ZDoom is Dead. Long live ZDoom.

[kmxexii]

zdoom has powered nearly all of my Doom experiences since 2010. thank you for your years of service <3

[Hellser]

No matter his mistakes or my own, or how liked he was - he is a pillar of the community, and his contributions were just as important, albeit tailored to a much different audience.

Personally, between him and I, we have both moved on from that situation.

I personally feel everyone should learn from this.

[Mikk-]

So long and thanks for all the fish!

[lizardcommando]

Oh wow, that's really unfortunate. ZDoom (and NJTRAIN to some extent lol) was practically the reason I stuck around playing Doom and making mods for Doom for this long.

Thanks for everything you done Randi. Good luck on your future plans!

[Nevander]

Damn, this sucks to hear... ZDoom was the very first port I used for Doom back in the good ol' days. Before that, it was Doom 95 and it was time to upgrade. So I google searched "Doom source port" and it spat out ZDoom. Haven't stopped using ZDoom and it's derivatives since then. Dabbled in Doomsday but it just wasn't as easy to use as ZDoom was for me. You did amazing work Randi, all of us are honored to have been able to enjoy our favorite 90s shooters with your port. Best of luck with your future endeavors my friend!

[randi]

Thanks for all the kind words, everybody. It means a lot to me. *sniff*

[Major Cooke]

Hope you stop by from time to time to visit and continue playing some mods here and there!

[Undead]

[Accensus]

During the development of 20 Monsters Community Project I kinda felt like Randi - always knee-deep in the codebase and mapping, fixing every single map and knowing the project inside and out but not once actually playing it. I got to play the mapset when it was released. Tough luck being a dev. So I guess at last Randi can get to play the mods the community has created on her own source port.

[Graf Zahl]

I really hope you reconsider your decision. I have been close to this point a few times myself but fortunately it never went far enough that I completely abandoned everything. Normally some time off was enough to get motivated again.

[FishyClockwork]

If you don't mind me asking, Graf. What exactly keeps you motivated?
I'm genuinely curious because I can understand that after working on something for so many years you can get sick of it to the point where you don't even want to think about it. (Speaking from my own experience here.)

[Undead]

I really hope you reconsider your decision. I have been close to this point a few times myself but fortunately it never went far enough that I completely abandoned everything. Normally some time off was enough to get motivated again.

I dunno about that, Graf. In my opinion, ZDoom's children ports seem to be doing fine. This whole thing feels more like a mental kickback than a practical one. Community efforts skyrocketed last year, and it's doing super well in general. Some people around here are talking to others and embracing each other just like they would with real friends and family. All while ZDoom's been standing still.

You, several other devs, and many other experienced people have been very active. Randi hasn't been, really. Not to pry on privacy, but she didn't post at all during December, so something might've happened. I'm not gonna ask, and I'll leave it at that. Two decades is a long time to keep something up.

[TheAdmantArchvile]

All good things must come to an end. ZDoom was a great source port. I'm going to miss it. have a good life Randi. We'll miss you.

[Kotti]

As shocking as these news may seem, I have to say it's probably for the best to hand over the reins to people who are actually willing to organize the project.

ZDoom's biggest problem for far too long has been that there was no roadmap to a release, and not even the hint of any release schedule and the child ports were clearly stalled by this as well. I sincerely hope this will change now.

[scalliano]

Bloody hell, this is what I've come back to?

Sorry to see you leave, Randi, I wish you the very best of luck in whatever you plan to do from here out. Your work here was the catalyst which got me into Doom modding in the first place more than ten years ago. You will be missed, but your legacy will remain in the G and the Q.

Thank you.