We've reached the final phase and got 4 levels as candidates for LOTY 2025!

We will vote them down from 4 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 LOTY2025 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 LOTY2025.

Quote from: crispweed on July 14, 2026, 05:45:03 AMThe exit for Astral Steps is inside the glowy diggable area up above where you start.

Aha!

I looked at your game recording, and see that you chose the purple/pink slot for this map, and then there *is* no exit for this slot.

So this is a bug. (Thanks for testing and finding this.)

In the meantime, if you choose with the green slot, you *do* get an exit. (Just tried and confirmed this.)

Quote from: Proxima on July 13, 2026, 08:37:53 PMI played through the tutorial levels. Then I tried connecting as guest to see if I could get on a leaderboard for the tutorials, but doing this put me into a multiplayer lobby where I could, as far as I could see, only select from multiplayer levels. I tried one, Astral Steps, to see if I could play it as a single player anyway, and the level doesn't seem to have an exit.

So yeah, you *can* play the various multiplayer and coop levels as single player, first of all (and then you compete with other players for spots on a high-score table).

The exit for Astral Steps is inside the glowy diggable area up above where you start.

Regarding the idea of a leaderboard (high-scores) for the tutorial levels, I could add the tutorial levels to the list of levels playable online, pretty easily, but, without more involved changes, you would need to play them again (online) in order to get on those leaderboards, and most of the tutorial levels are pretty straightforward, and have an optimum solution in terms of time to exit, that I think people would converge on pretty quickly, so I'm not sure if this makes sense.

I think maybe a better way to move in this direction might be to have a bunch of 'campaign' levels, with a bit more complexity than the current tutorial levels, and playable when connected to the server so you get leaderboards.

Was there a tutorial level in particular that you were looking to play online, though?

Quote from: Flopsy on July 12, 2026, 11:03:49 PMI'm open to both suggestions as well, as always I drive to the meet ups anyway and the biggest obstacle for me is finding somewhere to park. Parking is expensive in Leeds and I expect it would be expensive in Liverpool as well but if I were to book into a hotel if we met up in Liverpool, the parking has a chance to be included in the price so it would be a nice saving.

Unfortunately most hotels near the city centre don't seem to have free parking included with the stay. Only the ones further away seem to have it. I am willing to compromise for your sake. From my research into the matter, the "Premier Inn Liverpool (Tarbock)" hotel is only a 30 minute drive from the city centre (Or an approximate 1 hour bus trip), has free parking, the price for a night doesn't seem too bad (right now) and it's near an ALDI. That seems to remove a chunk off your parking expenses.

QuoteI don't mind giving you a lift up to Liverpool and back if you'd rather save on the train fare plus there would be no time pressure there, you're pretty much on the way for me anyway. It's upto you ultimately, if you'd rather get the train, that is also fine
Chances are I'd probably book into the same hotel as you also if this were the plan ultimately so it would also help you get to the hotel from the train station.

I appreciate the offer. I'll need to wait whether we are actually going to Liverpool and if so, I'll consider your offer. I don't mind taking the train to Liverpool if it's too much of an inconvenience for you. We need to ultimately decide whether we are going to Liverpool before the hotel booking prices become too expensive (As they tend to increase as they get closer to the date).

I didn't know. Thanks!

-- Simon

Quote from: Simon on July 13, 2026, 10:26:35 PMStrict English punctuation can produce unclarity, too. Above, I wrote {"Save N",} instead of the rules-abiding {"Save N,"}.

The latter is only rules-abiding in American English.

Quote from: Existing NLTitleOfLevel
PositionOfLevel
Other stats
Other stats
Author: NameOfAuthor

Maybe reorder the lines to shorten the word "Author:" to "by" and even omit the colon?

TitleOfLevel
by NameOfAuthor
PositionOfLevel
Other stats
Other stats

Title, author, and position/pack/... fit well with each other. I think of levels as "Level X by Y from pack Z". Some seem to think of levels as "Position N in pack Z by Y". Hard to say if author should be above or below the position. I care less for the position (I care more about the name), but others care about the position. I'd put author higher than position. If position ends up higher than author, reconsider "by" because it's not a position by an author; it's a level by an author.

If author is anonymous, you can hide the author line entirely. Or show it to prompt the designer to put a name? Hard to say. I'd hide it.

Time Limit: Yeah, consider to hide the entire line if it's infinite. That's the normal case. If you use color (unsure, weakly against but I'm largely neutral), then limited time should be the yellow line because the in-game time limit is also yellow. Consider fewer overall colors to make such a line stand out better.

Release rate/spawn interval feels irrelevant. I'd ditch that entirely. I believe it's a leftover from Lemmings 1 because Lemmix replicated that screen and nobody had the guts yet to cut it.

Maybe replace "N to be saved" by "Save N", but I feel I will be shred to pieces for such heretic chopping.

Quote from: GuiguiIn France it is one space before and space after.
Author : Anonymous

That typesetting rule is specific to French. There is a certain merit to this rule to make the symbol stand out better. But it would be wrong in today's English, it would even look like a beginner's typesetting mistake in English.

Strict English punctuation can produce unclarity, too. Above, I wrote {"Save N",} instead of the rules-abiding {"Save N,"}. I deem it unnatural and ambiguous to pollute quotations in technical writing with punctuation from the unrelated outside level of speech.

-- Simon

I played through the tutorial levels. Then I tried connecting as guest to see if I could get on a leaderboard for the tutorials, but doing this put me into a multiplayer lobby where I could, as far as I could see, only select from multiplayer levels. I tried one, Astral Steps, to see if I could play it as a single player anyway, and the level doesn't seem to have an exit.

Feedback from the Level of the Year 2025 streams:

The "Cut 2 tasks" text has been surprisingly helpful. I was working on the early parts of a solution and two workers were coming out of the crowd. I wanted to re-do one worker's future, but I forgot which worker was which. It helped to see "Cut 2 tasks" vs. "Cut 8 tasks". I immediately knew which lemming's future to cut.

-- Simon

Hi, I just put out a new version of Lockstep Arcade, playable here: https://locksteparcade.com/Client

There are a bunch of tutorial levels, playable offline (click on the "Neon Swarm" button on the line with "Tutorials", on the offline menu for these).

And then there's also support for online multiplayer versus games, and online coop play.
(For this, you will need to connect to the server, using "Connect as guest", and create a room for the Neon Swarm game.)

You can also start single player games, when connected to the server. (Create a room for Neon Swarm as for multiplayer or coop play, and then start the game without any other players.)

There are high-score tables for single player and coop games, where you get scored first by number of swarmers exited and then by the average time to exit. (Solving the levels is pretty easy, but then there's plenty of scope for optimising time to exit.)

You can also look at replays for any high scoring games, to see how the high score was achieved.

I'd be very interested to see what scores people here can get, and I'm also very interested in any feedback or thoughts, generally.
(High-scores just got cleared for the release, but, if you put up a high score I will try to beat you!)