32in24-11: Occupy Doomworld - The 32in24 Team

I had a lot of trouble with the best multiplayer award this year, partially because I am not much of a multiplayer Doomer, but mostly because it was hard to find something that stood out as clearly the best amongst a pool of great options. Eventually I narrowed it down to 32in24-11 and spacedm9. Although spacedm9 has all the zany fun that we've come to expect from the series, I found 32in24-11 to be better for one very good reason.

That reason is that 32in24-11 is one of the best overall DM wads that anyone has ever played. All of the 45 maps (that's not a typo, I'm serious) in this set are enjoyable for play in DM, without fail. Each and every one of them offers something worthwhile to a Doom multiplayer connoiseur, making it excellent for continuous play on a server. This is not only the best multiplayer wad of the year, it might be one of the best multiplayer wads ever.

Best Gameplay Mod

Brütal Doom - Sergeant Mark IV

As was noted in the intro to the awards this year, I've added a category for best gameplay mod. For too long the gameplay modding community has been ignored in these awards, and instead of honoring whatever wad that was meant to be intentionally funny but wasn't, this year I have the honor of showing of something much better.

Brütal Doom turns Doom into an ultra-violent gorefest, turning your regular Doom experience into something straight out of a horror porn film. Except this is actually enjoyable. With features like massive gibbing, dismemberment, and headshots, Brütal Doom will let you paint any map red with the blood of your enemies, all while carefully maintaining an excellent yet new gameplay balance. This wad is solid proof of why a gameplay mod award has been needed all these years.

Mordeth Award - Released project with the longest "development time"

1994 Tune-up Community Project - Various

It's really rather surprising that no one saw this award coming until TheMionicDonut pointed it out in the nominations thread, but yes, the 1994 Tune-Up Community Project actually has technically been in development for far longer than any other release this year.

With each one of its levels built upon a different map that was originally released to the public in 1994, the year after Doom's release, 1994 Tune-Up really had this year's Mordeth award in the bag. After 17 years of inactivity, it's about time they stopped screwing around and finished this thing-- okay, okay, fine. I'll be serious.

1994 Tune-Up Community Project wasn't one of this year's Top 10 picks, but it was nonetheless a frequent nominee, and from looking at some of the folks who worked on this thing that should come as no surprise! While the mapset can be seen as something of a mixed bag (as is inevitable with most community projects, really), there are some levels in here that were totally worth the wait.

- Esselfortium

Mapper of the Year

Skillsaw

2011 has become colloquially known as the Year of the Megawad. We've watched as a seemingly endless stream of high-quality releases coming out of the community in a yearlong shout of vitality to defy all who have suggested the spark of the Doom community was finally readying itself to burn out for good. In the past month alone, three complete high-quality one-man megawads have been published by Valkiriforce, Jimmy, and Khorus. Even faced with such fierce competition, one community member's work has managed to stand out above all else.

When Paul "Skillsaw" DeBruyne returned to the Doom community in 2007 after a 10-year hiatus, he quickly got back into mapping and started gradually building his talents with a series of impressive map releases, most of them contributions to larger projects such as Stronghold and ZPack. In 2011, he made a name for himself with three fantastic solo releases: the Boom-compatible map packs Vanguard and Lunatic, and the GZDoom slaughtermap Hanging Gardens.

Skillsaw's levels take influence from some of the great mappers of Doom's recent and not-so-recent history, blend elements from each of them together with a knack for quality and cohesion, and add plenty of his own creativity into the mix. His versatility is evident in the range of styles and settings he's crafted, from simple little romps to psycho slaughtermaps, lunar moon bases to tropical islands. He's even taken on deathmatch mapping this year with his contributions to 32in24-11.

And all-importantly, his maps are just plain fun, though I'm contractually obligated to make the shameful confession that many of his more difficult maps are a bit much for my own level of playing skill.

In the coming year we already have more in the pipeline to look forward to from Skillsaw, including a Community Chest 4 map (assuming Community Chest 4 is ever released, TGH) and at least four Back to Saturn X maps (assuming Back to Saturn X is ever released, Essel).

Maybe he'll take pity someday and give one of us mere mortals a chance at Mapper of the Year 2012. In the meantime, congratulations!

-Esselfortium

2011 Cacowards

Page 1

• Plutonia Revisited
• Vapordemo
• Lunatic

Page 2

• Double Impact
• Vanguard
• Reverie

Page 3

• Jenesis
• Icebound
• Mandrill
• Khorus' Speedy Shit

Other Awards

• Best Multiplayer
• Best Gameplay Mod
• Mordeth Award
• Mapper of the Year

Another Year Goes By

Mordeth and Millennium were still not released in 2011 despite over thirteen years of development. Will these wads ever see the light of day? Probably not, but stranger things have happened. KEEP THE HOPE ALIVE!