The Cacowards

Happy Hellidays and a Merry Anti-Christmas to you all! The 2025 Cacowards are live. Read about all of this year's best content for Doom. Special thanks to our guest artist, the incredibly talented, @xous54.bsky.social.

www.doomworld.com/cacowards/2025

Our last retrospective comes from 2012 when the awards expanded to include a larger number of 'runner-up' wads in an attempt to highlight more projects from the community. Pulling from this list we have Frozen Time by Alexander S. and Coffee Break by Matt Tropiano.

With the recent release of Heretic+Hexen, Christopher Lutz's 2011 award-winning 'Icebound' gained popularity again as the first featured community add-on through the platform's mod browser. Several other Cacoward-winning mods can be found there, as well.

Our retrospective continues with 2010 and a pair of wads both created by talented mapping duos; Josh Sealy & Darkwave0000 with 'Speed of Doom' and Jon Vail & Jamie Bainbridge with UAC Ultra.

While the Cacowards continued in 2009, NewDoom, one of the longest running Doom websites, finally shuttered for good but not before releasing the 'NewDoom Community Project 2.' Despite a very buggy initial release, many members worked to make it bug-free in 2025. www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

Looking back on the 2008 Cacowards is bittersweet; You have 'Escape from Castle Chezcrea' by Paul Hiebert which hasn't aged a day when compared to modern wads, and 'Back to Basics' by Esa Repo who passed away the following year.

By 2007 it was clear that rumors of the Doom community's death had been greatly exaggerated. With releases like Songs of the Damned by Trevor Primmett and The Outer Darkness by Varun Abhirama Krishna, Doom modding wasn't going anywhere.

Players with the 'Doom+Doom II' port can find Vae Victus 1 & 2 in the mod browser as a combined collection with each one as its own episode.

In 2006 Vae Victus 2 by Derek Braun, and IC2005 by Ian Cunnings were both lauded as two of the best maps of the year. Both of these represented the last of a series and their respective author's final creative works for Doom.

Next we move on to 2005 with another pair of award-winning wads, Crimson Canyon by Jeffrey Graham and HeDRoX by Rodrigo Acevedo. Hard to imagine these maps are twenty years old.

The countdown begins! As we await the annual ceremony, let's look back on 20 years of Doom awards. From 2004 we have Tremor and Decade, two wads that showcase early 00s mapping and still look great and are fun to play.

It was those eyes. The blinding cobalt glow from those pale lifeless eyes. The threat remains. It grows. It's so much larger than you could have imagined.

TNT 2 : Devilution is finally fully released! Check it out!

Download: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

#doom #doom2 #evilution #megawad

@doom.com and @bethesda.net we know Legacy of Rust was well-received, but it's not customary for authors to give themselves awards!

What better way to celebrate 1000 followers than with 1000 lines! This series required authors to make a map using no more than 1000 lines. In 2021 '1000 Lines 3' was recognized as one of the year's best projects. www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

A REAL LIFE CACOWARD!!! Spawned from the deepest pits of Hell and brewed in evil golden goop, it arrived as a surprise gift for my birthday! Special thanks to @cardboardmarty.bluevertigo.org and Scuba Steve for this little thang! (pardon the dust) #doom #modding

Today 20 years ago on 12/24/04 Stephen Clark released "Super sonic doom" a 35 map megawad which has references to Sonic and SEGA, This wad is all time awesome! #DOOM
@thecacowards.bsky.social #TheCacowards

'Man of Doom' on the Doomworld forums is the person you want to contact.

Starting in 2004, the very first Cacowards began celebrating the best custom content for Doom. Now, twenty years later, the 2024 Cacowards have gone live! Thanks to @genuuneg.bsky.social and @tatsumimi.bsky.social for this year's incredible Doom manga artwork!

www.doomworld.com/cacowards/2024

On the ninth day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, an Egyptian-themed winter wonderland? These Doom mods are getting out-of-hand! By Egg Boy: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the eighth day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, temps as Cold as Hell in the 1950s! Fighting demons below zero degrees. By Jonaya Riley: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the seventh day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, the frozen themes of Winter's Fury! An absolute masterpiece, so what are you waiting for? Hurry! By Pieruskwurje: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the sixth day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, slaying Nazis in the frigid Arctic! Something about this just feels so cathartic. By Laz Rojas: doomworld.com/wolfendoom/a...

On the fifth day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, Twelve Days of War! An attack on Christmas at its core. By Andrea Rovenski: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the fourth day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, urban brawling in the Dead of Winter. Grab a board and smash 'till it splinters! By Scuba Steve: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the third day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, Massmouth adventures in Santa's factory. Message from 'The Worm:' outcome satisfactory. By Mike Watson: www.doomworld.com/vb/thread/30...

On the second day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, stopping Santa with a Broadsword named Jim. Keep your head or hold it in your limb! By @jamespaddock.bsky.social: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

On the first day of the Cacowards from the Doom community, riding on the Frostbite Express. Grab some coco and just decompress. By Emperor SPOON: www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/...

We're just a month away from the annual award ceremony, so to prepare, why not revisit 'Doom 2 the Way id Did' which released on this date in 2013. This award winner tasked mappers with making levels that mimicked the look and feel of id's work from 1994, misalignments and all!

30 years ago today.. Doom was first released!!! The 2023 Cacowards are now live, full of surprises and some truly amazing content by our community's finest talent!

doomworld.com/cacowards/20...