15 YEARS A DOOMER Mapping Contest - HIGHLIGHT REEL VIDEO UP! (pg. 7)

[Korozive]

Are these map submissions being put together for a continuous playthrough after the competition ends?

[Yumheart]

3 minutes ago, Korozive said:

Are these map submissions being put together for a continuous playthrough after the competition ends?

 

Nah, not in a megawad at least. But Jimmy said he'll put them in a zip folder, kinda like with the master levels.

[baja blast rd.]

On 3/29/2021 at 1:42 PM, iDoT said:

Map: Mountain Stronghold
Map Format:Vanilla Doom 2
Texture: Jimmy.tex
Tested With: ZDoom and Prboom
External PWADs: please open the map with jimmy.tex
Requirements:no jumping, no crouching , freelookin if you want
Music: it's midi made by me

 

 

[General Roasterock]

He didn't forget, he was just late to remember

 

JIMMY IS LIVE NOW

[Jimmy]

 

TIME TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNERS!

 

A truly amazing turnout for this contest. 43 maps were submitted in the end! I truly didn't expect so many to create such a quality collection of maps within the week. I only wish that those of you who had to conclude your ideas prematurely due to time constraints could have another crack at it. Of course, anyone who participated is completely free to continue work on their map if they wish, and you're more than welcome to make a separate release of your own. I will leave everything past this point within your capable hands!

 

All the submissions have been compiled into one ZIP file for easy download. Text files are included.

 

Download 15 YEARS A DOOMER Contest Submissions (108MB)
Many of these maps require Jimmytex to be loaded alongside them - this texture pack is also included.

 

The winners I've picked are below, but first, let's visit some Honorable Mentions, and give out some Special Awards to those who I think deserve unique recognition. I have lots to talk about!

 

 

 

 

 

 

@RataUnderground for "Osario"

 

 

I don't think anyone was expecting anything like this. Perhaps the most Spanish thing I've ever played. The lighting is a tad flat and the architecture is relatively simple, but the textures are lavish full-color PNGs, creating a lovingly crafted sense of locale. The choice of actual flamenco guitar for the music is the final flourish that makes this map stand out a huge amount from the crowd. The overall product, while a pretty insubstantial level in terms of playspace, is somewhat reminiscent of @didy's Bauhaus, and that's only a good thing.

 

The author made mention on Twitter that there is a full texture pack behind this map, which I hope we get to see a formal release of soon, and I sincerely hope more maps like this are to come. I applaud the novelty of "Osario" and would happily play a community project using these resources and an all-flamenco soundtrack.

 

Forget @Trustworthy Software - whoever those losers are - this is the real Doom 2 in Spain Only.

 

 

@7Soul for "The Many Rooms of Caco's Castle"

 

 

This map makes no bones about it being inspired by my and @Dragonfly's Eviternity MAP04 - the influences are crystal clear from the starting room. The shaping and texturing of certain rooms and hallways is uncannily similar, although I have pretty solid faith that no linedefs were outright copied at all, and I've played enough of 7Soul's maps to know a decent amount about where their design strengths lie.

 

What really sets this map apart is the use of a very bold palette of custom assets, including a bunch of textures from Blood, and a selection of custom weaponry courtesy of Realm667. While the new arsenal took me a little getting used to, they were undoubtedly fun additions, and definitely came in handy throughout the final scramble on the chessboard. Though the custom resource pool feels slightly haphazard, this was well worth the play.

 

 

@notTyrone for "Baphomet's Lab"

 

 

I was very pleasantly surprised by this. This SIGIL-inspired map is a large three-key spoke-hub - nothing hugely out of the ordinary - but the individual areas are lovingly designed and look gorgeous as a result. The bright crimson cracks in the floor, the inky darkness, the cacoflesh pentagrams - this is how you write a love letter to Episode 5, and do it with the added flair of custom resources and astute use of UDMF.

 

The highlight for me was possibly the blue key trap - a dastardly setup, and very visually striking. Did not see that coming!

 

 

@Big Ol Billy for "Last Saucer Off of Mercury"

 

 

This Mercury Rain-adjacent city map (curiously, a theme that was explored by more than one individual in this contest!) is awesomely picturesque and full of exciting mechanics. The acid rain here will actually cause you damage, and well-timed use of the explosive, poisonous skull growths allows you to deal extra environmental damage to monsters. The wonderfully Doomcute little flying saucer that marks the end of the map is also a great final touch.

 

The custom MIDI is also a slapper, having been composed by Billy in the meter of 15/8 - a perfect choice for the celebration of my fifteenth year a Doomer. What a thoughtful touch!

 

"Last Saucer Off of Mercury" is a fleetingly short map, with the monster count sitting well below 100. As a self-confessed pluviophile, I would happily play through a whole episode with this single theme. A very strong offering, and rest assured, its brevity did not cost it any imaginary jimmypoints. It absolutely deserves special mention.

 

 

 

 

 

These awards are largely arbitrary, and if I was to host another contest like this, these categories almost certainly would not be the same. Still, the following five submissions need to be discussed and commended for their unique aspects.

 

We'll kick off with...

 

 

 

 

Awarded to @NeilJohnRips for "GET OUT MY WAY"

 

 

This is the perfect jokemap. I'm not kidding.

 

Doomguy needs his cheese, and those goddamn demons are IN HIS WAY. This map has you tearing up a suburban setting in your desperate quest to reach the grocery store, faced with obstructive swathes of demons - and all this action is set to a ridiculously angry-sounding MIDI courtesy of the map author, a composition undoubtedly mirroring Doomguy's state of mind. The monster placement here is designed to annoy and be inconvenient more than anything else, and the ammo balance is such that you literally need to ignore the majority of them early on, in order to not have problems later (I ran into problems later). However, by the time you reach the end goal, you tragically realise that your brutal rampage was all for nowt.

 

Painting Doomguy in humdrum everyday scenarios like this is one of my favorite tropes in jokemaps. I haven't played anything this good since Wills's "Kwik-E-Mart" map from "It Only Gets Worse".

 

It would also be remiss of me to gloss over the lovingly-rendered roadkilled cacodemon made of out sectors. If you didn't laugh at this, you're fundamentally dead inside.

 

Jokemappers everywhere, take note - this is how it's done.

 

 

Awarded to @Crimson Dusk for "Touch of Midas"

 

 

This map is an excellent conglomeration of jimmytropes. Liquid gold, as seen in Jenesis's "Alchemy", is the primary hazard here, requiring adroit use of radiation suits to overcome, and gold imps also make an appearance. On top of the cool use of jimmytex to evoke an extraterrestrial planet populated by unique monsters of its own is intriguing use of extra assets. Finding one of two keys grants you access to a powerup sphere that freezes time (and turns your screen gold, to boot), allowing you to thwart an otherwise insurmountable flood of revenants that pop out from a locked cage. The gothictx sword impaling the cacodemon corpse also got a chuckle out of me.

Points for visual and thematic consistency here, and being a pretty dang fun map to boot!

 

 

Awarded to @Cacodemon187 for "Jimmycorp"

 

 

This submission starts out as a pretty standard-looking Plutonia 2-styled map with plenty of challenging combat setpieces, but before long you start to realise there's more here than meets the eye. There are warning signs and corporate-ese bulletins posted on walls here and there, hinting at the nature of some larger corporation pulling the strings.

 

Eventually you stumble into an unpopulated apartment. I spent a good couple of minutes just looking at the Doom-dorable constructions here. There's a TV (complete with jimmysofa), a fridge with health supplies, a goddamn dish rack, an excellent welcome mat that I utterly failed to spot in my playthrough, and the crown jewel here is the writing desk complete with stationery and a paper map sketch. Incredible - a drawn map, drawn inside a map - perhaps we've reached the apex of Doomcute here.

 

I also couldn't be happier with the way this map concludes. All is forgiven, Cacodemon.

 

 

Awarded to @joe-ilya for "The Research Labs"

 

This is a serious map, and actually an incredibly playable and enjoyable experience, with a rather excellent Vanilla feel, good secret-hunting, and straightforward gameplay. However, with joe-ilya being the mind behind the map - he whose mere participation in a Doomworld community project (despite being banned from the board!) is a meme unto itself - this map earns the title of being perhaps the most meta meme map to have ever meta-memed.

 

Among the secrets to find in this early 90s offering (which foregoes the use of any custom texture resources) is an incredible secret chainsaw which has been edited to remove the saw blade, and its ability to do damage at all. The "sawless" got an honestly good laugh out of me.

 

Color me pleasantly surprised. Sigh... if only joe could be bothered to learn how music works. The unceasing, zombie-like drone of his custom offering "Primitive" is about as stimulating as watching cold water boil.

 

 

Awarded to @Scypek2 for "This Floor Is Also Lava"

 

This... is an Adventures of Square map. Probably the first piece of user content for the game that I've been able to get my hands on! I really appreciate it.

 

The map is a spin on the formula for my 2014 jokemap "The Floor is Lava", which was originally made for one of Scypek's community projects. What sets this map and my original apart is how Square's improved jump physics make it a far more palatable experience, whereas my own map was designed to be, and I quote myself here, "aggravating as balls".

 

There's all sorts of crazy platforming off of boxes, trees, and even the pushable cows - and while the experience is definitely a very serious challenge, it's done quite tastefully - Scypek knew very well how to make this kind of gameplay work within Square's technicalities. The use of large clusters of monsters, many of them fliers who have the ability to suddenly get the drop on you, present an even greater and unpredictable challenge that makes for interesting repeat plays.

This submission deserves very special commendation in spite of it being an outlier to the contest rules. Many thanks, Scypek2!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now - the moment of truth - the winners. The big three. The mappers listed below get cash money.

Let's not dilly-dally any further!

 

 

 

 

Awarded to @RonnieJamesDiner for "Screams from the Slipgate Station"

 

 

RJD's spin on my map for Mapwich 2 that I did in collaboration with @DoomTheRobot, entitled "The Collector", is extremely ambitious and visually impressive for the highly constrictive time allotted. The bold and ominous architecture of the central spire brilliantly shadows the surrounding blood lakes and earthy crevasses. The combat is fast and ferocious too, requiring the player to be nimble on their feet and keenly aware of where the higher-tier monsters might be skulking about in the dark.

 

A highly enjoyable offering, which I think we've all come to expect from RJD. It's no wonder he's now working on Age of Hell.

 

 

 

 

 

Awarded to @Pierrot for "Joyful Raider"

 

Pierrot's "Joyful Raider" hits the nail on the head in so many ways it's hard for me to name them all, but I'll try: the map takes place in a sandstone tomb, boasts a hefty monster count, and presents no small challenge with its harsh-but-fair combat and a decently puzzling progression with plenty of tucked-away switches to go hunting for. Its expert use of jimmytex sets a really immersive scene - parts of this map were so visually striking they had me just gawking. This map reminds me just how much I love the whole "desert level" aesthetic.

 

The subtle Jenesis references scattered throughout were almost enough to fly completely over my head, and they're woven deftly into the map's flow - I still don't know if I found them all. The fact that such a unique-looking and intricately designed level came out of a set of building blocks that I laid down back in 2011 is really fantastic to see.

 

Oh, did I mention at all how much I enjoy the Klem midi that was chosen? I kinda feel like I glossed over that.

 

 

 

 

Congrats to second and third place. You both receive fifty dollars!

 

And now, our grand winner...

 

 

 

 

Awarded to @Pinchy for "Mercurial City"

 

 

I have a feeling that everyone's mind was made up that this was one of the very strongest contenders when I first played this onstream. Hell, mine was, almost straight away. There's no question that Pinchy is one of a kind when it comes to mapping - his offerings are always impressive in scale, prone to rewarding deep exploration, and bursting with humor and character. How this was all achieved in 15 hours is certainly something, but I think it's well-known by now that Pinchy is an unstoppable mapping machine. This bustling rain-drenched city combines a lot of his AND my most typical tropes in the most excellent of ways - not only are all the jimmytropes present here, but Pinchy hid an ultra-secret area behind a hidden minigame in which you have to shoot the four red jimmylights. The reward it netted me honestly got me a little bit emotional.

 

I'm also extremely thankful to have learned that I have given back to Pinchy, in the form of inspiring him to return to Doom mapping with the release of 30in30-5. I can't ask for anything more. Cheers, Pinch.

 

 

 

 

That officially wraps up proceedings. Congratulations to all the winners and those who won special recognition!

 

Top three winners, please get in touch so I can PayPal you the prize money!

@RonnieJamesDiner @Pierrot @Pinchy

 

=====

 

In closing, may I extend my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated and who watched the streams. The love I've received from this community over the last couple of weeks has been pretty astounding.

Keep being awesome, everyone.

 

-- Jimmy

Edited April 6, 2021 by Jimmy

[LateNightPerson]

Update to my map "Techno Necro Terror"

 

- Fixed a teleporter alignment issue near the end of the level

 

...and that's it lol

techno_necro_terror.rar

[rouge_means_red]

Congratulations to the winners! It was well worth simply participating, watching the stream and having many laughs! I've learned a lot more about the Jimmy-isms so hopefully I'll be ready for the 30th anniversary

[yakfak]

everyone made such good submissions, congrats to the winners! My fave thing that didn't get mentioned was Obsidian's really neat map, it made such good use of space.

[LateNightPerson]

Congrats to the winners! This was a fun contest, and these submissions look neat. Bladeless chainsaw is my favorite lmao

[NeilForshaw]

Congratulations everyone. So many maps could easily be legitimate winners.

 

Least I got an award. Best joke map 😂

[Obsidian]

17 minutes ago, yakfak said:

everyone made such good submissions, congrats to the winners! My fave thing that didn't get mentioned was Obsidian's really neat map, it made such good use of space.

 

<3

 

Congrats to all the winners! Rematch in another 15 years? :P

[Cacodemon187]

Good job to everyone! It was a fun contest. I'm just happy my map got a Jimmyaward :)

 

[General Roasterock]

This has been a fantastic event that has completely rejuvenated my faith in mapping contests. Congratulations to Jimmy and his quality team for managing this so well, and to all the mappers that managed to pull this off. I do hope to see more of these to iron out any remaining kinks, as I would definitely have made some different decisions regarding assets if I knew for certain they were allowed. See you at 16 years, Jimmy. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by General Roasterock
I'm really bad at grammar today

[Big Ol Billy]

Thanks Jimmy! This ended up being quite a competition, and I'm thankful for the honorable mention. Now I'm really thinking about whether to develop my map a little bit more, I do really dig the concept and am definitely vibing with the people who wanted to see a little more of it... XD

[RonnieJamesDiner]

Well shit, that brightened the workday. Not sure what to say, but thank you! “The Collector” really stuck in my head from the moment I first played it - there really ought to be more maps with that style of environment. It’s surprisingly fun to map for, as well! 
 

Congrats to everyone who managed to pull something together for the competition. Looking forward to digging into that zip file. 

[Walter confetti]

Congratulations for all the winners and not!

[notTyrone]

Well deserved winners and mentions.  Congrats to everyone!  Thankful for the honorable mention as well!  Really good maps came out of this contest.

[Endless]

Osario, Joyful Raider and Screams from the Slipgate Station are just my kind of Doom kink. Osario really caught my eye since I'm very fond of photorealistic textures. Yet, all in all, this competition was extremely fierce and full of absolute winners. So many good maps! Congrats to all the winners, you guys really deserve it.

[Pierrot]

Good job everyone, this was a fun event and we get some really cool content from it!

I'm very thankful to Jimmy for the 2nd place.

Congratulations to Pinchy and RonnieJamesDiner, special awards and honorable mentions, they well deserve it.

[Biodegradable]

8 hours ago, Big Ol Billy said:

Now I'm really thinking about whether to develop my map a little bit more, I do really dig the concept and am definitely vibing with the people who wanted to see a little more of it

 

Please do, Bill! Oh please, oh please, oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

[Phobus]

Congratulations winners, awards and honourable mentions. You can do an awful lot with 15 hours in the editor, and the variety of maps seen on stream confirms that. More restrictive rules would have allowed for a proper compilation, but the room for creativity has definitely produced the better result.

[Vladguy]

GGs to all.

I wish I didn't use that illegal texture in my map.

I still regret it to this day.

[Rince-wind]

The download link just doesn't work for me, could you please add some mirror links like Dropbox or Mediafire?

[Dragonfly]

And that's a wrap! Congrats to the winners, and to everyone who participated - from what I saw on the streams this had a reaaallly good turnout, very high quality maps despite the limitations, lots of laughs, so on and so forth.

 

Spoiler

Stay hydrated! ;D

 

@Rince-wind copy the link URL, open a new tab, paste the url in then go. I had the same issue that simply clicking it didn't work, but this method worked for me, strangely.

[Rince-wind]

40 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

 

@Rince-wind copy the link URL, open a new tab, paste the url in then go. I had the same issue that simply clicking it didn't work, but this method worked for me, strangely.

 

I did that, but now every time I try to download it, it gives me an error saying the file is missing or incomplete.

Fuck it I'll just get the maps individually, thanks for the help anyways.

[iDoT]

That was actually a cool event, Congrats to everybody.

On 4/5/2021 at 8:37 PM, rd. said:

 

maybe it will be my profile picture :D

[MDevlin]

Congratulations and excellent job, everybody! Lots of quality maps in this project!

[RataUnderground]

I'm a little late here but congrats to the winners! This is the first time I engage with the community (because I'm shy and english is not my first language) and I'm very happy my map stand out sufficient to win an honorable mention xD. Thanks to all of you.

Edited April 10, 2021 by RataUnderground

[NeilForshaw]

Welcome Rata. This thread was my first post as well.

[Terminus]

Bumping this to say that I've been chipping away at these maps for the past few days and finally finished, and only then looked at the actual winners list.

This has been so good! So many great submissions, I wish I was around for the actual streams to see Jimmy's reaction to these wonderful maps.

My personal favorite was RJD's map, with Pinchy and Phobus being 2nd and 3rd place. Phobus's map wasn't mentioned and I thought it was wonderful.

 

Agreed with General Roasterock - This restored my faith in mapping contests. Congrats to all the winners and congrats to Jimmy as well!