Sometime in the 4 year gap when Quest From Kieran was abandoned before I came back and finished it, I had apparently started another pack with more of a focus on Neolemmix features like new skills and styles, talismans, and taller levels rather than the purely vanilla affair of QFK. I found these levels earlier today, and so have transferred them over to Neolemmix v12.12.5 and released them now as a tiny pack, because I feel certain that I will never come back and turn these into a full pack.
The levels all use Lemmings 2 styles and music from Jazz Jackrabbit. There are 9 of these levels, that I've ordered into what I think is the proper difficulty order. The levels are much easier than QFK, at least at first, with spare skills and excess save requirements. Perhaps this was a rebellion against my own usual very hard and specific level design, I feel like the first 5 levels are a fine difficulty for most people here, nothing too challenging, with the latter half being the usual Kieran Millar fare.
As a bonus, there is a 10th level at the end of the rank that will look familiar to QFK players, yes, it's another one of those levels, this is one I had replaced with an alternative before anyone else got to see it. Looking back at it, I think it got replaced for either being too precise (sorry in advance) or maybe not distinct enough in its solution from some of the other levels that made it, but well, for whatever reason I replaced it you get to see it now for the first time, another hard QFK level. It also has a unique music track by the same author as the music used in QFK, yes, another distinct variation of this same music piece, he made a lot of these.
I've decided to provide the official solution replays in advance, as I have abandoned these levels and am not interested in making backroute fixes.
Here is some of my own commentary on each level looking back after all this time. Not spoilery but if you want to avoid spoilers at all costs maybe don't read this anyway
How to Install
Extract the contents of the zip file into Neolemmix's levels folder. Then inside Neolemmix, press F2 to select the level pack you wish to play. If you want the music, extract the files into Neolemmix's music folder, keeping them inside the KAZ folder rather than the music folder root.
The levels all use Lemmings 2 styles and music from Jazz Jackrabbit. There are 9 of these levels, that I've ordered into what I think is the proper difficulty order. The levels are much easier than QFK, at least at first, with spare skills and excess save requirements. Perhaps this was a rebellion against my own usual very hard and specific level design, I feel like the first 5 levels are a fine difficulty for most people here, nothing too challenging, with the latter half being the usual Kieran Millar fare.
As a bonus, there is a 10th level at the end of the rank that will look familiar to QFK players, yes, it's another one of those levels, this is one I had replaced with an alternative before anyone else got to see it. Looking back at it, I think it got replaced for either being too precise (sorry in advance) or maybe not distinct enough in its solution from some of the other levels that made it, but well, for whatever reason I replaced it you get to see it now for the first time, another hard QFK level. It also has a unique music track by the same author as the music used in QFK, yes, another distinct variation of this same music piece, he made a lot of these.
I've decided to provide the official solution replays in advance, as I have abandoned these levels and am not interested in making backroute fixes.
Here is some of my own commentary on each level looking back after all this time. Not spoilery but if you want to avoid spoilers at all costs maybe don't read this anyway
Spoiler
- Letting You Down Gently - It's fine? Very straightforward in my opinion and just the most basic way to use these skills, I dunno, clearly my attempt at designing for beginners, and that's fine.
- Low Tide - Alright this level is dumb trash and in a full pack I'd have probably replaced it.
- Stepping Stones - I think this really demonstrates how nice it is to have talismans available, for making nice simple levels a bit more challenging, which I think is good for my content that's usually too hard. A simple but fun level I really like.
- Abseiling - For some reason I feel like this is the first of these levels I made but can barely remember so I might be wrong. But to me it's clear where this level took very hard turn away from the design I'd been doing in the QFK series. A great level.
- Tartan Stack - Eh, it's fine.
- Climbing the Castle - OK, this level right here? A certified Kieran Millar Classicâ„¢. Just a really really good level in my opinion.
- Roofer Madness - I really like how the solution that is most obvious to me, that does not get the talisman, plays very differently to the talisman solution in some key ways. Another reason why the talisman feature is great.
- Sink Holes - Bleh. Probably riddled with backroutes, and honestly I don't care if it is. Only OK.
- Final Resting Place - Now this one is a chef's kiss and I really really hope it isn't filled with backroutes. I think this one is phenomenal, just a brilliant level all around. Quite challenging if you don't break it for sure.
- The Ultimate Quest, Take 5 - Yes, I made 5 of these damn levels. Nothing to add I didn't say in the above section outside of this spoiler. I had to update it with various tweaks I made to the landscape for backroute fixes for the QFK levels, but fortunately they didn't change the solution here.
How to Install
Extract the contents of the zip file into Neolemmix's levels folder. Then inside Neolemmix, press F2 to select the level pack you wish to play. If you want the music, extract the files into Neolemmix's music folder, keeping them inside the KAZ folder rather than the music folder root.