Backroute

[Luis]

What you guys mean when you say backroute? Does it mean a level that has an exit on the left side instead of the right?

[Clam]

Close, but... no. 

I don't know where the term came from, but a "backroute" refers to a level solution that the designer didn't intend to be possible, and is (usually) easier than the intended solution(s). Backroutes often make use of glitches, eg. bashing under the one-way wall in Fun 11.

[ccexplore]

Backroutes often make use of glitches

I think that's more true for the official levels than custom levels.  I've backrouted plenty of other people's custom levels without using any glitches.

[klapaucius]

I think that ONML 74 (WICKED 14 :The Lemmings Learning Curve) is the most obvious level in the offical lemmings for explain what the backroute is.

Maybe the creator of this level designed this level to using two climbers, two blockers and three miners for making the way and free the one blocker.. but he gived us BUILDERS AND BASHERS.

Therefore.. almost all of players used builders and a basher for beat this level, and this level has become to too easy to beat. :-)

[ccexplore]

I dunno, I think that's more speculation than anything, since except for specific cases, it's typically debatable what DMA intended or not intended when they create their levels.  The difficulty of levels across a rating is a notorious topic for debate, with almost everyone finding some levels easier than the average in a rating while others too hard for the rating (and often people disagree on which levels are which).  Not having builders and basher would indeed make for a more interesting level, but that's pretty weak support for it being what's intended.

I think one of the clearest examples of backroute in PC versions of Lemmings is level Wild 9 ("Ice Station Lemmings") in PC version of "Oh No! More Lemmings".  Due to a glitch in the PC version (see below), you can solve that level without using a single skill:

A short bit after the first lemming comes out from the top entrance trapdoor, nuke the level.  The aim is to time the nuking so that no more lemmings come out after that first one, but the first one has enough time to walk to and enter the exit nearby before the countdown finishes.

The glitch in PC Lemmings is that after you start nuking, the game calculates the save percentage using only the lemmings that have entered the level before the nuking, not the total number of lemmings available to the level.  So in this case, the game incorrectly thinks you have saved 1 out of 1 lemming and incorrectly lets you pass the level from a bogus 100% save percentage.
 

[namida]

^ How can you prove that wasn't the intended solution and the other one is the backroute?

[Dullstar]

Sometimes it can be obvious that something is a backroute.  For example, Ice Station Lemming.  I don't think the nuke glitch backroute is intentional.  I can't think of anyone who wouldn't agree with this.

[ccexplore]

I couldn't actually tell whether namida was referring to Ice Station Lemmings, or klapaucius' speculation about Wicked 14 ("The Lemmings Learning Curve").

[namida]

^ I was making a joke about Ice Station Lemming.

[Luis]

Backruotes is annoying when it comes to your own level. I keep finding more backruotes in my level. What's worse is that fixing a backruote creates another one.

[Clam]

What I hate is when you have a good clean design, with a nice-looking solution, and then you find a backroute that forces you to clutter it with extra terrain and steel pieces.

[Luis]

I forgot how to beat most of my levels in the PSP Lemmings, so I'm here looking for backroutes in them, because I can't remember the solution.

[DoubleU]

What I hate is when you have a good clean design, with a nice-looking solution, and then you find a backroute that forces you to clutter it with extra terrain and steel pieces.

That's the beauty of level designing!  Lemmings are "incredible contortionists", as the manual says, which forces the level design to learn to "say" exactly what he means.  According to Mike Dailly's webpage level designer Dave Jones had a lot of trouble with this, and a lot of feedback from his colleagues.

I gotta say it, though, there are plenty more examples.  "PoP YoR ToP!!!" and "PoP TiL YoU DrOp!", both of which clearly were meant to use exploders and both of which can be passed without using a single one.  "KEEP ON TRUCKING" was likely meant to use all its blockers, but if you stretch your builders you can save three blockers.

[Luis]

This video is not mine. The PSP version of Poles Apart has a backroute. You can bash through all the poles by digging on the brown wood terrain. They should have used the very thin terrain that's in Pillars of Hercules. You can still play it the normal way though.

Lemmings Mayhem Level 7 Poles Apart (PSP)

[Clam]

That's the beauty of level designing!  Lemmings are "incredible contortionists", as the manual says, which forces the level design to learn to "say" exactly what he means.  According to Mike Dailly's webpage level designer Dave Jones had a lot of trouble with this, and a lot of feedback from his colleagues.

Hah, I wouldn't mind a little more feedback from my colleagues

"KEEP ON TRUCKING" was likely meant to use all its blockers, but if you stretch your builders you can save three blockers.

I don't know why they don't just use steel to block the way to the exit, instead you get a bunch of crystals that you can just bash through. Though maybe in this case, they weren't good enough at the game to complete the level by that route (which is conceivable, the game was still fairly new then). "HIGHLAND FLING" is a worse example, you can just bash through the wall at the start, yet the intention seems to be to build and block around it. And worse still is the Holiday level "A Single Lemming", which is so badly backrouted that it's hard to even imagine what the intended solution might be.

This video is not mine. The PSP version of Poles Apart has a backroute.

Porting levels to other platforms is another matter entirely. I know this from personal experience, as I've 'ported' some of my levels to Lix. Subtle changes in the lemmings' abilities (in your case, bashers continuing with lower terrain in front of them) can have unexpected consequences. That makes it all the more important to playtest the levels well - which sadly, of course, isn't the forté of game developers on a tight schedule