Not sure what I've done wrong, but I'm seeing this in between almost every level load, and at other random times as well.

I'm creating a pack of 8 levels called InfiniLems with the following criteria:

Every level has 8 lemmings, of which 8 must be saved
Release rate is 88
All levels use original tilesets (one of each of the following: dirt, marble, pillar, fire, crystal, brick, bubble and snow)
Always infinite time
Always infinite skills (N.B. the skillset itself can be limited to just 1 skill, up to a maximum of 10)

By way of collaboration, what I'd like to do ideally is create an initial draft of each level and then have someone look at it, suggest changes, maybe even tweak the level themselves, and send it back and forth a couple of times until we're both happy with it.

I would also be interested if the collaborator wanted to make 8 first-draft levels of their own (in each of the above styles and with the same outlined criteria), send them to me to interpret/redesign, and then the pack could be 16 levels in total! If not, just the 8 as started be me would be fine.

The "8" is because it looks like the infinity sign.

If you're interested in getting on board with this project, let me know!

How about talismans for each of the following:

No CPM
No Pause Button
No Directional Arrows
No Frameskip
RR = X

I've decided to re-start this discussion here to keep it more focused as an aspect of level design.

I agree that time limits themselves should be used sparingly, or at least creatively, to remain relevant to the puzzle's inherent solution or to prevent backroutes - I think everyone agrees on this.

However, if a level designer chooses to instead include a time-based talisman purely for the reason that it requires the player to optimize the intended solution (as opposed to find a different route), can we as an existing community reach an agreement that this is acceptable?

My main argument would be that solution optimization is a skill in itself, and whilst it may be more of an execution-based skill, it's still valid. Sure, Lemmings is a puzzle game at its core - but it's a motion-based, animated puzzle game which means that time is also a factor, and therefore applying skill to create a time record is a great way to enjoy the game.

Time-based talismans are a good way to keep this aspect of the game relevant without impacting the actual level itself (people can always ignore the talisman if they're not inclined to indulge in action/execution-based play).

Some other points in favour:

- It encourages more inclusion in the community for people that do enjoy and excel at execution-based play.
- It offers a valid alternative for level designers who wish to promote this aspect of gameplay.
- It encourages players who would normally eschew time-based play to exercise that muscle every now and then for the sake of expanding their own repertoire as a player (this is particularly relevant for completionists).

Allow me to introduce Lemminas. Lemminas are female Lemmings, who wear pink instead of blue and have blue hair, like Marge Simpson, that they keep in a ready-for-action swish pony tail.

The world they inhabit is rich with colour, magic, unicorns and gelato!

Help them navigate their way across the mysterious, magical lands of Purple Kingdom as they find their way back home...

Feast your eyes and ears on these beautiful worlds and enjoy the brand new music; some of it is my own, some of it I've borrowed from classical themes and popular nursery songs, in keeping with the Lemmings tradition (full credits below). I've tried to match it with the visual themes to create an immersive and hopefully memorable playing experience.

Anyway, enough waffle from me! Here are the screenshots:


This pack has been an absolute joy to create. There has been laughter, tears, late nights, eye candy overload, sugar highs, frantically-typed messages, painstaking attention to way too much detail, and all that other good stuff you lovely people have come to expect from a fully-formed pack of NeoLemmix levels.

A huge, huge thank-you to DireKrow for playtesting the entire pack in its first draft, and for going above and beyond to provide a full set of replays, extensively detailed feedback and invaluable advice (most of which has been followed, I assure you!)

Another big thank-you to Proxima and IchoTolot for providing further testing, muchos helpful comments and suggestions, backroute-detection servicing, and pointing out that 300 Lemminas probably is too many...

And of course, a thank-you to Namida for maintaining the platform that supports all of our frantic doodling and puzzlesome wanderings. And for helping to make The Unnecessarily Tall Pillar a much better level.

But most of all, big thanks to YOU for saving the Lemminas! (That is, after you've downloaded and completed the pack. )

Without further ado, proceed to the downloads section below and enjoy this pack in all its glory! Along with the levels, there is a full set of replays for all Talismans (88 in total - at least 1 on every level!), and of course the music, sound and required styles.

Please feel free to use any of the content (i.e. music, sounds, styles) for your own packs; just remember to credit me if you do.

Enjoy Lemminas!

Recommended settings: NeoLemmix 12.8+ / High Resolution / No Smooth Resampling / Normal Quality Minimap

The pack has been playtested on a low-end laptop with the above settings; all levels performed well and there were no lag issues, even on large levels.

Music Credits:

All tracks arranged and produced by me using Logic Pro X, composer credits as follows:

Lemminas 1 - My own composition
Lemminas 2 - My own composition
Lemminas 3 - Based on Mozart's Sonata in C, Bach's Toccota and Fugue in Dm and Traditional Nursery Rhyme Five Little Speckled Frogs
Lemminas 4 - My own composition
Lemminas 5 - Based on Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C#m
Lemminas 6 - Based on Zoëë's Techno Wonderland, with an ending composed by me
Lemminas 7 - Based on Traditional Nursery Rhymes The Ants Go Marching In and Nellie The Elephant
Lemminas 8 - My own composition

Setting up Lemminas:

I've put everything into one zip folder called Lemminas V1.04 which can be extracted directly to the root folder of your copy of NeoLemmix (the extractor will place everything where it should be). However, if you prefer to do these things manually, ensure that you do the following:

Place the contents of the "levels" folder into NeoLemmix>levels
Place the contents of the "music" folder into NeoLemmix>music
Place the contents of the "Replay" folder into NeoLemmix>Replay
Place the contents of the "sound" folder into NeoLemmix>sound
Place the contents of the "styles" folder into NeoLemmix>styles (the style is available via the NeoLemmix Manager anyway, but here it is just in case!)

12.8's high resolution mode is not without its teething problems, but it does look great and given the endless possibilities for custom styles which can now look better than ever before, it's an exciting time to be a fan of Lemmings!

Now that the look of the game itself has been improved, and it's already possible to make the panel look however you want it to by editing it yourself (EDIT: I've posted a picture of mine at the bottom of this post), I propose we as a community look at the possibilities of making NeoLemmix's various title screens look and feel as good as they possibly can.

My proposal would be to bring together all the best elements of the various versions (Amiga's colour scheme and text/logo proportions, NeoLemmix/DOS's larger level previews and the size/position of the menu elements, SuperLemmini's higher resolution and enhanced text) and create some really nice looking title screens.

Here is an example of the level-preview screen from each, so you can see the differences:

Amiga's pleasing colour scheme, and perhaps less pleasing level preview size:



SuperLemmini's enhanced resolution and tightened-up text size:



NeoLemmix/DOS's larger level preview and better overall proportion of images/text:



And a reminder of the differences between the Amiga (left) and DOS (right) menu screens. I think the DOS version has better positioning and relative-sizing of the various elements, but - as you can see - the Amiga version has everything in better proportion, albeit perhaps a bit too large:



I'm happy to do the work on the various elements that will need to be produced - backgrounds, text, menu cards, logo, etc., once the community has reached a consensus about how it should look. Hopefully, there'll be some way of assembling everything without having to completely re-write the code.

As for the pre/post-view screens, there has already been discussion about the possibilities of making these more interactive, maybe by including pictures. I think this is a great idea worth re-visiting. At the very least, the text could be improved and made easier to read as a very basic start on things.

So - what do you think, should we look at this? Or not bother. You decide!


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P.S. Here's what my custom panel looks like. I edited this using a simple PNG editing program. If you'd like to customise your own, the graphics can be found in NeoLemmix/gfx/panel (or panel-hr for hi-res mode) - just be careful to keep everything the same size. Or, if you like the look of mine and want me to send you the images I'll be more than happy to do so:

Suggested Difficulty Scale for Custom NeoLemmix Levels/Packs

After discussion, the majority of us seem to agree, more or less, that the following scale is appropriate:

(I've placed the various ranks of Lemmings Redux onto this suggested scale).

Beginner - brand new players - Gentle
Easy - begins to stretch the player with basic puzzles - Quirky
Medium - introduces more complex puzzles and level design concepts - Zany / Manic
Hard - expects the player to have a solid grasp of the game, puzzles become particularly challenging - Lunatic
Advanced - requires more in-depth knowledge of a wide range of solving techniques, strategies and tricks
Extreme - challenges even the most accomplished solvers

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(Previous OP):

I'd like to propose the following sliding-scale difficulty rating for creators to assign to their packs, which may help to give a more specific idea of what a player can expect based on their ability. It may also help players to identify their ability level, and choose packs accordingly.

If adopted, creators would be encouraged to apply the ratings as part of any level pack upload in the following manner:

Pack Name [Difficulty 0-3] - this would indicate that the pack features levels which range in difficulty from beginner through to advanced, and therefore can be enjoyed by more casual players as well as more experienced players who wish to take a break from more challenging packs! It may also serve as an ability-boosting pack for less experienced players.

Pack Name [Difficulty 3-5] - this would indicate a more difficult pack that is best attempted by advanced players who are looking for further challenges.

Pack Name [Difficulty 4-6] - this would indicate a pack that is best attempted only by very experienced players who have established themselves as master solvers.

Pack Name [Difficulty 0-6] - this would indicate that the pack spans the full range of difficulty ratings.

Here are my proposed difficulty ratings explained:

0) Beginner - this rating indicates that the pack includes tutorial levels for the absolute beginner who has no prior experience of playing the game, and needs to be introduced to the skills, objects and their basic functions, and general gameplay.

Examples of levels in this category: Just Dig!, Only Floaters Can Survive This, You Need Bashers This Time.
Examples of techniques: Basic application of a few skills.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps, but these will be very easy to avoid and may not even form part of the main route.

1) Novice - this indicates levels which expect that a basic tutorial will have been completed, and the player is able to navigate their way through reasonably easy levels with plenty of available skills and various possible solutions.

Examples of levels in this category: Smile If You Love Lemmings, Keep Your Hair On Mr. Lemming, Don't Let Your Eyes Deceive You.
Examples of techniques: Basic application of a number of different skills.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps, but these will be very easy to avoid and may not even form part of the main route. The levels may also gently introduce objects such as teleporters and pickup skills.

2) Intermediate - packs with this rating will be generally easygoing packs that players of all ability levels can enjoy; the levels will be easy to solve and fun to play through, serving the purpose of keeping a player's basic skills well exercised. There may be the occasional challenge, but these will be reasonably solvable in the first attempt.

Examples of levels in this category: We Are Now At LEMCON ONE, Konbanwa Lemming San, Lemmingology.
Examples of techniques: Considered application of a number of different skills.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps that require some thought to avoid. The levels may make use of teleporters and pickup skills to enhance the level, but not necessarily make it more difficult.

3) Advanced - this rating indicates that some of the levels will be more challenging and require above-average ability and a less casual approach to the game; solutions will be less obvious, and will include more advanced tricks, techniques and strategies more familiar with experienced players.

Examples of levels in this category: Turn Around Young Lemmings!, I Have A Cunning Plan, Compression Method 1.
Examples of techniques: Advanced application of a number of different skills, introduction of lateral-thinking puzzles and strategies.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps that require considered strategy to avoid. The levels may make use of teleporters and pickup skills to enhance the level and increase the difficulty of the puzzle to some degree.

4) Expert - this rating suggest that the levels are of a very high standard of difficulty, requiring much more precise use of multiple skills and combinations of advanced techniques which would not necessarily be obvious to a beginner or a casual player. It will generally take several attempts to complete a level, and the levels will usually have a very limited number of possible solutions.

Examples of levels in this category: The Great Lemming Caper, Save Me, Lemming Tomato Ketchup Facility.
Examples of techniques: Precise application of a number of different skills, increasingly complex puzzles and strategies.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps that require specific solutions within the puzzle to avoid. The levels may make use of teleporters and pickup skills to make a puzzle more complicated.

5) Master - packs in this rating will include levels of extreme difficulty, requiring established knowledge of most if not all advanced tricks and solution methods; levels will have very complex and precise solutions, and only the very minimum number of skills and time required for the intended solution. The levels will also expect perfect timing, knowing when as well as how to apply a particular skill.

Examples of levels in this category: It's Hero Time!, No Added Colours Or Lemmings, The Race Against Cliches.
Examples of techniques: Very precise application of a number of different skills, complex puzzles and strategies comprising very specific solutions.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps that require specific solutions within the puzzle to avoid. The levels may make use of teleporters and pickup skills to make a puzzle more complicated.

6) Legend - these levels are only for players of the very highest solving ability. They will normally feature several combinations of extremely complex and painstakingly precise techniques, as well as pixel-perfect timing. These levels will often introduce brand new techniques not seen before, and use them in such a way to increase the difficulty of the puzzle considerably.

Examples of levels in this category: Anything from the final ranks of Lemmings Plus Alpha or Lemmings United.
Examples of techniques: Precise and unusual application of a number of different skills, extremely complex puzzles and strategies.
Examples of objects: The levels may feature fire, water and traps that require specific solutions within the puzzle to avoid. The levels may make use of teleporters and pickup skills to make a puzzle more complicated.