Thank you all for the replays and feedback. Really glad you all are enjoying the pack!

A lot of these solutions from all three of you are quite different than the ones I had in mind, but almost all of them are perfectly acceptable. It seems a lot of these levels, even many of the harder ones, turned out to be pretty open-ended, which I'm quite happy about. The only real exception is Guigui's solution of Tense 9, which I've just now patched (along with some minor cheese in a couple of kaywhyn's solves, since I was uploading a V2 anyway). 

It's worth noting now that I very much do not design levels with clean "max save" or "100% save" solutions in mind (unless of course the save requirement IS the max possible), so if anyone finds saving the max possible lemmings in a particular level annoying, I'm sorry!

Also GuiGui, it seems your Panic 8 replay is broken on my end. I'm using NL V12.14.0 currently. What version are you using, since CE shouldn't behave any differently?

I left the Author field blank on all levels since, in my mind, if all the levels share the same author, filling the author field is redundant, and on my version of NL, the Author field is not present when blank instead of listing "anonymous". Realizing now that there's versions that do list "anonymous", I probably should've fixed that for V2, whoops. If there's another major backroute, I might remember to fill those in.

Thanks again for the replays! With the levels in general being more open-ended in this pack, as well as having had it playtested some already, I'm hopeful there won't be another "Sour 2" situation.

09 MAR 2026: V2 released! Fixed major backroute in Tense 9 and minor cheese in other levels.



After a few more months of work, I present to you all "TomatoLems"! 

FEATURING:

• 30 levels (7 of them repeats) split across 3 ranks
• 3 special hand-drawn levels (drawn by my bestie EeveeSkittles!)
• 9 standard (tracked) music tracks arranged by me + 3 special (streamed) music tracks composed by me (+ 2 custom jingles!)

Thank you to JawaJuice, kaywhyn, and weirdybeardy for testing my pack to varying extents. Your feedback was extremely valuable!
Thanks also to Ether Audio who makes cool music and let me use one of their tracks for this pack, and an extra special thanks to EeveeSkittles for once again drawing the special levels and for being the best friend I could ever ask for.

The full credits for the pack are in credits.txt, which can also be found inside the TomatoLems folder in the ZIP file.

RANKS:

Calm (Easy)

Calm 1 "Beware of the Pipeline"

Tense (Medium-Easy)

Tense 5 "Polar Vortex"

Panic (Medium)

Panic 8 "Cave-divers"

DOWNLOAD:
TomatoLemsV2.zip
Simply unzip this file into your main NeoLemmix folder.

I hope you all have as much fun playing this pack as I did making it!

Changelog

V2 (09 MAR 2026)

• Fixed major backroute in Tense 9 (also affecting Calm 8).
• Fixed minor cheese in Calm 6 (also affecting Tense 4).
• Fixed minor cheese in Calm 10.

V1 (07 MAR 2026)

• Initial release.

Minor progress update for you all.

The harder repeat of the aforementioned level has been scrapped due to a backroute that I'd rather not worry about trying to patch out, so we're back down to 26 levels, but I've got a few works in progress to replace it with. On the plus side, I've finally settled on a name, "TomatoLems", even if it's not the most creative one out there, and I've been working on the presentation some now as well, adding some unique custom panel graphics and custom jingles.

Very excited to finish this pack, though progress will likely remain slow for the rest of my time working on it.

Another progress update! We're now up to 27 levels!

Here's just one more preview to avoid spoiling over half the pack This pair of repeats is based on one of my earliest contest levels, and it's safe to say I've come a long way since then ^^ (at least in terms of gameplay--in terms of aesthetics I'm about the same as I was years ago).


"Break the Cycle" / "One to tell the story"

I've also now got 8 tracked music files to play in the levels, some of which are my own compositions and some of which are covers of others' works, including a piece from one of my friends (used with their permission, of course), which is awesome. I'm very excited to release this pack! Not so excited that I'm gonna rush it, of course--as cool as it would be to release the pack on Lemmings's 35th anniversary, the final 3 levels and finishing touches will need a bit more time than that.

Since NeoLemmix Editor 1.45, if a level with more than one terrain piece is saved, each subsequent $TERRAIN group in the NXLV will be indented two extra characters, which accumulates the more terrain pieces there are in the level.

For example, this:
#        Terrain pieces         
# -----------------------------
 $TERRAIN
   STYLE orig_crystal
   PIECE bar_04
   X 507
   Y 65
   ONE_WAY
 $END
 
 $TERRAIN
   STYLE orig_crystal
   PIECE clump_01
   X 38
   Y 109
   ONE_WAY
 $END
 
 $TERRAIN
   STYLE orig_crystal
   PIECE clump_02
   X -8
   Y 115
   ONE_WAY
 $END

...

...becomes this:
#        Terrain pieces         
# -----------------------------
 $TERRAIN
   STYLE orig_crystal
   PIECE bar_04
   X 507
   Y 65
   ONE_WAY
 $END
 
   $TERRAIN
     STYLE orig_crystal
     PIECE clump_01
     X 38
     Y 109
     ONE_WAY
   $END
   
     $TERRAIN
       STYLE orig_crystal
       PIECE clump_02
       X -8
       Y 115
       ONE_WAY
     $END
     
...

ONLY the Terrain pieces section has this issue. Objects and Rulers are formatted properly.

While this doesn't prevent the level from loading or playing normally in the NeoLemmix Player or in the Editor itself, it can make levels explode in file size. After opening the level these examples are from, making no changes, and immediately saving, the file size went from 26KB to 566KB!

Little progress update: scrapped 1 level, made 6 more for a total of 19 out of 30!

Here's a few previews:


"Follow me!" / "Wait for me!"


"The Lemming Hair Dryer"


"Freezer Burn"

Here's hoping I don't run out of ideas anytime soon

Just now getting to checking everyone's replays. There are indeed no more major backroutes! Yippee!

Thanks to everyone for sending replays (and for all the kind words and general feedback).

07 MAR 2026: The pack has been completed, and it's release topic is here: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=7394

You asked for more levels from me, so you're getting more levels from me!

Introducing TomatoLems!

Planned Features:

• 30 levels split across 3 ranks--26 levels (7 of them repeats) made as of 01 MAR 2026
• Similar difficulty to Sweet 'N' Sour Lemmings
• A focus on original skills and tilesets with some limited use of other skills/tilesets
• More music composed/arranged by me!

Here's some levels I've already made (which are, of course, subject to change as backroutes are found or if I later decide to scrap some):


"Beware of the Pipeline"


"Polar Vortex"


"The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"


"The Serpent"

No promises on a release window (or even meeting my own goals), but I will try to give updates on my progress somewhat regularly and answer any questions/consider any suggestions.

If anyone is interested in being a playtester, not just for finding backroutes but also for providing difficulty feedback, shoot me a PM!

Accidentally left something in Sour 2 that I thought I made impossible forever ago, oops. Had to patch it again.

Apologies for the silence, but I very much appreciate the feedback (and the playthrough).

Just got around to releasing another version. Hopefully any backroutes are at least somewhat minor now.

The affected levels are Sour 2 (Sweet 3) and Sour 5 (Sweet 2).

Got around to finishing Version 4

I reverted the (dumb) layout change to Sweet 1/Sour 1 and simply altered the skillset for Sour 1. I also altered the terrain of Sweet 3/Sour 2 and changed the skillset and other properties quite a bit for Sour 2, so hopefully it's a little more backroute-resistant now. I also simply made the backroute the intended solution on Sour 4. I appreciate everyone's kind words about the pack a whole lot, so thank you. 

My apologies for the bitterness, that was uncalled for I need to learn to step back from the keyboard for a bit when I get frustrated.

I appreciate the kind words from you both. And Guigui, that is indeed essentially the intended solution for Sour 2. Thank you SO MUCH for your suggestions, genuinely. I'll be sure to try them out tomorrow and see what works.

Very few of the updated solutions are intended, but almost none are worth patching out. Sour 2 in particular feels impossible to ever be fully fixed, as it will always be possible for some precise lemming spacing to cheese the level (and might even be everyone's first thing to try no matter what), even if I make the save requirement as strict as possible. Kinda sucks because I thought the intended solution was clever, and if this level were in the original game that precise lemming spacing wouldn't even matter, but it is what it is, and it's not worth touching the level ever again.

Sour 4 is the exception. It might take a while, but I think I can make it work, we'll see.

Finally got around to backroute fixes and other little tweaks.

Affected levels:
Sour 2 / Sweet 3 (a single steel plate )
Sour 4 / Sweet 5 (RR increase)
Sour 5 / Sweet 2 (major design change, Sour 5 solution change)
Sour 6 (design tweaks, solution overhaul)

Nice to hear from you, JawaJuice Really glad you enjoyed the pack. You sure had some fancy solutions A lot of your solutions weren't exactly intended, but they usually involved some precise timing that I'm not expecting most players to shoot for. If that expectation turns out to be foolish, then I'll actually try to fix it. Your only true backroutes were Sour 5 and Sour 6. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with Sour 5, but I have ideas for Sour 6.

Guigui, I really appreciate your feedback on individual levels, so thank you so much for that.

My responses

Sweet 2: Yeah, this level is definitely the most gimmick-y level of the pack, essentially just making sure the player internalizes the fact that they can lose half their lemmings, since you almost never are forced to lose so many.

Sweet 3: Saving the Basher is perfectly acceptable; in fact it better prepares you for the intended solution to this level's repeat.

Sweet 4: Indeed, the Builders are the only real skill crunch here, nicely done!

Sweet 6: The solution is intended, and the resemblance to the mobile Lemmings game is indeed intentional, nicely spotted! I play the game occasionally and thought this level would be a fun nod to it.

Sour 2: Not quite intended, the finicky timing is not at all necessary The easiest thing to do is compress the crowd after building across the first two gaps (taking advantage of being able to lose 10 lemmings) then find a way to separate one lemming from the bunch after getting past the traps. Not sure how or if I'm gonna enforce that though.

Sour 3: Glad you really liked this one! I think it's the level I'm most proud of. I think I did a good job recreating the feel of an actual ONML level with this one... aside from it having a slow RR and being taller than 160 px, both of which are required to make the level work at all.

Sour 4: Oops! I made the save requirement too lenient. You still got the core of the solution though. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.

Sour 5: I think I'm just gonna have to leave this level open-ended.

Sour 6: Indeed another backroute; I think my idea for JawaJuice's backroute will stop yours as well.