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Buckshot

COMMUNITY CONTEST!! Romero-signed D!ZONE Collectors Edition

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A community (un)OFFICIAL CONTEST!!! Yay!

Strictly to the WAD'ers and MOD'ers of DOOM.... who have supplied us with ENDLESS hours of extra 'ripping and tearing over the years and continue to do so. DOOM will never die. And you guys are the reason why.


I picked up a few things from Romero's spring cleaning spree last week, and there's one collectible in particular that I believe is a good fit for some lucky person here in the WAD/MOD community more than it is for myself. This applies to each of YOU, 'oh faithful mapmakers. Yes, you're the ones I'm talking about. And how could it not be... right up your alley, and a bit of your legacy. It's in your bloodline.

A boxed copy of 'D!ZONE Collectors Edition' owned and personally signed with a custom message "Keep DOOMing! -John Romero", right smack on the front of the box. Yeah, it's used and has a few faded corners. Yeah, it's in fair shape. not mint condition.... but still pretty good for the test of time. But lets be serious, its the Romero scribble we care about. And the fact it was his personal copy he clung to all these years... well now, that's just badass anyway you look at it.

Here's a couple of pics.... keep in mind, it's only the D!ZONE Collectors Edition that's part of this contest. The rest of the items in the picture are NOT part of the contest, and not for sale. It also includes a signed invoice sheet by Romero as well.


http://s8.postimg.org/p2or5dtdh/10923510_10152848818418616_27038566965215400_n.jpg

-and-


http://s8.postimg.org/3ub2nyewl/11150638_10152848818363616_3129040472483706784_n.jpg

and a video overview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwo7PYjAFe8


WHAT I WANT FROM YOU:
A -single- classic DOOM 1 style outdoors map that is alike a blend of E1M8, E3M6, and E3M8.... my favorite maps. That's it. Keep it classic. Not looking for anything new-age and fancy... I want it to feel as if I was playing a level straight of DOOM 1... no custom textures, no sloped floors, none of that silly nonsense. But I want a onslaught. And a few mountain-like islands and maybe a couple little nice bases or forts to explore in between.


"WHERE DO I SEND IT/ POST IT?"
Post a link to the WAD right here (I prefer that you do... so others can enjoy and verify its originality to your design), or message me once complete and I'll send you a email addy to send them to. IT MUST BE CREATED BY YOU. It doesn't have to be from scratch, but reference you use to create it must come from YOU and ONLY YOU. Don't load up someone elses map, modify it, tweak it, etc. That's very bad and you'll be shamed for it. If you feel you have a past map that meets these requirements... go for it. So long as it is your work.
You can, however, make the map as a team effort with a buddy... however keep in mind, anything short of of cutting the box in half, only one of you will walk away with this signed copy.


"HOW LONG DO I HAVE?"
Winner will be announced in the morning on May 20, 2015.. right here. Deadline is midnight on May 19.


"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?"
Hopefully to encourage some fresh maps and reward the WAD/MOD community for all their hard efforts. A gesture of good faith, and a token of appreciation. DOOM has been a huge part of my life, as well as many of yours. I've followed and been apart of this community (though generally silently) for a very, very long time. I always sucked at making maps, but I sure played the hell out of them. Time for me to give back to those who made the past 20-something years an absolute blast!


HOW WILL THE WINNER BE DETERMINED:
As much as I like to give everyone something for their efforts, I can't (obviously). The map I feel is the best is the winner. Plain and simple. If you share it and others play it, their opinion will not affect mine (unless they feel your material is plagiarized, then Ill review it). Suck at making maps? Give it a try. You'd be surprised at what I find entertaining.


HOW WILL IT BE SENT:
USPS Priority Mail, insured, to the winner, with tracking provided. Keep in mind... I'll cover all shipping costs. If the winner is outside of the USA, I'll ship... but USPS is very slow so it takes time for that to arrive.


"CAN I SUBMIT MULTIPLE MAPS?"
The limit is (2) maps you may submit. If you feel like maybe that first one just didn't make the cut, feel free to submit another. But choose... and choose wisely.


That's it. Any other questions... post them and I'll respond accordingly.
Get to work, folks. But don't rush. You've got 2 weeks to think it over.


And may the odds ever be in your favor.
~Buckshot

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This sounds really damn fun! Count me in! I have two questions - Does it have to be vanilla compatible (visplane limits and all) and when is the deadline? I'm stoked for this!

EDIT: Whoop, I see it, May 20th. Awesome!

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not strictly vanilla... not to the point of having visplane issues (unless of course your map is within the parameters of vanilla visplane restrictions).

I'll be using jdoom and gzdoom primarily to play these... Unless you state "vanilla" only when you share it. which I won't ding anyone for. if they can make such a map on original visplane limitations... go for it. but it's not a requirement :)

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Buckshot said:

WHAT I WANT FROM YOU:
A -single- classic DOOM 1 style outdoors map that is alike a blend of E1M8, E3M6, and E3M8.... my favorite maps.


"Make a Sandy map, win a Romero prize!" :)

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Gez said:

"Make a Sandy map, win a Romero prize!" :)


Heh. cought on to that, did ya? :P

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I have a map WELL underway, rest assured! I have my eyes on the prize, I must get that Romero signature!

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A kindly reminder... you have one week left.

All submissions must be made Tuesday 5/19 by midnight, and the .WAD will be selected the morning of 5/20 before noon. I'll will post who won and message them for shipping details.

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Only 3 days left folks.

Tuesday 5/19 at 11:59pm is the cutoff time. I'll decided winner around noon on 5/20.

Must be busy building away. Eager to see what you come up with!

Once all maps are submitted, and winner is chosen, I'll compile the .wad's received into a megawad for the archives :)

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I'm looking forward to playing the compiled wad, it should be a lot of fun!

I've submitted my map to you via PM, Buckshot. It's fully vanilla compatible (so playing in GZdoom should be just fine), the slot is E1M1, difficulty levels are implemented. The map is sorta like an E3-E2 blend, and should be fun and challenging, but not impossible. I hope you enjoy it!

EDIT: If you'd like me to post the link publicly, I can do that too. I just thought it may be best if none of the entrants see eachothers work til afterward, but of course it's your call :)

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Doomkid said:

I'm looking forward to playing the compiled wad, it should be a lot of fun!

I've submitted my map to you via PM, Buckshot. It's fully vanilla compatible (so playing in GZdoom should be just fine), the slot is E1M1, difficulty levels are implemented. The map is sorta like an E3-E2 blend, and should be fun and challenging, but not impossible. I hope you enjoy it!

EDIT: If you'd like me to post the link publicly, I can do that too. I just thought it may be best if none of the entrants see eachothers work til afterward, but of course it's your call :)


Got it and played thoroughly the past couple of hours (I make sure I check every nook and cranny for every last thing you guys are tossing in to make sure I see all there is to see and to not miss anything.. so im running through these multiple times) :)

That's all I can say for now. Of course, I'd love to go into much more detail, but that discussion will occur Wednesday once I can give the same treatment to everyone that will be submitting, and I'll be doing a video review of each and every WAD submitted.

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Aww damn. I noticed this thread way too late! And I've got some exam stuff that's long overdue! There's no way I can make it. Damn. Best of luck to you all because that's a sweet prize!

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I'm really looking forward to the compiled WAD - Considering we're all putting our best foot forward, it's likely to be a blast. I'm especially curious about GRB's map (and a bit worried, on that note - everything I've seen from him is pure quality!)

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All I can say from what I've seen thus far is this community has some SERIOUS frickin talent. Of course I didn't expect anything less, but damn... it's simply mind-blowing how good you guys have become at this.

it's really gonna tear me apart having to decide on a single WAD. But it must be done.

More details to come... keep those WADs coming, warriors!

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Memfis said:

Can we take a look at the maps? :o


Seems like these guys want to keep the map's private until the contest is over.

As they are the designers and that's their work, I will respect their request. It also adds a cool little spin for everyone, that they'll get a nice little megawad out of this, be able to boot up and run through them one by one. Something fresh.

I was originally worried that I was going to get a flood of WADs, and that I'd have a hard time checking them to make sure it was original content of that designer with so many incoming all at once. That's seemingly not the case here... as the WADs submitted are very unique and unlike anything out there as of current. I'm not seeing "rushed" WAD's by any means, but heavily detailed and well thought out... so while there may not be as many WAD's as I thought there might be coming Tuesday at midnight, the quality vs. quantity will certainly deliver :)

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Final call and friendly reminder...

Map's due by 11:59pm EST Tonight!

Winner will be chosen tomorrow around noon.

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Alright. Decision time.

So over the course of the past couple of weeks, I received a WHOPPING two (yes, two... as in the number (2)) WAD's. Lol. That's... uh, not exactly what I was expecting, and needless to say I was pretty disappointed with the fact I was hoping to see at least enough to get a 10+ count megawad, as I know quite a few of you were hoping to see a plethora of new content with this.

Unfortunate... but at least the (2) WAD's received are absolutely badass. And the irony is one of the two WAD's was a 11th hour decision by the author... they weren't originally planning to participate, but they ultimately decided to forfeit a college degree for a shot at this contest.

The two WAD's received were as follows:

"HELFITER" - by Doomkid

-and-

"CHASM 2"- by Chris Hansen



Starting off with Hansen's "CHASM 2", it's apparent the he went straight for the sandbox/nonlinear style of Doom's E3M6, Mt Erebus, mixed in with some "River Styx" tunneling from Final DOOM's TNT Map29, and a DOOM 2 map "Downtown" feel and vibe. It was nicely done for a map that was made in a day... Hansen noticed the contest a bit late in the game (in regards to his earlier post), originally planning to sit it out due to college studies, but for whatever reason, decided to pursue a higher education in WAD making.

He delivered everything I asked for and I admire this WAD. It hits all the perfect design pitches and notes where it needs to... large play area over a vast terrain with mountainous ridges and forts/buildings against the backdrop.

However... it remains a near-finalized draft of what "could be", had he been able to dedicate the entire two week span to the WAD. I see perfection in progress here, though there just wasn't simply enough time to touch up. For starters, I loaded up the WAD in doomsday... upon hitting the initial door to step out into the courtyard, the button didn't function right and the door would simply not open. I had to no-clip through it. He stated to use Zdoom or prboom+ in his txt document sent with the wad, and thus I did... voila, no issue. But I wanted to use doomsday and gzdoom, as I initially implied on my contest post.

Also, while there was plenty of balancing and everything was well paced... the action was slightly less than what I was expecting with such a vast landscape where waves of enemies could have been a more intimidating approach. There was plenty of ammo and weapons... perhaps just a tad too much for the baddie count. There were also some "plain" looking buildings off to the sides, where things seemed a little too square and basic, which goes back to the fact he just didn't have the time available to finalize his design plans (though I love the building in the center of the map... that was damn fine architecture... also the far corner lava pit bridge and fort... very awesome and archaic!). Some of the sidewall cliffs, I was unsure if they were initially supposed to be climbed by jumping or if there was some other way to reach the top. Some of the open areas (such as the initial field stepping out the main door), seemed a bit empty. The E2M1 track was also not in sync with the map design... was too "upptiy" for the world I was seeing.

I'd highly recommend Chris to revisit this WAD and add some finishing touches to it and add more port compatibility. This WAD really hits the feels with its sandbox hellscape that I admire so much about E3M6 and the other mentioned levels... It's one of the closest matches I've ever seen to that feeling... the open plains with majestically corrupt mountainside towers against the mammoth ridgelines and lumbering rocky crag's of hell itself. Only faltered by the limit of time, sadly. I have no doubt in my mind Hansen is capable of making some phenomenal WADs without last minute constraints. And ffs, stay in school :)


-now-


Onto the final contender... Doomkid. And let me start by saying... I've seen a lot of Doomkid's prior work on his Wad Shack site. Great stuff. However, none of it really matched the style of DOOM maps themselves. He always did his own thing... which works amazingly well, and is pretty unique to the point I'd never thought he'd have much interest or care in doing traditional id-style maps... and damn was I wrong.

Doomkid was on the contest from near day one... his WAD "HELFITER" clearly reflects that. It's a showcase WAD of classic proportions... themed rooms and intense action. Instead of giving me a single theme, he went for ALL the best parts of map design and level architecture in the entire DOOM series. Each area is a looking-glass glimpse at every little area I so much admire from the DOOM series on a whole, everything I wanted filtered down into one decent sized map, every room opening up to an "oooo!" and a "aaah!", extreme attention to detail, careful planning, ammo and weapons scattered to the point where you know you need it, but is it worth the risk of grabbing it. The action is heavy and intense, if not overwhelming. It took some planning to make it through without saving.

The map heavily reflects inspirations and design elements from all DOOM episodes (though he really focused on some of the details from my personal favorites), DOOM 2 (that spiderdemon and Cyberdemon pillar fight at the end was a clear nod to the same battle straight from DOOM 2), and even DOOM 64 (especially in the last section of the game... the U-cliff with the overhang in the exit room reminds me much of some of the later maps of DOOM 64), and certainly feels like it could be either a opening map or ending map right out a official id produced episode. In fact, I remember years ago playing "Thy Flesh Consumed" for the first time, and I'll be damned if HELFITER doesn't feel almost perfectly reminiscent at first of that episode.

While it's not as sandboxy or open as Hansen's CHASM 2, I spent so much time battling the hordes and watching my back all whilst admiring all the detail and design, that it didn't need be. It was a blast from the past, and I loved every moment of it. I went back to this wad later just to admire the "themed" areas that reflect all the bits and pieces of my favorite maps.

I tried to find flaws in this map, but I couldn't. Everything was upto snuff, worked, and was just downright classic DOOM. Even E1M8's music track was right on par. He was certainly able to reproduce the same vision and magic that id software had created in the originals. It went above and beyond my expectations.




-So, who walks away with Romero's signed D!Zone?-

As much as both of these authors deserve it... There can be only one. And while Hansen's WAD brings back happy memories of E3M6 and quite a few other levels, it needs just another 'skipped exam' worth of polishing. For had he realized this contest earlier and had that extra time, I have no doubt he most certainly would have walked away with the signed box. It was a absolute blast... and you get an defintite "A+" from me, fine sir. But with Doomkid, able to allocate the entire 2 weeks to the WAD design, I see heart. I see soul. I see blood, sweat and tears. But most importantly... I see DOOM.

Congrats Doomkid!!! You win this round. I'll contact you via PM for shipping details.

WADS:

Chasm 2 by Chris Hansen:
http://www.windward.dk/TDR/chasm_2.zip

HELFITER by Doomkid: http://www.mediafire.com/download/fzfexah7d63663z/helfiter.wad

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Congrats Doomkid! You won for all the right reasons! And thank you Buckshot for all the fine words about my level! I'm just happy that you liked the level despite it being a bit rushed. On a related note: I haven't been kicked out of school and I did manage to do both this level and finish my reports on time, so all is well ;)

Edit: I better check out why it crashes doomsday. If someone knows, please send me a PM or something.

Edit 2 may 21st: Addressed a couple of the issues mentioned by Buckshot and re-uploaded the file.

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I'm really excited about this :D it will be an amazing piece to have in my collection of Doom/game stuff. I did try my hardest to capture that ID feel, and I'm glad it came through!

It's a shame there weren't more maps submitted, but I'm so damn stoked...! I'm gonna check out Chris' map now :)

Thanks a million!!

EDIT: Just played Chris' map, and really did enjoy it. The lava lowering between the red door and blue door buildings, leading into the little caverns where the bars close right in your face and the demon comes out was damn cool. It reminded me of those super-solid maps from the 90's, great job doing that in such a short time :)

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I was also a bit confused why only -two- WAD's were submitted. At that was just barely... it wasn't until a couple days ago Hansen joined in, unexpectedly. I seriously though Doomkid was going to go uncontested.

I even suggested if anyone had a prior unreleased map or WIP they had worked on or were working on to submit it had it met those requirements... didn't even have to start from scratch. Honestly, that really shocked me. It was an easy attempt at something pretty sweet (imo, anyway).

I really didn't want to broadcast this contest outside of this section of the forums, because I thought the core league of WAD'ers and MOD'ers were here anyway, or consistently visited... I wanted at least 20 or 30 WAD's but I didn't want a a million of them flowing in to review as well due to a rather busy work schedule. Either it failed to gather their interest or it just didn't reach a broad range of folks wanting to participate. Guess my low-key approach worked against getting more WAD's out of it.


Regardless, you guys did a hell of a job in a short amount of time. Give yourselves a giant pat on the back... for you have HUGE GUTS.

And I hope to see more like this in the future from all of you.

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Buckshot said:

A -single- classic DOOM 1 style outdoors map that is alike a blend of E1M8, E3M6, and E3M8.... my favorite maps. That's it. Keep it classic. Not looking for anything new-age and fancy... I want it to feel as if I was playing a level straight of DOOM 1... no custom textures, no sloped floors, none of that silly nonsense. But I want a onslaught. And a few mountain-like islands and maybe a couple little nice bases or forts to explore in between.


The rules made it so you were mapping as to arbitrarily mash together a few classic maps with some oddly specific demands attached. The stuff is cool, but not enough to build a map under court jester conditions.

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