UPDATE 4/4/2018: This is the second version of The Drop, released for DM4Jam 2.0. I fixed the damn pent area, beefed up the ending, some updates to detailing and balancing, and made some of the secrets easier. If you had a concern about the original build, play this and I've probably fixed it. Below is the original readme for posterity. I've also done a writeup about The Drop and what I took from it as a mapper on my site, if you're curious about that: https://mariteaux.neocities.org/maps/thedrop.htm

Date                    :3/18/2018
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Title                   :The Drop
Filename                :dm4jam_mariteaux
Author                  :mariteaux
E-Mail address          :pac@valvedev.info
Description             :Between the lava's surface and a bad place...
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Map Information
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Singleplayer            :Yes
Cooperative             :Yes (two spawns)
Deathmatch              :Yes (seven spawns)
Difficulty settings     :Yes
New sound/music/graphics:No
Recommended engine      :Any (tested in WinQuake, QuakeSpasm, and Mark V)

PC used                 :Windows 10, Quad-core i5 @3.20GHz, 8gb RAM
Editor used             :TrenchBroom
Build time              :Eighteen days (and three for polishing the 2.0 release)
BSP time                :2s
VIS time                :1s
LIGHT time (-extra4)    :27s

Description
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My submission for dumptruck_ds' DM4 jam. I was pretty close to skipping it, until I learned that I had inspired the damn thing because of my own little Quake SP remastering project. I kinda had to submit something, didn't I?

I wanted to take a purist approach to DM4 in looks and layout (threw in some other runic stuff for good measure though). I wanted every room to be a vertical jungle gym, and I paired that with some pretty old-school progression, linear and looping. The player's pretty much always fighting and progressing up and down. Lots of teleporters and wind tunnels, too. (I named it "The Drop", after an old Starflyer 59 B-side. There's lots of dropping and lifts in my level, and I wasn't too into naming it after "The Bad Place" like everyone else.)

I focused more on flow and how it plays than any of the visuals. I'm not an especially brilliant builder, but hopefully, the level's fun enough to make up for it. I think it's pretty easy to build only horizontally, especially if you work off 2D sketches like I do. Using editors not named "TrenchBroom" also tends to cause that. I ended up forgoing the script and building as I went along. That was a...middling idea, let's say.

I might've shot a bit too high for this, but I got there on time and I'm proud of the end result. I can think of a million things I can do better for next time, namely the ending, but that's everyone after a jam, isn't it? Anyway, I hope you have fun playing my submission. If you catch me in a Discord somewhere, let me know what you thought of it. Send demos.

Thanks to:
- twitchy, prengle, dumptruck_ds, Giftmacher for testing
- Sleepwalkr and ericw for their excellent editor and compile tools, respectively
- The Terrafusion Discord for helping me from time to time with weird glitches
- Special thanks to my friend Brianna for the emotional support as I went fucking batty over finishing this (and doing some testing as well)

mariteaux