ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to personal circumstances and not wanting to compromise the quality of LPIII, nor take too long to finish it, I have decided to reduce the number of levels by about 40%. See
this post for more info.
Two demos are now available! Get them here:
Demo 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7q38qm2em1757mg/LPIIIDemo1.zip (Runs on NeoLemmix V1.07n)
>> 3 levels from Timid (though one has since been moved to Rough and made harder)
>> 3 levels from Dodgy
>> 1 level from Rough
>> 1 secret level
(No levels from Fierce in this one)
>> Uses Sky and Circuit styles only
>> To enable cheat mode, enter the code "DEMOCHEATS" (you can't set it in the INI file)
Demo 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/79dqs0de0yb1ds1/LPIIIDemo2.zip (Runs on NeoLemmix V1.09.5n*)
>> 2 levels from each rank (including Fierce)
>> 1 secret level
>> Uses all styles except Lab
>> To enable cheat mode, enter the code "DEMO2CHEAT" (you can't set it in the INI file)* The version used for the second demo isn't V1.10n as that wasn't yet ready at the time of release, but does contain new updates/features/tweaks not found in V1.09n, hence the labelling as "V1.09.5n".
Also, please note that some details about the game (which affect positioning) have changed since the demos were released.Well, yep, LPIII is officially under construction! Actually, it has been for a couple of weeks now, though I didn't want to announce it until NeoLemmix was in a fairly good state *and* NeoLemEdit at least had the underlying code (if not the interface) ready, since both of those are quite important to LPIII's construction, especially the former.
Yes, unlike the somewhat-messy (although to be fair, I wouldn't say they're in a completed state yet) conversions of LPDOS and LPII; LPIII is being built right from the start for NeoLemmix and taking full advantage of its features! Of course there'll be new object types in use - including some that I've added to NeoLemmix but haven't revealed (experiment, you might find something
) - and another new set of styles; it isn't going to just use remastered and/or expanded versions of the official or LPII styles. Likewise, one of the graphic sets is *entirely* rough-edged - even including the steel! NeoLemmix's autosteel makes this possible. =D
As a bit of a change from LPDOS and LPII, Lemmings Plus III is only going to have four difficulty ranks. 15 levels each (not including secret levels), so you still get around the same number of levels as last time. One thing different is that the initial difficulty curve is going to be steeper - of course I'm putting a few of those X-of-everything levels at the start and then the odd one scattered throughout, just as I've always done, but I'd say the first rank is more comparable to Cheeky/Wimpy, perhaps even very-early Medi/Sneaky, than it is to Mild/Nice. (The original intention was 25 levels each, but for reasons relating to my personal life I decided to cut this down.)
Now, unlike in LPII, the gimmick levels won't be mixed in randomly with the normal ones - this time, all gimmick levels will be secret levels. There'll still be a couple of frenzies among the normal levels, but I don't plan on having one in
every rank - probably only two, maybe three, in LPIII as a whole. Also, there'll be two secret gimmick levels per rank. Within one rank, both of these levels will use the same gimmick, and the first secret level will be much easier, kind of like a tutorial level for the gimmick, with the second one being a proper puzzle using it. Note that I'm not promising that the gimmick levels are the
only secret levels; just that no non-secret levels will be gimmick levels (except an occasional frenzy). Also, apart from Frenzy (and perhaps SuperLemming + Frenzy combo, but I haven't made any levels using that yet), all gimmicks will be new ones, not re-used LPII ones. (Sorry to anyone who wanted more Karoshi levels; but hey, you're more than welcome to have a go at making your own ones.
) It has been confirmed what the four gimmicks being used are.
Initially only the first two rank names, Timid and Dodgy, were revealed. The third rank's name was revealed a bit later on to be Rough. When the first demo was released, although it did not contain any levels from the fourth rank, its readme revealed the name of the fourth rank as Fierce.
I'm only going to do four styles this time, partly because creating styles is a lot of work and partly because with more object types and 32 colors, I reckon it can stay interesting without needing a 5th style. And just so you know - the "test" style I've posted in the NeoLemmix topic is, indeed, an LPIII style. That was probably obvious from it being far too detailed for a true test style. xD
Since I'm kind of out of Lemmings musics to go with (well, I guess I *could* use Holiday Lemmings
), I'm using an assortment of video game musics for the backing musics in it. Older games, though not nessecerially as old as Lemmings. The tracks being used (all but the 5th in the rotation and the Frenzy music can be heard in the demos) are:
1) Regular in-game music from Bust-A-Move 4
2) "Burning Blood" from Final Fantasy Legend II
3) Windmill music from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4) Bubbly Clouds music from Kirby's Dreamland
5) Secret/boss stage music from Super Mario Land II
6) Overworld music from Final Fantasy Legend
7) "Don't Give Up" from Final Fantasy Legend II
Frenzy) "Screech's Sprint" from Donkey Kong Land 2
Gimmick) "Diggin' It" / "Bee-having" music from Crash Bandicoot 2
(There are a few more tracks for specific purposes, but you'll have to wait and find out what they are and what they're for!)
It's being created using the updated version of LemSet for the graphic sets, and mostly MS Paint (the old XP version; can't stand that new one!) to create the graphics themself, with some use of Paint.NET. So far level creation has been done in LemEdit, but that'll be moved to NeoLemEdit once it's capable of actually making levels rather than just loading graphic sets and levels into memory and spitting them out as PNG files. xD
Additionally, Lemmings Plus III will feature VGASPEC levels - the first Lemmix-based Lemmings Plus to do so; while these kind of levels were a staple of the Cheapo Lemmings Plus packs (though to be honest, I can't remember if LP2 had any - but LP1 and LP3 definitely did), LPDOS and LPII did not feature any. Just for the record, NeoLemmix doesn't support beyond the normal 7 colors in a VGASPEC (at least not at the time of making the LPIII VGASPECs), so those levels aren't quite as color-varied as the others - but the use of simple concepts for the designs mostly covers this up quite well. The four share a common theme to some extent, though I won't say what that theme is - you'll have to wait and find out when it's released!
By the way - don't worry too much if progress on this is a bit slow at first. I'm primarily working on NeoLemEdit at the moment, since that's going to be an important tool for creating LPIII; use of traditional LemEdit (or any other existing editor) is doable but not exactly ideal.
The first completed style (circuit style, VGAGR1) is already made available to anyone who wants to use it; it's attached to this post. In this case, it's numbered VGAGR16 as that would be it's number in CustLemmix if the LPIII styles were to be appended to the already present ones. The main reason for making it available is to show off some NeoLemmix objects and a style specifically designed for it.
Completion so far:
--Styles-- (Weighting: 35%)
VGAGR0 (Sky):
100% completeVGAGR1 (Circuit):
100% completeVGAGR2 (Martian):
100% completeVGAGR3 (Lab):
100% complete--Levels-- (Weighting: 50%)
Timid:
15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2Dodgy:
15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2Rough:
15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2Fierce:
15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2--Other-- (Weighting: 15%)
MAIN.DAT: 100%
Musics: 100%
Player: N/A (Uses NeoLemmix; the very small amount of LPIII-specific code is done)
Style distribution so far: (Note: I don't nessecerially update this every time I make a level, so might be slightly out of date)
Sky: 16
Circuit: 16
Martian: 14*
Lab: 15
VGASPEC: 4**
* This is only counting the once-per-rank level once, not four times.
**These levels are not also counted under the regular style that they use for objects. Two use Sky and two use Martian.Note a correction to the demo 1 readme: It lists the 3rd demo level of Timid as being Timid 9. This was true at the time of the demo's release; but it has since been moved to Rough 2 (along with being given 100% requirement and only 1 each of bashers/miners/diggers).
And a change for demo 2 too, although this is more minor: The 1st level of Rough is listed as Rough 9, it's been moved to Fierce. (Originally to Rough 16; I haven't revealed the exact positions of demo levels following the reduction to 15 levels per rank; so that's why no position in Fierce is given.)