Hoofah Doofah what a ride. 4 days and an entire packet of Beanboozled beans later, I walked out with a perfectly intact stomach lining and a feeling of melancholy. I'm gonna MISS this event, and lord knows I wanna do it again. Somehow though?.. it's gotta be bigger. Right now I have no idea where to begin, but I'm sure that will change.
Before I start blabbing on about what I think is my proudest achievement as a content creator/ entertainer, I need to give a huge shoutout to Yholl for DRLA, CutmanMike for both DRLAX and TwitchyDoom, and of course everyone involved with DRPG for making this even possible. I've done this event 4 times now, and while numbers-wise they've been nothing to shake a stick at, they've always been wildly successful if only because they were fun for everyone involved.
New people popped in as well as old faces I remember from a while back, people donated generously (and frequently) and it was almost relentlessly non-stop despite me tuning down the natural points accumulation. The effort I put in was reciprocated by a chat that enjoyed the whole ride, even as I ran out of steam towards the end due to hunger and a sudden ramp in difficulty I was not prepared for nor could surmount with chat's meddling. In the titular battle between the Phase Sisters and Twitch Chat, chat won. It was glorious and I'll go into why later.
So How the FUCK did this even WORK???
God that IS the question isn't it? It's the first time I really personally started dabbling in Doom modding. I actually made my first custom WADs that I'm genuinely proud of as far as first projects go. Of course I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without extensive assistance from Shadow-Hog and EmmyPoss (the latter of whom fixed the Twitchy Doom's jank that stopped it working with later versions of GZDoom, which is again why this event even happened at all) and also being told that it's actually FINE to crib from people before, that's what programming is, as long as you cite your sources.
It also taught me that Doom modding is a nightmare mess of fucking spaghetti that works in obscure ways. It's code, sure, but it's like... 3 or 4 coding languages all piled on top of eachother that shouldn't work in tandem but somehow, against all odds, they do. So without worrying about compatibility or whatever, I went about slapping together some messed up garbage, adding the tried and true stuff that I DIDN'T work on in the past (thanks again Shadow-Hog) and bam, PS vs TC 4, bigger and better.
With an understanding of how things operated, I could actually look at why things break and understand it enough to not have to wait on people across the pond to help (until it got real complex, which it often did). As a result, I made my first couple of mods almost from scratch, including:
Leading Phase Sisters Killer
this fucking rabbit
So. I need you to understand. I originally used DRLA nuke barrels as a "OH SHIT I GOTTA GET OUTTA THIS FIREFIGHT BEFORE THINGS GO WRONG AND DROP AN INSTAKILL BARREL TO BE SHOT" but there was a delay and it often was just combo attempts that sometimes didn't work and it was just kinda... boring.
But the prospect of making me sweat was there, so I concocted the dumbest shit. The Nuclear rabbit. A rabbit that works only with DRLA because it calls for that WAD's nuke explosion, and built on top of TheDoomedArchvile's rabbit. Once killed, it nukes but spawns another rabbit in its place, essentially making an immortal rabbit. But just having it hop about wasn't enough... So I made it an interactable object that you pick up. However picking it up means you can't switch weapons (you can't stow a bunny in your inventory you monster). So now the idea is that I gotta find a safe place, that now isn't garanteed because it's moving, to drop the bunny if I wanna fight. So when Chat summons it, it is placed into my hands and overwrites any weapon... You get the picture.
It took a bit, but I managed to get it working perfectly and it ended up being the star of the show. So many times I had completely forgotten the adorable little bastard was deposited in places, and so my itchy trigger finger ruined everything. This rabbit racked up more kills than any demon from hell did, so you better treat your buns with the dignity they deserve!
Another project included the Kart racers I mused about adding in PS vs TC round 3. Good buddy Zito has an excellent roster of characters for his comic Bout that he uses in Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers. Rebound, Toothpick and even my own dumb little racer have been added, and WobblyPython joined the fray later, though it was more work with the old SRB2K sprites limits. Using Reelism's scooty-ass boss movement and the Mauler's attack from Pandemonium Monsters to set up their offense, they scoot about the stages with reckless abandon and it brings a simile to my face every time. Their death animations were just a joy to make work, and I'm so glad they can now have other adventures outside of the race track.
Then Lucy came along. Lucy is a streamer of modest renown (known for being hyperactively fucked up and guesting on Lythero's videos) and she invited me to join her on a massive Lethal Company sesh. I had fun, even if I was feeling inadequate as an outsider to that group, but it gave me access to Javi, aka Iheartjustice and herself to give me voicework, so I made Lucy based on the Agitating Revenant and made Reelism 2's ElTyrante actually drop some Spanish. Lucy was the first full sprite creation, and is terrifyingly great IMO. Speaking of voice actors, I roped Alfred Coleman (Paperboxhouse, mostly known for his rendition of Robotnik from the Real Time Fan Dubs) into saying Hail Satan a million times for the donation announcements and got BigHikari to enhance one of them with some FUNKY SHIT and man...
When it all came together, it basically worked perfectly. The only things that broke were the D64 WAD, the levels I was playing. As fun as they were, it didn't facilitate the chaos that ensued and a lot of its gimmicks broke for one reason or another. 90% of it worked fine though, but to this day, the best pack is still Lost Civilization which I THINK was the first time I did this whole gimmick. Regardless, it was an impressive remake of Doom 64 and I'm glad I chose it.
In the end I can close this chapter and look back with a big dumb grin. It's shown how far I've come, where I can afford to toss some money at creators for their help, and I can bring in friends to enhance this whole affair. It was a success despite its middling numbers, though still the highest I've had consecutively in a long time, and as a kind of secret partner push, it failed in that regard. In the end though, fuckin' who cares? I had the most fun I've had in a long time, so many hype moments, so much pain and suffering (positive) and so much I learnt in regards to Doom modding and my own brand.
But the stars of the show were the chat.
Without the Chat, this event would have been nothing. TwitchyDoom is one of the greatest mods ever conceived and it's astonishingly powerful once you understand that an entity simply appearing in Doom is capable of so much shit, which gives the chat ludicrous power. I didn't delve too deep this time, but the interaction and planning, the memetic activity of spawning way too many geese, the personalised spawning habits... I'm so glad there was something for everyone. Crowd Control is a gift that keeps giving and without it this stream would have been kind of whatever. I only hope I have enough fuckery to make something fresh, new and exciting for round 5.
Subtember is coming up, and it's time I begin really considering how far I'm gonna push this. I'm not exactly young anymore, my 40s begin next year, but man I have no fear for the future. I have a wonderful audience and a pretty solid rep as an artist and entertainer. It feels good dude. It's also taught me, like REALLY taught me, just how much effort the people I look up to put into their craft and damn I gotta work harder to keep up.
It's nice to feel like I earnt this. No humble brag, this is all brag. Phase Sisters vs Twitch Chat round 4 was a massive success.
Thankyou everyone!