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Hey look, I’m finally bringing this place back from the dead [sorta]! Really sorry to the very few of you who actually stop by here and read anything I have to say. I had plans to do some content and back-end updates about a year ago. But unfortunately, as things tend to go, I was either too busy or I just didn’t have the interest to swing by here and do the work.

I guess the first thing you’ll notice is the new coat of paint. Actually I didn’t plan on messing with the theme, but somehow I got dragged down into that rabbit hole and this is what I ended up with. Honestly I don’t know if I really like it; I wanted something more minimal than the previous theme, but this seems a bit too barren and bright (*edit* I’m happy with it now, see below). Thankfully WordPress themes these days are way more flexible than the last time I messed with them. The few that I played around with all have very nice customization options, which means I don’t have to spend hours digging through css & php to try and get a logo up. So that’s nice . At any rate, this theme may or may not change in the future. Honestly I have next to no idea what I’m doing when it comes to web design

Important Mekworx News Bulletin!  After spending another whole day working on the site and the theme, I’ve finally ironed out most of the issues I had.  All of the design pages have been updated with properly aligned screenshots and updated descriptions.  I was also able to add a bit of flair to the theme so its not just blinding white on white on white.  There are also proper pages for the following projects – Counterattack, Doom 64 for Doom II, & Eviternity.  This post has been updated for your convenience.  Thank you.

WordPress has been updated to the latest versions and all of the plugins should be up-to-date as well. Also I just realized today that the site is 10 years old. Holy crap how did that happen…

Well if you’re still reading this and got this far, maybe you’d be interested in what Doom-related works I’ve been into lately. Lots of things have happened since my last post back in 2016, so I guess we can start there.

Those of you who read my previous blog entry will already be familiar with this, but I’ll go over it again since the project was released after that post.  THT: Threnody (the Ty Halderman community project) was released on July 2016. I contributed one large techbase map called “Fomalhaut” along with some sky textures and other graphical replacements. It was a very enjoyable project to be a part of and I think the end results were a fitting tribute to Ty. You can find some more screenshots and a download link on my page HERE.

Towards the end of 2016, Shaikoten popped up to start 32in24-16: DOOT CTF. This was a Halloween themed CTF speed mapping session with the usual 32in24 silliness in tow. I contributed 3 maps – Tootsie Roll Showdown, Count Toothy’s Super Canoe, and Come On Down to Spooky Town. The set won a Cacoward and I think Count Toothy’s Super Canoe ended up being a relatively liked map. You can see screenshots and get a download link on my page HERE. As always it was a lot of fun contributing, though sadly there haven’t been any other 32in24 sessions since

Around the same time (late 2016), Twitch streamer Vargskelethor (aka Joel) started a Doom mapping contest. Participants had to create a map that ran in GZDoom for Doom II, and then Joel would play them on stream. After playing all of them, he crowned the winners (all of which I know from the community, so that’s cool!). I’ve been a fan of Joel for a few years now, so I decided to make a map for the project. I got a late start on it because I was out of town, but I ended up creating something that I really enjoyed. What followed was a sudden burst of inspiration, and I ended up making a 7 map mini-episode called Counterattack. The project ended up winning a Cacoward, something that I’m still a bit in awe of.  You can check out my page for the project HERE which has a download link and some more screenshots to gawk at.

Next we’re up to my latest undertaking – filling in the leadership role of Doom 64 for Doom II.  This one is sort of a long story, so I’ll just go over the basics.  In May 2013, Doomworld user Death Egg started a project which aimed to recreate/re-imagine the Doom 64 in vanilla Doom II.  Fast forward a few years, and the project ends up looking like its going to die.  Death Egg, the original leader, stepped in and let me take it over.  We finally got Doom 64 for Doom II released on August 2018.  Everything can run in the original vanilla Doom engine, so you can do that if you’re feeling particularly oldschool.  There are 33 maps, all of which are based off of the originals (with exceptions made for map ordering and features so that everything runs in vanilla).  There are also a few new monsters (with special guest Cage making some amazing new Motherdemon sprites), lots of new graphics, new music, new sky textures, and a bunch of other cool extras.  For more info, check out the project page HERE!

Sometime during D64D2’s development, around February I believe, Vargskelethor started the 2nd Doom mapping contest.  I was knee-deep in D64D2 and other things at the time.  But being such a big fan of Joel (and the fact that I made a map for the previous contest), I really wanted to submit something.  So I started coming up with this elaborate idea for a map that was going to involve custom textures.  I spent close to 2 weeks working on a texture set and then a large map layout.  But by the end of that, I wasn’t too happy with the texture set and the map layout ended up being too big.  If I had stuck with that original idea, I almost certainly would have burned out hardcore, maybe without a finished map.  So I made a new layout that was a lot smaller and decided to stick with mostly vanilla textures.  Thus Gossamer was born sometime around the start of March!  I still got pretty burned out on this map after spending a solid week to finish it before the deadline.  But I was super happy with how the map came out, and I’m looking forward to seeing Joel play it (he hasn’t gotten to it yet, though that’s understandable seeing as he got something like 300 submissions, which is nuts).  I didn’t have a plan for the map beyond the contest, so my original plan was to release it as-is (with some edits from Joel’s version).  However I had an opportunity to have the map be a part of Eviternity.  So you’ll see the map show up there and it will include changes to use ukiro’s new texture set and tweaked/rebalanced gameplay.  So be sure to keep on eye on that!

Last thing that I’ll mention.  Around February 2017, I released a compilation of my sky textures called Mek’s Box ‘o Skies!  The initial set had 115 sky textures, and was later was updated to include 155 textures.  I made a page for this texture pack which you can find HERE.  And there’s a chance that I’ll be adding some more textures to the pack in the future.  Check ’em out why dontcha!

“But Mek!” I hear you ask, “What about Supplice/Vela Pax/[insert project here]??!?”  Aw shucks, you remembered!  Well I think this post has drug on a bit too long now, so I’m not going to go into details on those projects.  What I’ll do instead is make proper posts for them in the future (I swear I’ll try to make time for it).  The quick answer to that question is that everything is still in progress in one form or another.  It’s a bit surreal to think how long I’ve been working on those things…or not working on them, depending on your view.  So hey, look forward to that I guess!