Fixed version of jam7_newhouse map, please replace the old one. Fixes bug that makes it impossible to beat easy mode, and has other fixes too. It might be really good to put link here too:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwxYkKdSD855TWJ2cV9nYUdiRDA/view?usp=sharing

For the readme for my map, please visit this link: http://www.quaketastic.com/files/Jam7/jam7_mjb.txt

The repackaging seems to have omitted all of the readmes sans the main one so I uploaded to a spot where all could access!

Sorry about that. Will be fixed.

Perhaps we could use the screenshot medley created by Shambler for the screenshot?

But... Brush porn...

is this the map jam from qexpo2016 ? What was the deadline ?

Really liked Bloughsburgh's map! The idea to gain a new ability was pretty cool and gave it a bit of a adventure touch. maybe you can think of more mechanics like that :) Missed one secret somewhere unfortunately.

Bloughsburgh's map was the best both in terms of design and playability. It had this charming quality to it, eldritch and high-tech: the rune power and virtual safety net updating were an excellent touch. It was magic.

Also the one with the grayspace pump, that was awesome for the very idea.

I've missed the info about NewHouse's map update and just finished it on Normal without. Eh. Very nice level design, the playability was awful. I hope the update has a lot more ammo, I've finished it by playing with stealth and running past a lot of monsters.

Played three maps so far. In the order that I played them:

Bloughsburgh: Best gameplay of the bunch so far, with some tough fights and interesting, nonlinear progression. I had some apprehension when I read the map uses ladders extensively but I didn't have much trouble with them. Climbing up waterfalls felt a bit artificial to me though, I would have preferred swimming up water pipes or something combined with normal ladders and lifts. The initial area I felt was a bit undetailed or too brightly lit for its size. In any case I would love to see a more polished, detailed version of this map if you get around to it! (Didn't seek out all the rings, for now.)

ItEndsWithTens: Nice short map with a very cool setpiece--not like anything I have seen in Quake, that. Plays fine but felt a bit underpopulated (on skill 2).

Ionous: Amazing detail in the brushwork and texturing, you can tell why this person's on the AD team. Worth playing for that alone. Overall it felt like a piece of a much larger map, giving you a taste of gameplay bit hinting at something more. Many doors that are never used and at least one nonworking ladder. I also seem to have missed the nailgun. Could be my fault though, or maybe it's hidden in the one secret.

@komagama: Yes, this was the QExpo 2016 mapjam.

Great map pack, even if I'm not fond of big vertical maps. This is why a put a 4 on 5 for this pack.

Nightmare access was really easy to find.

Besides this, I'm happy to see 3rd party maps 20 years after Quake was released... Ouch, I'm getting old :D

Thanks for all of the comments everyone!

Pietsen: Glad you enjoyed the level, I intend to further expand on mechanics such as found in the map!

Azradun: I was trying to go for a unique setting and I think the rubicon2 texture set really helped me achieve that. Thanks for the comments and glad you enjoyed what you describe as magic!

Lane: Glad you were pleasantly surprised! Amusingly enough, the main room was the place I spent the most time in terms of detailing haha. I agree the lights are too bright but I ran out of time to work with them. I might re-release for AD once 1.5 hits but it is still up in the air!

I thoroughly enjoyed Altars of the Digital Oracle (jam7_ionous) while at the same time wishing there was a bit more gameplay. The setting is beautiful and large-scale (albeit that it essentially all happens in and around a single central chamber). It just felt that, for the amount of space and scenery, there could have been a lot more combat. (Also, I was disappointed that all those locked doors near the start and elsewhere don't open at the end.)

I never found the one secret (or the last kill). Can anyone give me a hint?

Anyway, 4/5 for this map in isolation.

@Lane Powell: the nailgun is not the secret in Ionous's map. Look down to your right shortly after emerging from the start teleporter, and you'll see it on a ledge that you can easily fall to.

Struggling with Sewage Farm (jam7_khreathor). After I kill all the zombies with vore-balls, I assume the door in the zombie room is meant to open -- but it doesn't. What am I missing?

@MikeTaylor: It should be unlocked when you eliminated all the zombies. If you still have problems, let me know what engine are you using and if you have quoth 2.2

Thanks Mike, figures it was my bad!

Played the final two maps.

Kreathor: I liked the vending machine mechanic, though as others noted in the func_msgboard thread it's exploitable with nails. Adding a machine that dispensed gibs was a nice touch. Not sure I dug the extreme darkness. Partly it was because the corridor leading to the flashlight was so hidden by darkness I missed it until the end, but also I wasn't familiar with the flashlight's mechanics i.e. I didn't know if I could turn it off to save batteries. Progression seemed arbitrary (one key door leading directly to another) but that may have been a time limit thing. If you do a larger map with this theme/gimmick (which I would love to see) I think it would be neat to space flashlights strategically and even hide more in secrets. Besides all that, there were some pretty nice detail touches and I liked the differently-themed secret. I also enjoyed the Doom 2016 nod in that initial zombie encounter.

NewHouse: Played the fixed version and I thought it was excellent. Lighting is very dark but it a way that enhances atmosphere without decreasing playability. Forcing the player to choose between the regular shotgun and the LG gave the gameplay a unique twist, but allowing the player to unlock other weapons with hidden silver keys was a great idea as well. I only found two, and ended up going with the RL and the red armor because the combats were so fast and brutal. While backtracking with the gold key to unlock the computer terminal I initially thought the amount of ammo in the monster closets was excessive, but it turned out I needed just about every bit of it for the two shamblers, two sentinels, and four vores (!!!) in that room (on skill 2).

All in all this is a really good jam. Top marks go to NewHouse followed by Bloughsburgh, but there isn't a bad map in the pack. Well done.

Big thanks for playing, Lane Powell*

And also big thanks for all players who sent me recorded playthroughs, they give me a lot of good points.

I'm glad you liked updated version, though updated version had couple mistakes as well, but didn't effect the gameplay too much. I will fix sentinel spawning(when first vore ambush happens), z-fighting in one secret and couple pickups that falls through floor (in Quake mapping that is nothing new really).

I will let everybody know when it is done, and I will share new link here, so everyone can try then 100% perfect runs. It is not in my top priority though to be honest, because I'm working on standalone version, and this jam map works as a base for that map.

@khreathor Looks like I have only Quoth 2.1. I will upgrade. Thanks for the pointer.

Yep, Quoth 2.2 fixed this for me (and will hopefully also fix some problems I'd been having with Bloughsburgh's map). Thanks, Khreathor!

So: Sewage Farm (jam7_khreathor) has some lovely ideas, but feels more like a demo for those idea than it does like a playable map. The vending machines are neat -- never run out of ammo again! (unless you're very careless!) The zombie-killing mechanism was a blast -- literally. And the dark area that only makes sense when you come back with the torch was also interesting. But there was rather too much corridor-running and perhaps not enough combat to make the whole thing feel satisfying. So by the present high standard of marking, I consider this a 3* map -- but a really encouraging debut from someone who I think is a first-time mapper?

@MikeTaylor: Yes it was my first map. Of course I did some experimenting earlier, but never finished anything serious.

Originally map was supposed to be twice as big, but my ambition faced the deadline... ;) So now it's more like a proof of concept, playground with some ideas. I got a lot of feedback, so now I know what is working and what is not. I will definitely continue working on and polishing this map in the future. Thanks!

p.s. Have you found all "hidden" frags? There is like 3 of them. I saw in demos that people found almost everything, but no one encountered surprise Spawn :)

This jam had a lot of new faces and great ideas, I'm eager to see you guys maybe in next jams too!

Bloughsburgh's In the Rusty Cage (With Water Coursing Through its Veins) (jam7_mjb) is just a superb piece of work from start to end. Fanscinating exploration, consistently interesting combats, a delightful new mechanic for opening up new areas (gaining the ability to climb waterfalls), two separate sets of secrets leading to a mega-secret ... and to top it all off, a detailed text-file that contains (among other things) an exhaustive secrets guide. I had troubles at first, due to my Quoth installation being outdated -- make sure you have v2.2! -- but once I'd fixed that, I never looked back. A true masterpiece, and well worth five stars on its own.

"and to top it all off, a detailed text-file that contains (among other things) an exhaustive secrets guide."

^THIS^ is what every mapper should do, as modern mappers have a tendency of making much too hard to find secrets. Congrats on that, Bloughsburgh, and I'm looking forward to playing your map after our exchanges at Func_Msgboard (I'm Mugwump over there, as I felt bfg666 sounded a little childish for an aspiring mapper).

@Bloughsburgh OK, I've just played your map and it was very fun with interesting gameplay mechanics. I would rate this a solid 4. Climbing up waterfalls is a bit weird but it suits said gameplay very well. The design style feels more like an industrial complex built by a crazed parkour fanatic than an actual functional military base, but I guess grunts and enforcers make up for it. I was able to find 8 secrets on my own (I missed the quad, making that fight in there pretty tough) and spotted the hole in the wall to #10 but couldn't find a way to reach it. Even with your walkthrough, I couldn't manage to jump on that vent and ended up noclipping to the ledge next to the access hole. What's with that "yellow frog" message? Is this a private joke or something? I don't get the reference. Also, does your title have anything to do with Soundgarden by any chance?

I thoroughly enjoyed NewHouse's (apparently untitled) map (jam7_newhouse) -- and I'm even more delighted to find that it's yet another debut, maybe the best yet. It's lovely to use the lightning gun as a mainstream weapon for once, rather than just saving it up for shamblers -- in fact, I think it may be the first time I've ever really opened up with that bad boy. Being tossed into the middle of bunfights with lots of tough base monsters (several times!) was a novel and enjoyable challenge. I'll look forward enthusiastically to NewHouse's next work, and in the mean I consider this a very comfortable four-star map.

It's a shame, that this pack ends with Where Breath is the Only Sound (jam7_tens) -- because while this is a nice map with an impressively distinctive big alien robot heart thing, it's very insubstantial compared with all four of the other maps. (Of course, the pack only ends with this one because I played the maps from left to right!)

It's still an enjoyable play. But the opening sequence in the giant elevator followed by the first sight of the big alien robot heart thing set expectations for something epic and innnovative, whereas the map is really a smallish standard base. So two stars for this map in isolation. (Sorry, ItEndsWithTens! But I loved your jam6 map!)

Putting it all together, this is another very fine jam, and very well worth the full five stars. I would recommend people new to the pack to the play the maps in the order: * tens * khreathor * ionous * newhouse * mjb to end with the most epic and innovative map.

MikeTaylor:

Wow thanks for the review! That made me get all warm and fuzzy inside. Glad you liked the map, it was really fun (and daunting) to make! This jam was made with a lot of creative minds and I am very please with the results from everyone!

Mug:

Cheers for playing and reviewing the map. I didn't put to much thought to the background but I would say it's a research facility for testing the water climbing artifact...that's why there is an outdoor waterfall/swimming pool ;)

Yellow Frog secret is not a reference but I want it to be one eventually. I intend on having all of my maps include said secret in some form to stamp my "trademark" on the level. Something like that. It is fun to have a unique secret tailored specifically to you.

I did not name the map because of Soundgarden but I realized how close it was as soon as I typed it. I decided to keep it anyway!

@Bloughsburgh I wasn't talking about background, it's just that the visual style doesn't look very "base", which was the theme of this jam. This makes your map a little off-topic IMO but it's still a great map.

I like the trademark idea very much, it's more original than putting the mapper's name in the void, and something that players can actually see without noclipping out of the map. What you should do when people find your yellow frog secrets is to make an actual model of a yellow frog pop up in the map. I think it would be very cool.

Has anyone noticed the pinup in Sewage Farm?

Ahh... this texture was in one of WADs I have used. It's from Duke Nukem 3D, if I remember correctly :)

I love Easter Eggs, that's why I hid few funny "things". Let me know which one you have found :)

Yeah, I thought she was a Duke babe. I found it pretty cool but are you sure you're allowed to do this? I don't know the legal issues of using Duke material. I haven't finished your map yet and so far, that's all I found. How many easter eggs did you include?

Mapping scenes like this one are pretty cannibalistic with textures and so on. I see things like that all the time especially in Doom maps. May not be technically legal but I doubt anyone cares.

Yeah, Doom mappers are "borrowing" lots of textures :) I just used one texture, hidden in the map, so I'm innocent compared to others who are building whole maps with such textures :D But anyway I wouldn't be worried about that, if you create map for fun as a hobby. Of course it's a different story if you sell stuff with such textures...

Another hommage (to the other game) is text when you enter the Mainframe: "Demonic presence at unsafe levels. Lockdown in effect." :D

There are 3 funny "things" left for you to find. If you'll deal with them, each of them will count as a frag: 1) Is kinda obvious when you'll encounter it. 2) Should be obvious too, but I saw 50% of people just miss "it" (and I don't know why :D ) 3) From all demos and streams I saw, no one found final surprise. It's easy to get, but I guess it's designed badly... and it's a bad joke :D

I don't want to spoil too much... but last thing I can say, is that during "design process" I thought that human curiosity will be a main factor helping in discovery. Good luck!

p.s. You will probably ask, why I haven't included them as a secrets. That's true I could do that, but instead it's set as a frag. It's another design experiment. If all enemies you have encountered on the map are dead, you know there is something to find, when you still have few frags left in a counter. Most people just get all the secrets and then they are heading straight to the exit. So it was supposed to be a nice gift for people who like to 100% maps - juicing them to the max.

Unfortunately it's not executed properly, because I should add proper exit portal, so player knows that map will end here and he/she can go back and search other missing stuff... But I was out of time... now it just ends suddenly :/ But you can replay a map for 100% ;)

Yeah, you're probably right, Lane, I see plenty of assets for Quake taken from Doom, Hexen etc... but at least they were idTech games, Duke was the direct competition. The modding community's logic can be quite puzzling: on one hand they often insist on being legit, like when someone talks about a Quake rip they systematically reply with "buy the game", but on the other hand they don't hesitate to use assets from other games. But like you said, there's probably next to zero chance to see any legal action ever happening.

Anyway, seeing that pinup in there was pretty fun!

"Demonic presence at unsafe levels. Lockdown in effect." Yeah, I remember that. It's from Doom, right? I can't remember if it's from Doom 3 or Doom 2016, though.

About the frag thing: the problem with that gameplay logic is that there are many maps that show an incomplete kill count while there's obviously no monster left in it. So if the player gets to the exit and sees some remaining frags, he might think "bah, just another fucked up frag count" and disregard it altogether. Putting these easter eggs as secrets would ensure that people will look for them.

True, for example fishes are broken, or if you killtarget enemy, then it won't count as a frag. As I said, I was just experimenting with a few ideas, they need some polishing for sure. Vending Machines can be much better too. I have idea how to make them non-exploitable etc.

Anyway good point. Thanks!

You're welcome - and yeah, the vending machines can have issues too. Maybe limit the number of refills? The grenade machine was funny, I wasn't expecting a live, exploding grenade landing at my feet!

Uhhh, should've added [SPOILER] to my previous comment.

If I remember correctly, ammo/health refill is limited to 10, but still it's more than needed. I should kept original amount of 5, I don't know why I raised it.

Some day Quake uses same kind of health machines like in Half-Life. Khreathor, that vending machine was very interesting idea, can I borrow it wink ;)

Map Jam 7 - Part 1 on The Quake Grave

Well, I was able to get 3 of the 5 maps to work correctly, but before everyone tells me what's wrong, I have been informed that there is a Quoth 2.2 and that is what i need to use to get things to stop crashing and breaking. Thanks for the tip!

khreathor - This playthrough is in the video, however I've been told that things aren't working correctly due to Quoth not being the most recent version so I'll save my thoughts for the correct version in Part2.

Ionous - I really enjoyed the verticality of your map. You start up high, and then you have to get to the bottom and work your way back up to get to the slipgate. This flowed well for me and I love all the detail in the map. Nice job!

ItEndsWithTens - This map was a pretty straight forward Quake map, short and sweet! I like maps like that, where you can get in and get out and enjoy yourself at the same time. To me, it says that the map speaks to the player well in how to progress through it. All that said, I really like the pulsating heart thing in the middle. Cool map!

Looking forward to checking out the rest in Part 2!

get the latest quoth version RC i see a lot of errors in the console on your YT video. dont ignore them.

@ArrrCee Also, about those vending machines, you need to wait between each shot to let the machine register it. You can tell by the sound it makes. Two words: nail machine. Makes life much better.

@bfg666 Yeah, but usually you can shoot fairly fast. But with older Quoths they just dont work ;)

Sure, the delay is not that long. I just warned him because I saw him shoot the machines very fast in his video, and I wasted a lot of ammo doing the same.

Map Jam 7 - Part 1 on The Quake Grave

Here we go, Part 2! Sorry for the long wait between the parts, I had a pretty busy week. This time we have everything working great with no issues! I have a lot to say about the maps after I play them in the video but I'll do a quick summation of what I think here too.

Bloughsburgh - I think you had the most in depth map of the bunch! I have a really hard time believing this is your first map with all of the crazy ways of traversing through it and all of the fun secrets and hideaways around. For the quake veteran, I feel like this map is a funhouse. Something fun to do around every corner. I talk about it in the video a little more, but I think there is a little disconnect with language to the player on where to go next, but I think that is just a part of the map being some what non-linear feeling. I have to ask though, what is the point of the yellow rings if they aren't needed to finish the map?

khreathor - Wow, things were much better this time around! I still felt like ammo was a hard commodity to come by and I think that playing through it once before really helped with the experience this time too. This map easily has the most going on with the vending machines, the zombie room and the flashlight part but I would love to see a few of these ideas explored more thoroughly because they are very cool and different ways to play the game!

NewHouse - Are you sure this is your first map? This one just has the stench of a veteran mapper all over it! I ended up playing through both versions of your map, but I featured the newest one in the video. After playing through both, I can definitely see why there were some adjustments made. That first map, there was absolutely no way I would've been able to finish it without jumping to god mode! As far as the map goes, I love the lighting, and the console room. I felt like I was in a Quake 2 map! I love the pacing and the use of the lightning gun and really most things about this map. Honestly, the thing I hated most was I couldn't figure out how to get the damn Quad! Great job!

Honestly, great job everyone! There really isn't a bad map in the bunch and they're all so different!

ArrrCee, the point of the yellow rings is to open access to the final secret. Which quad are you talking about? The one in the control center simply can't be accessed without noclipping once you've opened the secret cabinet with the shootable button. The other one involves rockets...

ArrrCee, for quad secret use rocket-jump. Yes, it is violation of quake secret's tradition, but it is rocket-jump secret.

I liked mjb's map. The idea of putting Metroid elements in a Quake map is cool, although it could have been expanded upon.

Newhouse's map was hit and miss. I really like the use of the silver key as a "pick your own reward" style secret, but its pretty plain to see that one choice is the best one. I also enjoyed the almost exclusive use of the lightning gun. It's a very underused weapon and I like having to decide between the weakest gun in the game and the strongest one for situations. Problem is, ammo is slightly too scarce for both and the enemies are too tough for a low-ammo run. Didn't play the updated version.

Along with newhouse's map, kreathor's map is severely underlit. Mood is important, but I'd prefer to be able to see what's going on. I mean at least Doom 3 gives you an infinite flashlight that you spawn with. The vending machines are cool in kreathor's but easily cheesed (and you're pretty underequipped if you DON'T cheese them).

The other two maps are fine, but slight and nothing really sticks out about them, although they are fairly impressive visually. I think the quoth monsters aren't well handled throughout this whole pack. They're tough, but in a kind of irritating way.

Why is the updated version of NewHouse's map not included in the package? I think the package should be updated.

Too bad it wasn't updated. Now you cannot access the google drive link any more.

Access denied for Newhouse's fixed map. Darn :(

Newhouse sent me the fixed map! TY Newhouse!

Can anyone give a public link for NewHouse map? For me it crashes as soon as I exit the elevator, I have the latest quoth (2.2).