Memorium of Neon

I didn't want to do NeonDM.

In late 2016 AeonDM was already taking a large toll on me (and others), 
having been in production for 10 or 11 months at that point. By contrast,
DBAB was completed within 3 months, with a couple breaks in between. Such 
a difference in production speed, and there was far more antagonism and 
apathy in the days of Aeon than encountered at any point in DBAB. I had
joked about NeonDM during Aeon's production but didn't figure it would be
a reality. When Razgriz showed me a couple layouts in December after Aeon
won a Cacoward, I was super exhausted by this and wondered where the mapping
power would even come from. However, I was unwilling to let these guys make
another pack without contributing, so inevitably I found myself contributing
against my better judgement. The new colour palette was intriguing, and so
was the idea of going for more unqiue layouts. So January 1 2017 the topic
was made.

It was a tough time. There were so many bad map submissions this time around
I could hardly believe it. If we had 32 maps, 22 of them were exceedingly
average filler maps that could be easily passed over or skipped by virtue of
pure boredom. Not to mention they were quite ugly and nothing could save them.
Map after map was scrapped or completely overhauled. I submitted 4 layouts that
were scrapped, and an overhaul that was scrapped. Darklite was made fairly 
late in the process, and nearly hit the scrap pile itself. It lay stagnant
in its undetailed state for many months. Maps that were detailed were scrapped.
Maps that had significant progress were scrapped. It seemed that nobody was
taking the lessons about playability from Aeon and DBAB and just pumping out
maps for the sake of it.

Neon was also supposed to be about recruiting more people. This definitely
did not pan out. I was hoping that the success of DBAB and Aeon, along with 
the release of ProgDuel would be enough to entice more people to contribute
to the project but ultimately that didn't matter. Didn't help that several
of the usual mappers got so busy that absolutely nothing could get done,
and the 2 most productive mappers made terrible maps that were promptly
discarded. There was a few people who promised to do some work, but did
nothing. For most of 2018 it was just Razgriz alone plodding along while
I poked my head in once in a while to see what was up and pretend to myself
that I would do stuff.

Darklite had seen major headway, but then I lost it all in a HDD failure in 
May. Another setback. There was so much discouragement from this project.
I did not want to redo what I had done, so made another map, Future 
Retrospect. I made a proto-type layout for it for the Impromptu DM speed 
session, so I knew in principle the map worked. Some tweaks here and there 
and a bit more room and it was perfect. So I worked on completing that 
instead. It's worth saying I did not make this map until several months 
later. I did not want to do anything with this project, and it hung over 
my head like an axe, a great weight.

In December 2018 I discussed with Razgriz the prospect of splitting what we
had in 2. Thematically we could've gotten away with 10 maps and released 
months prior to this, but Raz wanted a couple more maps than I had slated.
So all the incomplete and not-so great maps were filtered out, and suddenly
it looked like the project had hope for completion between the 2 of us. I 
reluctantly remade the section of Darklite I had already done, and besides
that map, only 2 maps needed to be completed - the end was in sight. We 
cleared out the non-participating members and filtered everything down.

At this time I met killerkouhai, which proved to be an important part of 
Neon's final development. I was busy with work, and she volunteered
to work on Darklite while I was working. She took the colour theme I had 
for Darklite and chucked it out the window completely, splashing rainbows
and all sorts of colour where there had been nothing but gray before.
When I received the map back, I was taken aback at first. But then 
inspiration struck me unlike anything I've had since SpaceDM9, and I took
those colours and ran with them, painting the map in ways I hadn't even 
considered before. Project Dark-Lite became what I consider to be my best
map, and if I may be so bold, the defining map of the entire pack.

Killerkouhai ended up having a greater influence on the final production of 
the pack than we would've thought. She made some graphics for it that really
helped give it a "Neon"/synthwave flavour, giving it more of a personality 
rather than just another generic DM wad. The work she did on Darklite 
would help inspire Razgriz to do colour changes and further work to his 
maps, along with helping give Dragonfly a push to make a map, which he was
unsure that he would do at all. Michaelis made us some colour-coded skills
to go along with this theme. To add one last distinction, killerkouhai
added dynamic lights to the maps. Given Raz and I are both software players
where dynamic lights do not appear, the difference they made when testing in 
OGL was quite nice. The maps felt alive, and more important, felt Neon, 
the colour was there as it never was before. 

Suddenly there was a ton of optimism for the pack. Things were finally 
looking up. It's amazing the impact one person can have as actions trickle
down. NeonDM went from a set I did not want to do, to one I regretted 
participating on, to one that I can say I'm proud of contributing to. At this
point I don't really want to make anymore PVP maps - I consider this to be
the end of the line for me, which is why I'm writing this much.

There are some people I thank more personally for helping see this get done,
not just what I said in my post on the Doomworld forums.

Razgriz first off, for his enduring will to finish this. We had so many 
talks about ways to progress, how to change things, optimize this, that,
and supporting each other's work. Definitely someone you want to work with.
killerkouhai of course, without whom the project would look and feel a lot
different. Less complete, less dynamic, less colourful, less alive. Her
impact on the set has been invaluable. A true inspiration to me and
everyone around her.
Dragonfly for his encouragement and support in the final stretches of 
things, helping me improve maps and making me want to keep going on it.
Michaelis for his help on quality control and encouragement of the project
in general, creating a positive environment that kept telling me people 
wanted the maps, incentive to finish.

- Decay 
