Put on your Diplomat Hat, Mr. Appropriator. Or at least take off your Philistine Hat; the alien transmission is coming through —
Author: scwiba
Front Page (February 2017)
New menus! I’ve added a new dropdown for Reviews, as well as putting more content under Essays. There’s a lot of aging content on this blog that’s still worth reading, so I thought this was a good way of giving it more attention. The Ascendancy LP is back! Check out chapter 3 of the Dubtaks run, the roadtrip episode! UnAligned, my third Doom WAD, is out! Play it right now! And, as always, I hope you check out my older stuff, either by category at the top of the page or by date over on the right. Thanks for stopping by!
Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti
Nicolás Monti is an artist. Maybe the Picasso of Doom mapping. I’ve made a point of playing all his recent releases as they come. That includes my 2014 WAD Of The Year, Apostasy on Amalthea; one of my favorite WADs of 2015, Desecration on Thebe; and his most recent and expansive work, 2016’s Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti. Rounding out that roster is Erkattäññe, in my opinion Monti’s weakest WAD and yet the only one to win him a Cacoward. Erkattäññe didn’t work for me in large part because it was a Doom II WAD. Doom II’s textures just didn’t jive
Front Page (January 2017)
The Ascendancy LP is back! Check out chapter 3 of the Dubtaks run, the roadtrip episode! UnAligned, my third Doom WAD, is out! Play it right now! I also won a Cacoward for my previous WAD, Absolutely Killed. Holy shit! My mother is very proud, I’m sure. And, as always, I hope you check out my older stuff, either through the tabs at the top of the page or by date over to the right. Thanks for stopping by!
Explore and Exploit — Year 3: Through the Red Link!
Grand Appropriator’s Log, Star Date 571.3 Going forward, I’ll include a periodically updated cheat sheet of the known galaxy along with these log entries. In recording them, I’ve noticed that the system and colony names can get overwhelming. Not to say that the esteemed High Board of Executives won’t be keeping up with their interstellar intelligence briefings, but I always find a handy map to be an essential part of any complete textfast.
Front Page (December 2016)
A new theme! Again! We’re back from a seven-month hiatus (oops?), and it felt like about time to make things look a little sleeker around here. Pictured above: the new and old themes, Tortuga and Aplos, respectively. As you can also tell, I’ve replaced the page of recent posts with this what’s-new-in-town type page. Partially because Tortuga is a little shitty and breaks literally all formatting when previewing posts, but mostly because I think this will be clearer to people stumbling on the site for the first time. UnAligned, my third Doom WAD, is out! Play it right now! I
Breach
Breach is beautiful. “Intricate” or “detailed” would also be accurate descriptors, though you’ve often gotta steer clear of those words in Doom circles. I think both terms are starting to transition out of bad word status — in part thanks to creators like Viggles and projects like Breach — but in the past they were too often associated with maps that either include so much detail that the architecture interferes with player movement, or that focus on detail as a substitute for any kind of stimulating gameplay. And trust me, I wouldn’t be talking about Breach if either were the
Explore and Exploit — Year 2: First Contact!
Transmission’s coming in now. Five new planets? Further orders can wait; show me the system!
Expand and Exterminate — Foreword
And here come the Swaparamans, the two-headed, suction-cup-fingered, wrinkly-Pug-faced “cosmic exiles.”
Explore and Exploit — Year 1: Race to Space!
Grand Appropriator’s Log, Star Date 0000.3 Hello. This is Auxiliary Knower Unit 89-Beta — or as Dubtaks call me, the “Great Gizmo.” I’m an advanced A.I. construct relegated to recording log entries for my shockingly lazy new owner the “Grand Appropriator.” The Appropriator stole me from my original owners, a visiting offworld species, one year and fourteen days ago when they attempted to make peaceful first contact with the Dubtaks in their quiet little corner of the galaxy…