Pesha (PESHA.WAD)

Stanimapping is a failed portmanteau of "stamina" and "mapping", coined by Chris "Purist" Bourke to describe a design process where the author sits down and then does not stop mapping until their work is complete. (In Bourke's defense, Stanimapping flows better than Stamimapping, and Staminapping is something we all do from time to time.) This is basically speedmapping but without a specific time limit. The constraint depends on how long the author can stand to work. A few folks showed up for Purist's inaugural (and sole) Grindmapping session, whose subject was "industrial zone". The cast of characters included Purist himself, scifista42, Phobus, Katamori, and (dum dum dum DUMMM) dobu gabu maru. dgm cranked out three levels in as many days, with the final product packaged together as Pesha, a three-map minisode for Doom II that replaces MAP28-MAP30. It's supposed to work in any limit-removing port.

In outlining Pesha's story, dgm draws an explicit comparison between the meta-narratives of Doom and the Abrahamic Tower of Babel, which Doom kind of already did with the title of E2M8. In the original Doom, the UAC pushed too far in their scientific progress and then brought the wrath of the cosmos down first on the Martian colonies and then on the rest of humanity in Doom II. In Pesha, the UAC has built a technological Tower of Babel that houses a bio-technologic demonic entity that started to grind the world under its heel like an infernal Skynet. Humanity is slowly dwindling under the abysmal reign of Babel, with folks like you just trying to get by. One day you find your brother's dead body and decide that Enuff Z'Nuff--you're going to topple the tower or die trying.

My entire pre-playing perception of Pesha was based on an overall skepticism of the Stanimapping process, which is rich considering the sort of speedmaps that the Abyssal folks were churning out in 2 hours (or the French Doom Community in 3 Heures, or /vr/ in 200 Minutes, etc.). I peeked at the level layouts but didn't really process what I was seeing and I sort of wrote this set off in my brain as something that was going to look sloppy and play tough. I, of course, couldn't be more wrong. As mentioned, dgm built each one of these maps over the course of three days. He started off with "Migdal Bavel" (MAP29), crafting the adventure into the tower over the course of ten hours. Next, he authored "Tehom" (MAP30) as a sort of capstone / boss level in seven hours. "Galut" (MAP28) was authored last, using six hours to build a scene-setting map that establishes the action and the story communicated in the .TXT.

I really enjoyed this minisode. In 2025, dobu gabu maru semi-joked about only doing either puzzle maps or soulcrushing combat. "Galut" isn't really close to either of these things, maybe the ghost of a puzzle, but I've come to enjoy atmospheric walking simulator-style experiences. It's not lost on me that the very first thing that you see is the Tower through the window. There's a lot of fun worldbuilding tied up in it, some of which I didn't even realize until I read the Stanimapping thread (the bit about the next-door neighbors hoarding supplies and getting their infernal comeuppance). I'd love to see more humans struggling to survive on a demon-controlled-UAC-controlled Earth, preferably with more banding together.

"Migdal Bavel" is a big adventure map that reminds me of Malcolm Sailor's NOSUN series, at least up until the finale. You get some more atmosphere with the abandoned buildings in the shadow of the Tower and then settle into a linear combat gauntlet. Yeah; the zombie UAC guards at the front door and on the staircase are pretty underwhelming, and the author knew this. It was also kind of weird walking through the enormous, empty U-shaped underground passageway, mostly because it immediately followed that lowkey crazy revenant / mancubi fight. It looks awesome, though, and I thought that it gave off similar vibes to the massive subterranean structures of the Akira manga.

"Tehom" is maybe a bit closer to what I was expecting from dgm but on a much smaller scale. The boss shooter concept felt unique to me and I'll echo the positive buzz for the arch-vile fight. Cover that momentarily disappears based on enemy attacks is a--thankfully? woefully?--underused concept in PWADs. All of the encounters are based around strange and awkward monster setups. The shotgun guy / arachnotron fight feels like a filler room from a Hell Revealed map but, keeping in mind pistol starts, it's one of your three opening directions. The purpose of the Hell knight shootout on the maze track is more obvious if equally prey to carrying over a ginormous cell budget.

The title of this PWAD and its three level names are all taken from Hebrew, no doubt a product of dgm's scholarly experience with religious texts. Pesha itself is defined as "transgression or betrayal of a relationship, willful violation of trust or a rebellion against god or others". The concept of Pesha occurs in the background with the UAC constructing their own Tower of Babel and is then twisted with the main character's campaign to topple said tower and the False God within. "Migdal Bavel" is the Hebrew name for the Tower of Babel. I don't think that I had read an account of Babel that involved the installation of a False God before, but I'm no religious scholar. I see that Rabbinic literature adds this interpretation, and Gnostic traditions relate that the tower's chief cause was through demonic activity. The main narrative of Pesha appears to be, then, an account in the Doom universe of the successful construction of a Tower of Babel.

"Galut" has a variety of connotations but is chiefly linked to exile and Jewish alienation from their ancestral homeland. Within the context of Pesha, it appears to be meant to evoke a feeling that the people of the world have no security with the demonic Skynet in place, and are controlled / subjugated by the UAC, who have recently massacred civilians who were attempting to obtain supplies and weapons. It isn't presented as the primary motivation for the main character, who is pushed over the edge at the death of his or her brother (either assuming suicide or that he was mortally wounded at the blockade), but there's a lot to unpack here if you want to look at the establishing action of Pesha with its environmental storytelling and word choice as a moralistic allegory.

"Tehom" is given as "the abyss", meaning "the primeval ocean and post-creation waters." It's also given as "the deeps", "death", or "the uncontrollable". The title relates in just about every sense to the action of MAP30. The primeval ocean as the ancient chaos is imbued with incredible power to create as well as destroy, and that's exactly what the techno-organic demon god of the tower is doing: creating monsters and destroying the world. The UAC's motives in creating the Tower aren't fully-fleshed out, but it's a safe bet that they didn't create the False God so that it could rule them. It's something that can no longer be controlled, only destroyed, hence "death". The player character is an interesting dichotomy, both uncontrollable because it no longer allows the demonic deity of the tower to control them, but also controllable because you, the player, literally controls them to end the narrative.

Pesha is a fun pulpy minisode but there's a lot to chew on in dobu gabu maru's presentation. I kind of wish that he had cranked out some more accessible maps early on in his career (not to put a Hex on the Slaughterfest series, I'm just dreading the idea of playing it) because this Stanimapping experiment was a big success to me. If you've loved any of dgm's other more combat-oriented maps and you haven't played this PWAD then you owe it to yourself to give it a try.

PESHA

by Darryl Steffen aka "dobu gabu maru"

Galut

MAP28

A short but atmospheric opener. You wake up in an underground bunker, in the aftermath of some sort of massacre. The main gate to your derelict community has a mass of bodies before it, with some sort of military facility on the other side, judging by the prevalence of weapons (and medikits). You leave via a secret underground tunnel, in which you have to fight some token resistance, those being four imps and a demon. At the other end is a boat from which you can flee this land of stagnant death.

MAP29

Migdal Bavel

Continuing the vibes of the previous level, you are ashore at the scene of an even greater massacre. An enormous, circular tower looms in the distant cityscape. You're free to explore the outdoor segment but once you go underground, again, you begin a linear combat gauntlet. The caves offer some tactical, mid-stakes corridor shooting with revenants and mancubi. This is thematic; when you exit the tunnel, you're dumped into an arena fight where you need to MOVE. It's a simple but effective setup with four mancubi and four skeletons, the key being to slay the fatsos so that you can get access to the plasma gun. After that you have a long, cool stroll down an enormous underground access tunnel to what turns out to be the back of the tower that you saw from the opening visual. There is some token zombie resistance to start but the true fight is a morass of revenants with three Cyberdemons on the central platform. Infighting is your friend, here, but there are tons of cells to smoke any revenants that get in your way. The UAC silver and blue isn't much to look at but makes for a fun arena fight.

Tehom

MAP30

This one opens with some intense small-scale combat scenarios before transitioning into a pretty cool boss shooter setup. This one will play VERY different if you're playing with carryovers. 600 cells and a plasma gun will turn most of these fights into pushovers. The arch-vile encounter is neat; the tech panels are designed to open up when hit, so they're unreliable cover given that DGM has seeded the fight with a couple of imps as spoilers. It's where I wanted to go starting from scratch as it's where you acquire the combat shotgun. Of the two key fights--you only need one of them to access the boss--I like the red key fight. If you're bang-on with the combat shotgun then you can keep pace ahead of the metered revenant releases. The boss shooter is interesting as the player is set against eight small monster-spawning platforms with 100 rockets. The shooters fire four cubes at a time, which means that non-flying enemies stand a good chance of being telefragged when their time is up. You can prioritize your targets accordingly while you wait for the rocket access port to open up.

רַחֲמִים