Hub is very comfy, partially because of music. Now about all the maps, played on nightmare skill level.

Red Ranger (xj2020_vbs). Stalker vibes yeh! Good commieblock stuff.

I Climb The Stairs, Wearing My Best (xj2020_strideh). Very good. Simplistic, yet beautiful and fun.

Igneous (xj2020_artistical). Okay map, not really memorable but humor is there.

Village of Claws (xj2020_shadesmaster). Tough to play on nightmare, but if you gonna make it past bunch of arcane knights and vores, you will handle judicator easily. Remember, that if you time chton projectiles or judge knights fireballs just right, you'll be able to jump out of the final pit back to surface.

Eternal Return (xj2020_bal) It's not I who locked with spawns in the interstellar bookshelf, it's the spawns locked in interstellar bookshelf with me! Also, this map GOT to be remade in Xonotic for multiplayer purposes.

Gay Kisses for Christmas (xj2020_quasiotter). Neat cozy little map with slightly homosexual tint and focus on exploration.

We Can All Fly (xj2020_chrisholden) Some log screens aren't activating from right side, but you still can read them if approach from other side of the wall. Also you can jump over bars to these blue glowing columns in the corners and stuck there. What a waste of space for possible secret. And I was searching for the last floyd for, like, 20 minutes. Artistically and design-wise beautiful, but there certainly are some problems.

Removing Canyon Invaders (xj2020_qmaster1) Cool comments and gorgeous skyboxes. Like this map and architecture. Most of the fun stuff is behind nade jumps, so save the precious explosive ammo.

Ghadamons Pit (xj2020_dfl) Neat little level, liked the crushable by mass impact breakables.

Dentori Aurum (xj2020_qalten) Very compact map, nice use of space and nonlinear progression. liked the movable objects, especially foldable tables at the scragmother yard.

All Is Dust (xj2020_entsoy) Properly made horror themed level. Hard, but doable on nightmare. Like, it's my first ever shambler kill at 1hp with a shotgun. Looking forward for the full monochromatic episode on AD with black and white filter from Entsoy, something in style of naissancee

Yuletide Slayer (xj2020_greenwood) Wait, no breakable chests? Otherwise beautiful props and art. One the balcony with two wizards there's sideways texture. I thought it was a hint to secret, but it's just a bug. Simple, beautiful and full of good fights map.

Market Cube (xj2020_pinchy) Neat platforming map, nice art and design.

Hrim Hrevenge (xj2020_grome) Good combat! Feels like this map been heavily tested and thought out. It's real satisfying to play it.

Knowledge isn't made for understanding; It's made for cutting. (xj_naitelveni) Cute slaughtermap with heavy stench of SCORCHED MEAT. Not so obvious triggers, better to set spawners on timer than on number of killed zombies because in my progression there were times when stronger mobs spawned long after quad's end, and zombies mixed with with other mobs not so easy to hunt down.

Nuclear Winter is Coming (xj2020_heresy). That feel when you pick up the secret and then backoff immidiately to telefrag the REAL secret that spawned right behind you. And then you blow up shambler with living bomb. I guess, nade jumps with blast belt and quad are mandatory for progr... ahh, there's a ladder at the crates!11 Okay so this is basically Warm Welcome Home by Bal, but cold and unwelcome. Yet it is home, and it's still cozy, even somewhat comfy.

A Door-Key level (xj2020_muk) Neat exploration level. Attention to details! Good work around and expansion of ad_muksp2 idea. That's some very good job here. Getting out of toilet is a bit problematic, but whatever.

House of Card (xj2020_ish) I guess this is the shortest, and most brilliant map from the whole jam. 10/10 would die on a meathook again.

Microcosmosophy (xj2020_ionotp) Yay sneaky platforming secrets. As the all other types of sneaky secrets you usually suspect from ionous. Not as annoying as his other exploration maps, it seems that OTP has good influence on him.

Overall jam is good, I am glad that staying home made you do your homework and for once ship something totally playable even for the recreational critics as myself. Grome's, Shadesmaster's, Bal's, Muk's, Qmaster's and Heresy's works are my personal favorites. 

You just need to respawn with spacebar, not with lmb. Nice pieces of non-euclidian geometry here and there. Not terrible, but certainly janky. Seen the megahealth and hammer ogre secret, but didn't figured out how to get there. 

Imagine if Bal and Entsoy cooperated and made a monochrome fractal endless agoraphobic horror themed map or better whole episode in samosbor/gigakhrushch https://imgur.com/a/IM2atyt setting?! Like that final map from Antichamber, for example. 

Actually that sideways texture IS a hint to a secret. It's not a bug.
You just didn't explore it enough. :)

Thanks for the kind words. I am glad that you enjoyed it! 

I Climb the Stairs, Wearing My Best by Strideh

Well what do you know, it's yet another masterful showcase of texturing and colored lighting working together to create something really enchanting. Almost predictable to see this from Strideh by now. ;-)

The vibe was a lot like mfxsp5 (down to the same skybox used), but updated with 21st century production values. I particularly liked the unique buttons with the Quoth sfx, a very small detail but one that kind of elevated the map from "another base map" to its own thing, in a way. Nice ending sequence, too.

I also really appreciated the simplicity of the gameplay, no frills, just constant plasma. Maybe a bit lacking in terms of challenge - I understand non-base monsters were apparently off limits here (which is a shame, since Gaunts would have been great), but I think you could easily have doubled the monstercount on skill 2 and gotten away with it. It's probably the most fun when trying to speedrun it.

That brushwork drill is awesome, but also definitely one of those things that only mappers will properly appreciate. ;-)

Keep it up, would love to see a big standalone release from you. 

I love the vibe of the start map! very cinematic! 

House of Cards by ish

First things first, that intro sequence wasn't really worth it. I have a demo where it fails rather spectacularly (though I suppose you know by now), but even despite that, it's really slow and the constant nudging by the invisible door gets annoying eventually, and the whole thing is kind of derivative of that one hwjam3 map.

However, the map gets much better immediately after - it's basically the Bal and Entsoy maps combined (though not in the way Ranger Jim proposes), with the player being handicapped so much that even the weakest enemies are big threats, and with spacetime folding onto itself in weird ways. I suppose this is the natural evolution of your trademark complex layouts.

The visuals were fine for the most part, the one exception being the outdoors bit which looked great - the snow, the pots and the shadow(?) trees gave it a similar vibe to that wintery Wrath map. I usually find most makkon maps kinda samey looking, but this map had enough small details that gave it its own identity. And don't think I didn't recognise those RMQ textures right away. ;-)

I really liked all those little touches like having all the Fiends be ghosts of the ones you see dead earlier, and the imps demanding their silver keys.

I had a lot of fun playing this (I think this is one of your best maps so far), but for the future, if you're going to use so many breakables, please make them break in just one axe hit, lol. 

https://twitter.com/onetruepurple/status/1341874071823409152 

To say it clearly. I haven't played all maps.
But what I've seen left's me crying.
The graphics and designs are overwhelming.
I messed more time with looking around than fighting. The design, the colours, the lighting and (tha'ts what it's all about) the gameplay are tripple A. Resepect for your work! 

Nuclear Winter is Coming by Heresy

Curious to know the story behind this place, what's this medieval castle doing surrounded by ruins of modern civilization, and why is being turned into a base? Maybe some questions are better left unanswered.

Had a lot of fun in this one on skill 2 (died a couple times).

It was very easy on the eyes but a more cohesive selection of textures would have been a plus, you're pulling from a lot of sources but not all of them mix as well with the whole as others. The makkon set is a prime example of this, I think it really only works on its own.

As noted, the contrast between the cold and warm areas was nice, but some areas were definitely way too bright (the floor with the SSG).

I was very happy to find a lot of secrets, though, including the super secret. ;-) 

A huge thanks for playing, I appreciate your demos, I really feel that you are looking for all the secrets, I think you missed only one of them.
After watching several playthrough I found a couple of mistakes in this map :
-First I forgot to remove 2 clips on breakable crates on 2nd floor.
-Secondly most of player aren't understanding that these wood crates are breakable (in the future i'm thinking about stucking the player with some breakable crates at the begining to make him understand they are breakable)
-Thirdly my ladders aren't enough visible especially for the gold key access. Beta testers warned me with adding some red arrows but it doesn't look to work enough.

Sure I understand you for the castle in the center of the ruins of an old city, you can see a "rebirth of an old achitecture". Just I imagine that humans could rebuild some medieval fortress kind of construction in order to defend themself. I got inspiration from the movie (not very good, but with some good idea) : Doomsday, where people get out of the city and recreate a medieval soceity into castles. That's also why the bottom of map is a base for a kind of modern energy. Where people rebuilt a fortress from a classical building.

About texture choice I'll will take care about this in my next maps in order to invlolve myself. Thanks for advices.

Glad to see you had fun :)
I had a lot of fun on your map with ionous !
(you could watch the vod here (around 50 mins) 

Shotguns and Shamblers to really get into the holiday spirit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLFUqhZ6u44 first run, hard skill. 

What a great map pack. Cheers 

FYI several of the gfx/env/techasky files have some capital letters that sneaked into their filenames; makes the sky not work on non-Windows. 

Beautiful start to the pack playing Bal's map. The moment when the map's "gimmick" was revealed was preeeetty sweet. And the no-fall-damage is great, makes it a joy to mess around.

(I wonder if a particular recent indie game inspired this? ... not that it was the first to do this sort of thing, but the most prominent recent example.)

Chris Holden's map was a nice followup, a bit of mild/unpunishing stealth and then a chance to run around wildly widowmakering mobs. Good to see floyd! A few crits:
* The oddly-shaped doors are easy to get hung up on. If they couldn't be made wider, then maybe some subtle clips are needed to guide the player in.
* There's a necessary ladder that doesn't really look like a ladder, had me puzzled for a bit.
* Once you get the widowmaker it's easy to miss (during your rampage) the other weapons that spawned in. Unless they were already there previously and I Mr. Magoo'ed my way past them.

----------

Lovely to see that my previous hwjam3 thoughts of "aww I wish more folks used the jumpboots" are already getting slamdunked. 

xj2020_grome: Kind of linear but a punchy romp; no complaints with most of the map. Lots of good shootin'. I enjoyed the finale a lot too for the most part... good excuse (or necessity even) to Grenade All The Things, except for the very last bit which was just too punishing IMO on skill 2. Savescummed my way past that part. But a lot of cool craft in this one, from the brushwork to the sfx/setpieces.

xj2020_dfl was a good use of the space and just generally a fun construct to play around in. DragonsForLunch is levelling up! 

xj2020_heresy was a _fantastic_ use of the space. It had me chasing my tail up and down and back again across the map. Some unclear navigation hints (messages) IIRC, but the fact that it's such a small map and that the traditional approach of "follow the new monster spawns" always worked meant that it wasn't frustrating. I felt like I really knew the place near the end....

... except I almost couldn't find the exit! I triggered the "seasonal" secret and killed those new monsters, and by the end of all that I forgot that I had picked up the gold key. The "you can leave now" message after the new monsters cleanup made me wonder if there was some newly revealed door nearby or at the start of the map that I needed to find. Anyway: stumbled across the gold key door eventually after a lot of wandering (it's kind of out the main path).

The outside detail surrounding this map is nice as well. Cool alternative to the usual blocked door/slipgate at map start. Overall not as weird as some of Heresy's other work :-) but that's quite OK. 

xj2020_ionotp: good fun, a little troll-ish at times? but even that feels in the spirit of the concept. I'm mildly disappointed that the secrets didn't _seem_ to recapitulate many of the "famous" secrets from the various environments/episodes (altho I didn't find all secrets so could be some like this I missed). Overall, it's a nice concept to take a "small volume" jam constraint and cram all these environments into it... the scope of each environment and their fit together was well done.

xj2020_ish may be my favorite so far in the jam and a possible candidate to go back and add to the "best maps of 2020" thread! Need to sit and think on it a bit. I think it would have fit better in the halloween jam ;-) but fantastic use of AD features to create a sense of (weird) place and progression. Ammo and health were tight on skill 2 IMO... it worked out for me in the end, which just made it all the more fun. My only criticism would be to lay off the poison monsters if you want to make a resource-constrained map. 

xj2020_muk: neat little jungle-gym of a map. I'm probably not completely on board with the find-lots-of-buttons kind of secret, so I don't think I'm going to poke around further for the one that I overlooked somehow. Too bad because I guess that's how you get the jump boots, which could be great here. Other than that though, good times! Always a tiny thrill to find ways to look down and drop into some new area, and the swiss-cheese routes were lovely. BTW the way that several key-and-door setups were apparently just for unlocking "backtracking shortcuts" is ... unusual?

xj2020_pinchy: fun setup for a mini-arena. Cute! I think some of my less favorite pinchy-isms were on display here though, e.g. surrounding you with distant missile mobs while subjecting you to fiddly navigation (water, tight spaces, platforming, etc.). And the backspawning, including backspawning archers immediately behind you. At least no vores doing that stuff, this time! I dunno man, not entirely my thing, but I finished it up without much grumbling. :-) Got the Quad with no monsters left though. :-( My fault for not checking the monster count. Although I kind of attained the Quad secret by accident just fooling around, not sure how that one is meant to be found.

xj_naitelveni: well this was a bit of a shitshow both in my playstyle and in the performance on my old Quake-ing computer. Enjoyed it though. I didn't see a way to kill the first zombies immediately (was the Quad unlocked at that point?) and I eventually ended up with a hundred monsters zerging around in that room. Basically turned into a strafejumping/infighting spectator show sort of thing, which was fine. It's good that at the end I then had a couple of waves that I could mulch with the WM, LG, and/or Quad. A palate cleanser in between the bigger explore-y jam entries. 

Anybody else getting a broken LG viewmodel running this in QSS? 

Try the latest official QSS release, not a dev-build. People had this issue on AD 1.8 with various dev-builds. 

FWIW Spike told me to best use the dev build these days, and QSS is working fine for me in AD and in this jam.

maiden, what's your setup like? What OS, what version of QSS? And you do have this jam in its own mod folder right (not dumped into the AD folder)? 

Using as directed.
QSS latest official release, 64-bit, own mod folder. It's not a big deal, just thought it was odd that I couldn't reproduce the problem with Quakespasm, which points the finger at QSS. 

Yah, might as well try the latest dev build. It has bug fixes. My impression is the main reason Spike hasn't blessed a new official build is that he's tired of working on QSS for now. 

xj2020_qalten: I like the general idea for the mechanics of progression, but the scale is a bit cramped for the kinds of fighting and navigating that the player needs to do in here. Felt a little too fiddly IMO.

xj2020_qmaster: Great short adventure. I mean, obviously the "reveal" and the music sting is going to hit nicely for many of us, but even aside from that I think there's some cool paths and slightly different combat setups in here.

xj2020_qmaster2: An arena fight in a room again yah. Didn't leave much of an impression.

xj2020_quasiotter: Gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the contrast between the cutesy dialog and the grimacing mean-mugging idle animations (that you don't often get an extended chance to see up close).

xj2020_shadesmaster: Yet another arena fight in a room (or two)! Dressed up mighty purty though. Fun little blitz, and (as usual for shadesmaster) with a particularly perky music track. Nice to get to pound on some of the new monsters.