Li'l devil

Related to previous status update, I honestly don't have motivation to release anything or even do anything anymore except for just playing wads. At this point I've tried myself in pretty much all areas and the results are disappointing. Either I'm entirely bad at something, as is the case with speedrunning, or I put a lot of effort into something that results in almost no payoff, as is the case with mapping.

I think when it comes to mapping I've reached my skill ceiling, but whatever I released was usually not even noticed, let alone liked. Making maps is difficult patience-wise, and even when I have a lot of patience, the results still end up being not worth spending time on it. I get lucky if even 3 people leave any feedback on my map at all, to the point that I feel like crediting individual people for just playing them. I know a solution would be to just work non-stop on a megawad for like a year, but with my attention span creating a single map is already a massive undertaking.

Writing reviews has other problems, but this time even bigger than them being unnoticed. Basically, I'm one of those people who by default thinks in negatives only and tends to take positives for granted. It's just a trait of my character, but that being said, I can write about positives, it's just very hard to do. I can like a work, and like it a lot, but the individual positive aspects tend to blur in my memory, and in the end the only positive things I can write amount to "great atmosphere, neat design, good gameplay, etc". In the few reviews I wrote, I had to play with a notebook near my hand to write down every thing I liked so that I wouldn't forget it.

But an even bigger problem is that right now and in recent future I want to play through all the "classic" wads first, because I feel so out of the loop with Doom. How can I have a qualified opinion if I haven't played the "must play" wads first? So I'll have to catch up, but it'll take a long while, and there's nothing I can really write about these cool wads. I've just finished Ancient Aliens and what can I say about it? It's great! That's pretty much it. Also it has a BS softlock on map 24 that made me restart the map. That, and a few other annoying moments that I remember, but this is negativity again, and writing about that would make it seem like I hated the work.

Even just posting on the forums isn't satisfying for the most part. I just do it out of boredom and 90% of my posts are dumb joke filler that some people probably find annoying too. But I don't have any ideas what else to write about.

So all this makes me think that people like me (likely the majority) exist solely to just consume stuff others produce, be it wads, reviews or something else. We're here so that people with actual talent can shine and seem better compared to us. But at least I'm hopefully in the majority!

I decided to post a list of all maps I've released. I know that probably nobody cares about me and my maps, but why not, right?

In order from newest to oldest:

8.  Bunker of Death (from the upcoming Doomworld Maximum Project 2023)

This is a short limit-removing map that can be beaten in around 3 minutes. Personally, I wouldn't release a map this short standalone, but in megawads where people play maps in batches, short maps work very well. Anyway, this map is linear, simple and straighforward. Of note, it has easily my favorite secret I've put in a map, so go find it!

Link: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/post/2734602
Also, I've recorded a UV-Max semi-speedrun of it just for fun (-complevel 2): https://doomshack.org/uploads/lil_bun2_demo.zip

7. Monster's Frankenstein of a Map

I think this is the best map I've made. It has a ton of design variety, a lot of custom content, advanced features like 3D floors, and around 50 minutes of gameplay. The reason why it has a lot of variety is because this map is actually a whole bunch of scrapped projects fused together. This is also the reason behind its name, which I don't like, but I don't know how else to call it. Collectively, all these scrapped projects and the resulting map took me at least 3.5 years to complete (with huge breaks due to me losing interest in Doom).

If you want to play at least one map of mine, this is the one I recommend! You'll visit forests, a bunker, underground areas, vast city plazas, challenge areas, etc. It has a lot. Also, the final area is actually the entirety of an earlier map of mine, remastered (reasons see below).
The map is for GZDoom, and I can actually recommend playing it with weapon mods. Most people who played it played with mods, and it arguably made the map better because people who played without mods complained about ammo shortages.

Link to the thread with screenshots:
https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/137493-my-first-map-everyone-play-it/
Link to idgames: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/0-9/20230715

6. E2M1: Overrun Factory (from The Joy of Mapping 6: Joy Eternal)

Another very short map of mine, but this time there were reasons for that. Firstly, for JoM6 we were only given 3 days to make a map, and since I'm not a speedmapper, there was only so much I could do in 3 days. Secondly, this map is the episode opener, and those are better being short and easy (unfortunately, the map right after mine ended up being brutal, lol). This map is a mostly straightforward techbase with a couple of minor quirks I guess, heh.

Link to the project: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/joymaps6

5. MAP08: House Cleaning (from 20 Heretics Challenge)

20 Heretics Challenge was an obscure follow up to the 20 Monsters Challenge on ZDF, which I also participated in (see below), this time for Heretic. My map there is a bit short and simplistic, but with a couple of gimmicks that you may like or not. For one thing, you play through most of the map with just a wand (pistol), which isn't a problem due to low monster count, but probably not as fun as I thought it was. In the end you'll suddenly be given the best weapons to fight the boss though, lol. Then there's the "maze" near the end which teleports you back if you walk in the wrong direction, but it's easy to figure out. I was also proud that I made the keys drop out of monsters, which isn't impressive I guess, but was for me. Also, one funny thing: the music I used in this map, despite being a MIDI, actually gave a friend a copyright claim, I guess because it's too reminiscent of the original, heh, which speaks for its quality.

Link to the project: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/20hcc

4. MAP02: Ambush Facility (from 20 Monsters Challenge)

First of all, I want to talk about 20 Monsters Challenge. It was hosted on ZDF and was a massive project, with 42 maps contributed by some of the biggest names on ZDF. Yet... it ended up in a total obscurity. Why? I think a part of the reason is because it was never uploaded to idgames out of fear of copyright issues. As a result, almost no one knows about it now, which is a massive shame. Trust me, there was a ton of passion put into it, and participating in it was so exciting. It seemed huge at the time. I honestly recommend giving the whole project a try.

As for my map, it's... full of ambushes! This is probably my most trollish map, hehe. It has this really challenging moment near the start involving tons of barrels that a lot of people died to, lol. Otherwise it's also short and is centered more around gimmicks than combat.

Link to the project: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=54247

3. MAP35: Li'l Devil's Map (from Doomworld Mega Project 2016)

Firstly and importantly, I've just released a standalone and remastered version of this map, which fixes some glaring issues of the original, and it's the definitive version to play (link below).

This is arguably my second best map, designed for vanilla. But oh my does it have a history. To keep it short, this map ended up in the project unfinished, because I got banned for causing mischief the day after I posted the last revision. But then it got worse: for whatever reason it was put in map 35 slot despite being for vanilla, which caused the sky and the music to be swapped if you tried to play it on ports other than ZDoom-based ones. It's for this reason that I finally decided to fix a couple of glaring flaws and rerelease it standalone, although I did plan a much more elaborate remaster at one point, but was told that the map was okay as is.

As for the map itself: it's atmospheric. I managed to create this very somber feel, which, coupled with creepy music from Blood, made it honestly a bit uneasy even for me to play. This is why I consider it better than most of my maps, but also because this map has quite a bit of variety to it. This is another one I can definitely recommend!
Also, forgot to list in the credits for the idgames release, but thanks to rd. for giving useful feedback back in the day.

Link to the remaster: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/j-l/lildevil3
Link to the project with the original version: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/dmp2016

Also! I recorded a UV-Max semi-speedrun of the remastered standalone version (-complevel 2): https://doomshack.org/uploads/lildevil3_demo.zip

2. Noirlab

A standalone Boom map I released under my old alias ChekaAgent. This map is notably designed entirely with textures from NOIRPACK, and requries them to play. This is that map that was included in its entirety in Monster's Frankenstein of a Map. Why? It's because this original version is, sadly, botched. Of all things, by the music. When choosing the music, I mindlessly decided to put in a noisy ambient track from System Shock 1. I didn't mind it, but most people who played the map hated it. It was sad to see an otherwise okay in my opinion map to be ruined like that, so I decided to "redeeem" it as part of the map I talked about above. So, this version remains as merely a historical artifact now, and I don't recommend playing it.

Link: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/noirlab

1. Heavily Infested Area

You want some trash?? Here's trash!! This is my first released map (although I did have a number of attempts at making a map prior to it), and by calling it trash I don't mean that it's not enjoyable. It's just that it has trash design philosophy behind it. Very dumb monster placement, stupid level design, etc. It also has a gimmick that there's a secret passage that allows you to skip most of the map, which rd. liked, lol. If you like childish myfirstmaps, it's for you!

Link: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/89909-heavily-infested-area-my-real-first-map/