Official Level Design Contest #5

[namida]

So, time for a new contest!

Let's start with the general rules. Again, there's been some slight changes, specifically relating to how updated versions of the levels are handled. Apart from this, they're the same as before. To be precise - during the playing phase, until the "update deadline", you may post updated versions of your levels as often as you like. Initial submissions (during the creation phase) are still via PM. No new levels may be submitted during the playing phase, only updates to existing submissions. There'll be two seperate topics during the playing phase; one for general discussion / replay posting / etc of the levels, and the other one only for creators to post updated versions of the levels; this is to keep them easy to find (any other posts in that topic will be deleted). And just for reference, the update deadline is subject to the same 72 hour rule as the main submissions (ie: even if the deadline has passed, updates only close when no updates have been submitted for 72 hours).

Spoiler

Note that if the rules of the individual contest conflict with these standard rules, the contest-specific rule has priority.

1. Each person may only enter a single level into each contest.
2. All levels entered into a contest must be never-seen-before. This means that they can be completely new levels created for the contest, or not-yet-released levels from a future pack, but you cannot just enter a level from a pack you've already released, even if you modify it slightly. Levels may be released publicly elsewhere once they are no longer eligible to win (ie: the voting doesn't have to have finished, but the level in question must have been eliminated).
3. Anyone caught trying to manipulate the voting or otherwise cheat will be disqualified from the contest, and may be disqualified from future contests.
4. Entries must be submitted via private message to the staff member running the contest.
5. The staff member running the contest has the final say on whether or not a level meets the contest's criteria; however, you will be informed within a reasonable timeframe if not, and will be allowed to resubmit an altered version of the level (or an entirely new level) that does meet the criteria.
6. If you are using a graphic set that is not included by default with the engine you're using, you must include a copy of it with your submission.
7. Any Lix levels entered into the contest must be single-player levels.
8. Monetary prizes are payable only via either PayPal or a major cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Litecoin or Dogecoin; and possibly others on request). You may also ask for a purchase to be made on your behalf with the prize money directly from a website that accepts one of those options, or for it to be donated to a charity.
9. All deadline dates/times are in UTC. If you haven't customized your display settings, this is the time displayed in the top-right corner of the forums.
10. Even if a deadline has passed, entries will not close until 72 hours has passed since the last submission was received (or one week since the last submission was received, if there are less than four received entries). This applies to both the initial submission deadline and the update deadline.
11. If less than three entries have been received when entries close, the contest is cancelled.
12. During the playing phase, you may submit revised versions of your levels by posting them in the "levels update" topic, as long as the update deadline has not passed. The host of the contest will periodically update the main download, including as soon as possible after the update deadline passes.
13. Any received updates will only be accepted if the updated version still meets the contest criteria.
14. Both first place and second place get a prize; they must choose two different prizes (first place gets first choice), unless a prize is specifically marked that it may be selected by both winners. In the event that only three entries are received, only first place gets a prize.
15. If the staff member organizing the contest enters a level and places first or second, they do not get a prize. The prize is not "passed on", but instead only one prize is awarded for that tournament; however as a special case, if there is only one prize available (due to only three entries being submitted), the prize is passed on to second place.
16. The winning level will be determined by a voteoff after the playing phase has ended, unless the winning criteria is purely objective.

Contest #5

These rules were picked by Nepster, as a prize for the last contest. As such, any questions on the exact details of the rule will need to be answered by him, too, unless the questions relate to general contest rules.

For this contest, your goal is to design a level with a save requirement of no more than 10%. Remember that all engines that use percentages round down, so the same will be true here - 2 out of 19 lemmings equates to 10.5%, but since this would be rounded down and displayed as 10% in-game, that's acceptable. Likewise, in a level with 200 lemmings, a save requirement of either 20 lemmings or 21 lemmings is fine, because both would be displayed as 10% (but do keep in mind that traditional Lemmix would accept 20 lemmings as a pass in this case, even if the requirement is actually set to 21, because both calculate to 10%; NeoLemmix does not have this issue (20 lemmings would equate to failure in this case)).

Allowed engines: Lemmix, NeoLemmix, Lemmini, SuperLemmini, Lix

Engine-specific rules:
NeoLemmix: The "10%" should be according to Cloner-adjusted percentages. If you're calculating by hand, this means you should treat the total number of lemmings as (number of lemmings + number of cloners in skillset + number of pickup skill cloners in the level). More reliable would be to simply ensure you've set NeoCustLemmix to use the Cloner-Adjusted Percentages (run it directly rather than playtest mode, and in the settings menu, check that Use Percentages is set to "ADJ") and check what it says there.

Timeframe: Entries will close on 16th June 2015, 4:07 PM (UTC) (subject to general rule #10).
The update deadline will be announced when the playing phase begins, but will be at least 10 days.

The prizes available for this contest are:
- US $10 $12.50 (see general rule #8) <Will be increased to $15 if we reach 10 entries>
- One month's * advertising for a project you're creating (or involved in creating), whether lemmings-related or not, and whether free or not, in the forum's news ticker <Will be increased to a month and a half if we reach 10 entries>
- A Two new gimmicks of your choice added to NeoLemmix (within reason)
- A new object type of your choice added to NeoLemmix (within reason); this only includes supporting it in-game and in the graphic set editor, and does not include actually creating a graphic set (or expanding an existing one) to include the object
- Your choice for the next contest's rules (within reason)

* "One month" refers to a calendar month; not specifically "30 days" or "31 days".



Entries received: 7
bsmith
Crane
geoo
GigaLem
IchoTolot
Nepster
Simon

[mobius]

I have an idea or two for this one. I just hope I can find time to join.

[Crane]

I'm very happy that I got the motivation to return, and hopefully with some new experience in designing.  Fingers crossed that this one isn't as broken as my past contributions.

[namida]

Let's not forget that your supposedly "broken" level won the contest it was entered in. Backroutes don't nessecerially kill a level, especially when the focus is on making a good and fun level, not nessecerially a hard one. But at any rate, it's great to have you back!

[Crane]

Aww, thanks namida!

[Crane]

I wish I could go back in time to the early 90s and submit Cascade as an original level! I don't think that one can be beaten so easily in regards to its unique and foreboding design, but which is still possible to save 100% if you're feeling brave.

[namida]

Got about 48 hours until entries close (if no further ones are received / existing ones updated; otherwise it's 72 hours from the latest submission). Remember that once the deadline has passed, existing entrants can update their entries as often as they like (until the update deadline passes), but new entries cannot be submitted.

[Nepster]

Please read namida's post as:
If you want to enter the contest, but do not manage to finish your level until the deadline, do the following: Submit an essentially empty level now (of course with at most 10% save requirement) and update it later on with your actual level .

[Crane]

Well, I can only assume you would have at least a name and a theme going, otherwise I can see it being disqualified.

[namida]

I guess that technically, there's currently no rule about how much can be changed in an update (apart from that the update must still meet the rules). The problem with defining an explicit rule in this case is that it can't really account for all possibilities. But, I'd also assume that most of this community is above exploiting loopholes like that except where explicitly allowed / encouraged.

[namida]

WOW, this is turning out to be the most popular contest yet! Just received a 7th entry! This also means the deadline's extended by a bit more - so if you haven't got an entry in yet, you've got a bit more time to do so now.

Since this contest is so popular, I'm going to increase the prizes a little bit, since it's going to be a particularly tough one to win...
EDIT: Done. Increased the cash prize by 25%, increased the "a gimmick of your choice in NeoLemmix" to two gimmicks of your choice, and re-added the advertising prize as an option.

If we reach 10 entries (unlikely, though), I'll increase the cash prize by the same amount again, and increase the advertising prize to a month and a half, plus add one more completely new option. (To be clear, that's only for this contest, and doesn't mean that the same will happen for any future contests that reach 10 entries.)

Just to be clear on the gimmicks prize - you may notice I often add gimmicks based on suggestions, but the difference is that with suggestions, I might decide "I don't like this one, so I'm not adding it". Whereas with the prize, the only reason I might say no is if it's too complicated to code it; whether I like it or not has no bearing on whether it gets added.

[607]

This is indeed quite an interesting contest, good idea, Nepster!

[Simon]

increased the "a gimmick of your choice in NeoLemmix" to two gimmicks

-- Simon