There's a bug in Krampus' map where exiting the level will simply restart it and not return the player to the start hub. To work around this, type "changelevel start" in the console once you're in the intermission screen.

I played through this before it was registered here, so some thoughts:

Whilst all 25 maps are "small" in one sense, some have more to do in them than others. There's some good implementations of straightforward maps - "Father's Hand" (xmj21Chrisholden), for example, with nice gold-white textures and an escalating climb. There's some slightly "weirder" escalating maps - "Midnight Mass" (xmj21Magnetbox) seems to go a bit high-concept 2/3 of the way in. Some maps have some nice additional mechanics, like Snapchip Shatter (xmj21Pinchy)'s breakable ice for level progression. And there's some maps that do something a bit different: Bee Home For Christmas (xmj21wiedo), mixing two weirdly compatible themes with metroidvania; Santa's Fragtory (xmj21Heresy) mostly successfully making a map where traps are your friends; Video Kojima (xmj21Ish) doing the theme you can probably guess from the name... ; and the super impressive Microcosmosphy II (xmj21_Ionous), which like the map to which it is a sequel, fits an entire Episode into one 1024 unit cube.

(Also, shout outs to the hidden map - Dichromatic Abomination - which also manages some interesting phases, and is nicely situated).

Maps I have not mentioned are also mostly great, but there's 26 maps in total, so I can't fit everything into a post...

The usual stuff from the usual gang (give or take a few) in the usual quality: absolutely top class!

Dammit, how do you guys/girls do it?

Very, very good. Thanks for all your efforts; Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (it can only improve) to y'all!

Wow, how do you guys and gals do it indeed? Another Jam and another hit out of the park.

I waited a couple of days to comment since I tend to get really excited and over-amped by these Jams, but it turns out that they really are that good.

I'll be playing all of these maps over because I just can't get enough. The start hub is fantastic as well, and the music/ ambient sound tracks professional grade.

Thanks to all of you mappers, and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I cannot wait every year for these AD jams! This one was really great, much better than hwjam2021.

There's one thing I don't understand. There are several enemies that I haven't seen since 2018 like the ghosts that make scorpions and spiders or the vore that makes vorelings; on the other hand, several enemies like the archer guy or the sword zombie tend to be overused. Then there are enemies like the scorpions or spawns or some of the enemies borrowed from quoth that appear rather rarely. Would be nice to see the monster variety that I once saw in the early AD, especially since there are so many monster classes and types to chose from, just a thought. Hopefully some creators see this and resonate with my word.

But in any case, this brings me a lot of joy regardless and can't wait for more AD content! Great job to everyone!

Thanks for the feedback. As far as monster variety goes, I can tell you that a lot of the mappers involved, myself included, were using Arcane Dimensions for the first time. It's a pretty huge mod, and we were under a time limit. Glad you enjoyed the pack anyway!

Awesome package, lovely present. <3

Strange problem on Omni's map: some dogs in the second wave are spewned on first floor and are inaccessible. And it is a problem to continue level

I compared my progress with video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9VR0zpgRA on the video at 0:51 four dogs apperaed on the second floor (near the player) In the Quakespasm only two dogs appeared on the second level

Argh, I'm stuck in the rocket launcher puzzle room in "Holiday Puzzle". So good!

Disregard that, I updated quakespasm to 0.94.3, all fixed

Ionius map is one of the stranges map I ever seen. It is something of remake of some original Quake's levels (their names partially used in names of secret books), but the TIGHTer version. Usually modern mappers doing remixes with WIDE spaces, but here it opposite. Very small volume 1024 (it is about 30 meters) cuted to 8 "sublevels" with 15 meters side, and this volume used on 100%. I remember only one pack with so high density of rooms - abandon (https://www.quaddicted.com/reviews/abandon.html)

Everyone involved in this jam did a great job! Here is my playthroughs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-qnqiE69iOKVZsexP780rmhh7PlOmm-7

I am simply thrilled and had a lot of fun playing all these maps. What the mappers have come up with to realise everything on such a cramped setting is simply fantastic. Full 5 stars from me!

I have packed all the videos into a playlist!

Quake - The Offering - [Quake 1024 Christmas Jam 2021]

So good.

I especially liked Silent night that played in one map.

Strange problem on Omni's map: some dogs in the second wave are spewned on first floor and are inaccessible. With noclip I could finish the map normally.

I noticed the same issue Vasya shkolnik and Mistawright had on "Rust Clot" by Omni. Noclipping and shooting two dogs underneath the floor you spawn on fixed the issue. I'm on vkQuake 1.10.0-beta 3

I have the same problem as Vasya and Shade on "Rust Clot" when playing on Quakespasm Spiked. With vanilla quakespasm i have no problems

Here I come, four months late ...

Starting with The Town Inside a Snow Globe (xmj21_riktoi): this is small indeed, arranged around a single courtyard, but makes good use of the space to deliver several different combat experiences, some of them pretty brutal. I was satisfied to finish with 46/46 kills and 3/3 secrets, and found the final combat -- which intially felt unfair -- really pleasing to resolve in a fairly clever way. Good start, but not great.

Holiday Puzzle (xmj21_repator) is a nice change of pace -- a novelty map that is fun and satisfying to play through, where most novelty maps become frustrating (at least to me) quite quickly. My only disappointment is that I am not quite sure why the solution to the final puzzle works -- I had tried lots of things so eventually tried the thing that worked; and it did but I don't know why.

When There Were Wolves (xmj21_mrtfradyang) is an object lesson in how to make a small level that doesn't feel cramped, has lots of progression elements, and feels very Arcane Dimensiony. Lovely use of the Ice Palace texture set (what is its proper name?) and that delicious AD crunchiness, especially once the widowmaker is found.

I enjoyed Snapchip Shatter (xmj21_pinchy) but got stuck after killing all the zombies, not understanding where to go or what to do. I had to read the comments here to get a spoiler. I think the solution could have been cued a bit better when earlier attempts to do the necessary thing failed. Otherwise, nice. Blocky, but good.

Five Bulls a-Beating (xmj21_krak) is already an excellent small level even before the false ending and the re-use of the same arena for some different combats. If I'm being critical, the architecture feels a bit lumpen and out of scale, but it's a definite winner on gameplay. I only wish even more of the map could have been repurposed for the end-game.

Wither Wonderland (xmj21_greenwood) is a very tightly constructed corridor battler than also manages to integrate a few more open areas into its restricted area. Again, there is that delicious AD meatiness to some of the later combats, and an admirable sense of exploration. Good use is made of the trick where you first fight your way up to the key, then fight your way back down to the door where you can use it -- I only wish the door was right at the bottom, rather than half way up, so there was a bit more to the return journey.

The Lost Rook (xmj21_jcr) is a refreshingly different, a fight downwards through a floating castle turret followed by a quest to find four gold keys to open the exit. There are combats on each key, and fitting the last produces an extremely unpleasant surprise that made me very glad I had saved the quad! Very nice.

Father's Hand (xmj21_chrisholden) is a beautiful climb up a semi-abstract floating construction, but it's over all too soon (only 28 kills on Hard) and ludicrously over-provisioned. I enjoyed it, but it didn't feel finished.

Cleanup for Santa (xmj21_mykee_ is a pleasant diversion in which you make your way to the top of a rather blocky, overlit house. Enjoyable enough, but the invisible walls keeping you out of the surrounding garden are infuriating -- especially as I suspect they are what prevented me from getting the last kill.

The Ash Keep (xmj21_mememind) is a pleasantly minimal arena battle in the style of Leptis Magna, in which you initiate several consecutive waves of combat before using the exit in the middle of the arena. Nice use of the grappling gun. It's all over very quickly, but nice while it lasts.

Santa's Fragtory (xmj21_heresy) starts out like a regular sewer crawl before morphing into a puzzle-fest where you need to use machinery to kill monsters that you otherwise lack the weaponry to deal with. The idea is interesting, but the execution is a bit too frenetic for my tastes.

Video Kojima (xmj21_ish) is a stand-out in this pack for several reasons. First, clever use of the space means that it feels like the biggest of the maps I have played so far. Second, the atmosphere feels more serious than most or all of the other maps. And third, it's by some distance the most difficult, with multiple combats that I had to over and over until I figured out a way to get through them. All in all, very impressive.

Midnight Mass (xmj21_magnetbox) is another standout, this time for the sheer number of enemies (although half of them don't appear till the very end) and the surpisingly intricate gameplay that makes plenty of use of the restricted area. On the downside, the architecture is very blocky, very careless and very overlit. But all of that is redeemed by the absolute slaughterfest at the end. Love it!

Rust Clot (xmj21_omni) is yet another standout. It exceeds even Midnight Mass for enemy count, though like that map it cheats a bit, as the the great majority of them are weedy fish and floating skulls. But there is plenty of tough-but-fair gameplay here, especially once you get past the difficult prologue in which you have no ranged weapon. Nice use of verticality, and a very handily placed quad!

Possibility is not a luxury; it is as crucial as bread. -Judith Butler (xmj21_nait) is maybe the best-looking of all these maps so far, a beautiful ruined stone courtyard dominated by a gigantic but decayed human skull. Around this courtyard and in a few small surrounding areas, a sequence of combat waves offers satisfyingly crunchy use of the AD triple shotgun, with the emphasis more on number of enemies than on powerful individuals -- at least until the end. Really nice.

The Endless Winter (xmj21_scythe2) is short but sweet, a nicely designed and very AD-ish little castle to climb. Everything is competent, but nothing really stands out. Though it's always satisfying to take out one of those disgusting scragmothers with a quadded SNG!

Well, Sewer Santa (xmj21_riktoi2) is certainly different! It was an interesting experience, but, shall we saw, not a map that I expect to return to repeatedly :-)

Wintry Quadupola (xmj21_riktoi3) is a waves-of-enemies-in-an-arena blaster. It's not bad, and I appreciate the generous provisions of ammunition and a quad at the end, but not really my cup of tea. It suffers in comparison with Possibility is not a luxury, another arena, in not looking nearly so lovely.

Realm of the Carpenter (xmj21_textfish) is rather lovely, but very very difficult. I came through a midgame combat with lowish health, saved, and the found that the next two or three much harder combats contained almost no health rewards, so I ended up trying to kill a scragmother, a colossus and a pair of vores on eight or nine health. So it ended up being a challenge, but not always the fun kind. The moral: if you come through a combat successfully but with low health, probably reload and try it again.

Microcosmosophy II (xmj21_ionous) may be the single most extraordinary Quake map I have ever played, for the absolutely astonishing amount of gameplay it packs into its 1024x1024x1024 space. I made it to the end, gasping for breath, with 220 kills ... and I'd missed along 88! I had found 17 secrets ... and missed another 11. Honestly, I've never sen anything like it.

As a purely technical tour de force it would be worthy of the deepest respect. But more than that, it's a ton of fun to play. Really just amazing. Ionous, we salute you!

The Library of Forgotten Dreams - by Grue (xmj21_grue) may be the most beautiful of all the environments in this pack. I'm a sucker for arcane libraries, but this one is laid out even more gorgeously than most, and the indoor visuals are nicely complemented by the houses floating mysteriously in the distant mist. Gameplay is pretty good, too, though it does contain two of my pet hates: nail traps (has any map ever been improved by them?) and monsters teleporting in behind the player.

Yule Be Sorry (xmj21_makt) is another gem, which perhaps falls short of the very top drawer because it feels more like two separate maps stitched together than it does like an integrated whole. The first, lower, map takes place is a beautifully constructed and (over-)colourfully lit semi-flooded area, and makes a pleasant introduction. Once that is complete and you take the elevator up to the main level, things step up a gear. This is a wintry castle with a nicely escalating series of combats that will leave you glad that you saved the megahealth on the lower level for later. Very nice.

Finally (unless I missed something), Yuletide (xmj21_scythe) is a very straightforward ending to what has been a magnificent pack. The textures are all light, clean temple; the monsters are all ogres (admittedly of three different kinds). What makes it work is the sheer exhilarating brutality of it. You start out with the triple shotgun, and half way through you get the SNG, both of them deeply satisfying weapons. So this map is a bit insubstantial (only 27 kills), but it's fun.

Closing thoughts to follow ...

Finally (unless I missed something) ...

Well, I did miss something! The entrance to Bee home for Christmas (xmj21_wiedo) lurks down under the main hall, where the Chaos and 666 pillars are. (What is the difference between these, by the way).

I'm really glad I found it! It's a novelty map that combines a weird setting and a novel mechanic with some good gameplay, as you have to destroy all the cells in a bee-hive before you can go home. Lots of fun to be had, and I love the rocket-jump belt. A properly useful new(ish) power-up.

And that leaves Dichromatic Abomination (xmj21_krampus), which I can't find a legitimate way to get into. Can someone give me a hint, or shall I just noclip through the grate and walk in unworthy?

Well! I gave up and cheated to get to Dichromatic Abomination (xmj21_krampus) and boy am I glad I did! What an absolute masterpiece to end with. It uses the space astonishingly well to feel like a full-sized map with endless secrets and alternative routes, well balanced with properly difficult combat that rarely if ever feels unfair. An absolulte joy, and a great way to finish the pack.

To conclude: for me, this jam sits in the very top rank of Quake releases, which is pretty amazing for a holiday-themed novelty pack. So many mappers have done so many different things with the 1024^3 cube that it beggars belief. Among these maps are some of breathtaking beauty, others of startling ambition, and yet others that are just joyful to play. There are few if any downright clunkers.

Everyone who contributed: THANK YOU! And a belated merry Christmas!

I see you can unlock the evil difficulty, is that a reference to Amid Evil?