Official Level Design Contest #5 (Playing Phase - Discussion Topic)

[namida]

This topic is for discussion of the levels, feedback, posting replays, etc. For creators wishing to post updates, or if you're looking for the latest updates, please check this topic instead.

So, entries have finally closed, after a very long entry period due to updates / new submissions coming in at the last minute - and this contest also has the largest number of submissions yet! The theme was to design a level with a save requirement of no more than 10%.

Our entered levels are (in alphabetical order by author name):

<V4> "Lemming Mashed Potato Facility" by bsmith (NeoLemmix)
<V7> "Tough Call" by Crane (NeoLemmix)
<V1> "Minefield" by geoo (Lix)
<V1> "Teleporters of doom" by GigaLem (NeoLemmix)
<V1> "Escape From Lemlab" by IchoTolot (NeoLemmix)
<V4> "Electroshock" by Nepster (NeoLemmix)
<V2> "Palmtree Pile-up v1.2" by Simon (Lix)

The levels are in an attached ZIP. To play the levels:

NeoLemmix: Run NeoCustLemmix, press F6 on the title screen, and select the LVL file. Alternatively, open them in the editor, then press F2 for playtest mode (requires a copy of NeoCustLemmix in the same folder as the editor). I have checked all the levels, and none of them should require NeoLemmix V1.35n; they should all work fine with the slightly-older versions (at least V1.33n).

Lix: Copy the level into the /levels/single/ subfolder, then select them from the "Single Player" menu.


Updates to the levels are possible until whichever comes last: the 27th of June, or 72 hours from the last update (by any author). After this, the levels will be finalized; and voting will open 5 days after updates close. There is a seperate topic for level creators to post updates in; they will also periodically be updated here. However, until it is announced that updates are closed, you should also keep an eye on the updates topic to ensure you have the latest version.

Updates are now closed. All levels can now be considered finalized as far as the contest is concerned. Voting will open around July 5th.


The winners will be decided by voteoff once the playing phase ends. 1st and 2nd place may choose one prize each out of (first place gets first pick, they cannot both choose the same):
The prizes available for this contest are:
- US $12.50 (via PayPal or Bitcoin, can also opt to have something up to that value purchased on your behalf, or to have it donated to a charity)
- One month's advertising for a project you're creating (or involved in creating), whether lemmings-related or not, and whether free or not, in the forum's news ticker
- A Two new gimmicks of your choice added to NeoLemmix (within reason)
- A new object type of your choice added to NeoLemmix (within reason); this only includes supporting it in-game and in the graphic set editor, and does not include actually creating a graphic set (or expanding an existing one) to include the object
- Your choice for the next contest's rules (within reason)

Levels ZIP last updated: 26 June, 22:57 UTC
(Note: Do not use this timestamp to determine when the update phase ends; use the time of the most recent post in the updates topic. This timestamp is just when I actually got around to updating this post's attachment.)

[Simon]

Edit Simon 2015-06-16 18:00 UTC: namida has reuploaded the archive, now everything is playable.

Both geoo's and my level are chopped off in the middle of the files.

Reupload would be nice. :-)

(What am I experiencing: geoo's level is chopped off in line 322, my level is chopped off in line 105. My level should have 107 lines instead. There seem to be chopped off exactly as many bytes as there are linefeeds in the original file. Downloaded the archive twice, didn't fix the problem. Unpacked with two different programs, didn't fix the problem.)

(What others would experience: Lix refuses to start the level and displays icons for missing terrain.)

-- Simon

[namida]

Reuploaded.

[IchoTolot]

While the Lix entries are not playable atm: here are my solutions to the NeoLemmix entries
I also attached the intended solution to my entry!

My thoughts's:

bsmith's Lemming Mashed Potato Facility:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first level I played from you and I must say this is a positiv surprise! I am not sure if I got the intended solution, but it was a nice puzzle nevertheless. It could use some more decoration though.

Cranes Tough Call:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

A hard and good looking level , which made me use sooooome tricks (and I don't know if this is intended!). As some will know I love me some bigger levels which use a bit more space

GigaLem's Teleporters of doom:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The level looks great , ......... buuuuuut come on Giga I know you can do way better on the skills and execution side. Blowing 2 blocker's up is not that much fun.

Nepster's Elektroshock:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I am shocked to say that I prob. have backrouted the heck out of it (over 50% can't be right,  or?). Nevertheless: It looks good and I had to use some tricks to my solution. I liked it

[GigaLem]

Yeah i wish can make better levels

[namida]

The Lix ones are fixed now; just redownload the archive.

[IchoTolot]

Annnnd here are the Lix levels

Geoo's Minefield:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That's what I call a creative puzzle!:thumbsup: "I need just one more free Lix" I thought to myself, but then I saw the trick

Simon's Palmtree Pile-up v1.1:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the first 5 min's I was clueless how to get more than 2 over the gap! But BASEBALL-BAT to the rescue! I love that skill *batsch*

[Crane]

Ooo, that was a glitchy solution - when I saw that lemming separate itself from the pack, I kinda said "What the?!" out loud and had to rewind to see exactly what you did!  Truthfully I'm not actually sure if I can patch that one.  Since you use all of the tools and you only scored 12% though, I might let it stay, although I'll see how many other people solve it that way.  The intended solution uses nothing that I consider to be a glitch.

POST SCRIPTUM: The level's called "Tough Call", not "Though Call"!

[Crane]

Here are the levels I've solved so far.

Teleporters of doom:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I will admit that I think "Teleporters of doom" was somewhat boring because of a poor oversight.  I can see a challenge in timing in trying to bomb the two sets of Lemmings so they merge together for the final trip to the exit, but if you just contain the Lemmings from one of the trapdoors as tightly as possible between the two Blockers, and ignore the other trapdoor completely, you can save 35 Lemmings each time.

Escape from Lemlab:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That gave me some difficulty, partly from not being used to the NeoLemmix-exclusive tools, but also some pretty precise timing and very little room for error.  Even after I got the solution down, I had to constantly tinker with it to make it as tight as possible and save the correct number of Lemmings.  I'm a bit of a purist, and having to constantly replay a level to get the climbers timed properly gets tedious after a while.

Personally I didn't feel this level really incorporated the death mechanic too effectively, in that it was just there and not really part of the solution (other than the timings required with the climbers and compressors).  If it was just a contained pit that you open up later on after bashing through the one-way walls, it is effectively the same level.  If anything, the death mechanic just took the place of a tight timer.  But despite all that, it's a nicely-designed level.

Electroshock:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Probably a backroute because I finished with 2 Climbers left over and rescued 34%.  Was fun working it out though.

[Crane]

Oops, I forgot I was a bit inefficient with that Platformer on Escape from Lemlab - I had it there because I initially used a Miner instead of a Basher, so I could theoretically save a few more Lemmings and finish with a leftover Platformer.  My solution still near enough coincides with the intended one though.

[Crane]

Well, I know how to fix the glitchy solution to my level, but I'm going to wait on it for now.  If IchoTolot was the only one to solve it that way, it might stay.  Aah, the bane of intended solutions!

[namida]

So far, I've solved "Lemming Mashed Potato Facility", "Tough Call" and "Teleporters of Doom".

I thought the former was a fairly fun level, though I'm pretty sure I backrouted it.

The second was indeed an excellent level. I loved the tricks involving the crowd.

The last one isn't that interesting - looks fancy, but doesn't play very fun.

I've also attempted Escape From Lemlab, tried quite a lot of things but nothing quite works out.

[Crane]

Hrm, a backroute, but I'm glad you enjoyed the tricks with the crowd.  Good work namida.

[namida]

Leaving Escape from Lemlab aside for now, I took a look at the other levels:

Electroshock - I think I may have backrouted this one, but a fairly neat level nonetheless.

Palmtree Pile-Up - Needed a fair bit of precision, but wasn't too bad.

Minefield - I like the concept of this level, but I found it a bit on the annoying side in practice.

I'll take another look at Escape from Lemlab soon, too. It's clearly, by far, the hardest of these levels (at least for me).

[IchoTolot]

Hehehe got one stucked!

I will leave the spare platformer in it (as long as I don't see a huge backroute involving it)! Didn't know that that one part could be done with one platformer less, but hey one additional does decrease the precision a bit.

One additional question: I tried to make the little marble pillars look a bit like lab-pipes as well as the teleporter pipes and the rest of the level as seperated lab-sections with a test chamber for the Lemmings for leathal "reasearch" experiments .  For the future and design research purpose: Did I succed in it or is it not recognisable?