Recent posts

#21
Other Projects / Update on Neon Swarm
Last post by crispweed - October 21, 2026, 07:01:23 AM
Just a quick update on Neon Swarm, (my take on a lemmings clone), which I'm developing as a hobby project together with some other games as part of Lockstep Arcade.

The main improvements are setup for tutorial and single player 'campaigns', and I've also worked on improving the tutorial, and trying to make this generally more accessible.

Based on watching people play, and talking to players, Neon Swarm has actually felt like the hardest sell out of all the games in the arcade. People find this complicated and find it difficult to understand what is actually going on. Unlike some other games in the arcade, Neon Swarm is also not playable on a phone, which is then another thing that makes people less likely to play this.

I noticed that quite a few people, when starting the tutorial, just don't get the way the UI works, with clicking on a button to chose an order, and then clicking on a swarmer (lemming) to give them that order.

I made some mouse cursor changes, e.g. with a cross hair cursor after selecting the order, to indicate targeting something in the world, and tried to make the instructions clearer, but none of this seemed to help much.

I've now added a tutorial hints system, which highlights the specific UI action you need to do next, for the earlier tutorials (as shown in the following video), so let's see if this helps.


More generally, I personally *like* a kind of minimalist approach to Lemmings, and so Neon Swarm just shows small coloured rectangles for the swarmers, as opposed to proper animated characters, but I think, on reflection, that most other people probably don't share this preference, and the animations and character of the lemmings in the original are probably very important in making this interesting to a lot of people.

For Lockstep Arcade, in general, I've found that it's easier to get people to try the single player versions of games, and so there's been a lot of focus on single player tutorials and campaigns, but I don't think this is really the most promising or interesting part of Neon Swarm.

Here's a video of a single player game on the Cauldrons map:


The arcade is playable in a web browser, here:

https://locksteparcade.com/Client

I'm really interested in any thoughts/ideas/suggestions from people on here..
#22
NeoLemmix Main / songs of the early prototype b...
Last post by lemmkeev20 - October 20, 2026, 09:37:35 PM
(this isn't a big issue/accident/case of lost media but still it is needed)

i need your help...

so im trying to find where to download the early prototype build song of the amiga version of lemmings beacuse i wanna use them for my pack named X-tralems (no promotion)

but there is a problem...

i can't access to the vengefulchip website...

AND THEY ARE NOT EVEN AVAILIBLE ON THE KHINSIDER WEBSITE  :forehead:  :forehead:  :forehead:

so thats why i need your help, im trying to find the standalone, mod/it mp3/ogg or wav versions
of the early prototype demo version of lemmings... :'(

and if you do... please share them in this topic so we can have the standalone mod/it/mp3/ogg/wav versions of this tracks forever


nevermind

unevermind, there are 6 song left

which are:

a shot in the dark theme

i tell the rest later beacuse i forgot the other ones + the one that i really wanted was the a shot in the dark theme :lix:


uneverunmind...

5 of them are left but i dunno... i already got the a shot in the dark theme atleast :tal-gold:
#23
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings in Weirdyland (20...
Last post by MASTER-88 - October 20, 2026, 04:52:30 PM
Okay i got finnish all levels.  8-)  Here is full playlist Daft (Guess i´ll backrouted few levels quite brazenly)

Overall Daft was way easier than Blather & Vexing IMO.
Here is all Daft levels youtube version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb9LvoPrOF8&t=2s

All 50 Levels playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ1Zrk-tMcTM

Here will be single replays remained levels.

Daft 6 Knight of Ni
This is sure backroute and huge one

Daft 8 electic avenue
That was hardest level on Daft, guess is another quite big backroute

Daft 10 Final level
Pretty easy, because there is all climbers.

Here is rest my replays.

EDIT:
Little Bonus. Here is 100% saved Solution Vexing 1 Lemmingus Horribilis. I changed some things my older completion solution, make me save all. That was one greater level your pack IMO. Just pretty cunning and genius.

#24
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: New Level Pack - Lemmings ...
Last post by 92Dexter11 - October 20, 2026, 04:17:15 PM
Hi Ichotolot and thank you for your solutions.
It's just now occurred to me that I didn't respond to your solutions for the previous ranks, my apologies for that!

Here are my responses to the new ranks and the two previous ones I missed that I have the most to say about:

SAFE
02 Some really fun timing used here with the bashers, very fun to watch.
03 More sensible than my official solution, using the last lemming to collect the cloners rather than letting the zombies interfere too early, well done!
05 Somewhat different than the official solution, but still valid, great job!
06 This one is always fun to watch, since every submitted solutions is radically different, yours is no exception! :thumbsup:
08 Differs from intended solution, but still valid :thumbsup:
09 Quite a unique solution here, well done.

TREACHEROUS
01 I'm pretty sure this is a major backroute, well done for finding it!
02 Intended solution :thumbsup:
03 Another fun one to watch due to the sheer size of the level, great work!
04 Differs massively from intended solution, but I don't consider it a backroute. :thumbsup:
06 Valid solution. It was extremely funny watching you delay the platformer lemming by jumping repeatedly with the shimmier :D
08 Intended solution :thumbsup:
09 I think this solution is what my brother intended, well done!
10 Intended solution, well done!


STEADY
03 Intended solution, well done!
04 Backrouted. Nicely done!
07 Another backroute, similar to the one found by Plodderuk, nicely done!
09 Very similar to the official solution, good job!
10 Also very similar to the official solution!

TURBULENT
01 Differs slightly from intended solution, with some quite impressive timing, well done!
02 Very different from the official solution, but I'm not sure if my brother has an intended solution for this one. :thumbsup:
04 This is intended, well done! :thumbsup:
05 Very similar to intended solution, good job!
06 Intended solution :thumbsup:
07 Another one which is always really fun to watch, mainly because it's difficult to keep track of what's happening! :D Your solution is quite similar to the intended one :thumbsup:
08 Intended solution :thumbsup:
09 Quite a unique solution with the zombies on the left, good job! :thumbsup:
10 Yet another one which is always fun to watch, although you have to zoom out to see everything. As far as I know, this one has no set solution, so good work! :thumbsup:
#25
Level Design / Re: EXTREME DIFFICULT LEVELS! ...
Last post by IchoTolot - October 20, 2026, 03:35:00 PM
I did a topic in the past where I tried to outline what makes levels difficult.

Of course difficulty can also be highly subjective and a level that's a major roadblock for one can be quckly solved by another person.

But the main things I want to point out are the following (at least for puzzle-centric content):

A) The usage of unusual skill combinations - or rather tricks.
B) The amount of possible actions that you can make to progress inside the level in a meaingful way. Or as I called it back then: Entropy.

These are usually the things that make a puzzle centric level hard.
If you need to discover a new trick, or have so many possible ways to proceed then things get difficult.

You mentioned: "2: Sharp timings"

I would argue that this something you want to avoid as much as you can in puzzle-centric content. This contributes more to execution-centric content.
Of course you cannot always avoid it and having everything to fall into place at the perfect time can be very satisfying, but this is very difficult to achive without it just getting plain frustraiting to play.
Most likely you just end up with annoying stff like:

- The time limit is barely enough to complete the level (even when using the intended method!) and you need to readjust a few skills / turn up the RR earlier to get these exttra seconds, so you nearly need to make a TAS.
- Tight timings depending on multiple lemmings and you need a long time to get them right even though you clearly see what needs to be done here.

Just very rarely are these implemented in such a way that they feel good without testing patience.
They also get worse the longer the level goes!

The main goal is still to make even the hardest level somewhat fun!

Of course you cannot prevent these completely at some point.

I try to reduce these instances in my levels and when I need them I try to give the extra seconds that won't open backroutes, try to make timings forgiving or ensure things fall into place automatically when the correct way is found.
Still sometimes they cannot be completely avoided.
#26
Community Edition / [+][SUG][PL] MIDI/MID Music Fi...
Last post by lemmkeev20 - October 20, 2026, 02:51:56 PM
there is one issue with neolemmix... unafortunately :(

the game doesn't accepts midi/mid files, which sucks :lix-glare:

i know i can convert a midi to a neolemmix compatible format but the problem is that the converted version sound really different...

so yeah what i mean is that i think midi/mid files should be accepted to be used for custom neolemmix levels :thumbsup:

#27
Editor Bugs & Suggestions / Re: [BUG][ED] Display bug in E...
Last post by WillLem - October 20, 2026, 02:23:11 PM
The misalignment I'm not sure about, the green is when you have Highlight Grouped Pieces checked, as Gui said.

Please can you send me a copy of the level and I'll see if I can figure out what's going wrong.
#28
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings in Weirdyland (20...
Last post by MASTER-88 - October 20, 2026, 12:16:17 PM
Lets continue that progress. Completed all Vexing levels. Here is all recorded in youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiqCtOeswxs

Here is two last replays.

Level 1 Lemminggus horribilis
I´ll liked this level a lot, but its take me time when i make attempt with this, because its quite hardwork and cunning level with moderate lenght, its take me to while to solved it and requires me some approach, i think i can save all lemmings making some little optimize my strategys here, but its not was needed here, so let this one lemming die

Level 7 Lemmington Spa
Little bit multitask level, not my personal favorite, how ever its still cunning level and also take some approach to solved

Personally liked Vexing difficult a lot. Its might best difficult your pack IMO. Okay Death Of Glory Part 2 was little bit too precise to executed, but its still really genius level. I´ll guess this level 9 Contigo Ergo Lem was some real backroutes. Let see did you patch it later updates. ;)

#29
Lix Levels / Re: Chicago-Themed Terrain
Last post by Simon - October 20, 2026, 12:14:45 AM
Quote from: Simon on April 17, 2023, 11:58:34 PMMore feedback on the entire set to come, again with a deadline: Tuseday, April 25th

I'm over 3 years late, or really 6 years because Liebatron's first post is from November 2020.

I will not merge the Chicago tileset into the main Lix download in the upcoming years.

The Chicago set agrees with itself, and it has a lot of tiles/steel/idioms, but they don't mix well with the remainder of Lix. The lix get stuck in the fine details to the point where the tiles feel like they should be upscaled by 2x or 4x. But the set would lose a lot of character after the upscale. The ideas for traps, e.g., moving train is water, work in the Chicago set, but really need better support from the engine to shine. I'm not ready to implement that needed support. And the sheer number of steel tiles, terrain, ..., is required to make what you envision. but yet again, Lix's list-it-all steel browser is made for smaller amounts of steel. Levels want to be either all-Chicago, or no-Chicago. Mixing is hard. I believe that, for Lix as a project, it's more correct to reject the Chicago set than to merge it.

But because Chicago mixes well with only Chicago, it's still a lovely and consistent add-on. I don't want to erase it from anyone's memory. You have your fans in this thread, and the set is available for everyone here, and maybe we'll see more Chicago levels one day.

Liebatron, I must, in light of the decision not to merge Chicago into the main download, apologize for my early enthusiastic feedback. The early feedback came complete with easy-to-implement suggestions, and you followed through to improve it. This is the biggest sin that a maintainer can do to a contributor: Make you do extra work, and only then drop the news that the improved contribution won't be a good fit regardless. I didn't realize it in the first few months, and the set has found its fans here, that's what has made it so hard to say no outright for 6 years. The indecision has bugged me throughout this entire time.

Now there is closure.

It's a cute set and a labor of love. It's even, as you say, silly in a good way. Looking at the Chicago screenshots here still makes as happy as it has made me back in the day.

-- Simon
#30
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Lemmings presents GOTTA GO...
Last post by kaywhyn - October 19, 2026, 10:08:55 PM
After days of struggling, reaching a peak point with being stumped by the penultimate level of the rank for a few days, the Encore rank is finally all solved! :thumbsup: Replays attached and of course more feedback ;)

Encore Rank Feedback

The rank that comes after the Chilli Dog rank, as well as the first of two bonus ranks to round off the GGF pack, I was under the impression that Encore resets in difficulty, starting with say the Rose rank and rises steadily up to Chilli Dog rank difficulty. Now that I've played through the entire rank and struggled so much at several different points in the rank, I can definitively say that's not the case at all and instead just picks up where the Chilli Dog left off in the difficulty. I would say the rank is quite difficult throughout the entire thing, with some breathers sprinkled in between here and there. It might just be due to how there were backroutes Armani found. I think Icho might had found some too, and hence my playthrough is with them mostly all patched up and therefore the Encore rank is now much harder than in earlier versions. The Encore rank was definitely not smooth sailing for me! :P

Spoiler
Encore 1 - Reach for the Stars! Backroute as Flopsy has told me. Nice level to start off the rank, though I'm apparently far better with stackers than I claim to be :P Honestly, it might just be due to getting better with them over the last several years ;)

Encore 2 - Down The Pan v2 This level wasn't too difficult for me, but honestly it might just be a little for its position this early in the rank. I can definitely see this one being a problem level for less experienced players, especially with the tricks needed and the 1-of-everything skillset. Nice level and definitely one of my favorites! :thumbsup:

Encore 3 - When The Lems Drop Out Not a hard level either, though the fact you only have platformers to gain height makes it a bit tricky. There are stackers to help further with that, and definitely the miners. Talisman isn't too difficult IMO but it's still a really nice one.

Encore 4 - Ring Twice for Savoy This level I definitely say is way too difficult for its position this early in the rank! It was likely just me being a huge dumb dumb here, but with stackers as your only means to get higher makes this a pretty hard level. After struggling so much with the non-talisman solution, I thought the talisman would be even harder. Luckily, it was just a small tweak needed for the hackish non-talisman solution I found, so it wasn't too bad :P Nice level but wow, a very tough one!

Encore 5 - Leaving Behind All We Know Now we are back to a somewhat easy to medium-ish difficulty level after a pretty brutally difficult level in Encore 4. The only difficult part of the level are the builders, but other than that it's not a hard level, especially given the lenient skillset. Another level where I bested the talisman record and found a no bashers solution :)

Encore 6 - Back to the Shack (part II) This one took me a bit longer than part 1 to figure out, though really the only part I had difficulty with was figuring out how to get the glider out of his infinite loop he's stuck in. Making him mine into the steel to break the cycle is clever! :thumbsup: I also like getting both gliders to prepare the route through the OWW on the other side to free the crowd. Well done, this is a great level! :thumbsup:

Encore 7 - Another Lemming Waterfall Connection Much harder than the original one found in one of the main ranks. This was a pretty long struggle for me as well. Earlier attempts had me short on skills, while later attempts had me short on the requirement after going back to tweak earlier parts of the solution to save skills. In the end, I hacked my way through the OWAs in the wrong direction. I think I remember you finding this hilarious when I did that in Seb Lems :P As I've mentioned, any opportunity I see and can take advantage of I will do it, especially if the author leaves backroutes in I can see cheesing the level by :P Nice level, but wow, perhaps another level that's difficult for its position. As Armani has mentioned, the 4 bombers increases the difficulty significantly here IMO.

Encore 8 - Let's do this Hawkman style! Back to a level that's much easier than the previous one but still no walk in the park. This level's pretty fun and enjoyable to solve IMO, especially with seeing where one can save constructive skills by using jumpers to substitute in for them. My solution has been deemed a backroute unfortunately. Just like I said a bit earlier, I will backroute levels if authors allow me an opportunity to :P Still a nice level here!

Encore 9 - Climbing the Wall (again!) Much harder than the original despite up OWAs as the main change here but still a nice level. I thought this one was going to be super fiddly, especially the fencing on the left side, but luckily it isn't like that one LPO2 level where it's nothing but the trick. The save requirement creeped up much faster than I thought it would with the blockers, but that wasn't the biggest problem for me. What I had more trouble with was rescuing the bottom left hatch while making sure a path to the exit wasn't destroyed and I wouldn't have any skills to be able to recover later on. In the end, nice to see the concept of the level return here but with some additional gimmicks thrown in, such as fencers to go through the up OWAs to get one of the entrances out and to get the crowds together to get to the exit.

Encore 10 - Ghost Rider Not too difficult of a level, other than maybe getting the crowd up to the exit due to the left OWAs. Saw an opportunity to use the thin steel to my advantage here to backroute the level, so looks like another one to add to the count :P

Encore 11 - Tight Wad Hill Much harder than I expected, though only because I had some wrong impressions and ideas about the level. In particular, once again the visual deception of what area the up OWAs cover. I thought bashing from the left was impossible as a result, but that was just me hastily coming to the wrong conclusion without having tried it first :forehead: The area the arrows cover seems absolutely vital in order for the solution to work, as you wouldn't be able to stack at the right spot for the others to go over it. It's especially nice that all the timing works out if you do the solution correctly and you release the crowd with the correct Lemming that's far enough ahead of the others so that the first one to get over the stack has enough time to platform to the exit. Excellent level! :thumbsup:

Encore 12 - Night Vision Not too difficult a level, with the only hard part of the solution being to platform under the "green" bus in order to get someone over the top to clone the glider so that you can fence through the buses and then mine to release both crowds. Talisman pretty much happened by "accident" here, though I generally go for save all's/max saves as much as possible anyway, so it was pretty much a given, and this happened to be a save requirement one :P Another nice level here!

Encore 13 - This is not A Star Wars rip off Another level where I really struggled with for a very long time, but only because I thought you need to send two workers over the top on the left side of the level :forehead: I kept trying so many things to make sure the bridge wasn't destroyed while being able to get everyone down safely. It made me think that a blocker's definitely needed at the start, even though I know for sure it conflicts with being able to get everyone through the teleporter safely without anyone walking by it. It didn't help that for a long time I thought the secret tunnel on the far right side at the top was decoration :laugh: It turns out to be very critical to the solution and is how you save enough time to be able to beat the clock. Nice solution and one of my favorites despite struggling for a while! :thumbsup:

Encore 14 - Tally Ho Lemming San! Platformers as your only constructive skill means it will be difficult to ascend the level, though here you just need to use the terrain and the digging destructive skills to your advantage. Talisman is luckily a super easy tweak, as I'm able to substitute a basher for a digger here while being able to platform to the crate to achieve the same effect. Nice level and I especially like the buses over water on the far right! :laugh:

Encore 15 - No Time To Die (Gotta Go Fast edition) If you're familiar with this kind of level, it's a level that originates from namida's Lemmings Plus pack and is found in every numbered Lemmings Plus pack (ie, Lemmings Plus 1, Lemmings Plus 2, etc). Stats are always the same: save 20/20, 9-of-everything in the classic 8 skills, and 2 minute time limit. Here, the GGF level is the same except for number of Lemmings and the bombers are replaced with stackers. Not a hard level if you use multiple workers. There are also a few ways to go about and do the level while being able to beat the tight clock.

Encore 16 - Back to the Shack (part III) Third and final iteration due to there being 3 Back to the Future films. This one was a fairly quick solve just like the first one, so ironically the second part took me the longest to solve even though that one was a fairly fast solve too :P Nice solution with getting the crowd up through the bottom OWW to reach the exit. Time limit can be really tight, but as long as you have everything all ready for the crowd before the miner gets through and then bombs to help them up the rest of the way you should be fine ;) Nice level here!

Encore 17 - Lost in the Casino Not as difficult as it looks and is somewhat of a breather this late in the rank. I would say the hardest part of the level is getting everyone down to the exit safely, especially the one that goes to release the bottom right Lemming and then they are able to climb out together after. Talisman was also luckily a super small tweak to my non-talisman solution of replacing the basher with a miner to free the preplaced blocker while also stopping the digger by building earlier.

Encore 18 - Your Latest Trick (part 2) Definitely one of the hardest levels of the rank even though it may seem to be an easier level than the original due to the RR not being 99 and no up OWAs. How very wrong I was! This level needed about another 1-1.5 hours of offline time before I finally figured out the solution. Looking back at my attempt video, seems I was very close at one point, with the only thing wrong being the bomber skill. I simply had the wrong idea that everyone needed to be contained in both directions, when in fact you're supposed to let one Lemming out to the left. The bomber is very difficult to see in the solution, but its use is really nice, with stopping the basher and then everyone being able to drop out and land on the middle platform before falling the rest of the way to the exit platformer. Shimmier is also somewhat difficult to see, as it's only use is cancelling a skill instead of its intended effect of grabbing a ceiling and going along it. Very nice level and just like Flopsy was surprised this level stumped me! :forehead:

Encore 19 - Walking Barefoot Much harder than I expected as well, especially with figuring out how to contain the crowds in the middle effectively. This I can definitely see being a very hard level for less experienced players. The blocker placement is super critical here but is what makes the solution great due to how you need to stone him after letting one climber/floater get by first. This took me a long time to see, as before this I kept fiddling around with containment methods with stackers, eventually culminating in seeing where I can be more efficient in saving them in order to be able to do the far right side of the level at the bottom effectively. Nicely done to both Flopsy and Nessy for this one! :thumbsup:

Fun fact: I have a level with the blocker/stoner interaction that is used in about the same way as it is here as well ;)

Encore 20 - Who Ya Gonna Call? Knuckles the Echidna! Yet another level that is far harder than I gave it credit for! This one ended up stumping me for a few days. Looking back at my attempt video, seems I had the solution mostly correct at one point, with 1 or 2 skills wrong. Figuring out what the shimmier is for is very critical to the solution, as it's needed to get over the miner tunnel to the left and to be able to use the critical digger at the top to get everyone out and glide into the exit. A lot of my attempts had me a skill short, getting into trouble later because I don't have a skill due to not having collected it yet, or the neutrals get into trouble when collecting the midair digger pickup. The miner to the left seemed counterintuitive to me as it would mean the neutrals themselves wouldn't be able to get back up the level later due to the path being destroyed. Indeed, for a while I couldn't tell which miner direction was correct for a long time. Do you mine to the left or do you mine to the right first at the start? Moreover, do you dig first? I definitely had a lot of doubts as to what was correct in the solution and the order of which to do things. I also thought the solution is timing based, but luckily no timing is needed whatsoever. Nice level but wow, I definitely consider this the hardest level of the entire Encore rank. Its position as the penultimate Encore level is completely justified! If I had already played and solved this level during the contest like Armani has, this would had been a pretty quick one in my LP :P Nope, I wasn't around for that one and hence this was my first time playing the level in my LP. I love the special effects of the mini ghosts being zapped and getting sucked away, similar to what happens in the cartoon(s) and film(s) and with them being the buttons you need to push to unlock the exit, along with the mini-Ghostbusters theme playing after the final one has been pushed :thumbsup:

Encore 21 - Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon! Much easier than the previous level, though still no walk in the park. I didn't find this level hard in any way like Armani did, though I did have the timing work out at certain points with no one falling out in the wrong direction. I could had saved a fencer in my solution but meh, I couldn't bother myself to get it to work after being annoyed by it one too many times :P Nice level to finish off the Encore rank! ;)                   

All rightie, the Toolkit rank is all that remains. As of this post, I have played and solved the first 4 levels of the rank, so 17 levels remain! :thumbsup: The end is near and hopefully there won't be too many problem spots left for the pack ;)