Alright, so this idea seems to be fairly popular, so let's give it a shot! And, I encourage those who haven't entered before to give it a go, too!

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Here are the standard rules for all official contests:
1) You may not enter into the contest a level that you've (or anyone else) released before. You are, however, welcome to release it as part of another pack after the contest is over. This includes remaking a level on a different engine.
2) One entry per person, unless the contest's rules specifically state otherwise.
3) Anyone caught attempting to cheat at or manipulate the voting in any way is disqualified.
4) Whether or not a level meets the criteria is decided by the LF administrators; the winner will be decided by vote unless otherwise stated in the contest's rules (which may only happen if the winning criteria is purely objective).
5) Any deadline dates / times are in UTC.
6) Joint entries are permitted, but there will still only be one prize (unless the contest's rules specifically call for a joint entry); it will be up to the entrants to determine how they will split this.
7) Whichever staff member(s) is/are running the contest may enter just for fun, but cannot receive prizes - the prize will be passed on to the next position.
8) Entries should be submitted via private message to the staff member running the contest. Do not post them in the topic, unless the contest's guidelines say otherwise. If the contest allows for use of more than one engine, please be sure to specify which engine you've created your level for, and if you've used traditional Lemmix, please be sure to specify which mechanics set (Orig, OhNo or Cust) your level is intended to be played under.
9) Deadlines may be extended once, by one week, if less than four entries have been received. If there are still less than four entries after this, that contest will be cancelled, unless the staff member running the contest and all entrants all agree to continue it anyway.
10) If you are using an unofficial graphic set, you must include a copy of it with your submission, unless it's one that is always included with that engine (such as the Lemmings Plus graphic sets in NeoCustLemmix).
11) Monetary prizes may be claimed via PayPal or Bitcoin (or another well-established cryptocurrency, such as Litecoin or Dogecoin). You can also ask for them to be directly spent on a website for items up to the value of the prize (provided the website takes one of those options, or takes credit/debit cards directly and has a very good reputation), or for a donation of the prize value to be made to a charity of your choice (provided they accept online donations).

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Contest #3

Tag team contest time! In this one, each level will be contributed to by two participants. Thus, the creation phase will be split into two sub-phases.

Subphase 1 - Terrain design
In this phase, entrants must create a level map. They may place as many terrain pieces, steel areas and one-way walls as they like. They may also configure the level options that are relevant to steel / one-ways (autosteel, one-way invert, etc). They may also make a VGASPEC for the level if they like. They may not place any objects (except one-way walls) or configure the level stats/options other than those related to terrain, steel, one-way walls and VGASPECs (this includes that they may set the size of the level). Once this has been done, it should be submitted.

Between phases
Once the deadline for Phase 1 ends, I will randomly pick people to receive other levels. Note that there will be no two-way swaps (ie: if Person A gets Person B's level, then Person B cannot get Person A's level), though three-way or more swaps may occur rather than having a full "circle" so to speak. You'll receive both NeoLemmix-format and SuperLemmini-format versions of the levels.

Subphase 2 - Objects and stats
When you receive the level you're assigned for Phase 2, you may place objects (except one-way walls), and set the stats and skillset for the level (and gimmicks, in the case of NeoLemmix). You are permitted to convert the level to a different engine than the one you received it in the format for. You should also give the level a title at this point.


Once the submissions from Phase 2 are received, the rest of the contest will proceed as normal. Once the playing phase starts, both contributors to each level will be revealed. Please note that if anyone participates in Phase 1, but does not submit to Phase 2 on time, both levels they are involved in will be disqualified, and to keep things fair, all remaining contestants will be assigned a new level to work with. This will of course be very inconvenient, so please especially make an effort to submit on time - or let me know well in advance if you won't be able to, in which case I may be able to alter the deadline if that'd help.

Please note that due to the limited terrain / steel options in the earlier engines, this contest will ONLY accept NeoLemmix or SuperLemmini contributions, and they must use one of the official graphic sets to avoid issues with sets that appear in one engine but not the other, without using one-way downs due to their non-existance in SuperLemmini or the "Fake"/"Invisible" terrain options due to their non-existance in NeoLemmix.

Engine-Specific Rules
Any content/options that don't appear in the other engine may not be used during Phase 1. Using exclusive features during Phase 2 is fine as long as no other rule is broken. The following list should cover most the features that can't be used (and thus, if relevant, should be left at default) for this contest:
- "Classic Steel" option (SuperLemmini)
- Adjustable borders (SuperLemmini)
- Fake or Invisible terrain (SuperLemmini)
- Steel areas exceeding 256x256 in size (SuperLemmini)
- More than 1000 terrain pieces and/or more than 128 steel areas (SuperLemmini)
- More than 64 one-way objects (SuperLemmini) *
- One-way down arrows (NeoLemmix)
- One-way arrows made with steel areas rather than objects (NeoLemmix)

* NeoLemmix supports up to 128 objects, but this limit is set to give plenty of room for the Phase 2 entrant to add objects.

VGASPECs / equivalent: Allowed (custom only), but not required. You must submit it in both .DAT and .PNG format (NeoLemmix-compatible and SuperLemmini-compatible).
Allowed Graphic Sets: Orig graphic sets, OhNo graphic sets, Xmas set. Custom / unofficial sets are not allowed.
Allowed Engines: NeoLemmix, SuperLemmini
Winning Criteria: "Vote for your favorite", as usual.

Timeframe:
1st Phase entries close 20th of March
2nd Phase entry close 30th of March or when all entries have been received, whichever comes first


Due to the tag-team nature, there's a bit of a difference in the prize structure. Only first place gets prizes; of course, both people who contributed to the level get a prize. As there's no clear "first" or "second" for this, the matter of who gets first pick will come down to first in, first served, but only *after* I send out the PM to notify of winnings. You are of course free to discuss with the other winner before making your choice, perhaps to arrange splitting prizes.


The prizes available for this contest are:
- US$10; see #11 of the general rules for more info.
- A new object type of your choice added to NeoLemmix; note that this only includes supporting it in the code, you are on your own for creating (or modifying) a graphic set to include it. This must be within reason.
- A new gimmick of your choice added to NeoLemmix. This must be within reason.
- Choosing the next contest's rules.

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Phase 1 entries received: 3
Phase 2 entries received: 2

(due to the unknown-partner swap, only the quantity of entrants will be revealed, not the identities)

If the time limit is just an extra annoyance that makes little difference to the level, then the level is better off without it. If the time limit adds to the puzzle in some way (eg. Mayhem 3) or is even the main focus of the puzzle (eg. Mayhem 16), then IMO it's a good thing.

EDIT: Just a silly idea we had in IRC: replace the post count with the total word count of all posts you made.

Hmmm....

Quote from: namida on March 01, 2015, 06:34:43 PM

However, it does have to be taken into account what engines can be used - I might consider limiting it to the traditional engines (Lemmix and Lemmini), as they can be played on all platforms (DOS lemmings via DosBox rather than actual Lemmix, but this is basically the same; and Lemmini is Java), and edited (jLevelBuilder is java-based IIRC, and LemEdit is also an option via DosBox). I don't know how many people here (out of those who actually enter the contests) this would actually be a problem for, though.

I don't think DOSBox and LemEdit are used nowadays, and I am not sure about the idea of limiting it to traditional engines. The traditional levels can still be edited in the NeoLemmix Editor, which is a lot easier to use than the other editors were (especially since you removed the need to Compile Styles). For me, limiting it to the traditional engines limits my creativity. The new NeoLemmix features that you've added have allowed me to be creative in how I want to design my levels.

I was thinking more of people who aren't using Windows...

Another thing I'm considering, to hopefully increase participation (though maybe at the risk of reducing the overall quality of levels, so I'd have to give this a trial run) is getting rid of the 2nd place prize, and instead awarding a prize to one participant (other than the winner) selected completely at random. This way, even those who aren't confident about being able to win will have a reason to enter (and maybe even surprise themself with how their level turns out in the process; recall that Crane did not at all expect to win the first contest yet he did!).

Alright, once again I've put up a poll of possible ideas for the next contest. Like last time, this doesn't mean for sure I'll pick the most popular choice, but I will take the results into consideration.

I'll briefly explain the ideas:

Tag-Team Contest
The idea here is that two people both design a level. One makes the terrain layout, the other places the objects and chooses the stats / skillset / etc. The two people who contributed to the winning level both get prizes (second place level doesn't). Until the playing phase starts, the entrants won't know who they're paired with (and it won't nessecerially be a two way thing; ie: just because Person A gets Person B's level for the second half, doesn't mean Person B also gets Person A's level).

Paired Levels With Mutually Exclusive Skillsets
The idea here is to create a pair of levels that are identical in every way except for the skillsets. The skillsets must not have any skills in common - ie: if one version has any bashers, the other version must not have any bashers. In the case of NeoLemmix, it'd be limited to eight total types of skills across the two levels, in order to keep it balanced.

One Type Of Skill Level
This idea is pretty self-explanatory. The idea is to create a level with a skillset only containing one type of skill. For example, a level where the skillset only consists of Miners.

Gimmick Level
This is also self-explanatory. For obvious reasons it'd be NeoLemmix only. Simply create a level that uses a gimmick. Certain gimmicks may be excluded either due to having negligable impact on gameplay (eg. SuperLemming, Reverse Skill Counts), not being "proper" gimmicks (eg. "Cheapo Mode", Bait-and-Switch), and so on.

Vertical Scrolling Level
Again, self-explanatory. Create a level that involves vertical scrolling. This might be expanded to only vertical scrolling (ie: the width must be 320 for NeoLemmix or 640 for SuperLemmini). For also-obvious reasons, it'd be NeoLemmix / SuperLemmini only.

The swinging chain could probably be at least used as a decorative object, even if not functional.

^ In this case, how is it determined who bought the skill first? Is it the same way their "turns" are determined?