his other maps yet but I keep meaning to.