Not sure if I made it clear enough on video, but my main dislike with the level in World Tour wasn't me misreading the save requirement, or even the climber-hatch, but rather the execution of the main trick itself.
Compare this level to Crazy Christmas Crossing in SubLems. They seem very similar at first, both requiring the miners-crossing each other trick. This is a cool trick, but if you want to require it, you need to make it as simple as possible to execute. In Crazy Christmas Crossing, the Lemmings are positioned in such a way that they are already perfectly positioned to perform the trick; they are at opposite ends of the course walking toward each other. The release rate is locked, so you cannot possibly screw up the positioning. The only thing you have to do is mine at the right spot. I also tried to make the ground as flat as possible to avoid frustration, and you can use the icicles on the ceiling as a guide for where to start mining. Furthermore, there is only one thing you need to do besides the miner trick on the level, and it's also in Rank 4 of 5.
Whereas the World Tour level required you to perform this trick in Rank 2 (Rank 1 if the first rank was a tutorial one) on uneven ground, which added to the frustration and requiring you to set up the distance between the two lemmings yourself. You had a walker (which really helped), but trying to get the distance AND the initial positions perfect at the same time I felt made it unfun. That combined with my stupidity at misreading the save requirement and the random climber hatch made it a less pleasant experience than I hoped for.
Please note I am not trying to attack you or even the level. I think the level could be a decent one, with some reworking. I would recommend marking the positions where to mine from on both sides of the course would be a good change, as well as changing the climber hatch to a normal one. This would make the whole solution figuring out WHAT to do, and making the execution only as difficult as getting the right distance between the lemmings, which is aided by the walker. ;)
Hey Arty, thanks for chiming in! ;) Indeed, from the video I rather gathered instead that the climber hatch was the part of the criticism that stands, as you said.
I explained beneath the video though that the pioneer lemming, i.e. the one you tried to save for so long, is always going to die in the intended solution, because the player himself makes that guy a climber. Whether other lemmings are also climbers or not doesn't change this.
The fact that the level is open on the left, combined wih one crowd being climbers, is still part of figuring out what to do, though ;) . It does not add to the precision, it just means you have to come up with a way to seal off the left shaft in one direction. The execution of this is simple - unless the player thinks he has to save everyone :D - compared to the fiddly positioning of the miners.
Without the climbers on the right, actually, the level would consist only of trick execution - because what to do took like 2 seconds for you to figure out, in this regard ;) .
Hence, I have flattened the terrain now, but the lemmings on the right are still climbers - as a drawback, in this case ;) . I'll see whether the texture of the tree terrain provides enough options for visual anchor points to remember where you assigned a miner, or whether these red arrows from the same tileset have to be added in the future.
Then again, if a fiddly pixel-precise solution works and breaks the level, then it is a backroute, and is the "path of least resistance" from the player's point of view, since they haven't had to spend hours working out the intended solution
While they might not have to spend hours working out the intended solution on a conceptual level then, "fiddly pixel-precise" often means they have to work just as long trying to implement the alternative approach. ;)
This is what commonly leads to statements such as "I saw the solution right away, it's just way too precise to implement".
And then, all I can reply is "No, you actually haven't seen the solution at all, you're making a conceptual mistake, so all your pixel precision is self-inflicted."
I still think the level designer is generally not to blame as long as the intended solution doesn't rely on pixel precision. Because when it comes to alternative approaches, there are countless options for the player to bring pixel precision upon themselves - and if it's just refusing to contain the crowd and attempting some timing-based / flow-control shenanigangs by fiddling with the release rate etc. instead.
But in their own self-interest of avoiding such criticism of pixel precision in unintended alternative solutions, even if they don't break the level because they aren't easier than the intended one, it can still be useful to block not only shortcuts (=backroutes), but also other paths that would be valid alternative approaches in and of themselves, but are not intended, and could therefore accidentally give the level a bad rep.
An example of me having done this was when I added an unnecessary fire trap on my Lemmings: Hall of Fame level "The Lem-catcher's song":
The fire trap forces a lemming to dig down a pillar, even though he is a Floater and could survive the drop all by himself. Also, he's the only lemming that needs to make this drop, and because the crowd is splatting right from the hatch as this worker lemming is running around, you even have an incentive to make him float down rather than digging. Yet, digging is needed to remove terrain that would otherwise stop that same worker lemming from shimmying at a later point.
The fire trap forces you to dig, because the Floater would die from it otherwise, thereby ensuring proper setup of the terrain for the Shimmier later on.
However, after considering the tester feedback, the current stance for this particular level is that the fire trap will be removed again. Since the rest of the level is comparatively straightforward, this section can become the integral part of the puzzle.