https://www.twitch.tv/ionous 

Thus ends the Jam, but the later half is just as good!

Skill 2

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/mjbrj6b.zip

Mukor:
Wow, what an impressive first release! I love the warm lighting and night time atmosphere. Lots of story elements going on with the center print beckoning you all the way. Lovely secrets...I was able to unearth 7 out of the whopping 9! I think the gameplay had lots of variety and you made good use of entities such as func_train to replace func_bobs.

I think a tiny quibble would be when you need to reach the second sacrifice pool...I just happened to go back and shoot/push the switch. Congrats!

Nait:
Lovely map, great architecture and fits the theme well. I think the map felt a bit empty, maybe because of the large spaces and sparse enemies. The quad run was fun but there needs to be a shortcut to the top as it discourages jumping for tempting ledges! Set wait with a value of -1 on buttons to make them stay pressed in.

Newhouse:
Your style is becoming more apparent to me. I am starting to see NewHouse maps as dark and brutal and this map is no different! The crushers miss their mark a little bit due to the cramped hallways but I liked that you attempted a different way to handle zombies. The void section is fantastic and really gives an out of this world vibe...I like how you interpret themes. I did not find a way to get back to the silver key door after finding said key...I assume it was the slipgate on top. Lastly, a pretty cool idea with the vore sprint.

OTP:
Congrats on a non-phallic release! I liked the unique theme here with the green poison channels beneath. Gave me a bit of a doom 64 vibe. Gameplay was solid enough but it could have used a little more re-population during key movements. It appeared you ran out of ideas at the finish but it was satisfying enough.

PuLSaR:
Very dark and moody...quite small but I know you had very limited time. I found one secret and enjoyed my little romp through some very dark corridors. I could have used a wee bit more light in some places.

Shademaster:
Congrats on your first release. The map is competent enough but is a bit rough around the edges. That's OK though considering it is your first entry! Secrets seem to be given much too late as the map is over before you know it! Consider using some messages to guide the player as to what their button pressing is doing!

Skacky:
Wonderful aesthetic here with the tech like infused Egyptian structures. Lovely lighting, probably the best lighting of the entire jam to be quite honest. Fun secrets if maybe a bit too close together and even a super secret (Which half of the demo is me spending the time to find the last button...which doesn't happen.) I did check the map for the location and it's worthy enough but why not a marked secret?

One issue I had was being confused when told the path to the key was clear. I triggered the help message earlier due to secret jumping and thus didn't make the connection for a while. Really good work! Also, I chuckled when the level changed.

And there you have it, one of the best jams I have played hands down...perhaps the best! Every map is vastly different. From standard dusty Egypt to out of this world techno-gypt the jam runs the gambit of all flavors.

There are too many entries to pick a favorite so I will choose three that I felt touched me in that oh so special way:

In no particular order:

Mukor
LanePowell
Bloodshot

Congratulations to all! 

Id say with respect to Fifth any and all fixes should be done with the next ~24 hours.

This is a sizable and memorable, jam so I'd say its worth a little effort after the fact.

Im also totally biased cause I'm wanting to submit a small update to my map.

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/retrojam6_mukor.7z

Here is the final update to Sacrifice Unto Sebek. This fixes monsters that were clipping on geometry. Item placements/amounts. Moved Mega Health secret to a more practical spot. It was pretty pointless in its first spot. (proven by ionus' stream) Fixed a sequence of events that occurs in the mid section of the map. First version triggered things without prompting the player which led to even myself being a little confused as to what was going on. The flow is much clearer now. Also, added some monster jumps. :)


I'll be getting to demos tonight once my little ones gone. 

Bloodshot: That opening vista is really something. The pyramid is very cool and the green lighting makes it look like the whole land is cursed. Loved the little adventure trope of the sliding pit of doom at the start. Combat is good for the most part, if a bit unfair near the end. Loved the use of traps. Lighting was alright too but colors were a bit strong at times. Very good first map.

Breezeep: Playtested this and it was already incredibly solid, needing only a few changes. Super good map that feels like a full release. Geometry is simple and elegant, flow is superb, lighting is lovely, fights are intense but properly balanced and the temple-in-caves-bathed-in-moonlight theme is excellent. I really like the keys inside the teleporters, that's clever. An all around very good map and a highlight of the pack.

Danzadan: Very good first map, much like Bloodshot. That night sky was lovely and the outdoor area in the middle was proper Egyptian. Combats were hectic, chaotic and ultimately a whole lot of fun. Didn't find a single secret I believe. :(

DOOMer: feels like Sandy Petersen authored that one. One of the most retro of the pack for sure. Pretty good overall. The ending was pretty brutal but interesting.

Dumptruck: Loved the classic Doom monster preview in that one. This map feels properly evil. The pyramid in the void is a very nice touch, so is the Romero lift with the obelisk as the centerpiece. I assume this is a first release as well, in which case congrats!

FifthElephant: Crazy good given the short amount of time used to make the map. It looks good and plays rather well. The pyramids are certainly very impressive-looking. The lighting makes the whole map look very dusty. Short and sweet. A few collision issues though, resulting in the player being able to get into solid geometry. Projectiles also travel inside walls on the right of the silver key door. :P

Ionous: Much like Fifth this is a really really good map, especially given the short amount of time. Feels properly retro, using only simple shapes. The black sky makes it look very mysterious. Flows well, good layout, good fights. Really ace.

Khreathor: Probably the best lighting out of all the maps and the most retro-looking to me. It really reminded me of both PS1 games and Magic Carpet somehow, though I can't really explain it. The architecture is simple but very good and feels properly Egyptian, especially the green marble corridors. Crazy good pharaoh sculpture too. That said gameplay is a bit let down by the fact that, much like my first proper release, the map is mirrored at one point. Time constraints, of course, but still a con. That said, however, this is still a very cool map!

LPowell
Pretty good map. I'm not too sure about desaturated lighting with sock's Egypt wad, it works better with colored lighting in my opinion. Interesting layout and good combat encounters overall. I got a bit confused at one point but it's more my fault than the map's. Not much to say about it really, it's solid all around.

Bloughsburgh: Even crazier than your jam7 map. This is just insanely fun. Really good design and you actually made water combat fun, which is no small feat. Didn't find a way to get the rune but that didn't prevent me from really digging the map. 

Mukor: Playtested this a few times as well. It's really, really good. Vertical and a lot of fun. Very impressive visually, feels proper evil and Egyptian. Definitely full-release material here. I'm not sold on the crates you added for the release version, they look a bit jarring with the rest. The button to open the second well is also too well hidden among the scenery, made especially annoying that it has more than 1 health! Other than that it's a really cool map.

Naitelveni: Feels a bit like Serious Sam that one, with the monolithic scale and long sightlines. The Vore at the start is incredibly inefficient and encounters could be a bit more thought out. That said it is still a really fun map with cool events (the gold key was a lot of fun for instance) and gorgeous architecture, which could've benefited from better lighting as it's a bit flat. There could've been a shortcut below to get up to the upper levels too. The map has a trigger_teleport issue as well, but it's not really too bothersome. So yeah, overall this is a pretty solid map as well!

Newhouse: I'm sorry, but I didn't like the gameplay in that one very much at all. It's far too unfair, even with the powerups inside the secrets. The crushers are a cool idea and the quad run is fun, but that's about it. Design-wise, however, this is clearly one of the best maps of the bunch, with superb visual design and really odd stuff. It keeps things fresh and the flow is as bizarre as the visual design, which is something I really enjoyed. It's just a shame the gameplay is so subpar compared to the rest, it feels almost like an afterthought with monsters thrown in just for the sake of it.

Oasis: Sorry, I don't remember your nickname. In any case this is a competently-made beginner map, which reminded me of Kona's maps after Cardo said it in Ionous' stream. Texture choice is a bit dubious but it still works somehow. It's nothing spectacular but still well made for a first map, definitely much better than most first attempts at the least!

Onetruepurple: Atrocious. Horrible. Abominable. Fetid. Awful. Just pure dross. How could anyone release a map like this I can't fathom!

In all seriousness, this is one of the most retro of the pack, it feels like American McGee decided to make an Egyptian map, replacing lava with slime. The brush shapes are very reminiscent of Episode 3, so are the moving platforms. Layout is pretty good too. A solid first proper release that's not textured with cocks this time!

Pulsar: My favorite of the pack. Just an all-around excellent small-sized map that totally nailed the Egyptian theme and looks mysterious as fuck. If I had to complain I'd say it's a bit too dark and the arena with the Hell Knights doesn't work very well, but other than that it's a really damn good offering especially considering it was made very quickly.

skacky: This was interesting to make for sure. I had wanted to make an Egyptian map for a while now. Design was very freeform, so much so that you can completely sequence break the map. I should've found a better solution for the whole gold key accession process but I thought the Lost Crusade trope would be pretty obvious. Oh well! :P
The Angelic Process' haunting music and artwork were a huge inspiration for the map.

Top 5 maps for me:
- Pulsar
- Breezeep
- Bloughsburgh
- Ionous
- Khreathor

Skill 3 demos for all!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwnUnvcoU4HFSUVKTFpHQTNZVUU/view?usp=sharing 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwnUnvcoU4HFSEV0THVUX2l0R1E/view?usp=sharing 

Thanks for your comments so far. I really want strive to create something new in the future and every feedback is welcome.

Sorry I didn't introduce new mechanics, I just thought people would understand without them and I just focused on void sections. 

Thanks for the feedback, I must know though.. where the monsters should have been, because I designed gameplay be this way. Every monster was placed with care, it's a shame the gameplay itself didn't work for you but hopefully it will in other maps in the future. I will try to work on it! 

You can't please everyone. In comparison I thoroughly loved your jam7 map. 

Dumptruck's map seems to have an elusive bug where the elevator doesn't descend, yet there's no one to shoot anymore. Perhaps some monsters end up falling through the geometry sometimes.

I had a few instances of monsters getting stuck inside/behind walls in Quakespasm 0.92.1 when playing through AD 1.5 and RRP. Maybe it's the engine?

I liked all maps I played so far. 

so any bugs that arise as a result can't be blamed on the mapper :P 

Umm, I didn't say I played RJ6 maps in AD or RRP. 

I discovered that too on one play test and couldn't not replicate it again. Sorry about that. Thanks to Skaky, ionous and Bloughsburgh for the critiques and kind words. Yes this is my first SP Quake release, I have mapped a few MP Quake 1 maps but I have learned a ton doing SP maps over the past year and TBH Preach's tuts inspired me greatly. I have only played the first two maps can't wait to play them all and post my thoughts. 

map is great too, love the floaty/dreamy objects + atmosphere, got stuck during my first run though 

Thank you for the feedback Bloughsburgh and skacky.

The crates, now that i think about it, should've been a mixture of base crates and the, as you mentioned in the demo, big blocks from the pillars. The base crates would help explain the grunts/enforcers who are there trying to loot Sebeks tomb. The ogres, zombies, etc are inhabitants of the tomb who Sebek just dont give a hoot about and wants their gibs cause hes mad.

Sorry bout the health on the button and lack of direction. I changed the sequence of events in there but Id rather not explain as itll still spoil things. But basically, after hitting the button you can choose to do more in that room or proceed forward. before you kind of got pigeonholed into thinking you had to complete some sequence of events when it reality its just that you need to hit the button.

Good job on the secrets. The one set of similar secrets are designed to help add story and reveal another area thats probably gonna be left undiscovered to a lot of people. As such, I made it non essential for success/progression. Finding this room in some ways helps explain the grunts and enforcers a bit more.

Another bit of "story"; when you spawn, walk forward towards the items and look forward for a couple seconds :)

Theres a secret where the item fell through the floor. sorry bout that.

Thanks again for the feedback everyone. Happy to give back to all you other mappers/players out there :) 

I was wondering about this one scenario. I saw people jumping to their dead in this vore ambush scene. There is no way I can change it that much, but at least I could make it teleport to back and facing player to the right direction. I really don't like using text messages to tell player what to do. I made huge distance between vores and player, so player would see that it can't reach them. I thought player would never try to jump down, unless it is the only choice. That is why teleport to that RL room was on top and not bottom, I though it would make sense.

I need to make it possible to get back on top to get that rocket launcher, maybe I add an extra teleport to this shambler hall (after you beat them of course), it would be stupid to let player skip that fight. 

I think teleporting from the vore pit to the right direction to exit would definitely assist in communicating to the player that they need to run for it. However, keep in mind that in Quake...players generally want to kill monsters no matter how inconvenient it is. The ideas are creative and unique to be sure but when you introduce something atypical that wasn't demonstrated in a safe environment before...you unintentionally provide a block of communication between designer and player.

It's tough stuff, but watching demos and listening to feedback is the best way to adapt to these things. But please continue to map in your own vision as originality is very important as well. Sometimes you just got to accept some people won't see your map the way you do yourself. It stinks sure, but you grow as a result. 

this won't be updated anymore right? i don't want to be downloading 5 pieces and put them together. 

It is good to see how people react, I learn to understand players better. It is true that I didn't introduce features slowly, I made what was possible in such a tight schedule. If I ever release DLC for this jam, I will surely make sure to do everything I was planning. It often feels to me there is too much ideas, but never enough time to introduce them well enough. After all people want some what complete maps, so I often cut off some of those introduction scenes and try to make them happen faster or without guidance, and there is always by doing so.

I remember playing games like tomb raider, that didn't have guidance almost at all, and I still enjoyed figuring out things and avoiding traps. For the DLC I will add my puzzles I planned, but have to cut them all. So it will be very puzzle orientated map when it is finished that is for sure. 

There is always risk* by doing so. 

I watched your demo and found what you mean about hellknights area: it looks like that is skill 3 only problem, hellknights just don't shoot their projectiles, while they shoot them on other skill levels and that section plays fine. On skill 3 they try to reach you with their melee attack but can't do that. That's kinda strange. 

fucking excellent job. I'll post comments a little later once I've played them all.

Wish I could have had more time to have contributed a map.

Anyways, great job!

-Snaut 

I haven't played all maps yet, but from what I've seen it's a very good map jam with a lot of quality content. The best thing about map jams is how different each author's map feels and looks while having the same theme as others overall. I can say this about both quake map jams and hl2 ville competitions (I haven't participated in the later ones, but I've played a lot of them).

From the maps I've already played I can say Mukor's map is very impressive, Bloughsburgh's is very weird in a good way (like Digs meets negke which is cool), Breezeep's map is very nice (short, interconnected and sweet), Fifth and Skacky's maps have great outdoor visuals, Khreathor's faces hall map stands out for unique visuals too.

I'll post some more once I play all the maps.

btw Skacky's map's exit leads to a very cool old map btw. I guess my map should have led to one old egyptian map that uses Sock's textures =) 

dumptruck
i like that pyramid in the void. and how is respawned with monsters when you get the keys. also the enemies in display at the beginning. and the fight at the end too.
the part of the golden key is a bit jerky, when the floor is descending...
the secrets were a little bit easy too.

fifth.
nice map. small, wich sometimes is a good thing. i trolled a little bit your map with jumps, sorry about that. :D. no clip brushes. the fight at the end is good but could be better. maybe wait until one wave is fully killed to trigger the next one, i don't know. the vore is annoying in a good way, though. the brushwork is very good.

ionus.
small but well polished map. very good placement of monsters. the two secrets maybe make the map a bit easy, maybe they didn't need to be the same. but on the other hand the quads are fun and make you reckless, so i'm undecided.

khreator.
a little hard (good in my opinion). but several sections of the map are very dark. changing the contrast in options helps. it also makes the outdoor areas very bright, but that can be considered a good thing by some (me included). the part when you drop to face a vore is unfair. it's very easy to die, you have to quickload to get that part right, and that's bad design imo.

LanePowell: i really liked the selection of textures and the brushwork. very good. original. i rushed two times to my death, that vore and shambler are placed well. i liked the area in the lower floor too.

for now, breezep (gameplay), lanepowell (textures and brushes) and danzadan are the maps i liked the best, in descending order.

well, i saw the next three maps (in alfabetical order) and they have more than 100 monsters
this is it for now.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B72Jjyg-RfNFbUhrRGJLSTZuRGM