Official Lemmings Forums Level Design Contest #1 (Designing)

[namida]

Alright, let's kick this off, and hopefully revive the level designing spirit and see some new ideas!

Here are the standard rules for all official contests:
1) You may not enter into the contest a level that you've (or anyone else) released before. You are, however, welcome to release it as part of another pack after the contest is over. This includes remaking a level on a different engine.
2) One entry per person, unless the contest's rules specifically state otherwise.
3) Anyone caught attempting to cheat at or manipulate the voting in any way is disqualified.
4) Whether or not a level meets the criteria is decided by the LF administrators; the winner will be decided by vote unless otherwise stated in the contest's rules (which may only happen if the winning criteria is purely objective).
5) Any deadline dates / times are in UTC.
6) Joint entries are permitted, but there will still only be one prize; it will be up to the entrants to determine how they will split this.
7) Whichever staff member(s) is/are running the contest may enter just for fun, but cannot receive prizes - the prize will be passed on to the next position.
8) Entries should be submitted via private message to the staff member running the contest. Do not post them in the topic, unless the contest's guidelines say otherwise. If the contest allows for use of more than one engine, please be sure to specify which engine you've created your level for, and if you've used traditional Lemmix, please be sure to specify which mechanics set (Orig, OhNo or Cust) your level is intended to be played under.
9) Deadlines may be extended once, by one week, if less than four entries have been received. If there are still less than four entries after this, that contest is cancelled.


Contest #1

Goal: Design a level using an unofficial graphics set. This may mean (but isn't limited to) any of the LPII or LPIII graphic sets, the Castle set for Lemmini, or even a newly made one specifically for this contest. The Sega set does not count as an "unofficial" graphics set.
VGASPECs / equivalents: Not allowed.
Allowed Engines: Lemmix, NeoLemmix, Lemmini, SuperLemmini
Winning Criteria: Users (which may include those who did not enter the contest) will vote for their favorite level.

Timeframe: Entries close 16 Jan 2015. Voting will commence approximately one week after this, and last for one week. Voting will be done in multiple rounds with fewer levels each round (and fewer votes allowed per user each round), the exact specifics will depend on how many levels are entered.

You may make a level of any size, and if it's a NeoLemmix level, you may use any skillset and/or gimmick you like.

Prizes:
Your choice of:
- A Steam game, Amazon gift card, or similar to the value of up to US$10 (or equivalent in another currency)
- An advertisement in the board's news box (on the main page) for a project of yours, whether Lemmings-related or not and whether free or not
- Getting to pick the next contest's criteria

Both 1st and 2nd place get a prize; they may not choose the same prize (1st place has first pick, obviously). Either winner may choose not to claim any prize, in which case 3rd place will get their prize instead (and so on).

Good luck, and may the best level win!

EDIT: If using a tileset other than those included with (Neo)CustLemmix (ie: any (Super)Lemmini tileset, or any (Neo)Lemmix tileset other than the LPII or LPIII ones), please also include a copy (or download link) of the tileset with your submission.

If you're using the NeoLemmix Editor (which is more or less essential to making NeoLemmix or SuperLemmini levels), you may want to see the NeoLemmix Editor page on the NeoLemmix website for information on the new features.


Entries received so far: 5
Crane
IchoTolot
keiya
mobius
Nepster

[Pieuw]

Awesome
I've never used your LP custom tilesets, seems like the perfect occasion!

[Crane]

I've never used the unofficial tilesets before.  Where's the best place to find them and set them up?  I have some of them, but not all of them.

[namida]

You're on your own with how to do it for Lemmini*; as for the Lemmix ones, the NeoLemmix Editor comes with them already set up (for both traditional Lemmix and NeoLemmix; the LPIII ones are NeoLemmix-only but the LPII ones can be used with either).

For traditional Lemmix Editor, you'll need to modify the LemmixStyles.ini to add entries for the new styles. LemEdit can use them directly (but you can't use numbers higher than GROUND9O/VGAGR9). For any Lemmini-only editor (such as jLevelBuilder), you can use the tool I made a while back that converts Lemmix styles to Lemmini ones; keep in mind it's only designed for the official graphic sets, so while it should work fine with the non-remastered LPII ones, it won't work with the LPIII ones or any other NeoLemmix (or even simply 32-color, such as the remastered LPII ones) styles.

I would, in general, recommend you only use the NeoLemmix Editor for any of my custom styles other than the non-remastered versions of the LPII styles (which should work fine in any editor). On that note, functionality-wise the remastered and non-remastered versions of the LPII styles are identical, it's only the graphics that are different, so it's fine to design the level in one while playing it in the other.

* For this, I mean for getting it to work with (Super)Lemmini; though I think it might be as simple as putting the style in (Super)Lemmini's styles folder. To get it working with the (Neo)Lemmix Editor, put the style's folder in the (Super)LemminiStyles folder, add an entry to the (Neo)LemmixStyles.ini file corresponding to it, and compile the style with Tools -> Compile Styles.

[Crane]

I know I wanted to use the castle tileset before, but I discovered that some of the graphic tiles didn't line up properly, although this might have only been with the Hi-Res version.

[namida]

I've edited the original post slightly. None of the rules / prizes / etc have changed; I was just trying to word it more clearly, and explicitly state some things that were merely implied before.

[mobius]

  I'll definitely participate.

Question: VGASPECs mean single file graphics correct? In other words a level like Beast of a level that has only 1 big terrain piece.

I know I wanted to use the castle tileset before, but I discovered that some of the graphic tiles didn't line up properly, although this might have only been with the Hi-Res version.

another problem with the castle set I noticed was that some of the pieces don't have the correct background color; so they aren't transparent  . however this may only be the case in Lemmini, I don't know.

[namida]

I'll definitely participate.

Question: VGASPECs mean single file graphics correct? In other words a level like Beast of a level that has only 1 big terrain piece.

That's correct. The equivalent in Lemmini would be using anything like the "Special" tileset. (SuperLemmini supports them in the more usual way.)

[Crane]

Well, for the New Year, I got my level submitted, named "Precarious Construction" (I think I forgot to tell namida the name of the level in the PM!).  Some of the features offered in NeoLemmix look pretty interesting, although I decided to stick with classic mechanics.  Hopefully it's not full of backroutes like my last few submissions!

[namida]

Received it. I won't look at it until the deadline has passed, though.

[mobius]

I need to read the whole blue page [you're website] yet but I figured in the meantime; ask some questions here you might be able to answer quickly.

What's the object #8 in some sets which is just a pink square but doesn't appear in game and doesn't appear to do anything when a lemming walks past?

I need to reinstall all of my stuff because for some reason the test player suddenly quit working. It says exe not found but it worked just find the other day and I don't remember changing anything.

[namida]

Check the NeoLemmixStyles.ini, make sure the TestEXE is:

- For Lemmix and NeoLemmix, just "CustLemmix.exe" / "CustLemmixNeo.exe" (or whatever the EXE filename is) - no path
- For SuperLemmini, it should be the *full* path to SuperLemmini.jar (eg: C:\Users\Bob\SuperLemmini\SuperLemmini.jar)

The object you're asking about is the secret level trigger. Just like any other trigger area (except one-way walls in NeoLemmix*), the pixel below the lemming's foot must be in the trigger area - so it'll need to be one pixel into the ground. It's possible I may have made them not function in test mode, but they should definitely work in normal mode.


* In NeoLemmix, one-way walls are simply applied to any terrain pixel the one-way wall covers that also has the "One-Way" setting enabled (or doesn't have that set, if you enable the "One-Way Invert" option).

[IchoTolot]

I have just send my submission in!    A level I will be using in my currently in the making pack (76/150 Lemmini 5th rating) using the Shadow tileset.

[mobius]

I'm having an issue; one way arrows aren't appearing in game at all. They seem to look ok in the editor but when I test they don't appear and they have no effect either.

[namida]

I'm having an issue; one way arrows aren't appearing in game at all. They seem to look ok in the editor but when I test they don't appear and they have no effect either.

...this is why I really need to write a proper documentation. xD
Anyway, terrain pieces have a "One Way" property. Only terrain with this property set will get one-way arrows on it.

You can also invert this. In the general level properties, there's a "One-Way Invert" option. If you choose this, then the "one-way" option on terrain acts in reverse (ie: any terrain can be one-way *unless* it has that option set).

If you just want it to behave as similar as possible to what you're used to, just click "One Way Invert" in the level properties.

Also note that you don't have to specifically set "only on terrain" in NeoLemmix; one-way walls *always* go only on terrain.