The 2021 Cacowards

[robocaco]

Congrats to the winners and runners up. Now I have the task of playing all of these!

[Velvetic]

I'm still surprised and thrilled that Atmospheric Extinction got a runner-up, a year ago I couldn't imagine the amount of attention and praise this little passion project would get. I'm forever thankful to each and everyone who helped playtest it, gave me moral support, or just played it. 2021 has been a wild year for me full of great stuff and great opportunities, lets hope that 2022 is even better!

 

Congratulations to all winners and runner-ups! Keep making great stuff, you're all fantastic!

 

Also, congrats to @Kaapeli47 for Insanity Deathmatch, LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[LadyMistDragon]

A few notes because I still have to read the actual main awards pages.;p)

 

I was incredibly shocked to see Old Still Life get a runner-up award. The title screen definitely sets the scene, but I was entirely convinced its obtuse nature would've consigned it to the list of 21. I'll admit, the rating I gave it in the Wadazine (the newstuff for Issue #16 was lower in part because of that.

 

However, it was awesome to see Mucus Empire and Arch-tek get mentioned. Their style was recognized, and for that I can feel grateful!

Edited December 10, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Danlex]

Congratulations to all the other winners! There's sooo many good releases this year, it's crazy. Sometimes I honestly thing that 2nd place on the list is way too high for me when I look at the other winners and see how amazing they look in comparison :p but I'm very grateful to the Cacoward team for making it possible and to the community for all the support. Thanks everyone ^^

[TJG1289]

I read through most of the awards on my lunch break at 1 am, and now I'd like to give some thoughts! I'd post my own personal top 10 WADs of the year here, but I don't know if this is the thread for that, so I'll just talk about some of the more notable things for me that were mentioned.

 

Xaser getting an Espi is a giant no-brainer. I've been lurking on this site since 04-05, and I never realized until fairly recently all the stuff he's done! I didn't really pay that much attention to mappers and just downloaded the stuff that won Cacos. So I didn't realize Xaser was the one who did Zen Dynamics until earlier this year. I remember playing that in '08, and it completely freaked my bean. The sheer amount of stuff I had never seen before in a Doom WAD was astounding. When that one NPC transformed into some kind of boss monster, it kinda terrified me, seriously. And then that final map with the creepy looking final boss that was like the cross between the IoS and a Cyberdemon in the looks department has stuck with me ever since I've played this. And to think Xaser has done so much more since ZD was released, he's totally deserving of the Espi. Transcendence from Eviternity is, like, the most gorgeous level I've ever played. The Commander Keen levels in D2tWID are some of my favorite secret levels in all of Doom. Acheron's Needle from Syringe has such an eerie atmosphere that works so well. And that's just some of the stuff I've played! There's so much Xaser that I haven't gotten to yet. Congrats to him!

 

Heartland and Lullaby were the only 2 WADs that I knew were shoe-ins. "New Skillsaw WAD" is usually enough to win a Caco as it is, but he managed to make an entire community download a source port that barely got any use. And thankfully, it was worth it. Heartland has some of the best maps I've played in a long time, mainly since the use of portals allowed for multi-story buildings and landforms. Any time I can compare a map to something from a Build engine game, it gets a lot of points in my eyes. These maps would be impressive even in a Build engine game! They're so well-crafted. I love the new weapons, the new enemies, the return of Vaillant's "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", and Stewboy's amazing soundtrack. Plus, the encounters themselves are just so fun. Any time you're on a moving platform having to deal with baddies is a plus. From the opening seconds, to map 5's lift moving forward to a group of enemies, to map 6's train-cart sandwich, these are encounters that I've never seen before in Doom. Simply amazing.

 

And then Lullaby. Quite possibly the most beautiful single-level WAD I've ever seen. I ABSOLUTELY love this color scheme. The blue and a black void just looks so good. The detailing and architecture is immaculate. A megaWAD of this style, please! Of course, a map is not just its design. This is a perfect mix of incidental combat and arena set pieces. The Spider Mastermind arena may have killed my frame rate, but it was still cool. The crystal caverns were windy and filled with well-placed baddies. And the Cyberdemon turrets made that arena a thrill. Cap it off with a giant arena (with a potential for a secret BFG), and you've got one of the biggest joys to play this year!

 

I'm super happy Arrival won. Arrival is one of the best limit-removing sets I've ever played. It takes the foundation of sets like D2tWID, and expands it. These maps are huge, with tons of verticality. It uses mostly, if not all, stock textures. And somehow, this feels different to me than old-school Doom. It's more refined, and more purposeful. It's more imposing with all these cliffs and ledges, and the sheer height of it all. But it never stops being fun. Map 01 in this is one of my favorite map 01s ever, which is impressive since Heartland and Auger;Zenith's map 01s are also up there. What really makes these maps are AD_79's soundtrack. Easily my favorite soundtrack of the year, they really add to the atmosphere of the WAD perfectly. An absolute joy to play.

 

I've already raved enough about Auger;Zenith elsewhere on here. It's my favorite WAD this year, and it's 100% because of the aesthetic. Scuba Steve really nailed in his write-up what I like so much about this WAD. The sheer amount of futuristic Doomcute in this is obscene, and I love it for it. And it features the best city levels I've ever played in Doom. 

 

It's a nitpick and a personal preference, but I would have loved A;Z and Intergalactic Xenology 2 to have gotten main awards. IX2 took everything that was good about the first one, and improved it. Ancient Aliens is my favorite WAD, so this already scored points for basically being new AA maps. But there's creativity in here that's not in AA, like in Symbiotic Infestation as Major Arlene wrote about. I got a huge smile on my face once I realized I was getting shrunk and was about to fight ON a Cacodemon. That was such a charming moment. The Boom features work so well in this WAD, and really add to the experience. That one map that has you loop around the same area, with it changing each time? That was inventive as hell! And of course, the entire thing looks amazing. I'll always love the AA textures and color palate. I'm hoping we get a IX3 sometime in '22!

 

It's insane to me that 24 different WADs got either a normal or a runner-up Cacoaward, but that wasn't enough. The team wrote about another 21 WADs that were deserving of recognition. I'm glad they did, cause a few of my top 10 of the year were in that! Skulltiverse is one of the most impressive community WADs I've played in a long time. Similar to Hellevator and Going Down in premise, but a little better when it came to the variety of map locations that could be used. Since we're traveling via portal this time, we're not imposed into the building motif. There's still a size limit, but the authors were able to make some truly imaginative maps. Several authors came to my attention in this WAD, and I can't wait to see more from them. Literalism mappers were given a map name and had to make a map around it. What we got was a plethora of map themes and locations that were a joy to experience. Perpetual Powers was an awesome 3-episode WAD that looked fantastic and had a lot of fun moments to it. It had a very strong sense of place to it that worked very well, even with some guest authors sprinkled in. Bourgeois Megawad may have been multiplayer focused, but the single-player experience wasn't forgotten. Small maps that you're forced to pistol start, with a lot of enemies made this a short, intense, and thrilling playthrough. Dungeon Synths mixed Heretic with Prog-rock, creating a very unique world. Plus, that one level with the black-and-white areas with no sound until you step on various piano keys is one of my favorite level gimmicks ever. 

 

Also, for the first time ever for me, a gameplay mod I was hoping for to win got an award! Corruption Cards is so fun to play. Getting to choose 1 of 3 random cards at the beginning of each level that change something small is a great way to replay WADs (or WADs that you know won't be too crazy with this). The sheer amount of creative cards in this has impressed me big time! From monster buffs, the environmental changes, to adding a crap ton of barrels to a level. I love how there's different modes you can play this with as well, like the one were every card you pick is permanent for the rest of the WAD, in case you're crazy or FragBunny. It makes replaying WADs so much fun. I'll probably replay Doom 2 In Spain Only with it, as it was the only WAD I played that won an award that I wasn't crazy about. It was fine, nothing bad with it, but nothing stood out too much. I wanted to replay it again anyway, so CC will make that a little more interesting! 

 

And that's just thoughts on stuff I liked that I've finished! I still have to play the rest of Fractured Worlds (first 2 maps are fun!), 1K Lines 3 (currently playing as part of the DWMC), Ray Mohawk 2 (hit Doom burnout while playing this and FW and haven't felt like going back to yet), and The Long Trek Home (playing currently with Corruption Cards and it is quite good).

 

Wow, this was longer than I thought it would be. Hopefully some people read this, lol. Again, congrats to all the winners, runner-ups, and mentions! Can't wait to see what's coming next year! Before that, I have a lot more stuff to play...

[doomfan/mokey show fan]

i just missed it i think

Edited December 10, 2021 by doomfan/mokey show fan

[Antkibo]

Making history real. Kudos to all winners!

[dobu gabu maru]

Congratulations to all the winners! And a special kudos to everyone that wrote an entry this year! Makes for a lot of reading—not too long before someone can start putting this stuff into a book.

[Ar_e_en]

Yay! Boaty McBoatwad got a special mention! Makes me feel like a special boy!

 

Congrats @Scotty ! And thank you for letting me make some maps for your wad!

[Kraja]

Oh wow, uhhh...
Shit - what do i do now 👀

First of all - congrats to all the winners and runner ups - this has to be the best year i've seen yet. It boggles my mind how this community keeps growing and getting better with every year despite being almost 30 years old. There's just so much cool, original, creative stuff to play - i'll use this year's cacowards to convince my console-loving friends to give this wonderful little corner of PC gaming a shot. Ashes, Lullaby, Time Tripper, Infested, Painslayer, Corruption Cards and all the other cool stuff from this year alone is just... all of it is a brilliant display of creativity, talent and sheer passion that is what's keeping this game alive even after all this time. The fact that none of it was done for money or profits but just for... fun is what kept me here since i started mapping in 2016. And since there's no signs of doom modding slowing down anytime soon... i'm gonna stick around for way, way longer. 

 

So... yeah 
Cheers, folks 🍻

Have a beer... or 3. All of you deserve it. 
Here's to another god-knows-how-many years. 🍺

 

[Mr Masker]

43 minutes ago, doomfan/mokey show fan said:

i just missed it i think

missed it? You can just read it whenever you feel like it, it isn't a limited time event.

[DGuy]

Brilliantly written, the team do a fantastic job of picking projects from the huge list of content produced this year.  It’s great that such a wide range of maps, mods and music were mentioned to encourage people to try them out if they haven’t already
 

Personally, I think that, similar to the speed runs section, there could be a media section to highlight those who have produced great content. From comments in YouTube videos of creators like decino, borogk, coincident, A1s and MtPain27 it’s clear that these have a useful role in expanding the community and showcasing different map sets 

Edited December 10, 2021 by DGuy
Extra info

[BluePineapple72]

Pardon this wall. Brevity isn't my thing.

 

When I first joined this community back in 2015, it was mostly in due to my allure to the upcoming Doom reboot that was being advertised everywhere. The 2015 Cacowards came and I hardly really knew what a wad was, but even then I understood the immense nature of the Cacowards. Simply for how remarkable it was that this community had such a passionate and long running celebration for a very niche and unique art form we call mapping. 2016 came, and by then I had experienced Ancient Aliens for myself, so being able to share that experience of amazement at the wad with the rest of this website was a really special feeling. 

 

The Cacowards stand out to me among other award ceremonies (the only coming to mind being The Academy Awards, The Grammys, The Game Awards [blegh] etc.) in that I truly feel the celebration and appreciation behind every award. With how formal they've become, they feel less like a "top 10 wads" show and more like an all around huzzah for the work of the community with the inclusion of the special features page.

Having been a part of the mapping community for the past year, this year feels very special to me in that I now personally know many of the names featured. Not just as fellow forum users, but as friends. @Danlex being a notable one. I played his Omega 2019 map and knew immediately that he was a gifted mapper. From there I have been fortunate enough to have him become a moderator of my discord and a frequent participant in dumb little projects that I run.

 

Speaking of, having PUSS be among the celebrations this year with a special shoutout is very heartwarming. I've been putting off addressing this shoutout for the better part of a few hours because, frankly, it makes me emotional. "Riding high on a tidal wave of youthful enthusiasm." Not to make this post my own personal therapy session, but it's been hard for me lately to find that enthusiasm within myself, and I've somewhat been hands off with PUSS in that I feel like I'm unable to bring that enthusiasm back to the table.

 

But, it helps to remember why I do this. Why I stay up late testing maps. Why I collaborate and brainstorm with very creative people. Why I always put hours into copy and pasting images from the doom text generator to make a pretty wad release.

 

Community.

 

I love this community, with all of my heart, and I am beyond honored to have my dumb little speedmapping series be apart of it.

 

 

I dooo however take issue with one thing... "BluePineapple72 has created something quite special here, an institution..." 

I have been holding the mantra for some time that I haven't created PUSS. Sure! I post the threads, write the rules, compile the wads, and test them months after posting them, but I'm not the one who has made PUSS.

 

It's the mappers. It's those dang fools who are so brave to put nine pain elementals, five arch-viles, an four cyberdemons in a 10 sector map. It's those freaks and geeks who want to make a map with 10 secrets in 8 hours. It's those quick and daring who will jump any hurdle I throw at them to create true art.

 

One of my favorite things to do when compiling a wad is to create the CREDIT image. I haven't been able to do that as of late because I'm lazy because of some various factors involving life schedules and other sorts of things I can say to deflect blame that have stopped me from making one. Part of each CREDIT I make contains a "special thanks" to the special folks who have made that wad. 

 

So without further ado, in no particular order. I would like to give out these special thanks:

@DynamiteKaitorn/Heich ~ @obake ~ @Pierrot ~ @RonnieJamesDiner ~ @Lorenz0 ~ @Austinado ~ @LateNightPerson ~ @Blue_Juice_ ~ @DukeOfDoom ~ joe-ilya ~ @Weird Sandwich ~ @fveitsi_ ~ @Dragonfly ~ @Telemassacre ~ @TOVA ~ @TrialD ~ @Black Shuck 97 ~ @exoprogamer ~ @Cheesewheel ~ @Captain Toenail ~ @Glikkzy ~ @Mike_C ~ Doomcat, son of @Death Bear ~ @dach ~ @Omniarch ~ @Scypek2 ~ @Walter confetti ~ @E.M. ~ @Fryuko ~ @ShadesMaster ~ @kakroucz ~ @RiviTheWarlock ~ @IggySqiggles ~ @Rune ~ @Baratus ~ @Cacodemon187 ~ @BlooberryPi3 ~ @Vortale ~ Unicorn Skull, daughter of Death Bear ~ @Lemonlytical ~ TheBMFG ~ Chookum ~ @El Inferno ~ @Worriedidiot ~ @Astro X ~ @Awall ~ @Bobby “lolmcswagger” ~ @NeilJohnRips ~ @BoxY ~ @fuGue_tv ~ @Engired ~ @Jacek Bourne ~ @dac ~ @finnks13 ~ @Matacrat ~ @Yumheart ~

 

I promise to all who's maps haven't been played: I'll get to them. Pinky promise.

 

Some notable mentions:

@HAK3180 - For early testing of PUSS I-V

@FrancisT218 - For frequent testing of latter year PUSS wads.

@ViolentBeetle - For running some damn fine community projects on my server.

@Steve88 - Who came up with the idea of Monthly Speedmap droboxes

@Major Arlene - My arch-rival

 

My event staff who have given me their time and their ears:

@muumi

@MAN_WITH_GUN 

@Jark

@MemeMind

@notTyrone

@Jimmy - special thanks for correspondence on Speed Squared

@vertigo

@myolden

 

I would like to give a very warm and notable thank you to @Death Bear and @Peccatum Mihzamiz whose passion has kept this torch burning. And I would like to give a special thanks to @aletheos eberlain for being the one to kick the snowball down the hill.

 

My server mods:

@Horus

@Bridgeburner56

@Danlex

@Pegleg

@Zero the Red

 

A final thanks to anyone I've forgotten, and a grandiose congratulations to all of the winners/mentions this year! You are all damned lovely people and I am honored to be a part of this community with you!

 

Until next time ,o7

Edited December 11, 2021 by BluePineapple72

[Clippy]

Good times

[Walter confetti]

Awesome seen Deadly Standards 3 having a runner-up cacoward this year, that's so cool!

As well for all the other incredible maps from this year! Good job to all!

Edited December 11, 2021 by Walter confetti

[xdude_gamer]

A very good edition of Cacowards. Definitely a bunch of great maps too!

[Gothic]

Honestly, I would've included Lee Jackson as promising newcomer (to the Doom community), unless using RoTT and Duke midis since '96 counts as contributions to the community.

[msx2plus]

HOLY SHIT

 

THANK YOU

 

WHAT

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

an insane honor to be included among so many projects that just feel leagues beyond what i'm doing. wow.

Edited December 11, 2021 by msx2plus

[Miss Bubbles]

Congrats to all the winners and cheers to another year of a fantastic community still going strong! I've been sleeping on Doom stuff for a while now, someday I need to catch up on what I've been missing out on!

[Master O]

Observation: an Auger;Zenith deathmatch wad would be just as cool as Auger;Zenith itself.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Master O

[SuperCupcakeTactics]

14 minutes ago, Master O said:

Observation: an Auger;Zenith deathmatch wad would be just as cool as Auger;Zenith itself.

You are absolutely correct and that's why it has to be done. Currently in the brainstorming phase (outside of my .txt files) and after that it's preproduction of new assets and music lineup time! :)

[EANB]

It's incredible and inspiring what people can do with Doom every year. That shot of Lullaby looks spectacular. 

[Wavy]

There's something I want to say, and it's not strictly about the Cacowards but more about Doomworld itself and the people here.

 

I've been here for just over a year, and during all that time ago (which only feels like yesterday come to think about it) I had no idea about just how devoted this community is. So many awesome and talented mappers, programmers, composers and artists come to create some of the most coolest things that I don't typically see come from any other community, and those people are the ones that I look up to. This year has been very busy with the amount of releases there have been to the point of it being genuinely overwhelming yet really inspiring. And the people here in general are awesome. Everyone here is super chill and has a everone-knows-everyone feel, which is what ties this community closer to each other.

 

So I must say, thank you all from the bottom of my heart. All of you's have made Doom one of my favourite games of all time, and it wouldn't be so without all of you wonderful people.

 

Stay strong.

[ketmar]

congrats to everybody — winners, runners, those who didn't made into the list yet (you eventually will! ;-), to Cacoward writers, and to the community as a whole. it's really great to see how many things community produced to choose from (except when you're a Cacoward writer/jury, i guess ;-). the only complaint i have is that there are so many things to try that i prolly won't be able to finish it all before 2022, and 2022 will certainly bring even more. can't you people slow down a little, and produce quality content at a slightly saner rate? ;-)

 

p.s.:

Spoiler

that "slow down, people" rant is getting old, it seems… maybe that's me who have to become faster?

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by ketmar

[CBM]

This must have been the most difficult year yet for the judges! Great for the community as a whole

[Hitboi]

I made a map for Ray Mohawk 2 and the project is mentioned in the Cacowards?! No way.

[Master O]

12 hours ago, SuperCupcakeTactics said:

You are absolutely correct and that's why it has to be done. Currently in the brainstorming phase (outside of my .txt files) and after that it's preproduction of new assets and music lineup time! :)

 

I assume, given the wad's aesthetics, the music will be synthwave, synthpop, etc?

[Suitepee]

Good Cacowards this year.

 

Nice to see @Kraja finally getting some overdue recognition with IHNI. 1K Lines 3 also appearing in there was nice to see; again, I really hope the Doom community takes notes from that wad's map 30 in a textbook example of how to finish a megawad nicely without needing the lame Icon of Sin.

[RottKing]

A very strong show of content for the Cacowards, it's really pretty amazing how much high quality stuff gets output from this community every year. As for R!Zone itself, I'm glad people enjoyed playing it, and watching a tournament run on the mapset was a great experience. It's also funny how randomly finishing a map I made in 2008 was really the catalyst that sparked my motivation to even work on multiplayer maps again, and ended up leading to a whole wad being made.

Edited December 11, 2021 by RottKing

[baja blast rd.]

On 12/10/2021 at 4:01 AM, Gibbon said:

I would tend to agree with you.  It is unfortunately still heavily biased towards mapsets rather than other artistic areas like MIDI's.  I can say, NRFTL is unplayable without that MIDI pack.

 

...

 

Wanted to explain this: just because someone was recruited to write about maps doesn't mean they are knowledgeable about other Doom-adjacent specialties too.

 

Currently it's "easy" to pick up people to follow the map scene. In the wider Doom community, there is unsurprisingly a huge body of discussion about wads: reviewing, playtesting, playthrough clubs, high-quality shitposts, discussion threads, original content, low-quality shitposts... 

 

Critical discussion for other areas exists too, sure, but a lot less of it.  

 

That necessarily makes specialty recruiting more of an asspull where you have to hope an active practitioner wants to funnel time away from creating, to be more of a reviewer instead. That happens too, but a lot of people (correctly) decline. 

 

So if you want more people who can identifiably cover other things very well -- when necessary -- the actionable approach is to help create more avenues for original content in those areas: gameplay mod club threads, music reviews, "This Year in Code" summaries, and so on.

Personally, between playing and writing and recruiting and some organization things, I'm pretty exhausted, and some of the angry "you people should have magically summoned even more energy to follow 3-4 more fields and cover those too" subtext is quite naive. (Thankfully it's only in a scattering of posts, and those posts don't seem to have been agreed with much, but still...)