Made some revisions to the crystal and bubble traps following Icho and Proxima's comments:


ohno_bubble zapper trap now glows more slowly


orig_crystal trap has a more subtle shine effect, and the glow is combined with the previous electric "spray" effect

The ohno_rock vine trap still needs a revision, I'll see if I can come up with anything.

@Guigui

Congrats on getting all of Icho's levels solved!

Quote from: Guigui on January 09, 2026, 09:33:30 PMAbout rule 3, I must say I tend to not like  pickups much generally. They either give too much hint on what to do depending on the pickups you get, or they give too much distraction when you put unnecessary pickups here and there.

And IchoTolot's Lem In The Box belongs to the latter category ! Why would anyone enclose 3 pickups in 3 boxes, including a precious digger, only to make the level solvable w/o them ??
Well, while writing the question, I got my own answer : to make the level harder, and also smarter : "look I can put a precious thing there, but if you try to go and fetch it you'll lose".

Decoy pick-ups in levels to increase the difficulty and to act as distractions are quite fair game, just like using decorative terrain to distract players or make them think it must be part of the solution when it isn't Similarly with providing extra skills to act as red herrings, though this is harder to do since one must take care to make sure they also can't be used to backroute the level. The most common one you probably have seen is providing bombers on save all levels, though there are such levels out there that still require them to be used. Hence, in pickup levels, it very much becomes a puzzle and you'll need to ask yourself, what pickups do I need to solve the level, are these pickups necessary to solve the level, etc.
 

QuoteThen I tried Rule 1 Underroot by Armani. Brilliant design again, I love how in Armani's levels you get to see a lot of things just by letting the lemmings go their own way for a time. Here I have an almost solution : just missing one Lemming. I had to resort to a "build your own smooth wall for a climber" thing, and a blocker bypass, but it is not enough yet to clear.
I'm joining my replay, can anyone tell if I'm on the correct track ?

Yup, you're nearly there! You just need to change one thing and then you'll have it. As a matter of fact, I think you can already see the solution, especially when you consider what absolutely must be your losses in the level  

@Guigui

I think it would be right to leave it to Armani to give you any hints, but just to reassure you you're very much on the correct track with Underroot!

After your hints, I've been able to clear all of IchoTolot's level. Replays joined.

About rule 3, I must say I tend to not like  pickups much generally. They either give too much hint on what to do depending on the pickups you get, or they give too much distraction when you put unnecessary pickups here and there.

And IchoTolot's Lem In The Box belongs to the latter category ! Why would anyone enclose 3 pickups in 3 boxes, including a precious digger, only to make the level solvable w/o them ??
Well, while writing the question, I got my own answer : to make the level harder, and also smarter : "look I can put a precious thing there, but if you try to go and fetch it you'll lose". Isn't that the whole Aladdin's lamp cave story ? Good job Icho !

Then I tried Rule 1 Underroot by Armani. Brilliant design again, I love how in Armani's levels you get to see a lot of things just by letting the lemmings go their own way for a time. Here I have an almost solution : just missing one Lemming. I had to resort to a "build your own smooth wall for a climber" thing, and a blocker bypass, but it is not enough yet to clear.
I'm joining my replay, can anyone tell if I'm on the correct track ?

Ack, apologies @Guigui for attaching some outdated replays in the collection That's what I get for keeping all replays, including the old ones. I've fixed it now, so the new attachment in reply #53 a few posts above should be correct

Regarding One 2, as mentioned it took me so much trial and error before I found something that worked, by which before I succeeded caused me a fair amount of frustration. So, quite honestly I'm not sure if I can bother myself with fiddling around with the level some more to see if it's possible to save more than the talisman requirement. I checked my replay again and I wouldn't be able to tweak it to work since

Spoiler

laying the builder bricks a bit further back so that Lemmings won't fall off will just result in them getting killed by the shredder trap. Honestly that made me pretty mad that something that would had worked ends up failing because of the trap However, as it turns out I really overcomplicated my solution compared to the intended way! Anything else I tried with tweaking even the builder positions ever so slightly I wouldn't be able to succeed with just the 15 builders because I run out or it's at the wrong height so that you can get through the thin ceiling in both directions with the provided amount

Even if it was possible to, I honestly wouldn't bother changing up the level any further to prevent it. The level's already really hard as is and could be quite fiddly on top of it if one doesn't find the exact intended way like I failed to

Thank you for the last round of replays kaywhyn. For sure you have them intended now, except maybe ONE 2, and definitely ONE 6. Details :

Spoiler

ONE 2 : do you think your method could save 3 ? By turning 3 of them with the last 3 builders against the left wall maybe.
I did my best to ensure saving 3 is not possible with the intended method because if you turn 3 with the last 3 builders to the left, then you cannot spread the bridges enough to the right in order to overcome the shredders. But I fear this may be possible with your method. Can not pull it off myself yet though.

ONE 6 : again digger cancels diggers! I thought this was not possible to trap the neutral in a pillar now, but it turns out it is. I see ways to block this backroute, but I'm strong and wont do it now.
To answer your question : no, the word(s) to be spelled have nothing to do with the Back To The Future movies.
Since it is hopefully obvious that you have to dig the first and last columns, and the floor at the bottom to free the neutral toward the exit, you are left with word(s) of 7 letters total that start with an S.
Bigger hint under spoiler-spoiler if you want :

Spoiler

Come on, what are you supposed to do in this pack ?

Also about ONE 2, I'd like to share a little story of how this level was certainly the whole starting point of the Save One idea. Under spoiler because it may give hints on how to solve it :

Spoiler

At first this level was barebone : no aquarium, no water at all, no shredders. Only the walled starting area, thin ceiling, exit up there on the right, button up there on the left. It had 50 lemmings and a save requirement of 49 with 15 builders as skills.

My 10 yo kid watching me create it asked how it was possible to clear since there is apparently no destructive skill to cross the thin ceiling. I showed him by sending 1 lemming to push the button, and the 49 others to the exit.

He said "wow ... great... oh and you were lucky to build the structure in this direction! Because if you had built it the opposite direction, then you'd have had 49 lemmings to push the button and only 1 to the exit!"

I think this is when the whole idea of creating levels where you can only save 1 lemming came to me.

Finally kaywhyn, some replays you joined in your last post do not work with the latest version of the pack uploaded on page 1 (for instance ONE 4 and ONE 5 do not work). Either those are older versions of your replays, or I modified some little things in the pack before uploading the final version.

This is so neat! I'd very much like to help test your pack, but there's one in the works on my end, a collab with Armani. But the best I can do is wish you best of luck with your level pack!  I'll play it when it's finished. 

Hello there The Tomato Watcher,

Glad to hear you're working on a new level pack, I had fun with Sweet and Sour !

If the difficulty is indeed the same in your new pack, then I volunteer to playtest it for some time before release. Please shoot me a pm any time you like to see how we can work this out.

Hello @Guigui,

I have resolved the latest updates, the Jan2026 one you posted almost a week ago. I have attached my entire replay collection with the new replays. Here, you just need to check Neo 2, One 2, One 3, and One 6. All these new ones look good now, so great job for finally getting Neo 2, One 2, and One 3 backroute-proof! For One 2, I'm not sure whether or not to praise that one, but that's only because there was so much trial and error I resorted to before I finally found something that works, especially the talisman. I can confirm I can no longer pull off any crazy nuke shenanigans on it which I've done for a few past versions you sent me for further testing So, with the thought that my solution has to be intended now, I checked your intended talisman solution and as I suspected, I really overcomplicated it! Of course, as you can clearly see I completely missed

Spoiler

the visual clue of the green terrain piece ledged in between the marble brick pieces for where to start the building! I was definitely wondering about that and I simply failed to figure out its meaning  

As for One 6, unfortunately, you'll going to hate me for that because I still managed to spare a digger I still haven't caught on to the riddle, and I'm definitely wondering if it's just from my lack of Back to the Future knowledge. As mentioned, I haven't seen any of the films fully

So, unless you feel like not fixing up One 6 anymore, I honestly am not sure if further fixes would just lead to a complete mess now

Quote from: Guigui on January 04, 2026, 01:18:57 AMNow, after all this time spent with the Save One concept that came to me (and my 10yo kid!) when toying with the editor, I'll try to give a set of 3 rules describing what would be, in my opinion, a very solid Save One level :

Rule 1) The player should only be able to save 1 lemming.

Rule 2) The lemmings count should be at least 2, and the saved lemming should not be able to reach the exit by himself. In other words, there should be interaction of any kind between the saved lemming and the other(s).

Rule 3) Even if there were more lemmings coming out from the entrance (lets say 20% more lemmings for instance), the player should still not be able to save more than one lemming.


Rule 1) is obvious. Rule 2) is what differentiate the Save One pack from Dexter's Lock and Key pack. And Rule 3) is the cherry on the cake but very hard to fulfill actually.
In the Save One pack, all levels (hopefully) satisfy Rule 1) and Rule 2), but not all levels satisfy Rule 3) :
Levels that fulfill Rule 3) in the most satisfying way imo : EON 4, NEO 2, NEO 3, ONE 2, ONE 3, ONE 5.
Levels that fulfill Rule 3) but in a not interesting way : EON 2, NEO 5, ONE 1.
Levels that do not fullfil Rule 3) : EON 3, NEO 4 (sorry IchoTolot, I did not state the rule to you!), ONE 4.

I must say the concept/theme you were going for with this level pack is great! Sure, some level types are definitely far more prone to backroutes than others, but as with most things, they can be avoided with clever and careful level designing. That being said, I, along with some others who played your pack, totally didn't expect and was surprised to hear that practically the entire One rank was backrouted

I also mentioned one other time that backroutes will pretty much always happen no matter how long one has been making levels. I've been making levels for about 5 years now and I still haven't gotten that much better at backroute fixing since I first started back in 2021, though I think I've gotten somewhat better, especially with my more recent stuff. In fairness, it's likely due to my intended solutions being somewhat complicated Also, only seeing the intended way definitely leaves us designers blind to potential backroutes! I'm definitely hoping my upcoming Lemmings Memories level pack that's currently a work in progress won't be ripped apart so badly, but knowing myself I can probably expect a lot of backroutes in the first pass of pre-testing whenever that phase opens

Best of luck with GeoffLems! It's an excellent pack and one that's on the easier side than most other level packs!