Six years ago, back on the old old lemmings forum, some effort was started to gather levels from the community. The idea was to make a version of DOS Lemmings with these levels instead, and release it to a wider audience. Quite a few levels were posted, and discussion evolved, but eventually, nothing came out of it:
http://www6.camanis.net.ipv4.sixxs.org/lemmings/lemmingswelt/forums/?topic=1135291547Now might be another chance, with Lix being announced to the public sometime (whenever that might be) in the future, to have such a community level pack included with it.
Not everyone can produce a full set with multiple difficulty ratings like RubiX or Clam Spammer did for Lix, so this is a good chance for those who can't (though of course also those who can, I don't mean to discourage anyone from contributing) to get their levels shown to a (hopefully) wider audience.
There seemed to be some interest in this, so I'm willing to coordinate the whole thing.
What's the plan?I will gather levels from everyone who sends any to me, and I'll try to maintain a list with the progress.
The current list is here:
http://geoo89.github.com/lixlfpack/Once we got a decent amount of levels designed and tested and the release date approaches, during the second phase we'll try to put them in order, so we get a somewhat smooth difficulty curve.
There's no set goal for the amount of levels or difficulty ratings, we'll just see how many levels will roll in, and decide on that later.
What kind of levels?Basically, levels of all difficulties, with one guideline: levels shouldn't use glitches, and avoid difficult timing or exact precision if possible. Both remaking existing levels and designing new ones is fine.
There's one thing though: It'd be cool to feature some of the levels from authors who aren't in the forum anymore. Lix is intended to be released under CC0 or WTFPL (basically public domain), though we can't just assume they'd be willing to waive all their rights to the levels. The question is, if we can't get a response from them when contacting, what should be done? Leave out the levels, put a note that the rights to these levels belong to their original authors, or release the entire level pack under a somewhat more restrictive license?
A note on tutorial levels: For tutorial levels (i.e. those showing off the skills and very basic features) I'll probably make a separate topic. The issue here is that the levels have to be arranged very carefully and each with the previous few levels in mind, so just making some levels and throwing them together into a difficulty rating won't cut it.
Those of the rating 0.x (basic techniques) will still depend on each other to some extent, but most prerequisites will already have been covered in the basic tutorial.
How does it work?You can send me levels, and I'll add them to the list:
http://geoo89.github.com/lixlfpack/It's also possible to suggest some level to be remade, and I can add it to the list. In that case, you can either tell me that you're remaking the level yourself, or ask for someone to do it, then I'll leave the list entry "redesign" empty until someone is assigned to it, the status will be "not started" until I receive a level file.
When you send me a level please tell me what to fill in in the table. I can set the status to "in progress" to indicate that you're still going to majorly rework the level and people shouldn't test it yet, though I'd prefer to get complete levels and reserve the "in progress" status mostly to myself.
Give an opinion whether the design is ugly/incomplete/lacks decoration and needs definite improvement ("."), whether it's ok but could perhaps be improved ("?"), or whether you consider it final. Give the same data for the level name.
Indicate how extensively you have tested backroutes, and if there are any known backroutes that still need to be fixed.
Finally, give a rough estimate how difficult you think the level is, 0.x means basic tricks, 4.x means really hard (likely hardest rating in the end), around 2-2.5 probably means something like Crazy/Mayhem. It's just to help to order the levels later, and give an estimate what kind of levels are still needed.
Put the levels in levels/single/lixlfpack/ so we all got them in the same place and the replays will match (update: however for level posted here in this topic, but not on the list yet, put them in levels/single/lixlfpack/wip/). For levels that have the status "done", especially the harder ones or if you think you found a backroute, send the author your replay and post a note in this topic. Generally, if you have some suggestions/comments on the levels, post it here, I'll try to read it and update the list accordingly if there's some data to be updated.
You can send levels/replay to me via PM/IRC/IM/e-mail (if you don't know my e-mail address, ask me via PM), preferably in batched updates to minimize my work.
Once a level is considered to have a decent design and name ("X"), and is basically backroute-proof ("9"), I'll move it from the "WIP levels" list to the "Complete levels" list.
You can get the levels using the respective download link, get it bundled as zip from github (
https://github.com/geoo89/lixlfpack/zipball/gh-pages), or pull the lastest version using git from my git repository git@github.com:geoo89/lixlfpack.git EDIT: or, of course, attach them to your post.
Suggestions/comments on the general procedure are welcome.
How can you contribute?- Remake existing levels, design new levels, or suggest levels you'd like to see remade
- Backroute testing
- Suggestions for renaming, or improving the design of levels, especially if still noted as incomplete in the list
- Commenting on data in list (e.g. if you have a vastly different opinion on the difficulty, or done some extensive backroute testing)
- General feedback
Let's see how many will roll in!
Quick Links:Lix homepage:
http://asdfasdf.ethz.ch/~simon/Level list:
http://geoo89.github.com/lixlfpack/Latest version of the level bundle (.zip):
https://github.com/geoo89/lixlfpack/zipball/gh-pagesDate of last update for each level:
https://github.com/geoo89/lixlfpackSpreadsheet in xls format:
https://github.com/geoo89/lixlfpack/blob/gh-pages/lixlfpack.xls?raw=true