Jam Dog Jam

An open community project that typically includes maps created within a period of time.
Great fun. Absolutely loved the start map — mysterious progression that was fun to come back to in between levels.

Like Esrael says the enemy ambiguity was great. Quad dog!!

Rott Pak was technically intriguing — being able to notify quadrants as cleared was interesting.
ok this is right up my alley ! well, chris holden's, specifically!! and the start map. the rest is sad cry kill pupy. i'm bummed there weren't more entries, i know the community could make some really cool maps based on pupy's!!! (i did not b/c i had my potate lap top when the jam was going). these were all cool maps in different ways i love u
I had a lot of fun on these maps. I feel like these are meant to be silly and goofy and offbeat, and the start map with its music is a great mood setter. You just wanna start going DOG JAM DOG JAM DOG JAM WOOF WOOF WOOF

ahem... in alphabetical order:

Chris Holden's map is a nice little walk in the park, literally. Just waltz around and pet the dogs and see what they have to say. It's nice looking and just a pleasant time.

Esrael's Rott Pak map is a clever fun little idea! Does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to be Pac-man with Quake dogs.

Greenwood's map is a basic arena with werewolves! The dogs of the wild. Dogs being meaner (higher damage) and tougher (more health) is kind of cool, and I died to this little arena a couple times on hard. Nice map

RecycledOJ's map is a great old school sort of map, and has slime dogs and the fearsome QUAD DOG, the dog with 4 legs. I liked the restriction on weapons that made it possible to get the shotgun later on and it being used sort of like a key to shoot a button.

riktoi's map was great with the exception of the ending, the grenade shooter thing I couldn't figure out how to survive and just eventually used godmode to bypass. But still, it was a nice level with dogs and I did like the explosive dogs at the end, and sort of wish they had been used more in the level.

So yeah... a fun jam. Maybe nothing earthshattering, but I enjoyed my time playing it!
I can only agree with what Esreal said. I thought the new ideas were all great and added new flair to the old dogs. Pac Dog wasn't quite my cup of tea and the last fight of Riktois Map wasn't really transparent for me either. Apart from that, I had a lot of fun. Thank you very much.
It's kind of hard to rate this one, partly because I've made one of the maps, but also because how different the pack is from the usual Quake fare.

Pros:
  • Novel ideas brought about by being limited to using only the dog.
  • Enemy customizability, made possible by progs_dump, brought an element of unpredictability to encounters. You couldn't just assume you were facing the basic lowly foe you're used to, which kept me pleasantly on my toes.
  • I really liked the bright and nature-filled maps by riktoi and Chris. They were relaxing to admire and explore, and overall, were just really well built and good-looking maps.
  • As previously stated by aoanla, the minigame of the start map was more fun than anticipated. 😄 Probably because of the pleasant atmosphere (the beautiful scenery combined with the silly music).
  • The two more "traditional" maps by riktoi and RecycledOJ were quite solid and challenging Quake maps on their own right. Riktoi's beefed up hard difficulty dogs had me on the brink many times, and RecycledOJ's map had good item balance, which prevented me from becoming overpowered, and kept me on my toes.
Cons:
  • Of the 5 maps featured, only 2 of them are "traditional" Quake maps. The three others are really short, one of them having practically no gameplay. I would have liked to have seen the dog's potential being explored more in a traditional Quake map setting. I feel like some of that potential was left unexplored and untapped.
  • Maybe it's just my skill issue, but I couldn't quite figure out if there was a proper technique to the end fight in riktoi's map. I just kept quickloading until somehow I survived.
  • Very short. With only 5 maps, the pack is over before you know it.
As stated earlier, considering the atypical nature of the jam, it's hard to rate this. It's novel and refreshing and the whole premise was really intriguing, but in the end, I feel like the premise didn't get explored to the extent I would've liked. I dunno, maybe I'd give an overall rating between 4- and 4.
Forcing people to just use dogs produces some interesting maps (shout outs to Chris Holden for channelling Quasiotter) - although I think I actually enjoyed the minigame on the start map too much!
I found that last cheeky Pekora head!