My replays are attached for the three new levels that use the new 12.13 NL objects. Great levels, though "Becoming Indifferent" might be a little difficult considering that I fell for the trap of being a basher short. Also, only one jumper used for "Fluctuant Knowledge"

As mentioned from quite a while back, I think the portal introduction level can be a bit closer to the level that introduces teleporters, and similarly maybe the neutralizer/deneutralizer can come a bit after the neutral Lemmings introduction level. Finally, if there is a level that introduces preplaced Lemmings with preassigned permanent skills and/or a level with preassigned trapdoors, maybe the skill assigner/deassigner tutorial can come a bit after either one. 

Don't forget to vote! 

V 2.0 is out!

The update introduces three new levels to the "Objects & Functions" rank for the new objects:

- "Thinking With Portals" (Portals)
- "Becoming Indifferent" (Neutralizers / Deneutralizers)
- "Fluctuant Knowledge" (Assigners / Deassigners)

LMAO

Okay ignore the by-level vs. by-replay issue.

I clicked when the first level came up, so when you see the thumbnail and the details. That stops all playbacks.
Tested it multiple times again just now, if I don't click, everything works just fine in both modes, and clicking stops them in both modes.

Hi WillLem, thanks for looking into those.

I think it's replaying the replays in alphabetical order of the filenames. If I rename the files to start with numbers of the order I want them to played in, it works
(e.g. 01_Steel_works 02_The_Boiler_Room,...)

The deadlines are as follows:

Submissions: 5.8.26
Event: 3.10.26

So no rush.
And again, just to be clear, it's a submission so there's no guarantee it'll be accepted, so don't put additional effort into it for the sole purpose of the submission.

Quote from: Guigui on July 01, 2026, 11:48:49 PMI think it'd be better to continue the discussion on the 5 levels demo in the correct thread.

Quote from: HPWsoft on July 01, 2026, 04:56:37 AMFor Fizzles, I still want to keep the core direction mobile-first and more real-time than NeoLemmix. I do not currently plan to make paused skill assignment part of the main gameplay, because that would change the feel of the levels quite a lot.

But your concern about the moving skill popup is very valid. If later levels offer four or five possible skills at once, clicking the correct icon above a moving Fizzle could become too fiddly, especially on touch devices. That is something I need to handle carefully.

Possible solutions could be larger skill buttons, a more stable popup position, better spacing, limiting the number of visible choices depending on context, or another mobile-friendly selection layout. The goal should not be to make players fight the interface. If a level is difficult, it should be difficult because of the puzzle decision, not because the correct icon is hard to tap.

So I will keep the pause design as a separate question, but I fully agree that the skill selection UI must stay readable and reliable once more abilities are available.

Another solution to make assigning skills easier may be to allow to assign skills from the non-moving bottom skill bar in addition to the popup above fizzle ?
Select a (moving) fizzle, have the (non moving) bottom bar highlight which skills are currently available to that fizzle, click on the bottom bar to assign skill to the selected lemmings.
This could be a flow different from Lemmings and not too prone to wrong assignements.

That is a good suggestion, and I can see why it might help in some situations.

However, I also see a possible downside with a fixed skill bar. The player would select a Fizzle in the play area, but then the actual ability menu would appear somewhere else on the screen. That could become confusing, especially on mobile: the player has to keep watching the selected Fizzle, find the correct UI area, move the finger or mouse there, choose the correct ability, and then return attention to the moving level.

In faster levels, that could create its own coordination problem. The player would have to track the Fizzle and interact with a separate UI area at the same time.

The current popup has a reason: it keeps the available actions visually connected to the selected Fizzle. You select a Fizzle, and the possible actions appear directly at that Fizzle. Hitting the correct ability button is part of the gameplay, as long as the buttons remain large enough, readable enough, and fair to use.

I also test every newly designed level myself. If I cannot solve it reliably, or if it feels more like fighting the interface than solving the level, then I adjust the balancing, speed, ability counts, layout, or UI until it works.

So I see the fixed skill bar idea as one possible option among several. I will think about whether it makes sense, maybe as an alternative input method or for specific situations, but at the moment I still think the current popup approach fits the intended Fizzles gameplay better.

The important goal for me is: the controls must stay fair and readable, but Fizzles should still keep its own creature-first, mobile-first interaction style.

So, we've identified 3 separate issues here.

Issue 1: Hotkey display

We do in fact have a default hotkey [Y], but all hotkeys are overwritten by the user config. So, if a user copies over a hotkey file without the 'Cancel Playback Mode' key specified, it will be blank.

I think the best solution here is to print the hotkey onto a button rather than a simple text label. If the hotkey is blank, the button displays '...' (otherwise, it displays whichever hotkey is set). This should prompt the user to click the button, which opens the hotkey config dialog:



We can probably do even better than this, but this seems a decent enough fix for now.

Implemented in NLCEPlayer commit 90648d9.

Issue 2: Use directory picker to select folder

This is now fixed. We open a directory picker rather than asking the user to select a replay within the directory (which is both confusing and misleading - we're loading all replays in the directory, not just one).

Implemented in NLCEPlayer commit 4c05ce9.
Also implemented for Replay Manager in NLCEPlayer commit e153480.


Issue 3: 'By Level' doesn't playback replays correctly, whilst 'By Replay' does

This one will require further investigation.

I tested the replays supplied by darkshoxx and they played back as expected for both 'By Level' and 'By Replay', although I did observe the following issues:

• It takes a while for playback to begin when running the replays 'By Level'. I'll see if there's a way to speed this up
• We should probably show something like 'Beginning Playback...' somewhere in the UI, otherwise it looks like nothing happens. Long waits will exacerbate this
• One of the Steel Works replays appears to be broken (i.e. it doesn't solve the level). Since physics are identical between NL 12.14 and NLCE, this shouldn't be happening. One possibility is that I might be using an edited version of Steel Works to play back the replay.

After testing some of my own Lemmings Redux replays, I found that 'By Level' does indeed play replays correctly; the replays were matched to the levels correctly (even when a level appears multiple times), but the ordering was incorrect - for example, The Crankshaft was played before Just Dig!. Not sure as to the reason for this, but clearly the playlist system needs another look.

So yeah, this third issue is proving to be one of those elusive things that's a problem for one user but not another. Ideally, I'd have feedback from multiple users regarding Playback Mode, but so far I only have my own tests (I ran several tests on different packs when developing Playback Mode and fixed any issues detected) and darkshoxx's bug report to go on.

I'll release 1.2 in the next few weeks with the first 2 issues fixed, if not the third. What's the deadline for the showcase?

I think it'd be better to continue the discussion on the 5 levels demo in the correct thread.

Quote from: HPWsoft on July 01, 2026, 04:56:37 AMFor Fizzles, I still want to keep the core direction mobile-first and more real-time than NeoLemmix. I do not currently plan to make paused skill assignment part of the main gameplay, because that would change the feel of the levels quite a lot.

But your concern about the moving skill popup is very valid. If later levels offer four or five possible skills at once, clicking the correct icon above a moving Fizzle could become too fiddly, especially on touch devices. That is something I need to handle carefully.

Possible solutions could be larger skill buttons, a more stable popup position, better spacing, limiting the number of visible choices depending on context, or another mobile-friendly selection layout. The goal should not be to make players fight the interface. If a level is difficult, it should be difficult because of the puzzle decision, not because the correct icon is hard to tap.

So I will keep the pause design as a separate question, but I fully agree that the skill selection UI must stay readable and reliable once more abilities are available.

Another solution to make assigning skills easier may be to allow to assign skills from the non-moving bottom skill bar in addition to the popup above fizzle ?
Select a (moving) fizzle, have the (non moving) bottom bar highlight which skills are currently available to that fizzle, click on the bottom bar to assign skill to the selected lemmings.
This could be a flow different from Lemmings and not too prone to wrong assignements.

Curious to know if Ichotolot got intended solution on DECIMATION ?

At least curious to know if the left exit is used at any point during the level ?

We've solved everything. Thanks everybody for joining!

I've attached replays from the stream for these levels:

A Step Down With Difficulty -- one of our solutions uses only 15 skills
Oh No! Another Hardcore Molten Problem -- kaywhyn, I'll reply tomorrow!
Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem
Prologue
Ring of Fire
Subjugation
Unstable Egress

This should ideally go with the other replay postings into Playing Phase for the 2025 levels, but that's locked.

-- Simon