I don't know what's wrong, but playing pinchy's map, 2 times i got this ear piercing noise, it really hurt my ears. Am I the only one?

once when i jumped on those 2 red platforms, and 2nd time when i reached the exit, the noise actually continued through the loading screen and into the start map. 

Demos coming soon, meanwhile I'm already stuck at trying to figure out the NM entrance. 

Chapel Perilous by Shambler

A map as tight as the mapper's arse isn't. Pretty amazed how it fit within the 1024^3 box AND had such a well built layout as well.

Visually it was ok, pretty perfunctory looks compared to some stunners from this pack that I'm salivating at the mere thought of, but it's a very competently done "id + sock" style map.

18 secrets though, jeezus, this probably requires its own strategy guide. I already dread the inevitable ionous playthrough.

A promising start to the pack! Even though it's neither the first in the start map or alphabetically...... 

There will be a secrets walkthrough at some point. 

 

Started playing this jam. Start map is top notch, upper floor reminds me of Sock's xj2017 map. Love the frozen blue fishing ogre! Just one minor gripe: torches don't flicker, a bit of a shame for a map otherwise this gorgeous.

Began my playthrough with Negke's secret level, basically a sm189 map in AD. A fun little romp, I wish it was longer and had at least one secret.

More later. 

Spipper's A Christmas Romp
I didn't enjoy this one much. Realistic architecture generally doesn't look good in Quake and this is no exception, regardless of the obvious care given to build it. Also, the music, while thematically fitting, became annoying quite fast and I had to turn it off. I'm not very good with puzzles and got stuck a few times roaming around, wondering how to get to the next part of the level. Better signposting might help in your future maps. Secrets were mostly nice, though I'm not so sure about putting some in places the player has already visited - I also found the RL one only after it was too late. Oh BTW, the red curtains and some of the books are suffering a case of fullbrightitis.

Pinchy's Hall of Shards
A nice and short quickie (a quakie?).
As I previously stated, the main hallway (and to an extent the rest of the map) has a unique look that I haven't seen before. Love the exploratory stuff with girders & ladders. One weird thing: I got the silver key but never got to use it because the silver door was already open... 

Shambler's Chapel Perilous
Probably my favorite of your maps that I've played so far, the last one being shamsp3. Design is less monochromatic and more detailed than some of your previous efforts and I love that you took advantage of every nook and cranny of this 1024³ space to stuff it with secrets. Combat is fairly challenging, just right for skill 2. Good stuff! One small nitpick is that with all the interconnectedness, I wish progression were a little less linear.

Strideh's A Crooked Clergy
This one is all about ambience. What a mood! Thick, dark and gloomy. I loved the bit when you come across the praying congregation in their backs, reminiscent of Firetop Mountain. However, I felt the map was a little empty and could have used twice the amount of enemies and secrets. The final combat is a little too hectic compared to the significantly more relaxed rest of the map, mainly because of that stone golem used in a too confined and cluttered space that restricts movement. Also, the map's extreme linearity could've been alleviated by allowing alternative routes in that upper section. 

Queenjazz's Aftermath
I love the absurdly abstract nature of this map, like some cosmic being was playing LEGO with disparate scraps gathered across the universe. If only it wasn't so short! Combat-wise, you're thrown into the thick of it from the get-go with only a shotty and no armor. Very brutal! Besides its brevity, I'd like to address a couple things:
- when you make a map where falling into the void is so damn easy, the least you could do is teleporting the player back to safety (perhaps with a little damage) instead of instakilling him. I feel like F6/F9 spamming should be overkill, not a necessity, in such a short map;
- the music. OK, I have no idea what that is or what went through your mind to think it would be cool but it's not quakey one bit and doesn't fit your map either.

JCR's Airgapped
Wow! This one's a looker! Mixing Koohoo and base makes for a very interesting style, somewhere along the lines of Starship Troopers meets Tomb Raider. Combat is on the tough side from start to end. Some progressive ramping up would've been preferable. Still, a very pleasing map that I'll probably replay, possibly downgrading to skill 1.

And this concludes our tour of the second floor. Next: third floor! 

Streamed four of these yesterday evening, quite tired so I was playing horrendously... :D
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/347430194

In order, I play maps from Shambler, Pinchy Skree, QueenJazz and JCR. Will try to comment more on them later, but it's been fun so far, cool work! 

bal skill '0' and krampus skill '3' (first run)
thank you guys

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_xmasjam2018_bal0_krampus3.rar 

negke skill 3
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_xmasjam2018_negke3.rar

that was tough battle 

A Crooked Clergy and Mutagenesis by Strideh

What a way to make a mapping debut! Both very different, but also very similar maps, so I'll be commenting on both at the same time.

Really liked how both the maps started off as relatively quiet, and then kept unfolding until mayhem occured.

Some very striking visuals in both of them, specifically the contrast between cold/damp and warm/cosy of Clergy (despite using predominantly green textures), and the vivid colors of Mutagenesis. I don't think I've seen such a virulently angry looking Quake map before.

Like to see good i.e. limited use of the expanded AD bestiary as well. I was really dreading having to fight several dozen of Minotaurs every map, so not doing that was quite refreshing!

I also spy some custom textures in both maps - yes please.

Some really outstanding work! 

SECRET MAP by SECRET AUTHOR

This was quite fun, for what seems like a long abandoned scrap. Visually it held together rather well, even though I'm already sick of seeing Doom textures, and the bright yellow pit was certainly unique.

Some pretty classic [REDACTED] progression too, with the silver key door that serves purely as a shortcut, and the gold keycard hidden in a cupboard. Those pesky Ogres!

I also died once, not realising the obvious.

Good work, but would like to see more! 

It's actually a conversion of a Doom2 map I made for a 1024 event in 2006.
The key would open both the door and the switch to lower the exit bars. Originally it was supposed to be like that and the roof part a secret ("must have missed this one last time"), but then I decided to make it part of the normal progression to extend the playtime.

The tentacle pit is so bright, because the texture would look bad at anything darker than that. The Doom textures are a bit finicky on the Quake palette, they tend to have ugly pixels if it's too dark.

This was supposed to be a quick tongue-in-cheek low-effort submission, but it actually took longer than anticipated due to fixing the brushwork and touching up some of the textures.
In my view, it makes for a nice little bonus map and throwback to the 1024 theme origins..... or would have if you despicable speedjammers hadn't ruined it all shortly afterwards!!! :D 

Coal in your Socks! by Krampus

The moment I saw this filename in the zip I knew this would be a short throwaway map by somebody we already know, and yet I was still surprised!

I didn't really find it as engaging as your other past endeavors for some reason, but I still liked it, and it was obviously as well produced as usual. Obviously the visuals were top notch, as were the palace textures - glad to finally see them in Q1.

The layout was fine, but the progression through it could have been a little more interesting probably, since it's pretty much a single run and gun route like Shambler's.

The secrets and the way to access them reminded me of the stealth only passages from ITS quite a bit. Maybe bring back the "brush entity slowly fading into nothing" trick sometime in the future?

Good map! 

I'm away from home this week and couldn't wait to play these maps. So I decided I would stream and provide commentary from my work laptop :^). I've uploaded what I played so far to youtube and plan to stream some more tonight. I hope my new format is welcome. Appropriate links:

Xmasjam2018 Playlist
My Twitch Channel 

Frozen Demise by Bloodshot

Another well done map! The trademark Bloodshot good looks were here alright, both on the micro scale (snow drifts, dynamic fog, lots of destructibles) and the macro (the giant mountains looked cool, and the final arena was a proper highlight of the entire jam so far). I'm not convinced that Quake can pull off nature areas well, though this map certainly seems to make a good counterargument.

The layout was fine but I found the progression a little weird, not sure if the SK -> teleporter -> GK sequence was necessary, since there didn't need to be a SK door at all IMO, and then you could use the space above it in a more interesting way than the RL secret.

I played on skill 1 and didn't find it too challenging, despite messing up on a couple occassions - but I suppose that's fine, considering all things. I'll be replaying this on Hard for sure! 

scampie skill 0,
i gave up beating this level on skill 3

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_xmasjam2018_scampie0.rar 

Mainly because I wanted to find the NM entrance myself. I have skipped reading this thread to avoid spoilers.

Fun map Negke! Makes me want to go back and play the original. 

Im stuck in Moonlit Keep by Shotro. I've pushed one button, that opened the gate with 2nd button inside, I pushed it and went outside, so the gate closed in front of me. Am I stuck? 

Yeah. I tested for hours (all difficulty modes with several playtesters) without a problem but on the final compile for the release (I changed a light value and compiled), for some reason, a trigger that requires the ax upgrade won't fire anymore. There were other minor problems but even after fixing all of them this issue still remains on the map. I am contributing to the DLC and will fix this problem but sadly this made it into the final compilation of the map before submission and passed all testing. 

Recorded some demoes for the maps on the first floor (+the secret map) on skill 1.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0rrfi5y2k6eyx9k/xmasspipper_demoes01.zip?dl=0
Excited to play through the second floor tomorrow. 

Wow, what a map! Can't wait for its extension in 2019, according to the secret room I've found.

The mail box on the roof is cool too! 

==================================================
(in my play order, taking notes as I go)

Strideh 1 (clergy): Nice gloom and good use of color. A bit hard to jump around the rafters and I got caught on some book cases where you have to jump up before the ladders, but other than that was a good layout. Liked revisiting areas.

Naitelveni: Wonderful! Only complaints are that there was only 1 secret, too short, some trim was wierdly oversized, a couple roof textures were rotated kinda funny, otherwise solid and great details. Loved the spike bars and your shelving is great!

Spipper: The best "my house" map I've ever seen. Amazing details. Hilarity. Just, great. The ending was so funny I was dying. It was brutally hard though. Had 4 health for half of it and exited with 1 health. I had to fight the wraith with an axe in the living room. Fun but sheesh a box of shells on the mezanine or something would have been nice.

JCR: Wierd theme. Well executed. Nice secrets! Didn't like how you could get behind the large teleporter on the edge of the cliff (the one that redirects to an exit) an not get back out, needed a secret and a door to get back. Took me forever to find the exit after hitting all 83 kills and 4/4 secrets...turns out the large teleporter turned into an exit...maybe should have added Exit signs that appear by it or a note body next to it.

queenjazz: Wow...cool vibes...wish it were longer. Liked all the gadgetry and the music was intriguing. Had a peppy space garden fight feel to it. Liked your buzzsaws and use of bobbing rings. Nice!

JCR2: Love the theme (wierd too but better). A bit dark in places. Could have used more health or more light. New rule, no sparks allowed above water...or sock should fix the splash noise. Your exit elevator peeps through the floor underneath. Very cool. Wished there was a prize for destroying all computers...or maybe I missed one, still couldn't find the last secret area.

Shotro: Very oldschool. Nice and tight and dark. Surprising that it fits in 1024...or does it? Secrets were great! I still missed 3!! Had to noclip past some zonked doors but figured it you'll fix it for the follow-up.

Ing: This was rather lame, just add ammo to make it work. Sneaking idea wasn't bad but without getting secrets I don't see how you could kill all the enemies which I think is a bit lame. Oh well. Interesting power failure and security breach idea though. I didn't like the insta-kill latrine, rail, or invisible forcefield.

Ionous: Excellent start. Loved the shadowaxe fight! Probably my favorite axe encounter ever! I was thinking, superb as usual at this point.... Then there was the elevator. The elevator to get down to the lower level sucked so bad...should have been a door. I got stuck fighting that stupid elevator while trying to fight the other guys. Shot like a bajillion shells into the floor between levels as the elevator went up over and over and over--that or fell in the lava 50 times. There was no floor to stand on and dodge down there! Hate that stupid corner room, terrible setup. It was downhill from there. I loved what you did at the exit switcheroo, hated fighting chthon with an axe though, not cool. Some respawning ammo would have been nice...had 0 ammo for the chthon fight and ran out halfway through the firelord fight....although I killed the firelord by jumping out the window on the top floor and axing him in the head - probably my greatest axe kill of all time but seriously WHERE. IS. THE. AMMO!

Pinchy: This was perhaps the most eerie and mysterious map I've played in a long time if ever. The whole time I was like What? What? What? Where am I? Very cool theme. Marble was nice. Love love love the extending ladder!!

Shambler: Probably the best map I've played in a long time. SOOO tight and loved every bit. Couple doors ghosting through walls but was otherwise superb and loaded with details. Did not dissapoint.

Bloodshot: Really good. Loved the usage of ice...chill out! Your mountains were great! Cool ice shattering and the rotating floor trap doors were really cool! Good setup overall.

Strideh 2: Best new theme ever. Reminds me so much of Crusader: No Regret/No Remorse. Amazing lighting. Top notch. Did I mention the lighting was excellent. Oh the mutagenesis fluid glow was great! Also, those are best pipes I've seen in Quake yet. Incredible visuals overall. Gameplay was good, but I was able to spam the boglords from up top pretty easily, but then again it was good to have cover. The skorpions coming out of the mutagenesis fluid areas was a great way to keep with the story of the level. Best one in the pack so far for overall visuals, play, story, and everything.

Only 5 more to go...