Cacowards 2022 Mentionations Thread [mention projects / contributions that aren't levels too]

[MattFright]

Angelic Aviary is a mod that has apparently been in development for 3 years with 4000+ frames of 100% original sprite animation frames. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but i feel like it's worth a mention, especially for the insane amount of effort put into it.

[danidf96]

Circadian Offset by @GBTS. Stunning partial conversion

Edited August 15, 2022 by danidf96
Misspell

[FragsBunny]

Someone please finish MAP26 of TNT 2 Devilution so that it can claim both Cacoward AND Mordeth!

[ScottGray]

Voxel Doom by youtuber Cheello (dont know his doom world handle)

 https://youtube.com/channel/UC1WkHfzyqhCMTOLCeBznygA

Giving us 3d monsters and items that look and feel just like the original pixely sprites. Just what we need for VR. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by ScottGray

[Berubaretto]

• Plutonia Revisited Community Project 2 which is led by @Joshy. This is as great as the original PRCP.
• Capybara led by @Nefelibeta, featuring a bunch of maps that have great visual and challenging difficulty.

[Valboom]

+1 Nostalgia

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/130681-nostalgia-now-on-idgames-32-maps-doom-2-format/

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Foodles]

I just finished Pagodia and I have to say it was very good. Well presented maps with a good aesthetic - I hesitate to say unique but it's certainly a style that I haven't seen before with the Japanese theme and purple/green dominated colour palette. Also, perhaps more importantly the gameplay was the right amount of challenge without being too hard resulting in a very fun experience. 

 

Definitely gets my nomination.

[Death Bear]

Maybe I'm biased here, but...

+1 Altars of Madness
+1 Nostalgia
and...
can I just say that with these two releases, @myolden himself should have some kind of mention (newcomer or something?). He continually puts out quality work, and this year alone has contributed amazing work to the PUSS series, Solar Struggle, other projects, AND the aforementioned 12-map set and full-32, both of which are awesome...And he's not done! 

[BerserkerNoir]

Voxel Doom by Cheelo.
Faithful and with reimaginations of objects that didnt have multiple sprite angles.

 

[Suitepee]

Mr Going Down still got it. Give him another Cacoward! :)

Edited August 27, 2022 by Suitepee

[Dodgy Dave]

I'd like to nominate 2 maps from the RAMP 2022 project.

 

Bloodstrike Overkill - AARON RUSSELL BOWTELL
Manufactured Extinct - HRNEKBEZUCHA

 

They were both fucking great.

[MtPain27]

+1 lunchlunch's The 10x10 Project - this was a random recommendation that I'm really glad I followed up on. These maps are something special, both in the art and combat departments. I highly recommend playing them, but I also strongly suggest experiencing Killer5's The Event Horizon before you do.

[Flower_XD]

+1 for Corrupted Cistern <3  

[LadyMistDragon]

5 hours ago, MtPain27 said:

+1 lunchlunch's The 10x10 Project - this was a random recommendation that I'm really glad I followed up on. These maps are something special, both in the art and combat departments. I highly recommend playing them, but I also strongly suggest experiencing Killer5's The Event Horizon before you do.

Speaking as someone who played 10X10 first, it might be a good idea to explain exactly why. If that risks spoilage, that could have  probably be explained beforehand (especially since it seems from the text file that only Map 07 blatantly referenced Event Horizon, although that doesn't some of the other maps drawing inspiration from it of course).

[Decay]

Frantik DM 2 by @Arrowhead

 

For a one man job, this is a super-well crafted DM set for 2022. It holds some great designs for multi-port play, with an excellent ratio of strong to meh layouts, rare to see in the past decade. Without crutching on the SSG too much, many maps have good projectile play, mixing things up from the usual joust-fest.

 

More importantly, Frantik2 represents a significant improvement of skill from the mapper over the first Frantik DM. The layouts are much more refined after learning what worked and what didn't work, and even from earlier versions of Frantik2 that I saw the layouts needed far less tweaking than the Frantik 1 set. Between the mapper growth and the actual output, IMO it is a set well deserving of recognition.

 

@dew better keep his eye on this one!

[Kaapeli47]

Two excellent candidates for multiplayer awards in my opinion:
+1 for Samsara Reincarnation

While just a gameplay mod that can also be played in GZDoom singleplayer, it has been overwhelming in Zandronum multiplayer! Super fun in co-op and surprisingly balanced in deathmatch as well, given all the vastly different playable characters from different 90s FPS games! It takes Zandronum 3.1 to its very limit with its faithfulness towards the referenced games, down to the precise models, animations, effects, sounds and interfaces of the player characters, weapons and enemies!

 

+1 for FrantikDM 2

You rarely see a solo release of a full 32-map deathmatch megawad these days, let alone one close to as brilliant as @Arrowhead's Boom-compatible FrantikDM 2! Its layouts have amazing flow, well considered weapon and item placements, and simple but pleasing detail with Otex effectively mixed with some Doom 2 textures! The map sizes range from medium to large, which work extremely well for 4-10 players!

 

 

I would also give +1 for Hordamex if I didn't have heavy involvement in its development, but I would still like to shout out the rest of the brilliant mapping team behind the project. They have pretty much revolutionized Odamex's Horde Mode with over 50 astounding layouts made in just 2 months time. The team consists of several talented newcomer and veteran mappers, and I would be surprised if their hard work doesn't at least get a mention! I look forward to seeing their next endeavors in Doom creating!

[KneeDeepintheSludgemetal]

+1 for this 

 

[danidf96]

+1 For Malevolence Episode 1 by @Cheesewheel

[schiz0id]

+1 for bloodline. It just released its final build, and has been worked on since 2016.

Edited September 8, 2022 by schiz0id

[Batandy]

I'd also like to nominate The Thing You Can't Defeat by @YourOpinionsAreWRONG

The concept is not new and it could've been really easy to pull just a cheap scary wad to ride on the Caretaker/Gets Uncanny etc meme bandwagon, but the author manages to perfectly encapsule the concept in a subtle yet frightening way by presenting you familiarity and then twisting, corrupting it.

It doesn't use any assets other than the original Doom's, no scary entities, no corrupted creepypasta sprites, and it's that's what elevates it, it manages to do so much with so little and it's just better for that.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Batandy

[danidf96]

+1 for @Bloodbath Giraffe and his one man effort Azazel's Second Descent

[Womp the Cat]

Haven't seen it mentioned so would like to do the honors of nominating; 

[Untitled] by @Thelokk is an incredibly moving piece of work for a set of doom maps, that ponders at the creators mortality, Doomguys mortality and in doing so, will make you ponder your own. For a game that features so much death, we don't question it often, and [Untitled] changes that.

 

This wad deserves more attention.

 

 

[Fernito]

+1 for Squenched Avacausage by @nova++

[Bri0che]

On 9/10/2022 at 11:16 AM, Batandy said:

I'd also like to nominate The Thing You Can't Defeat by @YourOpinionsAreWRONG

The concept is not new and it could've been really easy to pull just a cheap scary wad to ride on the Caretaker/Gets Uncanny etc meme bandwagon, but the author manages to perfectly encapsule the concept in a subtle yet frightening way by presenting you familiarity and then twisting, corrupting it.

It doesn't use any assets other than the original Doom's, no scary entities, no corrupted creepypasta sprites, and it's that's what elevates it, it manages to do so much with so little and it's just better for that.

 

I agree with this nomination, this is by far my best experience with Doom this year :)

[Shanoa]

@valkiriforce's Anomaly Report deserve a mention and more attention. Fantastic mapset from start to finish.

 

+1 for @myolden's Nostalgia for the same reasons already mentionned.

[skaarjman]

I would say voxel doom it's pretty well done !

[Ralphis]

Nominating @MTrop for this year's code award for his work on the DoomTools suite. He continues to improve and evolve it, and the DECOHACK tool in particular is a paradigm shift in how to quickly and easily write very complicated Dehacked patches. Deserving work without question.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Ralphis

[NiGHTS108]

Not Even Remotely Fair by @Peter et al.

 

Dude I am SHOCKED it took almost 30 years for a wad revolving around Nightmare difficulty to be made, and I am extremely surprised how much I ended up liking said wad. I say this as someone who basically never plays Nightmare but Not Even Remotely Fair was a super refreshing experience for me, simply the concept is interesting by itself but also what I enjoyed was the execution of it, I noticed Nightmare's unique aspects being used in quite interesting ways to turn what would be basic, simple encounters on any other difficulty into all-out battlefields. I won't go into too much more detail, but I'd really recommend Not Even Remotely Fair to anyone kinda burnt out on Doom looking for a challenge off the beaten path.

Edited September 22, 2022 by NiGHTS108

[Zaratul]

Nominating:

+1 Nostalgia
+1 Stickney instalation

+1 Anomaly Reborn

+1 Silence

 

Damn, so many great wads this year!

[hakros]

+1 Elementalism
+1 Nostalgia