PasokonDeacon

FDA, UV cl9, didn't finish Solid easy slaughtermap, very flood-filled and reminiscent of early Hell Revealed but with less cramping and more blasting away into big groups. I quit after the second try due to a rather iffy ending, where your only cover against AVs is a smaller walled area with a cybie and no pillar to guard against AVs that make it in there. It makes it a battle of attrition, which is fine if, for instance, I could have found the BFG I've read about above. But I didn't find any secrets (not enough wallhumping, I suppose) and lacked the amount of plasma ammo needed to quickly remove the cybie before AVs would have rounded the corner. This wouldn't have been that bad an issue if I played normally with a save at this section, but it's very hostile on a demo run and also reveals how just kinda "eh" the map is to replay. The encounter designs lean too much on drop-down closets and the occasional pop-up group, all basically right in front of you or to your side. So most of the fights until the end are easy to trivialize with basic circle-strafing and manipulating line of sight. I'd have really enjoyed the ending if it had one or two pillars for AV cover, as the cybie can't easily enter the main courtyard so long as you stay close to the stairs side of the arena. It ends up feeling like a missed opportunity to have, say, gaps in the wall to let the cybie fire through and divert some of the horde, as well as threaten you better without getting unfair. Otherwise, it's a breezy bit of fun. I think the layout's a bit too artificial, unlike some classic Plutonia/HR maps where it feels like you're in a place once used that's been occupied by your foes. But the combat loop is still paced quickly, and the threat level engaging enough, that I can't feel too down about this. Architecture's simple and clean, but I'd caution against overusing pop-ups in flat areas where it looks like you can move around freely (CGs in the pond are the main offender here). Switch teleports are an eclectic choice, mainly because they're used very infrequently these days when a mapper can just use less confusing warp gates instead. I'd reserve switch teleports for map starts and other edge cases where you aren't using most players' unfamiliarity against them. I had fun with this and hopefully this leads to better maps!

FDA, UV cl9 Good arena-style speedmap! The layout's a bit featureless for my liking, but I appreciate the triple encounter structure here and how it's broken up by teleport closets with resources. I'd have added some extra meaty bois into the last part of the map as well as added glowing/blinking effects to the cybie rooms for telegraphing. Ending felt just a bit underbaked due to how quickly the spiders/mancs go down even without cyber infighting. You have a generous amount of resources by that point and enough safe spaces to duck into/around that leading the cybies where you want is a cinch. I'd reduce UV resources by maybe a couple shell/ammo boxes in order to incentivize earlier rocket use. Aesthetically speaking, it's a readable environment without gauche texturing or cramped/jerky geometry, which is what I'd hope from a speedy gauntlet like this. I can forgive the lack of trim and occasional misalignments given the time constraints. I know it's a project leftover, but the music fits surprisingly well. Definitely make some more of those, maybe as a themed set or something.

Complevel 2 Doom II single map. You can pay to download the WAD here. All proceeds go to the Red Cross and UN CERF programs to help Ukrainians displaced during the current conflict. ...Well, this is going to make some headlines.

For some of these uploaders, it's just a casual activity more so than a calling, something they'd really invest in. And for others, maybe they're just looking to get clout fast, so sheer output trumps accuracy and finer touches in their videos. It's no different from any other media interest with a lot of attention on YouTube and social media these days. All I can hope to do is filter out the schlock and boost the playthroughs, podcasts, and video essays which I think enrich discourse vs. fluff and/or inflammatory content. Life's too short for me to begrudge any of these creators except the likes of Gmanlives and others who pretend to know more than they really do, all while spreading misinformation from a position of supposed authority. But even then, why waste my time on buttholes like them when I have other things to do? I definitely think curation is a constant issue WRT Doom on YouTube. The likes of decino, Doomkid, Dean of Doom, Dwars, etc. shouldn't be the only major voices regularly known in that space, but there's only so many invested viewers/commenters at this point. I'd say be the change you want to see in the world (cliche, I know) and find a niche that's currently unfulfilled or deserving of more perspectives. For instance, I personally want to do some analytic essays about maps/sets I like and maybe tie that into DW Megawad Club discussions from past and present, but I have other time-sensitive hobbies getting in the way of that. So I'd probably be glad if someone did something of that sort before I have to, so on and so forth.

Took me longer to make something I found satisfying, but only 35-40 minutes extra + a resource I'm new to isn't so bad. Hopefully I have time for the next round! Grief Stroganoff needs a sibling, after all.

v2 FDA, cl2 UV Pretty fun speedy woodbase. It got a little cramped in areas and you had to know precisely where the ammo was or potentially biff a run (let alone health items; all the armor in the world doesn't compensate), but it comes together well in the end. This falls on the more detailed, trappy end of fun ASS-like speedmaps and I think the MIDI complements that "here we go again!" feeling. OTOH the teleport traps got a bit repetitive for my tastes, but you can't please everyone. The DoomCute bathroom ending was really cool!

FDA, cl 2 Good map! It captures the classic 1993 Romero-esque techbase quite well, and the combat-exploration loop feels appropriate for that era too. The biggest issues I had with it involved backtracking to key doors; otherwise there's a healthy amount of interconnections for the layout. Wish I'd found all secrets, but the important ones (soulsphere and backpack) are hinted just well enough without making me feel like I'd have been bummed without 'em. Consider adding/reworking the YK door closer to where players get the key, minimizing downtime. For example: And, after the RK grab sequence, another interconnection should open up to the start area so players can reach the RK door quicker and more elegantly, like so: I bring these up because most areas you backtrack through post-keys lack any repopulation or new areas/resource alcoves to liven up a playthrough. It's not a trap-oriented map, so adding a couple more segues would really help the overall flow. Regardless, I enjoyed this and I look forward to your next map.

I tend to alternate between community MIDIs and whatever odd album's in my backlog which I know won't be too distracting. It's the age-old problem: how do you get into a groove without repeating yourself or getting side-tracked by cool new music?

Memento Vivere (or Vivi if plural) would be a worthwhile go at celebrating the original. Now that we have a 1995 tune-up project in the works, I'd say it's high time to do a classic co-op-friendly set that really uses the MM assets to their best. We have better ideas/principles these days for designing consistently across solo and co-op play, and there's quite a few unused/underused Klem/Shaw MIDIs from the period which can substitute the more awkward ones.

Great episode, even if I'm not as harsh on the WAD as Dean gets. I think Klem's music gets passed over too much here; a Dean's Digression talking about early MIDI usage and how this music pack set a standard for community pack soundtracks would have made sense. The WAD's aged pretty iffy over time, and it holds its place in canon mainly as just being the first major CP more than anything. Some of the maps are still pretty fun so long as you can stomach mid-'90s magnum opus syndrome, and the co-op elements are ahead of their time for sure. At least we got a nice Mustaine map in the mid-section, two straight-up bangers from the Casali bros, and one standout collab from the Moellers where the set might as well just end gracefully.

Thinking of doing a last-minute submission. Is the deadline just the 16th wherever you are, or the 16th based on OP's time zone? Whatever the case, I think I'll do the requisite boomer music track for my submission.

For casual play and recording demos of released works, I happily stick with Doom Launcher. It's particularly great for managing demo LMPs & source port screenshots. For testing WADs/PK3s, ZDL is as straightforward as I want it and is less finicky to manage than DLauncher in these scenarios.

I tend to think of those two more so for their Quake and commercial FPS mapping (ex. Beyond Belief, everything Tom did at Ritual after Perdition's Gate), but their Doom stuff is memorable and excellent for sure. It'd be cool to see them dabble in some new Doom mapping if they find the time and interest.

Also in any order since I don't much enjoy Best '90s Mapper/Modder Olympics, and not including any IWAD authors because (aside from TNT.wad) most of them form their own pantheon: Denis and Thomas Moeller, pioneers of trappy, polished Ultimate Doom and Doom II maps mixing high concepts with proto-slaughter encounters; organizing both Memento Moris was another influential accomplishment for them Malcolm Sailor, a very disciplined creator of fair yet challenging gauntlet maps whose Chord series distilled the Plutonia design style to its most minimalistic, paving the way for many modern mappers Richard Wiles, craftsman of many polished blast-a-thons ranging from the DICKIE maps to Crusades and Slayer (which I consider a '90s set since it started life at the end of '99 re: the txt file), most of which took a Romero-ish approach with tough combat, classic but sufficient detailing, and a real mean streak at times Chris Lutz, who started in the '90s but really took off in the oughts with his famous detail-heavy maps with plenty of exploration and a gothic approach to IWAD aesthetics Kurt Kesler, the mapper who could just as handily switch from vanilla to Boom to ZDoom, or from single-player adventures to deathmatch, with such verve; a consummate mapper with strong fundamentals but plenty of experiments to his name Honorable mentions to Adelusion (the better mapper of the Dystopia 3 crew for my tastes, and just as much a vanilla mapping innovator) and both @NaturalTvventyand @Capellan for their community longevity and reliably awesome works (END1.wad, Demonfear, etc). Edit: Forgot that Chris Hansen started in the '90s, too, even if he's only got uploads on idgames as early as 2000. He fits right into the honorable mentions thanks to some really fun and post-classical works like Shoot!, Flay the Obscene 1-5, and the High/Low series.

MAP01 of the Plutonia minisode. Haven't done much detailing yet, but I'm saving that for when all maps are thing'd and fun to play.

Now on idgames! Let me know if you wish to play/edit an earlier version. Here's my first full map, a 25-to-35-minute trip for you and nearly a month of bashing my head against Doom Builder X to get what I wanted (plus almost another month of polish, fixes, and additions). Info Doom II-based MAP01 replacement, complete with built-in .deh patch and INTERPIC graphic. Boom-compatible, play with complevel 9. No jumping or crouching, designed/tested without freelook. Fake contrast recommended! 30-/45-minute map, tested without saves, features some exploration and plenty of combat. Balanced around Ultra-Violence, includes some changes for lower difficulties; difficulty sits around early-2000s WAD range (mid-to-late Alien Vendetta, Scythe, Plutonia-equivalent, etc.). Check the .txt readme for credits, development musings, and minor info. Story Screenshots: You'll find extra info and notes in the readme. This is my first map, so please note any newcomers' mistakes I might have ignored. I'll gladly look at any demos, streams, and other recordings/commentary here or in other places. I hope to get this up on idgames once it's complete, but feel free to try it now and give me some feedback! Changelog

Now up on idgames! Big thanks to the new gamers.org file upload portal for leaving me with no more excuses. It's funny just how easily I notice my first-time mistakes in this map, years after the fact. Apologies to anyone who finds it a bit cramped in places, though I think the flow's still solid enough.

I've never been more conscious about door-camping/-fighting than ever. Going through Kama Sutra without charging in and out of crowds (half the time anyway since KS gives you some room to strafe and strategize), or casually replaying BTSX Ex while avoiding risks/open-area aggression like I've done for years now... Still, I've gotten better at managing tough enemy comps out in the open, and I mainly door abuse if/when a map's resources aren't enough for me to comfortably survive an encounter and keep adequate pressure with what weapons I have. My real weakness is not knowing to abuse archie sight-line damage mitigation with even minimum size walls. Maybe it's more that I don't trust the floor heights of nearby wall sectors when I'm stuck in the open with arch-fire upon me, but I ought to improve at quickly reacting to that situation appropriately.

Clearly nothing that's most famous for running on electronic pregnancy tests could possibly be more advanced than Wolf 3D! /s

E4M5: They Will Repent is either overlooked or somewhat disliked/hated, but I almost always have a good time with it (and I imagine a few others do too). It's the sleeper map of UDoom TFC if you ask me. A good layout by Chasar and some solid things work by Willits makes it one of their best efforts. It's a bit short for an adventure-y map, but the relative non-linearity compensates for that with plenty of platforming and damage floor crawling. And I have a morbid love for that unmarked BFG secret and the strict platforming it demands, even if it's basically just for continuous players.

I'll pitch in for a MAP14 slot! More vanilla mapping is always good practice.

You might notice a few luminaries in the cast, too! The later episodes get into some really nitty-gritty topics like how classic maps utilized Boom features, as well as creator interviews for projects like Double Impact.

I think avoiding live shows outside of special dates/releases makes the most sense for the international crew that the Wadazine attracts/is composed of. The old Evolution of the WAD series on Twitch definitely benefited from the spontaneity that a live video podcast format can bring, but that also burned out quite quickly because of the livestreaming/unscripted duress and scheduling woes that come with. We could find a middle ground between the entirely scripted nature of a Dean of Doom episode and the entirely off-the-cuff flow of a classic Evolution of the WAD stream. For my part, I think pre-recorded video podcasts probing/dissecting various maps, sets, map tropes, and general topics of interest could be the way to go. There's a big gap left behind by Evolution of the WAD which sorely needs filling, particularly with "real-time" critical playthroughs of WADs old and new accompanied by deep dives via map/WAD editors. Coordinating these video podcasts with what's covered in adjacently-released Wadazine issues could be the way to go.

More custom soundtracks using extensive leitmotif ought to solve your issue with not remembering particular songs. I get why it hasn't really been a thing outside of a few instances: more effort spent on coordinating motifs and structural similarities in tracks means less entirely standalone tracks which can be borrowed for other projects. Ideally you'd want a selection of motifs sized accordingly to the mapset's size and map lengths, which can possibly lead to some incongruence between WIP maps and their MIDI choices during main development and then during the polishing stages. Some mappers like to have "the vibe" set in stone much earlier on, making it imperative to have a fully-fledged track ready to go. This can interfere with building a soundtrack along the lines of recurring motifs.

I fully agree at this point. The popularity of VR games/software in East Asia also dispels this notion, given how much more disorienting that can be for just about anyone. For that matter, top-down Japanese games like Cameltry or Brandish or even Sonic the flippin' Hedgehog have more potential to cause motion sickness than people generally consider. It's less that the study findings aren't trustworthy and more that genre exposure and ensuing popularity does a lot to normalize FPSes and games with unique player viewpoints overall.