I know you stated that you are not an active NeoLemmix solver, but I still want to explain some things.

QuoteThe contests don't allow collaborative levels. About 50% of levels I create nowadays are collaborations of some sort. I understand that collaboration levels is a big can of worms in itself and allowing them in contests is complicated. But I'm curious, were they ever allowed in contests? And if so, why were they then subsequently not allowed?

We had a special collaboration contest at some point. If, for example, a collaboration rule is chosen I would not be against it.

QuoteIt seems like the contests don't allow anything made outside of NeoLemmix or Lix. ... Multiplayer levels in Lix are not allowed in contests. ... Also, why is superLemmix not allowed in contests?

For these I would recommend organizing seperate contests.

Multiplayer levels are completely different from single player in design, way of playing and target audience. A seperate contest would be the best option here.

I even mentioned to Simon about hosting a Lix Multiplayer contest.

In the case of SuperLemmix:

For one, I also would point at different target audiences - execution focus (SLX) and puzzle focus (NL + Lix). One of the main reasons I highly encouraged Will in his SLX effort was so that excecution difficulty and all the old mess can stay out of NL while still finding a new engine for it and the target audience.

But exactly because of the different engine focus that I personally really fed up with over the time (timed bombers, gimmicks, radiation etc etc....), I will make a hard call here:
As I won't play SLX content, I won't host SLX contests. I would be biased and therefore unfit to host such a contest.

People can host their own contest for it, but I would stay out of it.

I would call myself one of SLX supporters, but purely that I can play in peace.

I am aware that this seems harsh, but I don't want to be involved and even organize something that I do not enjoy and therefore do a bad job. That would be unfair to everyone.

QuoteI also backed out of the contests because my levels were not getting played by many people

Here from my experience many people simply play in silence and do not post about their experience. My general expectation is no feedback apart from the vote and if I get any it is a nice surprise.

QuoteIn the current contest, the whole 1 vote per person across the 4 or 5 levels was too low I thought. I agree that people would just vote for their own level. I would also be in favour of keeping results hidden until the conclusion of the voting round.

This sounds like the proposed polls are indeed a good thing to do. 

Regarding this post and the additioal discussion on discord, I plan to make 2 more polls after the current contest regarding the following 2 points:

1.) Allow more than 1 vote during the voteoff inside the rules depending on the number of entries inside each rule. Again, this does not effect the finals!
2.) Making the poll result only visible after the voting has been concluded. So only the end result will be visible after the time ran out.

Again if people have more input here be free to post! 

Finals are up in this topic! 

LOTY 2024 has finally ended and the winners are:

Dodochacalo's "Save Our Souls"

&

Mobiethian's "Encased Exit Door"

Congratulations to Dodochacalo and Mobiethian! I will contact you soon regarding the price of 10 USD.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Third place goes to: Armani's "Caffeine Addiction"

See you soon in LOTY 2025!

The voting for the 3 rules is open! 

  Rule 1 voting topic
  Rule 2 voting topic
  Rule 3 voting topic

Planned:

Rule 1 -- 5 entries (~20% survival rate)
Rule 2 -- 4 levels (~25% survival rate)
Rule 3 -- 4 levels (~25% survival rate)

Rule 1
Armani's "Gold Rush" & Armani's "Diamond Rush" (1 vote)
Colorful Arty's "Treasure Island" & Colorful Arty's "Forbidden Treasure" (2 votes)
Crane's "Ice Cream Cake" & Crane's "Ice Cream Cake (part two)" (1 vote)
IchoTolot's "Berkana" & IchoTolot's "Eiwaz" (1 vote)
kaywhyn's "Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem" & kaywhyn's "Oh No! Another Hardcore Molten Problem" (4 votes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Rule 2

Armani's "Speedlunky" (2 votes)
Crane's "Monster Munch" (1 vote)
IchoTolot's "Chain Of Command" (2 votes)
kaywhyn's "kaywhyn's Organic National Park" (5 votes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Rule 3

Armani's "Spring Has Come!" (2 votes)
Crane's "Migraine" (4 votes)
IchoTolot's "Industrial Incident" (0 votes)
kaywhyn's "Quick Lab Rush" (5 votes)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Finals

kaywhyn's "Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem" & kaywhyn's "Oh No! Another Hardcore Molten Problem"
kaywhyn's "kaywhyn's Organic National Park"
kaywhyn's "Quick Lab Rush"

In each voting round, you're allowed to vote for up to a certain number of levels. Vote for the levels that you want to stay in the contest, not for levels you want eliminated. You may vote for fewer levels than the permitted maximum. You may vote for your own levels.

It's not allowed to discuss the levels publicly on the forums during the voting phase, even if the level is not in the current round, or even between rounds.

You may discuss any level in private messages. You may discuss publicly off-site, e.g., you may post Youtube videos of your playthroughs, or discuss in IRC/discord chat. Eliminated levels may be discussed anywhere, even publicly on the forums.

- Voting takes place for all 3 rules at the same time. Topic links:
  Rule 1 voting topic
  Rule 2 voting topic
  Rule 3 voting topic
- Only the level with the most votes in each rule moves on. Each person only gets 1 vote for each rule.
- Dertermining the top level in a rule might result in a tiebreaker. (Edge case: A tiebreaker between tied levels results in another tie where nobody is eliminated -> All move on.)
- The top 3 then consists of the top level of reach rule. The placement is then determined in a single voting round. Each person only gets 1 vote. A tie here simply results in a tied 1st or 2nd place.

Prize:

- The "choosing the rules for the next contest" prize will be the only one you can get.
- The authors of the top three levels will each get to choose a rule. If an author got multiple levels in the top three they get to choose multiple rules accordingly.
- If people choose (near) identical rules we will sort things out through pm communication so that the rules are different.

So... let the voting begin! Each round will be open for voting for 3 days, except the final which will be 4 days.

All levels are still avialable in the discussion topic: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=7118.0

I will put up the voting soon as LOTY does not need the voting topics anymore. 

Finals are up! 

2 levels set for the finals, let's try to determine the third! 

Group 1

Round 1 

Armani's "Caffeine Addiction" (6 votes)
Dodochacalo's "Pizza Party" (5 votes)
Dodochacalo's "Save Our Souls" (6 votes)
Mobiethian's "The Christmas Cave" (5 votes)
Mobiethian's "Encased Exit Door" (5 votes)
IchoTolot's "Automaton Maintenance" (4 votes)

Tiebreaker 1

Dodochacalo's "Pizza Party" (6 votes)
Mobiethian's "The Christmas Cave" (1 vote)
Mobiethian's "Encased Exit Door" (9 votes)

Finals

Armani's "Caffeine Addiction" (3 votes)
Dodochacalo's "Save Our Souls" (7 votes)
Mobiethian's "Encased Exit Door" (7 votes)

We've reached the final phase and got 6 levels as candidates for LOTY 2024!

We will vote them down from 6 to the top 3 in the first round (ensured by tiebreakers if nessesary).

After that I plan only a single round with 1 vote like in the normal contest to determine the final placement.


If you want to see the full list of nominated levels in non-randomized order, check the nominations list topic.
If you want to play these levels without having to dig up all the various level packs, check the playing phase topic which has a pack available for download that contains all the nominated levels.

Please remember that discussing the nominated levels is not allowed in the LOTY2024 topics now that voting has begun. This does not apply to levels that have already been eliminated at the time. Discussing them elsewhere in the site is okay, as long as it's not in the context of LOTY2024.

6 levels made it to the 3rd phase!

I will prepare the next one and probably start it during the next days.

There we will determine the top 3 (the only round I will enforce the survival rate with tiebreakers) and then (like in the normal contest) the winners in a last round of voting with 1 vote.

Voting is up! 

Voting topic 1
Voting topic 2

Group 1

Armani's "Caffeine Addiction" (5 votes)
Armani's "Guts Over Fear" (0 votes)
Dodochacalo's "Pizza Party" (6 votes)
Mobiethian's "The Christmas Cave" (5 votes)
IchoTolot's "Comm-Link Online!" (1 vote)
kaywhyn's "It's a Wet World!" (2 votes)
David's "Steel" (3 votes)

Group 2

Armani's "Where Angels Dwell" (1 vote)
Armani's "Cheddar-Crusted Hash Browns" (1 vote)
Dodochacalo's "Save Our Souls" (6 votes)
Mobiethian's "Encased Exit Door" (5 votes)
IchoTolot's "Automaton Maintenance" (5 votes)
kaywhyn's "Snow Way!" (3 votes)
Pieuw's "A tad mad, a tad rad!" (2 votes)