I forgot to include the HD external textures for Shadesmaster's map's secret (sorry, Shades!) However, in retrospect, I wouldn't have met Quaketastic's 128 MB limit if I had.
Here is the link for an additional PAK file, for those wanting that secret in full HD glory!
https://www.quaketastic.com/files/jam/alkjam_extras.zip 

looks great even unfinished for now. It has unusual but recognizable id style and it great. Waiting for final release this promising project! 

The textures, HUD, music, sounds, all really punching up nice Quakey-but-different aesthetic. Love it. Actually getting a bit of Quake 2 from that, in a good way. 

Some true Hot Bullshit combat sections in a couple of the maps so far. :-) Big open room with a horde of top-tier ranged enemies spawned in on you, eh, not a fan. Similarly having stuff spawned in ahead & behind in a narrow hallway, or having to shotgun-snipe up at hunters etc. on a narrow ledge overhead. Probably worth it though to get some new mappers putting their hat in the ring and trying things out. None of it is really a showstopper either; it's just kind of a shame to have to cheese those bits.

Getting into some tasty gameplay now too though; the pack has a wide mix. More comments later once I've finished things. 

Very good maps so far!
Although I'm not a fan of the twin SNG Enforcers after the two-valves room in "Escape!". They are way too tanky without a powerup or better weapons. But very good map nonetheless.

Also, "Tell me it's raining" crashes the FTE engine to desktop for me (latest svn version, with vanilla or rerelease quake versions) when trying to spawn in the waves.
I'm not sure if that's the monsters falling or something else, but that's probably a bug from FTE. 

Beautiful brushwork, lighting and texturing but very same-y and confusing layout. Once I found the trigger for the lower "something" door I thought: "Awesome, I know where to go!" Then proceeded to Upper something door --- DOH!!! "Now where was that lower door? On the second or third level down? Okay I'll keep wandering around."

Took a long time to acclimate. Secrets were very fun and rewarding to find. (the few I did locate) Combat was tough for me.

The exit texture on the final section was completely unnecessary.

All in all, a stunning looking and challenging map!

One thing though... is there some trick going on with the Trifecta? I got it my first attempt and then was never able to get it again. The tolerance for the jump must be very tiny. I was raging by my 8th attempt and just cheated to get it. 

It's beautiful but way too big and a bit confusing. I assume something might happen with all those locked doors later? Some rooms have two portals and others have more and I'll be damned if I know how I got to either one.

Restarting a quarter mile out from the skill select is a bummer, no matter how pretty the view is. 

Thanks for your feedback! Really honored to hear your thoughts on it since I love your videos on Quake mapping topics. The layout is definitely on the more complex side and I think I got a little carried away, lol.

As for the Trifecta, it really is just a matter of making the right jump. Having an initial jump to set up the second one to build up momentum can make the chances of success higher, and some air-control is needed to navigate between the wall and the vents. 

That makes sense. I probably was doing my weak sauce version of bunny hopping the first time and then didn't afterwards. Gorgeous map over all despite tiny issues. 

A bit confusing to navigate (am I seeing a trend?) but lovely brushwork and texture usage and great use of enemies. This map proves you don't really need colored light or fog to do a richly detailed world and I am glad some mappers embrace the "old ways". :) I'll definitely replay this one as I really want to find those secrets.

Finale was awesome and worth the trip! 

DragonsForLunch!

Absolutely loved this map. Great use of texture theme. Satisfying combat. I did get stuck in the purple underwater forcefield that leads to the silver key area, twice. (playing in vkQuake 1.11.0) There are some weird quirks that had me bouncing up and down on a couple of angled floating crates, but that's a mod critique more than the fault of the map. Fun times and some cool secrets. I always appreciate when mappers put a shortcut back to the beginning of the map so I can go secret hunting. +1 

The original version was far more confusing; Chris Holden helped me improve on navigation greatly. This map actually ran in WinQuake, as it was originally intended for Tremor, but I ended up converting it to Alkaline when that didn’t work out. The finale was the only room I added for the final version. 

I had the same initial reaction to Logistics Of Chaos. A combination of being a bit too same-y looking and being multipathed/open, that can lead to confusion yeah. I decided to just run around following the new monster spawns instead of trying to keep the map in my head, and it worked out. :-) I think it transitions into some different stuff at about the right time.

I liked the level of difficulty on the platforming part -- i.e. not very, which I think is the right approach when you plop a section like that into a "normal" combat/exploration style Quake map.

Getting to work my way into the upper parts of the structure and look down on the old rooms & routes from before, that's always neat. A little annoying if you happen to fall down while dodging a voreball! It would be a pain to make my way back up, but lucky for me my conscience is fine with using noclip in such circumstances to fly back to where I fell. :-)

I admit I was a little concerned when only having one "circuit board" after being in the map for quite a while, but then the remaining ones came in bang bang bang which was funny/gratifying. I would guess that was the point where you decided to scale back on your plans a bit! I think it worked out.

Pretty great map overall. 

Eh one more quick post before I get back to work. DFL's map was very nice too.

I always appreciate some considered use of water in a Quake map. :-)

Nice varied layout, fun to open it up.

At a certain point I was thinking "well you're kind of overusing the walls-break-and-dudes-pop-out thing aren't ya?" and at that exact moment the entire path broke apart and dudes popped out everywhere. I have to tip my hat to that timing.

DFL has had a really good run over their past few releases! 

Played through the whole thing on Hell difficulty. Didn't find every secret - maybe 70% of them. There were a few pretty brutal fights in there, and the difficulty between maps varied widely, but ultimately it felt mostly fair and balanced.

I agree with dumptruck about the Start map. It's nice looking and everything but way too big and complex for what it needs to be.

Use of multiple SNG Enforcers in some maps feels kinda over-the-top. I mean, with their ridiculously high health and damage output, those guys are usually way more of a threat than the "boss" monsters. As soon as they appear you know you have to find something to hide behind immediately, and more than one of them at a time can be extremely difficult to deal with. The bosses, by comparison, are a piece of cake.

Apart from that minor niggle, there's not a bad map here. Varied styles and some neat tricks here and there. Had a blast playing through it, congratulations to all involved. Looking forward to more Alkaline content in the future. 

Glad this board is still around, and great things are being posted! Discovered this set over on Quaddicted. Super work!

Wasn't able to get to the third secret in North Central Positronics. Not sure how to get there exactly. I see where I'll end up if I noclip, but can't find the warp... (i think that keeps it vague enough to not spoil it)

Anyways, I'll be playing the rest of the maps for sure. Thanks! 

What an awesome map, fun and innovative secrets, great design and ambiance. Truly great. Played it 10 times already. 10/10 

Yeah I don't want to overlook some of the other great maps in here, and I'm not finished yet, but I want to hop in to agree that Paul L.'s Derelict Freighter map is extremely good.

Fun fights, a cool route that lets you have glimpses of the overall structure of things, great use of colored lighting and attention-drawing lights, some well constructed setpieces with destructible bits and other stuff... it really feels like a better version of Quake 2 that has been osmotically absorbed by Quake. :-) I think it's quite a bit improved from his (already pretty good) previous release. 

Ability to grab rocket launcher 10 seconds in, the floyd infighting near lift part, nonlinear progression, secrets placement, all is top notch. 

@Greenwood, Just wondering if you've any plans to back-port the updated HUD and menu elements into the original Alkaline. 

No. However, we are planning on releasing an update to the Alkaline main campaign (version 1.1) in the next couple of months, with a slew of updates & new additions/features, one of them being the HUD. :) 

Nice little horde-waves map from R. Yang. It can be tricky to make a "waves" map that isn't boring or frustrating. The use of powerups and low gravity phases adds variety in this one, and also they both in their own way give you methods of making sure you don't get hemmed in by bad guys (which in turn gives Yang more freedom to pump in lots of bad guys).

The little twist at the end is not super original/surprising but it got a chuckle out of me, it's well-executed, it's really a great way to wrap up a waves map in a way that gives it some character. Feels good to conclude with a little more "normal", more linear Quake-ing too. (I also got a smile out of the REPEATED audio hint on how to proceed. HEY DUMMY.)

BTW, I played this in two sessions and I'm pretty sure in my first session I came across what the circuit-boards were for. In my second session I got all the boards but then couldn't remember or find where/how to use them! Ah well. 

Can you make the hud and menu color rather orange , in theme of original quake menus and WON Half-Life menu I guess? I feel that this way it's gonna look much more consistent in game color-wise. 

Start map isn't so functional, don't like half a mile walk anytime I finish episode maps. But it sure is beautiful and atmospheric.

alkjam_dfl North Central Positronics is hard, yet fun. If you gonna nade jump through collapsing balcony near the end before killing all monsters you won't be able to return to final arena, even if chosen exploration portal at the final slipgate. So be careful and you won't softlock yourself with forcefield. Also I've been tricked to believe there is some super secret to be opened if I'll find the circuitboard and deliver it to the scientist fixing broken computer.

alkjam_plaw Derelict Freighter is probably on of the best maps in entire jam, or it's just me being an Event Horizon theme fan. It's visually stunning, non-linear and don't treat player for an idiot, the moment with 8 floyds infighting around lazy one is just marvellous.

alkjam_radiatoryang Tell Me Its Raining. A very good combat, I've managed to find 3 circuitboards from 4. No lack of ammo, no lack of enemies and certainly no lack of ideas for so simple arena. So much fun.

alkjam_myki Base Rush looks like someone's first map, but gameplay is brutal, and I like it. Final elevator ambush and making them all die from lieutenant's friendly fire is so satisfying.

alkjam_emeraldtiger Logistics of Chaos is really hard to navigate, everything looks so samey it's easy to get lost. And I did got lost quite a lot. So I do not want to replay this map.

alkjam_daizenzetsu Superportal. It also feels like someone's first map, but IT WORKS. Very good combat and overall visuals, I like these bridges and elevators. Final encounters are top quality stuff.

alkjam_shadesmaster Subaqueous Requiescat is a usual Shadesmaster stuff - Plain and combat heavy gameplay in spacious arenas. And I like it a lot.

alkjam_alexunder Escape! - I've seen this map before in another jam, but here it is finished. Good visually, engaging combat. Somewhat short but whatever.

alkjam_ionous Sunken Hopes is Ionous at his worst, which means getting lost a lot, awkward exploration at tight spaces, ambushes and traps also it's dark and watery, do we really need a sewer level here? really? What redeems this slog of a gameplay is a final bossfight, which is extremely good. I just continued to quickload final room even after I've managed to finish it. That's not common for me. I appreciate it.

Derelict Freighter and Radiatoryang's arena map are the best of the bunch imo. Myki's and Shadesmaster's maps are honorable mentions.