I made a fatal mistake on my first run, so you have two demos from me. I like the clean "anti-quake" aesthetic for a change. You'll see that some monsters got stuck in some places, like the corner stairs in the blue area, the starting rocky area, etc. I I'm also unsure if sneaking up on the knights by climbing out of the water the way I did is what you had in mind. Good first map!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1O3m2642oUKJih7T7yE4bH46KE-T1aUEn 

Although your previous map was better! 

20 years wait was worth it :)
go map next one! 

Here is my blind playthrough =D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1u1srAfahk

For a map with small/medium size, this level packs A LOT of enemies (145 in hard mode, not 155 as the readme says, i think if you are not using the fish-correct-counter-patch the counter says 155), which brings some pretty good fights and dangerous ambushes =D

SPOILERS: I found 4 of 5 secrets, then i quickloaded and nocliped a little and was able to find the last one. I also found 2 spawns hinding in a secret area that i already had visited and 3 zombies just standing below the map (i don't know what they're doing there) :P

Thank you for the ride :) 

Cheers will check the demo. Errrr, those Zombies might be b0rked. Yeah I didn't use the fish counter sorry. 

http://quaketastic.com/files/demos/spy_shamsp1.rar 

Thanks a lot for the demos. Fun to watch. There is a distinct correlation between people who bunnyhop a lot and people who end up getting into trouble on this map (Bal and you). There's also correlations between playing drunk and getting into trouble (Bal and Vondur), and playing in a gung-ho style and getting into trouble (Bal and most other people).

Sneaking up on the knights in the open canyon bit is deliberate. The idea is that the player plays methodically and explores cautiously and cleans out the areas one by one. So the cave is a bit hectic, the water has some action but nothing to wild, then that section gives the player some respite before the GK ambush. 

Another good fun demo. I don't know if my favourite bit was shooting the spawn at point blank range right next to an escape ledge, turning around to admire the quadruple vore-ball chasing you, or methodically avoiding picking up any 20 shell packs when you had 73 shells. Great stuff. There is a reason for those spawns, yes.

A lot of enemies yes, I tried to have no wasted space in the map (but usually space to move around), and use each area in different ways if they're revisited. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BfiJHzWRhMsAAZzIEablxmyWflpPJ3l5
Fun stuff. You may want to fast forward some parts. 

O-M-G !!! 

First of all, congrats on the first map release, you've certainly been around long enough for me to wonder why it hadn't come out long before I showed up! Demo:

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/shamsp1-lp.zip

This was actually my second attempt. Ironically I played better on my first try (I was squished by a lift--actually the same one I had trouble activating in the demo cause the button is too dark)--I handled the voreballs a lot better, and actually managed to shake one from the vore near the red armor by diving into the water and getting it to hit a submerged zombie. Anyway, getting vores to do my work for me is always good, and using them to gib zombies is even better, so I liked this one. 

Cool map. I like old school design layout, with new school skybox style. Nice mountain ranges too. Tight on ammos near the end so used my axe to choppy choppy.

Here's my sham of a demo:
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/redfield_whatasham.zip 

I struggled with it. It needed to be fast for obvious reasons, but then to not kill the player. I deliberately put a pause in to give the player time, and made sure the buttons went into the wall so there would be minimum snags. And set the lift damage to 0, which Quake conveniently ignores. 

Plats always have a blocked damage of 1 unless in a mod of course. 

And "0" on a field is effectively "ignore this field". 

Is all I have to say on that. It's a bit illogical for a numerical value field like that not to accept 0. Having said that, ignoring the damage field could do no damage to the player. #whatever 

I enjoyed this. The scale and the pace+variety of the situations made it a great bite-sized playthrough... and that along with the level of detail also gave it a nostalgic feel. (That's not some sort of passive-aggressive comment about aesthetics, I think it handled the low-detail look nicely, with some appropriate texture choices.)

One random negative comment: there was at least one secret which seemed to be a HA HA FUCK YOU moment (I think red armor + vores). Maybe I mishandled something there. Anyway I rarely like it when a bonafide secret-marked secret area is a net resource sink for the player.

One random positive comment: I liked the way you used the beginning of the map in a way that forced the player to figure out something that is not too difficult but sort of unusual. If this was later in the map with more options and open routes then it would not work as well (would either be overlooked, or be super frustrating if necessary to advance). 

Nice to see "real" Shambler has made a map! I have not yet had time to try it. 

go map etc 

It's sufficiently well-made for a first map style map. Way too hordey and crammed with monsters for my taste, though. Quite a few monsters aren't used to their potential, placed in or teleported to location where their attacks can't reach the player. Shame about the long line of sight from start to exit - could've used the protuding rock bit in front of the river as vis blocker.
Now, then. Start the next sketch from 20 years ago...

Demo 

Blocky, primitively conceived 

Johnny: Cheers. Yes I struggled with detailing a bit as I hadn't really planned for that - however the focus on the map was on the blue aesthetic and the combination of castle and canyons The RA + Vore secret I'm happy with, most people get away with it with ~150 RA left, if you don't panic and jump off to the castle ledge then you get it free. I agree resource sinks are a matter of taste, sometimes I don't mind them as a player because the fun is in finding the secret. Glad you liked the start, I was happy with that.

Negke: "Hordes" are deliberate and are almost always easy monsters, I wanted a bit of visceral but not too stressful action, and also wanted all areas to be well used (often twice). Some monsters not used to their potential are also deliberate - the fiends at the start are to just panic the player, not to be dangerous. Same with the underwater zombies, they're more for fun (although often seem to be a good way to use of the ROS!).

Tronyn: Yes, that too. 

Congratulations on the release, Shambler. 

Nice little map. I liked the spiky theme going on and the end teleport emerging was cool too. The brushwork on the nature was quite nice.

I think my favourite room was the basement with the underlying machinery and the vore/zombie arena (even if I died there once). As stated earlier, having vores kill off zombies is always a treat. I also liked the crucifixion surfaces the zombies were against.

Some of the secrets almost made my life harder than not picking them up, as discussed earlier here. Although it was a bit annoying, especially the vore/RA secret, it was still more fun than annoying.

The first puzzle took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure out, and my first demo is entirely about trying to figure it out, so consider skipping the first demo. -_-

I think I agree with negke that the level felt a little bit too packed with monsters and thus cramped.

Congratulations on the release. To sum things up, I'm glad to have played it. If I'd rate this in Quaddicted, I'd rate it maybe a 4/5.

Demos here (VkQuake, skill 3, 12:27, 140/155 kills, 3/5 secrets, one death)