Maribo

Welcome to the Miscellaneous Demos thread! This thread is the place to post your demos on maps and wads that haven't so far attracted a great deal of attention from the demos community. If your demo fits into a pre-existing thread, then it is better to post it there. Megawads and episodes, for example, usually get their own threads. Note also that this thread is for unassisted (non-TAS) demos. There is also a thread in this forum for Miscellaneous TAS demos. If you're looking for older miscellaneous demos, check out part 1, part 2, part 3 or part 4 of this multi-thread.

DSDA links: Wormwood Wormwood: Expanded Universe Wormwood ]|[ - The Horror Wormwood IV - The Final Chapter Wormwood MAP01 UV-Speed in 1:59.37 wormwood01-159.zip MAP01 UV-Max in 2:48.74 wormwood01-248.zip Really surprised that there are no runs on the board for Wormwood or the EU... figured I'd fill a little bit. Both of these are definitely improvable. I also want to do this Pacifist, but getting the Cyberdemons to die was making me want to pull my hair out. I'd get one killed and then run out of monster fodder and the remaining one would be 1-2 ssg blasts from death. I'll work on it later.

This pinned thread in the subforum has 10 years worth of posts regarding WADs that people can no longer find, and some incredible detectives (and data hoarders/archivists) who sometimes dig up what was lost. You might also have an interest in this thread, which is a list of actual known-to-exist-but-dubiously-or-never-actually-released material.

Altitude Adjustment UV-Max in 8:49 - altam849.zip Hairesis UV-Max in 7:40 - hairesism740.zip

Continuing from last year, 4shockblast compiled a big list of Christmas/Winter/snow-themed maps for an end-year demo month, it's not an exhaustive list but there's a pretty extensive collection of single maps and full WADs in the spreadsheet, complete with direct links to DSDA and idgames. Out of the stuff present in this list, a handful of the ones I remember playing and enjoying were Cold Front, Snowfury, the winter-y Fruit Salad maps, and the two snowy maps in Fallen Leaves.

I was waiting for the other two maps to play the full thing, but I decided to play through what's already here since it's been quite a while. I think the best way to describe this WAD is that its answer to the question of "Where are we going?" is "Wherever the hell I want". The maps I enjoyed more on average were the ones that delve into a bunch of slaughter setups (Grotto of the Circlestrafers, Islands of Inferno), but it will take you just about everywhere else as well, from partial-Tyson combat puzzles to frantic run-around exploration (Urban Chaos is a really cool city map). I think The Hell Express is the best map here, though, and it pulls its gimmick off so well... Warping a "moving" train with hell's influence splattered all over it is so charming. I do have one major bone to pick with Gothic Funk, which comes down to Doom's funky collision with sprites. The way that the player collides with sprites makes it pretty excruciating to try and navigate through the tree maze portion, it's really easy to accidentally hang/wobble on one and just Die Instantly because of all of the projectiles that are inevitably flying around. I'm not quite sure how I'd fix it either, the room's design might not be conducive to something like sector trees, but maybe dehacking the physical size of the tree sprites to be smaller would make them less awful to traverse. It's a bit of a sour note in an otherwise cool map and WAD. I hope you haven't abandoned this, it's still something I'm eagerly anticipating completion (and I'm sure many others are too!) :) tfc-maribo.zip - casual UV playthroughs for every map (played on demo v4), -dsdademo format and play back on v0.27.5

^ Seeing this thread immediately reminded me of making this post, ha. I love this map, it is a true love letter to The Thing and it shows everywhere with all of the references and literal spaces that existed in the film itself. That tunnel fog at the very end is a cool effect. The doomcute toilet paper rolls were noticed and appreciated. op13-maribo.zip - a casual UV -dsdademo playthrough, plays back on v0.27.5 of DSDA-Doom.

I believe that you might be thinking of Seriously? by T-117.

Took quite a while, but this evening I finally completed the WAD with the exception of Map36 (which, from the short 5 minute peek I took at it, seems so massive and intimidating in scale that it will require its own dedicated session). Many disjointed thoughts: One of the best things I've ever played. Thanks a ton to everyone involved for putting together such a carefully crafted work. evit2-maribo.zip - Here's full casual UV playthroughs (-dsdademo, v0.27.5) for every map except 36, sorted by RC version.

Here's another one just for you, since I remembered that it exists last night. Speed Weed by Alper002, RiviTheWarlock, KeaganDunn, Kevansevans, and Jimmy Doom 2, Boom-compatible, 10 maps Hey smokers, today we're I'm a staunch defender of both bite-sized Doom and silly speedmaps, so it's quite predictable that when the two intersect, it's something I bump forward in my mental "I want to play this at some point" list. Speed Weed is a collection of Plutonia-themed piss-takes that makes the wise choice of limiting each individual level's runtime to five minutes at most -- enough to get a chuckle or a funny grin of understanding without overstaying and beating the joke to death. It asks novel questions such as: Who lives in the smoker cabin? Why has Alfonzo forsaken us? What if stairs in Doom were even worse than normal? Does Cyberdemon rocket taste good? You can answers to all of these questions and more, for the low cost of a half hour or so, dart chuffing optional (but encouraged by the owner of the Chunted Cabin).

Speed Weed UV-Max table fills: Map01 in 1:37 - spdwd01m137.zip Map02 in 1:33 - spdwd02m133.zip Map03 in 2:02 - spdwd03m202.zip Map04 in 3:37 - spdwd04m337.zip Map05 in 3:28 - spdwd05m328.zip Map06 in 1:35 - spdwd06m135.zip Map10 in 0:58 - spdwd10m058.zip Some of these maps hit the blunt too hard for my sober butt.

Collective demo thread for wads created by the Squonker 3 makers. Mayan Reynolds Vigor Squonker 3 Moonlit District Pagodia What Remains Tetanus Squonker 3 Map01 UV-Pacifist in 0:29 - sq301p029.zip Map03 UV-Pacifist in 0:23 - sq302p023.zip Map05 UV-Pacifist in 0:42 - sq305p042.zip

Void rock and brick structures adorned with fall colors, stuffed with Thanksgiving food while moderately starving you of munitions. Reminiscent of some of Ribbiks' stuff from the last few years, namely thinking of the two main maps in Magnolia and maybe some of the looser offerings in 20X7, but warmer. Surprisingly appetizing and inviting after the hostile opening, though maybe some of that feeling is me getting used to your design at this point. Lot of enclosed slaughter set ups and a pesky centerpiece cyberdemon. I like it. A couple of small things: noticed a slime trail here, and this switch that starts the fight in that room is obnoxiously difficult to trigger, likely because of the close proximity of the linedefs in front of it. Casual playthrough, -dsdademo on v0.27.5, maybe 30 minutes-ish long. Kind of scatterbrained and distracted play from a day's fatigue, hopefully it's not too unwatchable though. - knaht-maribo.zip

Neat map, on UV/Intended difficulty it's like a little collection of fight ideas spiced up with different arena themes. I like the underground crusher fight and really enjoyed the finale, it's a classic slaughter gibfest with some lightly drawn out clean-up. My only nitpick is these little corner medikits in the finale are kind of rough to get to, the floor height difference + their close proximity to the step-up means that you have to slow down quite a bit to step down and actually grab them. Not sure if it's intentional but if it is then feel free to ignore. Playthrough on UV/Intended, -dsdademo, v0.27.5 - rnmnasion.zip

Felt like posting some blurbs about some individual maps that I really liked this year from various different projects. For sanity's sake, "this year" is pre-Cacowards cutoff (November 15) and I'm not including maps from anything that I wrote about in my write-ups for the Cacowards (all of them would have at least one map here, but I would rather give some attention to other things that I liked and not re-tread them so soon after), but I am including some maps from things that other people wrote about. The order presented here does not matter, I wrote about them roughly in order of how I thought about them, and then shuffled a few around to try and balance the blurb lengths a bit better. Scabies by Xyzzy (Map09 of SATURNIA) SATURNIA as a whole is extremist Plutonia, as if it was shoved into a juicer and extracted down to its bare essentials and then reconstructed with the knowledge of modern player skill in mind. Scabies is the crown jewel of what this design looks like, and I would really love to walk through the caverns underneath this temple in reality. Don't be afraid of ghosts. ARLINGTON by Bank I never really knew that I wanted a 3rd person fixed-camera game where you just Chill in the GZDoom engine before now, thank you for opening my third eye Bank. Please tell me I can buy that rug somewhere. Blacksite by DFF (Map04 of What Lies Beneath) DFF's execution of the "restore power to the powered down base" concept is phenomenal in part thanks to their masterful lighting work (the difference in the cavern section with the power on and off is a powerful contrast), but also thanks to their worldbuilding. Digging down with a giant sector drill to reach the red key has stayed in my head and it's something that I remember every time I see sector machinery. The Valley of Calm Trees by Smiling Imp A love (of nature) supreme. Late Arrival by Agent JR (Map01 of DEFY THE OMPHALOS) I could also have picked Map02 of this set, but I'm going with Map01 because I was looking for screenshots to use and seeing this fucked up sky made me really want an excuse to show it again. Click this button to instantly get fucked by shaders. Tower of the Night Seer by RonnieJamesDiner* (Map07 of Godless Night) I mostly just wanted an excuse to post the beautiful purple sky. Castlevania aesthetics go too well in Doom, thanks for making me realize that. * - originally said Tango by accident, thanks Catpho Garden of Plagues by Sneezy McGlassFace Modern descendant of cave slime and slaughter, believer in Fucked Colormaps. The Coconut Cream Flow by Peccatum Mihzamiz (Map10 of Pina Colada) There's no shortage of maps that I could pick from this WAD that I loved, but this one has been stuck in my head for a while. Void crater rock drifting away forever, perhaps it will eventually be torn asunder by the awe-inspiring cosmic feature in muumi's sky. Inseparable from the Psyrus midi for me. Slime Girls by rd (Map13 of Afternoon) Melancholic lullaby of a Darkwave tribute, the pit portion is a majestic clusterfuck that we could all take notes from (thank you slime girls). Engorge by Bobby (Map10 of Tetanus) Another WAD where there's a plethora of individual maps to love, but I remember this one really sticking with me from when I was playtesting. It has this sense of final urgency to it and I think that's largely due to the midi. Thank you for making such a good closer, Bobby. Far Out Crops by esselfortium and A Visit to the Creep Doctor by Xaser (Map03 and Map04 of Back to Saturn X E3's preview build) 1) Yes, I am cheating and putting these together for no reason. 2) Yes, you caught me, I mostly wanted to write about these two maps but I also felt like writing about some others so I included them. If I could, I would live forever in the dubious safety of Far Out Crops. I think that there is something enchantingly beautiful about this forest and trying to flesh that phrase out escapes me in such frustrating ways. I look at those reds and grey-whites and blacks in the below portion of the map and I just get lost in them. A Visit to the Creep Doctor. A Trip to the Wretch Surgeon. A Stay with the Freak Practitioner. When I'm at my most pessimistic about life, the phrase "it only gets worse" often pops up in my head. A Visit to the Creep Doctor is "it only gets worse" embodied within a Doom map. It is to be consumed by everything around you and lose your grip. If you've ever been in a really bad stretch of events in relatively quick succession that just Fucks Your Shit Up, it's kind of like this, except in real life your house doesn't actually turn into an eldritch flesh fuck horror, it only feels like it does because you can't even escape to the safe comfort of your own home. Not just one of my favorite maps of the year, but one of my favorite maps ever. You should tell me (and everyone else) about your favorite maps from this year, whether they won an award or not. I'd like to read about what you like, whether you do it in five words or five hundred. :)

Ha, the composition of the map + the sky and choice of Wood5 made me open this thread with the intention of jokingly asking if this map was a cheeky preview for a Slith sequel. Cool to know that it's in the works. Very pleasing to the eye. I like the BFG trap quite a bit, it's a pretty mean pincer. Casual playthrough of v3, -dsdademo and plays back on v0.27.5 - w54l-maribo.zip

Neat map with lots of gizmos and technology stuff to look at (I happened to notice that the big fans outdoors also "rotate" when viewed on the automap, which is fun). Wonderful use of silent teleporters to spoof a multi-storied building and a very tooth-y (:P) finale. A casual UV playthrough in -dsdademo format, v0.27.5 for playback - altadj-maribo.zip

Time constraints and scope of the write-ups + the Doot Eternals would have made 7 more HMs a pretty rough ask, especially with how jam packed the special features were with minor mentions. You can find some "B-Sides" / Personal Picks write-ups over here though, and it would be cool to see more people put some writing up for things they liked. :)

Beautiful brutalist dreamscape, software shading does this wonders in both the dark introduction and in the mall. I agree with pretty much everything plums said regarding the quirky issues with the megastructure beneath the mall (falling anywhere = softlock, cacos can just get sent off into the ether), and color palette generation. This is a very nice palette, somewhat reminiscent of Arcadia Demade's palette in that it melts off-whites, greys, and blues together and gives the mall this super fitting hazy/fog feeling. Would look even better with the rest of them properly generated + the colormap. UV playthrough, -dsdademo, plays back in v0.27.5 - veranda-maribo.zip

Un-fucking-believable. Marble halls that go on forever, eternally folding in on themselves over and over and over. Every step begins to feel like any wall around you could open up at any point, but the claustrophobia never ends, and the deja-vu feelings begin to compound as a mountain of corpses pile up in the center hub. I'm lost forever. One of the best maps I've ever played, period. Whoever is reading this post at whatever point in the future: do yourself a favor, set aside 2-3 hours, and just fucking play it. Thank you for making this, Grimosaur. Here is a full, blind UV playthrough in -dsdademo format, plays back in v0.27.5 - uduvudu-maribo.zip - I believe it is over 2 hours long, including all of the deaths and save/loads.

The closest thing I can think of is this map in Capybara that takes strong visual inspiration from the checkerboard section of Deltarune, and has sector art that looks like this:

Monitoring Center UV-Max in 2:45 - monitorsm245.zip 37 Miles Below Heaven Map02 UV-Max in 4:43 - 3702m443.zip

I'll do some too. :) Saturnia by "Manco Casali" (Xyzzy) Plutonia, vanilla-compatible, 13 maps Borrowing a color palette from Arcadia Demade, "Manco Casali"'s take on Plutonia is an extremist version of its ideals, drenched in beautiful blue-greys. Monsters are milked for all of their worth, placed in arrangements that will make some want to pull their hair out -- and then they'll discover that they are already playing on "Generous", courtesy of Saturnia's reversed difficulty implementation. It does not fuck around, it does not hold your hand, it is trying to kill you as quickly and as brutally as it can, and it is up to you to make sure that it doesn't happen in too embarrassing of a manner. Don't be afraid of ghosts, go appreciate the sector bunnygirl in Map31, and make sure you feed the Icon on your way out. Subverter by SoBad Doom 2, MBF21-compatible, 1 map A short history lesson: there exists a genre of level in the Super Mario Maker community referred to as a "troll level", which has evolved over time to be less and less malicious in nature. Nowadays, a competently made troll level is one that uses engine quirks, gags, and subversion of expectations to get a laugh out of the player. Sometimes this laugh is at their own expense and sometimes it is a very silly kind of "heh, didn't expect that to happen". Subverter is an application of this philosophy in Doom. It is a JokeWAD, but one that wants to poke lighthearted fun at the standard expectations that the average player has come to have. Clearly marked stairs that don't raise how you would expect, fake floor shenanigans that make what appears to be a stressful platforming fight easy, and the cutest archvile flood ever conceived are all vignettes that are present within. It wants you to give it a chance, and it will probably make you smile if you do. Deadly Secret Beneath the Dark Wood by Berubaretto Doom 2, Limit-removing, 1 map Berubaretto's lush woods are hiding something a bit more sinister beneath them. After a short visit to a cabin that reminds him of a creep doctor that he encountered somewhere else, a long time ago, he finds himself stumbling upon a hidden village beneath the sector canopy, and before he knows it, all kinds of ghastly creatures come crawling out of the woodworks. It really is the dedication to crafting a full sector forest that hooked me with this one, I love being able to wander through these digital forests and feel like I am deep in the undergrowth. Yay BMO by whybmonotacrab Plutonia, Limit-removing, 6 maps Bite-sized Plutonia-based combat is something that I've come to appreciate quite a bit since 2022. I find it to be a convenient method of stimulating my brain when I want something that will keep me on my toes, but don't feel like investing twenty-odd minutes into whatever big megawad or ambitious episode that I might be working my way through at the moment. whybmonotacrab's snack-sized miniwad is perfect for that purpose: coffee break Doom with a Plutonic edge, perfect for a balanced diet. It also includes a couple of bonus maps that will cook you alive and teach you how to dance.

Fixed, thank you for healing my bad memory. Eagerly awaiting Crackowards 2023!

Very nice vividly green and black caverns, I really like the usage of the gate doors in particular. Happy 30th, I hope the Doomcon attendees appreciated it. :) ~12 minute UV playthrough, -dsdademo, v0.27.5 - hairesis-maribo.zip