NO, CONTEST!

This year, Jimmy, whose nickname as the MIDI guy fits even better when you realize he's actually a MIDI file that became animate, reached his 15th year in the community; and Tarnsman—this year's Creator of the Year, who also moonlights as a map name connoisseur—reached his 10th. Instead of demanding gifts at BFG-point, they celebrated with mapping contests. Both were aware of how the eagerness to impress might lead to rushed magnum opuses, which usually only justify their length when the author is Mechadon. Jimmy averted that with a tight time limit, and Tarnsman elevated "less is more" as a primary guideline. The result was a pair of very smoothly run contests, and a collection of standalone maps notable for how people poured lots of effort and imagination into a smaller scope.

Combined, there were 60 maps, all in individual files, because clashing assets would have made combining them into megawads highly impractical. But drag and drop is still convenient enough. Both wrote up summaries highlighting their favorites, which are handy guides whether you want to sample or feel motivated to binge.

The maps we talked about the most include "St. Alfonzo's Darkbase" by Jimmy for Tarnsman's contest (not for his own), released independently later. It's a genuinely funny jokewad that blends RPG-style quests, cutscenes, exploration, combat with allies, and a whole lot of incredibly snarky NPCs. You get to team up with a baby cacodemon in this classic tale of ambition, betrayal, and handlebar mustaches. AD_79's "Alfonzo Tries to Prevent Donald Trump from Starting Third Impact" is an ode to two of his favorite Tarnsman maps, and through that alchemy it became one of my favorite standalones of the year—full of striking views across the reaches of a vibrantly neon-green complex, of glowing caves that look up into void, and altogether a great showcase of flow and pacing and small-scale encounter design. Then there's Breezeep's "Alfonzo Throws Hands with the Purple People Eater," which is deeply soothing with its low-key action and saturated fields of purple and red, an exotic alien world out of Mayhem 2018: Purple; after you explore the ins and outs of an immaculately structured concrete fortress, you travel into the blood-soaked valley surrounding it, where it looms majestically. Of interest to those fond of unusual ideas might be "Alfonzo's Mysterious Town" by Jaska, author of the must-play adventure megawad Lost Civilization. It's beautiful, and a brief teaser for Lost Civilization 2's more realist direction: if you want to take a break from fighting demons in a pastoral city imbued with a magical air, you can stop to look at sheep, shatter bottles of beer, and play with household appliances.

What really stood out, even past the maps that received prizes, is that the baseline was solid and reflected so many traditions and distinct voices, both within and well beyond whatever you might have considered the norm. (Someone even misread the rules of Jimmy's contest and submitted an Adventures of Square map...) The larger parallel to this very fruitful year was impossible to miss.

- @rd.

MAPPING, GODSPEED!

The art of speedmapping has been a long-honored tradition amongst both amateur and experienced mappers alike. Weaving either incredible arena setpieces or ridiculous memes in the span of two hours or a week, or however long the organizer chooses, speedmapping has become a great way for various factions of the Doom community to come together and knock out some maps. Three such events include PUSS, Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions (ASS), and Hellforge Speedmapping Sessions (HSS). 

A product of last year’s content explosion, PUSS is the youngest of the three major speedmapping series, and has been steadily gathering momentum since its inception, riding high on a tidal wave of youthful enthusiasm. Each month brings with it a new theme, sometimes seasonal (Trick and Tear, 12 Days of Doommas), sometimes proprietary (March of the Speeddemons, Speed Squared), sometimes conceptual (Clandestine Castle Crashing, The Summer of Slaughter), always accompanied by a set of inventive restrictions and challenges. A range of talent has partaken in these events, with every month featuring a different lineup, usually consisting of a couple of debutants, a number of series regulars and sometimes a famous guest mapper or two. As a result, each event represents a radically different experience, making every monthly announcement a source of excitement for participants and observers alike. Beyond that, PUSS is very much a communal affair, a safe place for newer mappers to practice the craft and receive much needed feedback, while also providing a casual creative outlet for more experienced creators. Truly, BluePineapple72 has created something quite special here, an institution in the making that could, in time, come to define an entire generation of mappers.

The longest-running of the bunch, the Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions were started by Obsidian in December 2013, and have gone through fits and starts over the years, but this year has seen a great revival with nine epic sessions. With a two hour time limit, these maps are nothing short of chaotic fun. From a session full of a strange yellow liquid (it’s gold, I swear), to Gothic blue-velvet nightclubs and dead.ass some of the spookiest maps you’ll be lucky to find, ASS remains one of the highest-octane sessions still running, with TheMionicDonut doing a stand-up job of ensuring the sessions’ success. 

The Hellforge Sessions have been a bit more lowkey, the first few being posted to /idgames starting in December 2019, but for the most part remaining on the Hellforge Discord server. Either exploring different texture packs or themes drawn from the venerable Bridgeburner’s viking helmet, HSS has been arguably the most chaotic of the bunch, also giving a two hour time limit to create something fun. From pole-dancing turkeys for Thanksgiving, to epic Zoontex temples, the denizens of the Hellforge gather gleefully every few months to create their best (and/or silliest) map in the short time frame. Although these maps don’t have as much polish as sets like PUSS, their roughness adds to their charm, acting as snapshots into a mapper’s style and workflow.

No matter your style or experience, there’s something for everyone in the speedmapping realm. Each of these sessions are always welcoming to new contributors, and with each of these under unique leadership styles, you’ll be sure to find a session for you, whether mapping or playing- or both. 

- @Major Arlene / @Omniarch

ON RAMP

The size of RAMP might be the most immediately mind-boggling part—it pulled in 200 submissions, far surpassing even other massive "all comers" beginner projects like Joy of Mapping 6 (72) and DUMP 3 (80), which were already notoriously taxing to organize. But it doesn't stop there. Within just a few months, project lead DavidN had diligently commentated every map for his YouTube channel, knowing it might take ages for everyone to receive feedback in the wild.

The endeavor attracted many people well outside the usual Doom scene, and it was a community project in that it quite literally formed its own community. Since the cohort of authors had wildly different backgrounds and notions of what a Doom map might be, it becomes clear even from a sampling that RAMP has incredible range.

Some are more traditional outings shaped by an eclectic mix of influences, old and new; some are off-the-wall experiments; and some even feel like they abide by the logic of another game genre entirely. You might go from all types of tech bases and temples and mountain adventures, to burning forests and blood-soaked Wolfenstein 3D nightmares, to fighting the Ultra Cyberdemon or teaming up with friendly marines and dogs. You could describe it as giving off a Community Chest vibe, but that feels like a great understatement. (None of the Community Chests had an Ultra Cyberdemon.) It hits all the stops along the newcomer development curve, from many true first-timers learning the ropes in simpler monotextured layouts, all the way to the occasional polished "newcomer in name only" production; throughout, you can see the ambition, the naivete, the bold ideas, the ill-fated plans and inevitable lessons learned, the creative artistry dying to express itself, and the fascination with out-of-place sector furniture that hopefully doesn't fade. If you've mapped a lot, flipping through RAMP can be like standing in a grand hall of mirrors, next to reflections of yourself at many points in time. 

It has already had a broader impact too. As DavidN put it in the release thread, "It was amazing to see people's efforts, and I'm very happy that some of these maps have already been turned into the basis for episodes or larger projects because their authors didn't want to stop." After pushing out the final version of the megawad gigawad, which is united around an intricate hub featuring a build-it-yourself trophy garden and all sorts of convenient gizmos for navigating the compilation, DavidN kindly released RAMPART—the webapp he designed to automatically track all of those submissions, eliminating the hassles of a big, messy forum thread.  

It's clear that RAMP could have only existed in modern times. Imagine someone's dad trying to wrangle a few dozen new mappers through email and bulletin boards in 1998. That would be like herding pain elementals. But far more than even a few years ago, the Doom community is a lot more decentralized, a lot wider, yet even more capable of organizing itself in powerful ways—and RAMP is a shining example of what can come of that.

- @rd.

PROMISING NEWCOMERS

The community's surging output this year would not have been possible without a big number of promising new authors outside of those already represented in the main awards, so fittingly this section is huge this year. To make more space, the intro wi—

In Dereliction Derby, @PinkKittyRose's avowed influences were vaguely present, but more often overpowered by her own creativity: surgical tables, work rooms, all sorts of environmental detailing that represents a deteriorated, demon-overrun compound—paired with fun, hectic battles all the way to the joyous BFG finale. Dereliction Derby was a great example of learning from models while not being defined by them; the most ingenious parts happen when PinkKittyRose throws away the book. The result was one of my favorite standalone maps of the year.    

@Bri's Attack on Io was a hit on Doomworld partly for its punishing close-quarters combat—tense base crawls, evil traps, bloody moshpits—that managed to be enjoyable to a wide range of players, which is no small feat. Consisting of seven atmospherically lit maps, you start and end in the grungy tech bases of the lava-worn moon Io, with a detour through gothic fortresses and hellish decay. 

A lot felt special about @Orcsbreath's many brief standalone maps: the subtle cleverness, the murky atmosphere, the stream-of-consciousness flavor of the events. After playing one, I couldn't help but track down all the rest. Orcsbreath shows how fresh experiences can be channeled through familiar settings, and how even very modest releases can be impressive.  

Some newcomers already are very far along when they join. A perfect example is @LordEntr0py—The Hate Flow, the WIP Hell's Farthest Shore, and contributions to RAMP and Skulltiverse—who is already a superb craftsman whose work is underpinned by a clear conceptual vision. His range is especially impressive; some of his work has been more classically minded; at the other extreme, some can pass in screenshots for work in another engine.

If @Regular Warren's debut Assembly Line already demonstrated a sharp eye for clean design in the GZDoom engine, his WIP set Astral Abstraction proved that he was still improving. From texturing to detailing to architecture to the abundant but thoughtful high-gloss effects, his colorful work feels extremely polished, to an uncommon degree for newer authors working in this style. 

After joining Doomworld, @mxbobbie49 immediately got into the swing of things as a prolific author of works with a classic lean: standalone remakes of maps from the original games; assorted odds and ends like speedmaps; about 5% of RAMP all by himself; and a stock-textured megawad, Demonic Destruction!, that has been praised by many dedicated fans of oldschool goodness. He is also responsible for one of the best scenes this year period...  

If the Mucus Flow and every generation inspired by it hooked up for an orgy, @Nefelibeta's Mucus Empire is what you might get: the weirdness and imagination of BRPD, the coruscating lights and iconography of Deus Vult II, the scope and wild ambition of tourniquet, and still more, in an adventure that whisks you from ghost trains and invading shadows into the emerald interior of a colossal marble stronghold, packed with progressively over-the-top horde battles that could make Stardate blush. It doesn't all hold together, but it makes it easy to imagine the author's future work where it does. 

As a streamer, @Vortale has absorbed a lot of lessons from the past two generations of pwads, and understandably, can't help but have lots to say. His outlet for conversing with their tropes and patterns is Just a Mapset e1, which infuses the fast, aggressive feel of modern partial conversions (Rowdy Rudy 2, Paradise) into maps often united by well executed gameplay gimmicks: get chased by turret masterminds, weaponize domino chains of barrels, and more. 

Finally, using Doom's textures to represent unexpected objects has long been an idtech1 pastime, and @romsu89 is spectacular at it, depicting all sorts of eldritch figures that can be surprising even if you've seen this done plenty. UVOLNIT displays this skill and more in a trio of murderous adventures with a truly imposing sense of scale—it's one to check out for fans of long-haul maps and the eccentric.

- @rd.