After the release of Quake, various map editing programs were quick to pop up. Map editing for Doom2 had been hugely popular and with the giant leap of technology in the Quake engine, the Quake mapping community was sure to be popular. The maps began showing up fast and a few mappers like Steve Rescoe, Matt Sefton, Andrew Smith and Roger Staines were early benchmarks. These paved the way for new styles of mapping and architecture.

Although Village of Dread wasn't hugely popular back when it was released, it is now considered a classic for it's unique historic township design. Steve Rescoe's previous levels; Liquid Despair, Drakopf and Museum were all good fun levels improving dramatically with each release, but they lacked that special feeling and professional design. Fortunately it was pulled off perfectly here! You start off in a forest, move on into a very believable village/town before finding your way to the fortress. The design and architecture, although fairly plain, was sufficient enough to give the Village of Dread an awesome atmosphere - something very unique. Gameplay was good, never a boring moment and nicely balanced. Players of recent times may run through it pretty quick, but that doesn't stop it from being a blast.Perhaps the best level of 1996!

This first of several awesome levels by Matt Sefton, each of them deserves an award! This one is not quite his best, but at the time was one of the best levels so far. The EvilWorld is a short level with three main areas, the big room you start in, the pyramid and room with lava and ramps. All three are brilliant designs and provide a great challenge.

Not alot released this month, but Drakopf is a classic level and is still enjoyed today. It's 2 maps, the first being a small canyon on the way to a castle, the second being the castle Drakopf itself. The first map is quite small with only 14 monsters, but makes a very good introduction to the main map. It really adds to the atmosphere. The second map, though, is where the fun really begins. There are several well defined areas; the Castle Courtyard, the Main Chamber (housing one of the two impressive Dragon heads), the sewers beneath, the upstairs, and finally, the lava-filled final chamber. It's a good challenge too with the usual assortment of medieval monsters.

This is the earliest level I have, apart from Roger Staines' Hellbase and Jim Lowell's House of Desolution. And although Hellbase was quite a fun level, Crucible beat it hands down. House of Desolution was nowhere near as impressive as either of them.
The Crucible is quite a small level, but design was good and it was very fun. There were alot of health packs, so it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. It's more of a run-in-with-guns- blasting level - I love those!