Scuba Steve

Hmm... the iconic twisted face is covered by the "MASTER LEVELS" logo... I should play with it tomorrow and find a way to feature that specific face more prominently.

*shrugs*

Are you saying you didn't give Doomworld your credit card information!?

I'll have you know, Various Authors is the most prolific mapper of all time with more than two dozen Cacowards to their name!

The Netflix series 'High Score' continues the narrative that the id team planned to make Doom as open and moddable as possible... when the evidence seems to suggest they only really intended for the community to create new levels. The need for obtuse tools like deusef to add new patches to wads doesn't really lend credence to the idea that it was meant to be heavily moddable, and I seem to recall a statement that the team was completely paralyzed by the introduction of DeHackEd which went far beyond anything planned for community creation.

The other day I was thinking how No Rest For The Living would benefit from a custom soundtrack. So...

Armor still feels a better choice than shield in this context.

Just noting that it's odd to use the word "shield" to describe armor in a western-themed project.

Shield?

Glad you added widescreen support.

Episode 3 this year!?

What a great pick to follow Rekkr. My top "gets" are now Suspended in Dusk, Hacx, and Perdition's Gate/Hell to Pay.

The Cacowards were a direct response to the "Spike TV Video Game Awards." Award Ceremonies can function as a celebration of their medium but there has never been a video game award ceremony that is little more than free advertising for big publishers and Mountain Dew. Despite deep structural problems with ceremonies like the Grammys and the Academy Awards (that's a different rant) they are ultimately celebrations of the very best of their medium... you never have to wade through commercials for upcoming albums or a new teaser trailer for a film. They present the best of what their industry has produced in the previous year, celebrate legacies, and honor those who have passed on. There has never been a gaming award ceremony that celebrates gaming--they advertise gaming. The Cacowards are anathema to everything about "game awards"--primarily because there's no money to be made from it--but more importantly, the awards have become a celebration of the previous year and a critical look at why these projects are good and what makes them entertaining. There has also been a concerted effort to make the Cacoward judges more diverse; most Award judges are old, white men... the Academy Awards is comprised of 94% white judges who are predominantly men and over the age of 60. With a more diverse group of judges, more interesting projects are considered and there's less of an echo chamber where a single game is "the best at everything." I would kill for a gaming award ceremony that cares as much about the medium of gaming as we care about Doom.

If you want the Photoshop file for any reason, I'll send it.

Thicc Rudy Aspect-corrected Rudy

Bingo.

Direct all complaints regarding nickname misspellings to: DoomKid, author of the in-game credit file.

I think it would be less jarring if the shadow was narrower and had more definition so it and looked more like a jagged tree.

I think there's a degree of 'suspension of belief' and, so long as every static object has a shadow... your brain will just accept it.

I have never seen a map try to create a sector shadow for the tree sprite. That is interesting to me, especially if the idea is consistent across most static sprites in the map.

We long ago decided that the Cacowards can be thought of as the "idtech1 awards" however it just happens that Hexen, Heretic, and Strife don't see many user made add-ons, hence their general absence from the Cacowards... But all three have seen an award from time to time.

From all my experience, I'd say they are comprehensive; between the mentionation thread and the expanding roster of panel members, very few projects slip by the committee without having been played. In the old days, it was one or two people trying to keep track of every project and playing all of them (and many things DID slip by), but now, with a diverse group of writers each representing a different aspect of the community, I can't think of a mentioned release that wasn't at least discussed. The other thing that has evolved over the years is the awards becoming less about a contributor's favorite project and more about critical discussion. Take 3iaC; Jabba was largely the only person pulling for the project in the beginning and, when he realized he was alone, was willing to drop it from the list... but after making impassioned arguments about why he felt it was deserving, he managed to convince several others about the merits of the project (myself included). Previous Cacowards were much more "contributor's favorites" than they are now (Hello there, Foreverhood!). Granted any awards will always be subjective, but I'd argue that the current makeup of the Cacoward committee has led to a more even-handed approach than in the past.

I've said this before, but it was probably in private, I feel that the DBP are consistently good but never great. The rush to build a mapset in one month leads to a degradation of quality; I would love to see Big Ol Billy lead an effort to spend more time on a specific DBP and ensure a consistent set of maps. There's been some interesting ideas (the nightmare mod was a fascinating concept) but I never feel like they quite reach the mountaintop. Incidentally, this is the same reason I couldn't pull the lever for Shrine 2; the maps needed a little something else.

Correct?

I can probably fix this.