Community project

Community Chest, one of the first open community projects that popularized the term

A community project (also known as CP) is a communal effort to create a PWAD, made by different users from around the Doom community, with the main goal being to offer an open map-making project where all kinds of mappers can participate and contribute with a level of their own. Usually, community projects require mappers to follow a set of rules, although it is not uncommon for community projects to have no rules at all.

Community projects tend to be very large in scope. Most community projects try to fill all map slots, depending on the target IWAD.

Community projects, despite being an open-door effort, tend to have one or more leaders that work as the spearheads and coordinators of the project. The leader (or leaders) of the project may impose a certain level of expected quality as a requisite to be accepted, or no requisite at all.

Community projects vary in their design theme and goal.

Historical overview

The initial PWADs, created by independent members of the community, were usually done through solo efforts or with a group of close friends. With the advent of the Internet, especially the creation of fan forums, map creation techniques evolved to offer different ways in which entire communities could participate in creating a WAD, usually with the goal of making it a complete megawad. One of the main advantages offered by this approach to creating maps is the ability to cover multiple levels in a relatively short period of time, which offers an attractive way to participate for other users without having to offer the work in its entirety, dividing it by parts and completing it in a convenient manner.

One of the very first community projects was the 1995 Memento Mori megawad. The project was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Denis and Thomas Möller of The Innocent Crew mapping team which had gained fame thanks to the Slaughter Until Death and The Evil Unleashed episode replacements for Doom and the Obituary megawad for Doom II. Under their lead, the project managed to gather a total of 19 mappers, the largest amount for a collaborative effort up to that point, and was very successful, inspiring a series of other collaborative megawads including its sequel, Memento Mori II, and Requiem, which involved many of the same mappers.

Before this, most megawads used to be made either as a solo effort or a smaller team collaboration, such as the Serenity trilogy. Larger teams existed, and in some cases the line between a team effort and a community project can be blurry; such is the case with TeamTNT, a mapping team that produced many megawads such as TNT: Evilution, Icarus: Alien Vanguard, Eternal Doom and Daedalus: Alien Defense, all of which saw mapping contributions from many community members, due to TeamTNT's relatively lax requirements for member recruitment. Another famous example is the Alpha Dog Alliance mapping team, which similarly consisted of many different mappers and modders who banded together to create the STRAIN megawad. Map makers would also start a project on their own and then invite other close collaborators to contribute a map, such as Alien Vendetta, a megawad founded by Anders Johnsen, but with a large number of contributed maps by other invited users, but despite this, WADs such as these, and other famous WADs following the same formula such as Ancient Aliens and Eviternity, are not traditionally considered to be community projects.

By the turn of the new century, community projects had somewhat faded in importance in the Doom mapping scene, and most releases returned to being either being developed solo or by mostly small teams. Things changed in 2003, when on the Doomworld forums, TeamTNT member Dale Harris (Cadman) proposed a brand new community project under the name of "The Community Chest Project". This was the first serious effort in this regard by a new generation of mappers since Memento Mori eight years earlier, with the key difference now being that recruitment and submissions were handled directly through the Doomworld forums, something not possible in 1995 due to the much more decentralized nature of the Doom community at the time. All kinds of mappers, newcomers or veterans alike, were invited to partake and the project proved very successful and became a series in its own right, spawning three successive sequels and two spin-offs – Heretic Treasure Chest and Community Chest 64. The success of the format ensured that from then on, community projects became a staple of the Doom community at large, and many others would soon follow in its wake, including Newdoom Community Project and ZPack.

Not all community projects feature multiple levels, however. Some of them feature mapping by multiple authors in the same map, such as Exquisite Corpse and the ZDoom Community Map Project "Take 1" and its sequel. Other types of community projects can instead not be focused on mapmaking, but on providing new textures (such as cc4-tex) or new music (as in the case of .MID the Way id Did). Additionally, community projects made by members of a particular nationality are also of common practice, such as the 3 heures d'agonie series made by the French Doom Community.

Types

There are several genres and sub genres of community projects aimed at different goals, styles, or themes. Because of the more versatile nature of a community project, styles often overlap. Below are some of the most common types of community projects hosted regularly by different parts of the fandom. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive or complete list, as a large number of styles have been tried and tested across history, and some have been very specific and unique in nature.

Rabbit's All-comers Mapping Project 2023, is the largest open community project so far

Japanese Community Project, notably made by members of Japanese nationality only

Pandora is a noticeable imitation project due to its retro aim, trying to replicate the style of maps commonly found in shovelware CD's from the 90s

Open

The de facto style of modern community projects are hosted in a forum on an open thread, most often times Doomworld, welcoming novice and expert mappers alike to freely contribute. These projects vary in scope and consistency, sometimes using a variable set of rules, or no rules at all. Open community projects commonly overlap with other styles, and will often involve thematic rules.

Exclusive

These community projects are usually handled by a single person or a small team of leaders that personally seek out other mappers, or require a set of skills and/or requisites to join, and as such tend to be closed in nature.

• Semi-exclusive: Projects that are hosted on a specific community and require the mapper to be part of it to participate, such as the 200 Minutes of /vr/ project.

Themed

Especial projects that focus on a visual style or gameplay thematic, often times involving custom content and a number of prerequisites.

• Seasonal: Projects built around seasons and events of the year, commonly for Christmas and winter, such as DBP19: A Doomer Boards Christmas Carol.
• Joke WAD: On rare occasions, open projects are designed around modern internet memes or humor. POOGERS is noteworthy for its odd nature.

Restrictive

These projects involve technical limitations or design challenges that usually involve a set of strict rules around editing, such as only using a set group of textures, or mapping under a time limit. A good example of this is the 10 Sectors project, which limited mappers to only use a maximum number of ten sectors.

• Speedmap: Levels designed with a time constraint, usually involving a few hours of allocated mapping time.
• Technical limit: Levels that involve a rigorous restriction of technical limitations such as number of linedefs, sectors, vertices, map size, etc.
• Texture limit: Maps designed with a preset of limited textures, commonly less than five and with a visual theme in mind. 50 Shades of Graytall is a popular example.
• Monster limit: Mappers are forced to use a fixed number of enemies or a predetermined group. 1 Monster, as the title implies, uses only a single type of monster per map.
• Difficulty: These maps are designed to either be played exclusively on a fixed skill level, or purposely made to be exceptionally challenging on any level, such as Haste.
• Compatibility-exclusive: Projects that are designed around the limits and/or features of a source port. Vanilla and ZDoom are common targets.

Community/cooperative map

Instead of working on several individual maps per WAD, these projects focus on a single level designed by multiple authors consecutively. The maps can either by divided by different regions which are then claimed by the author, or worked as a single cohesive level that is then designed by turns. Exquisite Corpse was one of the first of its kind.

Mega community project

Open endeavors with a loose set of rules that involve gathering as many maps as possible under usually long deadlines. Their purpose tends to be a welcoming and learning experience for new mappers that are looking to improve their skills or veteran mappers that want to challenge themselves. Because of the huge scope of the projects, they will often have maps that range in compatibility, style, difficulty and quality. Popularized by the Doomworld Mega Project series.

Nation exclusive

Projects meant to be designed by mappers from an specific nationality or cultural identity. Maps are sometimes designed in a generic style, but it is common for them to reference the nationality of the project lead. Czechbox, designed by the Czech and Slovak community, and Japanese Community Project are notable examples.

Imitation

These projects are designed as a tribute or homage to original works, customarily aiming to replicate the style found in their inspiration-target, or recreating the style of another mapper. Doom the Way id Did pioneered this genre by attempting to mimic the mapping style of id Software's level design team.

Multiplayer only

Projects that are meant for use in multiplayer mode, such as deathmatch or capture the flag. Because of the less popular activity of multiplayer in modern times, multiplayer projects tend to be rare and few. Surge DM and Hordamex are worthy of note due to their high number of contributions.

Novice only

Projects designed to help newcomers improve their editing and design skills. Usually lead by a veteran mapper with the purpose of guiding less experienced members make the jump to the mapping scene. NOVA: The Birth and The Joy of Mapping were created solely for this purpose.

Notable community projects

• 3 heures d'agonie series
• 1000 Line Community Project series
• 1994 Tune-up Community Project
• Community Chest series
• Czechbox
• Doom Upstart Mapping Project
• Doomer Boards Projects
• Doomworld Mega Project series
• Heretic Upstart Mapping Project
• Japanese Community Project
• MAYhem series
• Memento Mori series
• NOVA series
• Plutonia: Revisited Community Project
• Rabbit's All-comers Mapping Project
• Requiem
• STRAIN

External links

• Community Projects forum on Doomworld
• The Community Project Tracker