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Hi everyone,

I'd like to share Fizzles, an original puzzle rescue game I'm developing under the HPWsoft label.

Fizzles is inspired by the spirit of classic guide-and-rescue puzzle games, but it does not use any Lemmings, Pingus or other existing game assets, characters, levels or code. The goal is to build something clearly independent, with its own tiny round creatures, visual style, abilities, world and mobile-first interface.

The current demo includes five playable handcrafted levels. Each level introduces one Fizzle ability:

* Level 1 – Digger
* Level 2 – Floater
* Level 3 – Blocker
* Level 4 – Climber
* Level 5 – Planter

The demo also includes player profiles, difficulty settings, progression, highscore systems, music, sound effects, HUD, and a browser-playable version on itch.io.

Playable demo:
https://hpwsoft.itch.io/fizzles

The Kickstarter campaign for the next development phase is also live:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hpwsoft/fizzles-from-5-playable-levels-to-the-first-release?ref=bxjuid

The campaign is intentionally small and transparent. It is meant to support the next concrete development steps: additional handcrafted levels, new abilities, onboarding, mobile UI polish, audio and presentation improvements, testing, and preparation for a first public mobile release.

I'm intentionally not promising a huge game all at once. The current focus is to continue from the existing playable foundation and build Fizzles carefully, step by step.

I'd be especially interested in feedback from people who enjoy this kind of puzzle rescue gameplay:

* Are the goals and abilities easy to understand?
* Does the creature-first selection approach feel clear?
* Is the HUD readable?
* Does the demo already suggest enough puzzle potential for later levels?
* What would you expect from future abilities or level mechanics?

Thanks for taking a look.

I'm searching the midi file for 'taxing level 15 awesome lemmings' - help greatly appreciated! 

Quote from: WillLem on June 28, 2026, 08:24:02 PMShould all elements be allowed to cycle (Gadgets, Lemmings, Triggers, etc)?

I wager that this cycling is mainly for yourself.

If I were to implement it, I might allow it purely because the alternative would be to special-case something (gadgets would be special). I like to avoid that. Implementing it saves a user-visible explanation, even if it's only "for gadgets, you can also put" instead of "you can also put" in the comment in the config file. If we don't make it clear, we'll eventually get a bug report.

On the other hand, I don't need it, and if you don't need it, chances are that nobody needs it. Do what makes yourself feel best. I don't know how it looks in the code. If it's nasty in the code ...

-- Simon

For Lix, you write:
menus should be restructured ... many menus should be deleted, combined and/or simplified

What menus are the nastiest?

It's hard to get good feedback on the menuing. Of course, it's equally hard to make anything better, but I have to know what sucks in the first place. I wouldn't have guessed that the main issues are the menus. I would have guessed that the main issue is the lack of familiar Lemmings tilesets. I can't ship DMA's tilesets, but I can look into the menus.

Please shred the Lix menus to pieces! Which menu annoys you?

-- Simon

If you decide to show Lix:

• Introducing Miners by Nepster, in single/nepster/Moon/
  
• Just Mine by geoo, in single/geoo/wrappy/
  
• Rhizome by me, in single/misc/contests/2023/
  
• Merge Sort by geoo, in single/lemforum/Daunting/

All of them ship with Lix. Replays for them are in the replay proof collection. I use this collection to ensure that I ship only solvable levels.

Other than Rhizome, they're all miner puzzles. It's no coincidence, the miner is awesome. But if you want to cut, I recommend to keep at least Just Mine (novelty solution because of the wrapping geometry) and Rhizome (it's the only Lix level to win a Level of the Year).

If you have a lot of time:

• You Only Get One Bash at It! by Proxima, in single/lemforum/Hopeless/. This is hard and the solution is well hidden, but it's such a surprise. Don't force yourself to solve it, it's the 3rd-latest map in the main 240-level pack. Consider to watch the replay.
  
• Minimalism by geoo, in single/lemforum/Lovely/, to see an easy but nontrivial batter level.
  
• Flying Squirrels by me, in single/misc/contests/ for more of the forest tileset.
  
• Parking Garage by Geoffster, in single/lemforum/Hopeless/
  

-- Simon

Quote from: namida on June 28, 2026, 09:08:44 PMI think a lot of the recent resurgence in 2D games comes down to the increase in the visibility and popularity of indie games, and the fact that 2D games are considerably easier to make.

Yeah that, but computers have already mastered everything, so it went from trying to push hardware limits to gameplay limits.

can we get back to talking about forever btw

There is "Time required between searches from same user". I've now changed it from 5 seconds to 1 second.

I don't see any other settings, but I'll keep looking. Let me know if you run into limits again.

-- Simon

Can a sitemod please maybe lower the restrictions on my search limit? I'm trying to find things spread around forums and I get blacklisted every 5 minutes 

Quote from: WillLem on June 28, 2026, 05:33:11 PMWhat issues did you encounter at first? Maybe it's something that needs fixing engine-side.

I have tested this with a folder that has 3 replay files, 2 for the same level. If I choose Playback Order by Replay, the levels are started, I see a purple "R" but no skills are selected, all the lemmings die 
Instead if I choose "By Level", everything works just fine.
Additional notes:
- There is no default Playback Cancel Hotkey, and no easy way for me to set one, so there's just this field that remains empty.
- It says "choose a folder" but it only lets me choose a replay file within that folder (but then correctly identifies the parent folder).
Would you like me to raise a github issue?

Quote from: WillLem on June 28, 2026, 05:33:11 PMI'm probably not the best person to ask about levels, but for speedrunning I'd posit that the more skills a level has available the better, because there are more possibilities to carve out the most optimal route.

I may have phrased that poorly. 3 sections: Section 1: Speedrunnning the Mayhem levels
Section 2: Showcase of vanilla skills in unexpected ways.
Section 3: Showcase of crazy stuffs.
Sections 2 and 3 are unrelated to speedrunning, this is purely about levels you like. And yes your opinion and taste matters as much as everyone else's.

Quote from: IchoTolot on June 28, 2026, 09:34:10 AMThis should also help:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6138.0

Armani made a compilation pack for all the contests! 

Thanks so much! I'll take a deep dive into that later today!