Well, thank you for taking the time to watch my demo so long after the dust has settled and for commenting back on my review - so far, only dumptruck and you have done so.

Yes, I'm a cautious player. I've been burned enough rushing into rooms all guns blazing only to end up eating a mouthful of lead or whatever. I certainly am not a triggerfinger god, I know my skills and play accordingly.

On the lighting, well, you could have for example alternated candles and torches, with the latter giving off a slightly brighter tone. And there's a lot more light textures than blue ones to use in Quake... I believe there would also be something interesting to do with recoloring the existing candle+torch models - I've been thinking about this for a while but I'm no texture artist. I remember Unreal had differently colored versions of its torches, with a natural yellow flame, a red one, a blue one, maybe a green one as well... I've always missed this variety in Quake ever since I played Unreal for the first time. Let's be creative!

You definitely should try and play Blood sometime. It's a great game! 

Thanks for the demos! Reminds me again I desperately needed a light on the button that lets you into the palace; I can't count the number of times I've noticed that in other people's maps, but when the time came to put my money where my mouth is, it totally escaped me.

I agree about the blocky corridors at the start. My plan was to chip some corners, pop out some individual stones, carve some alcoves for the candles, and generally "weather" the place, but between a swiftly tightening schedule and the fact that the brick pattern doesn't line up with any grid settings, I decided my attention was best spent elsewhere. If I had my druthers I'd make a custom stone texture with the same overall color, but whose mortar lines fell on 16 or 8 unit multiples, so it was more flexible to work with.

Regarding the length, again, I agree, but there are a few reasons for that:

-First, even with a three month limit, I'm just not experienced or skilled enough to put together one of these big action- and enemy-packed tour de force maps so many people can crank out like they're nothing, so I decided not to stretch myself.

-Second, assuming I could make maps like that, the original idea of the jam was to make an advent calendar of sorts, with 24 maps which would be released one a day through December, leading up to Christmas. I figured that with a 1024 unit cubic limit, most mappers would make smaller, lighter fare, and I didn't want to bug everybody with a heavy map they couldn't finish comfortably the day of its release, leaving them behind as subsequent maps piled up.

-Third, I knew that whether sorted by mapper nickname or by filename (i.e. ItEndsWithTens or xmasjam_tens), my entry would be released well into the event, and by the time they got to me people might be ready for a less intense level and/or a boss fight.

-Finally, my biggest reason, I wanted to challenge myself to build a map within the 1024 unit limit that didn't feel like it was that small. I imagine I failed, but my working theory was that too much gameplay, too much geometry, too many enemies, etc. in such a small space would only call attention to the fact that "wow, there's a lot of stuff in a small area", which would remind you the map was cramped, and tend to encourage the line of thinking that small maps can't play as well as big ones. My hope was that by not increasing the density of experience, for lack of a better term, you'd lose sight of the map's dimensions until the end. Mind games, I guess, I love that kind of stuff.

That was the mindset I'd settled into sometime in September, and although the jam changed character over the following months, I felt it wise not to change horses mid stream, especially to something I had no confidence in myself to make, so I stuck with the tiny map.

My apologies for the 100% problem, I think I noticed that partway through but for whatever reason decided not to do anything. I think I might have been worried that waking up the stone monsters forcibly, after the Eidolon's death, would distract people's attention from the key cage having opened up. I could have had them only wake up after you grabbed the key, but then there might be too many enemies at once, and it would suck a big one to die right after you killed a boss, especially to some lowly hell knight. I still could have come up with something, I imagine, but again, it was down to feeling my attention was needed elsewhere as the deadline approached.

As far as the visual glitches, see further up in this thread where mfx asked about the same thing, I went over my vanity easter egg in detail. :)

Thanks again for playing! I appreciate the score, but 3.5 is probably more fair, don't feel bad. 

I'm just not experienced or skilled enough to put together one of these big action- and enemy-packed tour de force maps
I wasn't saying that you should have made a 700+ monsters behemoth, but just twice more enemies wouldn't have hurt. These corridors and caves did feel a bit empty.

I wanted to challenge myself to build a map within the 1024 unit limit that didn't feel like it was that small. I imagine I failed
Seeing these bottomless canyons, I wouldn't say you failed. The scenery feels big, it's just somewhat underpopulated. For example, there's no enemy at all until you first arrive to the exit room (in which there's only one guard). Not only are these corridors undetailed, but they're also deserted. Putting some action in there might have drawn the attention away from these big brick walls full of nothing. Those stacked crates also were the perfect opportunity to hide a few spiders inside. 

Ha, you should have seen the test build I sent out! There were zero monsters until the boss, in an attempt at foreshadowing and tension building. I thought initially it would be a fun gimmick to turn things around, and instead of increasingly difficult hordes leading up to a boss fight, to start with the boss fight and come down off of that. Not my brightest idea, but I needed a hook to keep myself motivated to finish.

Testers did, naturally, consistently miss the exit button, walk right past the pit, and end up confused, so as a concession I added one enemy. The poor schlub with the sword is, in combination with the animated candles, the light, and the ammo pack, supposed to draw attention to the button, but I can see how he's unsatisfying all by himself. I worried about making the level too light on combat, but also worried about going overboard and having too much activity blasting you right in the face the moment you start the level, or potentially getting players wedged in a hallway between too many enemies. More experience in mapping will no doubt teach me the right balance, but I was too timid to try anything more in this jam than I did.

Spiders, though, holy shit I can't believe I forgot about those. If I'd remembered they were part of AD I'd absolutely have added some to the level, no question. I'm kicking myself now. God damn it self. >:( 

Thanks for the kind words. The lack of transparent water was intentional; with its silver sheen, the water presents a vaguely magical quality which tied in better with the atmosphere.
I tend to scale my difficulties up; who really plays on easy anyway?
I don't even recall what I used for music. I may have just asked one of my betas for a suggestion.
This map only exists in a 1024 box. I enclosed off the area in editor, and forged a layout within it. I wasn't exactly overflowing with ideas for this one; I barely had enough to fill the map. The only thing I wasn't able to fit in was all the story pieces; ideally I would have fit twenty in. Oh well. Works well enough as is.
Every map I make tends to be too ambitious. See jam, underwater, and countless other events I've bowed out of. Definitely something to keep in mind for future events. 

You're welcome, and thank you for the reply.

I have absolutely no clue what I did (wasn't even aware that I did anything!) but I replayed this map and the water surface is now transparent! Go figure. And TBH, I do prefer it like this... ;)

who really plays on easy anyway?
I've forgotten the names but I do remember a few guys over at QuakeOne (and possibly even a couple here) who play on easy...

I don't even recall what I used for music.
I don't remember the track number but it's the one that starts with the whispers. BTW, can you please provide us with a download link to that missing waterfall_loop.wav sound?

Every map I make tends to be too ambitious.
This fact should be enough of a hint that maybe it's time for you to think about making some standalone releases...? I mean, jams are great and all but if time and/or other constraints make you unable to implement everything you envisioned, I see it as a missed opportunity. Ambition is good for creation, give yourself the means to achieve it. 

4 map xmasjam_bal
4 Map xmasjam_breezeep
3 Map xmasjam_dumptruck
3 Map xmasjam_5th
4 Map xmasjam_ionous
4 Map xmasjam_tens
3 Map xmasjam_mukor
3 Map xmasjam_naitelveni
3 Map xmasjam_negke
4 Map xmasjam_pritchard
5 Map xmasjam_icequeen
4 Map xmasjam_sock 

I don't know what's up with the pack that I downloaded from Quaddicted since it seems to be missing Redfield's map but I've been playing through these since I've been starving for more AD content. I've played a few maps so far and they have been pretty damn good.

breezeep: I don't know how you do it but no matter the game, you always seem to produce really beautiful maps at lightning speed. I loved the textures and the architecture of this one. I spent tons of time admiring your brushwork and I spent so much time staring up that my player character probably developed chronic neck pain.

bal: A beautiful, dynamic map with a ton of detail and great use of AD mechanics. It was cool to see breakables used for progression rather than just for concealing secrets behind windows. This map had a lot of character and a sense of adventure with crawling through those tiny shafts on the upper level. The pipes that break and leak water left me awestruck. This looked really damn good in QSS with the smoke effects.

fifth: I gotta be honest, I didn't even realize this was your map. I thought 5th was some person I'd never heard of before. I still haven't pinpointed your style down - every map that I've played from you seems to have differed quite a bit from your others. I really dug this map for the ambiance. The monster groans were freaky so I'm glad some of those were hidden behind a closet rather than having them teleport in. I also thought that monster placement was pretty good, especially that fight with the vore on the bottom level. It was cool to manipulate the vores into gibbing the zombies both here and on the top level. I only wish this map was longer but I understand that's kind of hard to achieve with these space constraints.

muk: A beautiful, elegant map with great use of textures and really nice architecture in a very limited space. The layout makes me think of swampy with a watery bottom area, a few levels of regular solid ground, and then a nice rooftop secret area. The monster encounters left me a bit frustrated at times, like the ambush when you're stuck between two doors . Otherwise this was yet another excellent muk map.

dumptruck: This was creepy as hell and I loved it. The ending was also really twisted, and I loved that too once I pieced together what I had to do. The crying baby was really unsettling and very foreboding. There was some good dynamic game play just like bal's map with walls breaking and paths changing as the player went through them multiple times. Most of your maps that I've played have something really unique going for them, such as the tutorial from 100b4 and the custom music from jam9. I like how you always have something to set your maps apart and the unique feature this time was dastardly in the best way.

Can't wait to play the others, especially with the names on this list. 

My map is in there Poorchop, I just broke the naming convention. 

Thanks man. I do try new things as often as possible, so that is really nice to read! AD was a whole new ballgame and it was fun to have some enhanced sound capabilities. 

Is it ok to use the statue model from this in a map of my own? I e-mailed Mukor asking about it but never got a response. 

"Thanks to... khreathor for statue_venus.mdl"

I asked him(kreathor) on Discord. If he doesn't answer here I'll let ya know his response there. 

fifth: I gotta be honest, I didn't even realize this was your map.

My style has evolved to mapping using 64 unit thick walls as a base. I try to block out a general space first with different elevations and then detail afterwards.
I think the main exception to this will be my first map q-deck. 

Yes you can use it.
I made it based on this scan: https://sketchfab.com/models/708a4166439c45d799f4eaa40d0db70e
So at least give a credit to guy above in readme 

Ah, thanks for the clarification guys.