https://www.twitch.tv/ionous 

Bloughsburgh � Excellent. Very interconnected layout with lots of things to do and explore. Managed to get 29/30 pillars, though I cheated at the gold key door puzzle because I just didn't have the patience for that one. This is how you do an explore jam map: no risk of dying unless you're really stupid, shortcuts, large variety of challenges and non-linearity. The best in the pack, and it looks pretty good to boot.

Naitelveni � Alright. It looks good but the only thing to do is the lava maze, which is pretty damn annoying because the puzzle is quite obscure. I actually solved it after I went through the maze, through trial and error. It's a shame the surrounding buildings and walls don't have anything to visit.

Newhouse � Very good. No real risk of dying and the challenges are all well tuned, with some good teleporter exploration at one point. The style is fantastic and very interesting. Found all the secrets!

Pulsar � Really disliked that one, sorry. Far too punishing and too linear, relies too heavily on very precise jumping sequences which don't play well with Quake's floaty physics. That would be fine if there was no risk of dying, but lava and other traps become extremely annoying very quickly. Found one rune but couldn't be arsed to find the rest.

Topher � Slope jumping galore! I really liked the moving rocks and the castle. It's a shame you can't explore it more but time constraints and all. First map? Pretty good overall.

Demos: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwnUnvcoU4HFTWtRdHctOFp0bDA/view?usp=sharing 

I finished your map, though I only discovered (was lazy) 8 runes, is that going to be secret ending behind that barrier?

This theme feels something I haven't seen much, but definitely fits for Quake. You always give me new ideas how to improve and be creative. Some of the jumping/timing/falling puzzles where quite hard to pull off, especially that one where you have to time when jump, and there is ..5 layers of moving platforms close to each and they always push me off finally when I get higher (maybe it was too fast for me).

But everything else felt interesting to discover and finish. That one part where you have to somehow get on top of that iron elevator, how do you do that? Close to the puzzle, where you have to push floor button to rise up path, you need to use in order to get behind iron bars was challenging (first thought I can't make it, but was able to do it, timing was just right).

There is too much to talk about, I really enjoyed my time. 

Naitelveni: can you email me that lit file so I can update the archive or upload it to a different hosting, cuz it doesn't download for me.

Skacky: true, the map is punishing. I wanted it not to feel like a training map, but like a usual map just without monsters. There are actually 3 jumping encounters where you can die, the latest one is really hard. 

Bloughsburgh

Got 25 pillars. The elevator one was among the ones I didn't solve - still hoping to figure it out on my own. Great map, looks very good, and has a wide assortment of little challenges - some of them hard, some of them easy.

It was this map that made me think that an Explore Jam should probably feature custom progs that remove falling damage or add an item that removes it. It's both annoying and pointless.

Didn't like the challenge behind the gold door. It seems like the kind of challenge that just makes you stare at the moving things for half an hour, waiting for that one OK opportunity to present itself, but it's so hard to even recognize that you end up savescumming through the gauntlet anyway, cussing in the process. Maybe I just could't figure out a better way.

Naitelveni

Technically a one-puzzle map, but I liked it. Figured the "protection" part out without colored lighting.

The visuals are relied upon a lot, almost like the map was supposed to be bigger, but the author ran out of time. They aren't quite up there with the resident "heavyweights" who used the theme before, but that's mostly because of the lighting.

Some stray fullbrights.

Newhouse

More stray fullbrights.

Two decent obstacle courses, looks decent as well, nice secrets. One obligatory... ahem, no spoilers, I guess. I expected it, but somehow looked everywhere except for the right place at first.

The series of teleporters - or rather the way to the element - felt like random guessing to me, and it's never fun. The way to the exit, on the other hand, is too simple to figure out.

PuLSaR

Really liked this one. Maybe because I'm a graphics whore, or something. Looks really slick. Also, I don't record anything, and savescum in unpleasant situations.

Found all runes, and was really surprised by the reward. As for the buttons - judging by the messages, I'm not even close. I wonder what the prize is. Quad damage? :)

This map made me think about the lighting improvements that were talked about in the Mark V thread. That big sinking building - when you're inside your gun lights up like you're walking over lava, and you can't illuminate the dark corners because the dynamic lighting doesn't work right.

Not the mapper's fault, of course.

topher

Looks interesting, but the lighting is rather simplistic. Slope jumping was fun. A nice little map to finish the jam. 

Thank you~ I indeed run out of time, would have tweaked dream part more, so I have to make it easier to guess than what I was originally writing down on my papers. 

@skacky

yeah
first map
first func_train
first colored lighting
first everything
and in the skill selection,, see comment #10
also, i need a message "jump to the upper area to select hard skill", or something like that.

the most i did for modifying games was editing text files

i planned spike shooters and hidden button hunting in the castle, with two floors, and a rooftop. but i strugled with simple things, and trying to do those 30� and 60� walls of the castle.

and i think it was a good idea to make hard skill hard to access. it can be frustating. it's a bit like pro/speedrunner jumping. piece of cake for speedrunners and pro qw players, but hard for us. at least you didn't have much difficulty making the jumps in normal. 

Figured the lift out. See you later, elevator!! 

@Skacky
Thank you for the demos. Nice to hear some people liked it, wasn't sure will I have enough time to come up with anything.

I kind of continued my previous map, made what I was planning back then.. really would have liked to included puzzle where player is inside moving room and they have to shoot random buttons to move it around and open different maze like hallways. But since this was vanilla quake, I was a bit afraid trying out too logical puzzles.

@dwere
Dream section first had the riddle included, but since it doesn't feel natural to remember text messages.. like "inside the pyramid, how many diagonal jumps you need to make in order to get the otherside?" answer was 4, then remember that you can't always trust blue, so after 4 blue teleports there would have been red fall in order to get the end. But that would have been to risky I guess. 

You said in demo "you're playing skill 2?" I looked up console and it says skill 1. Practice = easy, Harder = nomal, Pro = hard.

I should have named them differently. 

It shows skill you have currently set in game.
For example you can record demo in "skill 3", later change skill to 1 and if you run your demo, you'll see "skill 1" in a console. 

So it doesn't tell the truth about the demo? 

Skacky:

Thanks for the feedback! I have to yet to watch the demo but excited to do so when I get home. One of my goals was to not have any fatal or even HP punishing traps. Like you said, one can still die from falling/drowning/squishes but those would be freak accidents! Feedback means a lot from you as you are one of my favorite mappers!

NewHouse:

Thanks man, honored to help with the creative juices. I have a wacky mind and now a chance to share it in the form of a 3D world!

Dwere:

Appreciate the feedback and I agree about falling damage. I have a health respawn in two places to combat it but that's about all. Gold Key door challenge is bull caca that's admittance on my part. The best way to go about it is to time when the third plat will not knock you off...this way there is less of an occurrence of the fifth plat to do the same! If trying to just wildly jump up you'll have a harder time. I wanted to go and revamp the challenge a bit but priority of other things got in the way and straight to the deadline.

Ionous:

Watched the stream, was fun and congrats on getting everything with just a very small amount of nudges! ;) Really fun and impressive playing...a true explorer go--I mean deity! 

Thanks for the feedback, I agree with you. I ran out of timem the map was supposed to have 5 puzzles and 3 gold keys. The lighting was a problem and it consomed alot of time for me, i should have made the snow are into a big mesh and then manipulate the hights from that and place acouple of huge lights above.

Did you solve the puzzle? 

Yeah, I did. 

https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/explorejam2.html 

there are 10 shootable buttons in my map that you need to find to open the second door, hidden almost in every second room or corridor, most of them are not hard to find if you look for them. 

Bloughsburgh: No .lit file? :( Tried MHColour, it makes a very... colorful result. I like it but I guess some would prefer a more subtle .lit. I can't believe how much gameplay you crammed into this on such a short notice! A few puzzles were too hard and I ended up noclipping through them out of frustration, namely the speed demon (not enough time), jump god (likewise) and Achoo's pillar (simply too tough, even with the walkthrough). I think puzzles are best when based on logic and observation rather than pure skill. The jump master challenge also forced me to cheat because it got me stuck on the convex angles of the architecture while the platform continued to move under my feet. Oddly, the underwater illusionary light didn't pulsate in DP (Sept. 22 build, will have to test with other builds) - I still solved this one on my own though, when axing the light didn't actually hit it. All in all, yet another great and very creative map from you, despite a few hiccups. There's only one appropriate answer to a map with such a title and it is: bless you! ;)
PS: "Lizard buttons"? It's not a lizard, it's a kris dagger!

Naitelveni: The puzzle is very easy to figure out (pure logic 101) once you understand that you don't have to physically do something to it but only examine it to solve the maze. The pent on top of the pillar isn't wisely placed: you can grab it before knowing that you're gonna need to rush to the maze with it, thus making the map impossible to complete. It would've been better to hide it inside the puzzle area. This map is a bit of a missed opportunity: instead of building all this nice but otherwise useless architecture, you should have focused on creating the puzzles and only expand the architecture as needed. The lighting (or more precisely, shadows) is not only poor but plain bad. We shouldn't see all these shadows on snow in broad daylight. You should have used sunlight coupled with the -bounce option to light your map. Similarly, we shouldn't see the angles on the snowy mounds which should look much smoother. I haven't used it myself yet but as I understand, phong shading should solve this issue. If you make more snowy maps in the future (or any map with similar shapes), I suggest you examine ad_azad to learn how to do it right. Also, when you use a skybox with a visible sun or moon, you should make sure your lighting actually matches the direction of the sun/moon, which is clearly not the case here.

NewHouse: Great surreal atmosphere, similar to your MJ8 intro. Nice puzzles, though some are too easy to beat - I'm referring specifically to the "can you see the difference" one. The exit is a little too abrupt. I would have liked to actually have to use the keys in order to unlock the exit instead of just having them automagically disable the force field, but I guess you lacked time for it. Does the rune actually do something or is it just a prize in itself for finding all 4 elements?

PuLSaR: Awesome atmosphere! I wish I could say more about it but I'm currently stuck in the crates room (after the 3 vertical piston-like crushers). I can't find a way to jump past the crates and I can't see any button to shoot or press.

Topher: This one is very frustrating! I have no idea how to do the fancy moves required to progress in this map. 

Thank you~ I made exit to be that way, I wanted to make there barrier, but since vanilla quake doesn't have interesting effects, you know? Also many other things were red color coded, so it was only logical I used red barrier doors. After finding all elements, you got episode 4 rune.

Didn't have time for making more gameplay, and it would have been too risky suddenly make some puzzles without testing them on every difficulty level. 

there are 10 shootable buttons in my map that you need to find to open the second door, hidden almost in every second room or corridor, most of them are not hard to find if you look for them.

Well, I found most of them - only 3 remain. Taking a break for now.

I can't find a way to jump past the crates and I can't see any button to shoot or press.

I got stuck there too. For some reason, it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to jump over the crates, but it's actually pretty easy. 

First runs:

http://www.quaketastic.com/files/demos/ej2demos_mjb.zip

Naitelveni:

Really out there and nice touch with snow. I liked most of the map is there to clue you in on the major and really only puzzle of the map. You certainly do explore to eventually reach the exit.

Sunlight would have done wonders as opposed to point lights everywhere...also even a simple brush to hold the floating flames would have looked so much better. The map is terribly lit through and through. The lava puzzle I did not get...but now it is rather obvious. Instead I just randomly ran down paths finding a fatal dead end forcing a reload. I am not keen on traps such as grabbing the Red Armor or the two keys. The note says greed is punished...but why is it not punished for the other keys? I agree with Mug in that the environment is heavily wasted considered the meat of the gameplay is centered on the lava maze. I would have much preferred exploring the gorgeous architecture you created!

NewHouse:

This one wins gold medal for me. Lovely out of this world techo egypt...I mean your style is very original and always a treat to see what you will come up with next. If anything from playing your maps I get a cold, desolate, and techno-fantasy vibe.

I liked the themes you brought on here with time and memory. As others have said some of the challenges are far too easy...but at the same time it is nice to just enjoy an easy solution to things. Then again I only played normal...time to go pro! The color portal puzzle is easy to figure out but getting that last element is not! The main hub room is gorgeous to gander at and I like the inclusion of a super secret...a nice touch. I would have liked if the reward did something like an extra vista or what have you but I understand time constraints. You use colored dark lighting very well!

PuLSaR:

Crazy hot lighting and crazy DARK. Almost too dark for me personally, I had to lower my gamma to see where to go next. This felt like a tough linear exploration map with sprinkles of side objectives throughout the main path. Nothing wrong with that as there is a nice condensed flow to things. I also liked the inclusion of not one...but two super secrets! The buttons are almost impossible to find with the dark levels but I eventually press on!

I enjoyed the rune hunt much more with my favorite being the...fourth rune? The one where I was puzzled for a while in the demo! Like Skacky, I don't like having guaranteed death when failing tricky jumps but it is lava down there after all! Finally, the sinking building is a great visual...I also enjoyed the mirror at the end and it's subtle but practical use of it.

topher:

I liked this map for as simple as it was...just a little trick jump map with an abstract feel. Liked all of floating rocks and nice use of trains throughout. The multiple checkpoint system can't be ignored and is greatly appreciated. Very sad to see it end where it does...would have loved to jump around the castle! Congrats on what I think is your first release!

I hope explore jams become a thing like regular jams and retrojams as there are immense opportunities to really get creative. 

Had a quick blast - short on time atm. Tried Pulsar's so far - I love the aesthetics of it, but I think it's too hardcore. At one point I had to have noclip, god, and fullbright "1" all on at the same time just to figure out the way forward :} 

and honestly I had fun and frustration in equal measure. I started off with MJB and kind of gave up after 20 minutes or so, played a little of PuLSaR's map and also gave up.

Stream on -
https://www.twitch.tv/fifthelephant/v/113860004

Around 20 minutes mark I play the maps (there's other stuff) but I think this particular theme isn't for me. Some great designs in there though, lots of pretty stuff! 

When I get a chance I'm going to try these exploration-interpretations.

Indeed, the more time devoted to Quake mapping the better you get, though it's also impressive how quickly some of these were made overall. Males me wonder how Q-Zone, in all its' glory, became a retail product. :P 

BTW, totally unrelated but I've stumbled upon a DM level for Doom 2 with Quake textures called Q-zone.wad... If anyone's interested, grab it here: http://www.wad-archive.com/wad/Quake-zone
No idea if it's any good.