Thank you, that is still very useful even without a video.

The Level 5 planter bug description helps. If only one Fizzle turned around at the end point of a plant while all others passed the same point correctly, then it may be related to a very specific position, collision edge, or state of that individual Fizzle. The note that it may have been the same Fizzle that created the plant is especially interesting. I will keep that in mind when checking the planter / bridge logic.

It sounds like the end of one bridge segment may sometimes be treated like a solid edge or blocker for one Fizzle, while the path is valid for the others. That is definitely not intended. Even if it is rare, it is the kind of bug that can become annoying in later levels, so I will investigate it.

About pausing: I understand your point much better now. Coming from NeoLemmix, assigning skills while paused is a very natural habit, and I can see how Fizzles feels different or awkward from that perspective.

For 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.

Thanks again. This is very helpful feedback, especially because it points to problems that may only become obvious when the game grows beyond the first tutorial-style levels.

I've replied to the reported issues with Playback Mode in NLCE here.

From this topic.

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Quote from: darkshoxx on June 29, 2026, 09:28:35 AMI 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.

I can't reproduce this. Please could you send over the replays that you used to test?

Quote from: darkshoxx on June 29, 2026, 09:28:35 AM- 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.

Options (F3 from main menu) > Configure Hotkeys > (Choose a key to edit) > Choose 'Stop Playback Mode' from the dropdown list*

Are you carrying over your hotkeys from NL? If so, a key won't have been configured for cancelling playback, hence the blank space. I should do something about this; we can set a default so that some key is shown here, and the user can be prompted to set their own the usual way (i.e. via Configure Hotkeys).

*Side note - admittedly, choosing key-first-then-action is a less unintuitive way to set hotkeys than choosing action-first-then-key, particularly if a user isn't aware of what actions are available. It may be a good idea to rethink the hotkey config UI at some point. I like Simon's hotkey UI in Lix, and - to a lesser extent - the super simple UI I created for RetroLemmini.

Quote from: darkshoxx on June 29, 2026, 09:28:35 AM- It says "choose a folder" but it only lets me choose a replay file within that folder (but then correctly identifies the parent folder).

Yes, this is a problem. We should have a directory picker here.

Quote from: darkshoxx on June 29, 2026, 09:28:35 AMWould you like me to raise a github issue?

I was going to say 'no need' originally, but ... actually, this might be a good idea. Just make one for the folder issue for now, and please PM me your test replays.

Thanks for reporting.

Quote from: Simon on June 29, 2026, 10:45:35 PMI wager that this cycling is mainly for yourself.

Fair shout, but chances are that there are others who also like the effect, otherwise it would never have been implemented this way in the first place. It's possible that a colour couldn't be decided upon, so it was a case of 'let's just use all colours and cycle them!' - namida will probably know more about how the effect first made it into the game.

Quote from: Simon on June 29, 2026, 10:45:35 PMIf I were to implement it, I might allow it purely because the alternative would be to special-case something (gadgets would be special).

Agreed, it should probably just be allowed for everything. If we make it so that users must configure it themselves via the .nxmi, chances are that they'll choose to use it for only one (and not all) of the elements, if at all. And, if they do wish for CPM to be a psychedelic mess, they are free to make it so!

Quote from: Simon on June 29, 2026, 10:45:35 PMI don't know how it looks in the code. If it's nasty in the code ...

It's actually very neat in the code! I refactored the few lines into its own method, so that it can easily be used for anything we wish. Even before that though, it wasn't messy or bothersome at all.

The only known MIDI files available are the ones from Windows '95 Lemmings, which doesn't feature that particular level or tune.

The original Lemmings songs were made in Amiga's native MOD audio format, and can still be mixed and edited using a MOD music programmer such as OpenMPT (highly recommended). I've attached the MODs to this post for convenience.

As for MIDI, 'Awesome' is only likely to exist if someone has manually recreated the tune in MIDI format. Not impossible by any means, but afaik it hasn't been done (yet!). I could be wrong about this, of course.

Sorry to hear this will be your last post. I'd be happy to investigate your idea further alongside you if you wish to continue with it.

No worries if not, thanks again for contributing something worthwhile to the Forums!

Very sad to see you go heart66, your input has been very welcome here on the Forums. I do hope you change your mind, but if not then farewell and best wishes!

About planter bug on stage 5 demo, I'm sorry I cannot reproduce it now, and have no way to record it either.
It happened when I used all the planters, and the ending point of one plant was treated as a ice block (turn the fizzle around). It may be interesting to note that this bug only appeared for a single fizzle : all the others walked through that point with no problem, but a single one made the turn and was stuck in an infinite loop. I'm not sure sure if this one stuck was the one that made the plant itself...

About the whole pausing thing I must first say I am certainly way too much used to NL. Now that I pay attention to it, I notice that I tend to assign almost all my skills by pausing the game. Looking at other people playing I can say that, for instance, kaywhyn does not do that as much as I do.
Still I fear this can cause trouble to players, mainly because the fizzle you want to assign a skill is moving, so the button you have to click is moving too !
Later in game where there will be 4 or 5 skill icons available to assign in that moving pop-up bar above the fizzle, one will have to be very careful to click the correct moving icon !

Oh, it is sad to see you go that fast heart66.

Though I must say I totally relate to being addicted to some gaming stuff to the point of needing to be disconnected from it by someone else.

Once I was addicted to this mobile game called Puzzle and Dragons (best strategic match 3 puzzle game btw, try it, or not !). I could quit it when I gave my account to a player friend who takes care of it ... since more than 10 years now !

Then I was addicited to online chess.com. That was crazy playing chess instead of working on the computer, really bad for everyone. I asked the site to ban my account, then asked a friend of mine who's good at PC things to almost physically block this website access on my machine. I dont know how he did it (and dont want to), but now every time I try to access chess.com I get 404 error.

In both case, a short break from the addiction was enough to regain life control, meaning the addiction was not that bad but still needed fixing. So yes, if you find that the forum is taking too much away from your life and cant help yourself quitting it, asking for other people to do it is perfectly fine.

I also thank you for your level pack, me and the kids have fun playing through it slowly. The levels are accessible but always require little sneaky details that make them interesting, so yes a good time for everyone.

Cheers and thanks again for all heart66 !

Thank you very much for trying the 5-level demo and for the detailed feedback.
Small note first: I think this reply ended up in the older thread:
"Fizzles – Original Puzzle Rescue Game With Playable Level 1 Demo"
The newer thread for the current demo is:
"Fizzles – Original Puzzle Rescue Game With Playable 5-Level Demo"
No problem, though — I'll answer here as well.

About scoring and unlockables: I agree. It is probably too early to judge that properly from the current demo. The current version mainly shows the basic mechanics and the first five ability introduction levels. Scoring, progression and balancing will need more testing once there are more levels and more combined mechanics.

The pause / time manipulation point is very interesting, especially coming from Original Lemmings and NeoLemmix. Fizzles is intentionally a bit different here. At the moment, I do not want players to fully plan and assign skills while the game is paused, because that would change the core feel quite a lot and would make many current situations much easier.

The intended direction is that the player observes, reacts, fails, restarts, and improves the solution step by step. Early levels are still mostly tutorial-like and introduce one ability at a time. Later levels are meant to combine abilities more, so the puzzle aspect should become stronger.

That said, your usability point is still useful. Fizzles is being designed mobile-first, and the controls are intentionally placed on the right side, separated from the main play area and easy to reach by touch. At the moment, I do not know of a situation in the current levels where pausing and then resuming would make the player too slow to react. I also do not plan to design levels around that kind of tight pause/resume timing.

So for now, I see pause more as a way to interrupt play or think for a moment, not as a core planning and skill-assignment tool like in NeoLemmix. Still, I will keep the general accessibility and reachability of the pause control in mind as the game grows.

Thank you also for reporting the Level 5 bridge issue. I know the area you mean. If some Fizzles turn around at a bridge edge while others continue, that is not intended behavior and should be treated as a bug. The builder / planter bridges are still one of the newer systems in the demo, so this kind of feedback is very useful.

If possible, could you send me or link a short video showing the Level 5 bridge bug when it happens? That would be very helpful for debugging, especially because the issue seems to depend on the exact position and timing of the Fizzles on the bridge edge.

I'm glad you noticed the instant bridge behavior. That is intentional. The Planter is not meant to be a direct copy of the Lemmings builder. The idea is that a newly created bridge can immediately become part of the path for following Fizzles. As you said, this removes some of the timing headaches from classic builder mechanics, but it also gives Fizzles a slightly different rhythm.

You are right that slow builders in Lemmings create many interesting tricks and level ideas. Fizzles is currently aiming for a somewhat calmer and more accessible direction, while still leaving room for puzzle depth through ability combinations and handcrafted layouts.

Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write this up. This is exactly the kind of feedback that helps shape the next levels.