Caveman Lemmings

[Luis]

This is a Lemmings clone that was released by Mobile 1UP for the iPhone in 2011. It's the original Lemmings with Caveman except the one-way arrows and traps aren't here and some of the levels have different solutions and skills. There's no one-way arrows but the player still builds over the terrain in "Keep your hair on Mr. Lemming" and "Tribute to M..C.Escher": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUafP6UHsDw" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUafP6UHsDw The one-way arrow in Upsidedown World is replaced with rocks which is steel.

They were gonna use the same artwork, levels, sound and music from the real Lemmings but Sony did not want Lemmings to be on a non-Sony platform, so they had to change it. I don't have this game nor the platforms it was released on. I don't plan on getting it. One thing I noticed from watching a video is the Cavemen bash slower than DOS and PSP Lemmings. The reason why is they bash with both hands but only one hand removes a lot of pixels, while the other hand removes less. Also

A picture of Just Dig.
http://www.mobile1up.com/caveman/caveman-1.png" alt="" class="bbc_img" />

[Prob Lem]

It was rubbish, waste of 69p even! Had no character of soul of the feel of Lemmings and the animations and music are awful!

It's the sad result of the (honestly, rightful) exercising of the rights of a brand-owner who unfortunately just license-squats. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/sad.gif" alt=":(" title="Sad" class="smiley" /> (I'd been hoping that Lemmings Touch would begin to turn that around, but it seems to have disappeared without a trace after seemingly slipping a release date late last year. Sony just doesn't know how to cater to a wide audience, and the Lemmings series ends up suffering for it.)

[ccexplore]

Did they start off with using real lemmings and then get blocked by Sony after they've gotten most of the game written?  Or did that happen pretty early during game development?

I guess it's not that surprising that the quality would ultimate suffer (aside: complaining that it has no lemmings is kinda lame and pointless as it's Sony's problem not Mobile 1UP) if the events played out like the former (blocked relatively late in development cycle).  Their original development plan would not have costed for having to redo animations and music from scratch, and being dealt such a blow late in the cycle likely forced them to deal with those things as cheaply (and with minimal delay incurred) as possible in order for the game to still be worth releasing financially (after factoring in the potential negative impact in sales of not being able to use actual lemmings assets for example).

[Prob Lem]

Did they start off with using real lemmings and then get blocked by Sony after they've gotten most of the game written?  Or did that happen pretty early during game development?

According to http://www.mobile1up.com/lemmings/blog/index-old.php" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">the live-blog that they maintained throughout development, they actually had it completed and submitted to Apple, at that point. It was already developed around a decade before - they ported it from code they'd originally made for Palm OS.

(aside: complaining that it has no lemmings is kinda lame and pointless as it's Sony's problem not Mobile 1UP)

Sony's problem though it is, I think that the final comment, written by a chap called "Steviebwoy78", on http://toucharcade.com/2011/04/25/lemmings-caveman/" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">this article (and, to some degree, some previous posts of mine in the Lemmings Discussion section, touching on the series' lore, its appeal, and all that stuff) touches on why some folks wouldn't like that aspect;

Sorry, but I just don't like the characters at all, and the icon is horrible too! Much of the joy of Lemmings was that you genuinely cared for your little green haired guys, the cavemen totally lack character. It's a no from me, I'm afraid.

Or, in other words, Lemmings tapped into human instincts in a very distinct way, and the endearing characters and animations played an important part in that. Given this, whilst everyone accepts that gameplay is in general more important, for some the cavemen characters don't prompt the same reaction as the adorable rodents (I'm pretty sure that folks are more inclined toward rescuing cute animals, than rescuing grunting hairy people), which in turn makes it less fun to play.

Their original development plan would not have costed for having to redo animations and music from scratch, and being dealt such a blow late in the cycle likely forced them to deal with those things as cheaply (and with minimal delay incurred) as possible in order for the game to still be worth releasing financially (after factoring in the potential negative impact in sales of not being able to use actual lemmings assets for example).

In fairness, their original plan was just to port old code and Lemmings assets that had already been made to fit it, in a matter of days, and then release it for free. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" class="smiley" />