Level Of The Year: 2015!

[namida]

So, I said I had something special planned for the next contest... and here it is! The LEVEL OF THE YEAR contest!
(Yes, I know the last contest hasn't quite finished yet, but I wanted to get this one underway before the year's over.)

So, this one will be a bit different from other level design contests, in that you don't make a new level for it - instead, it's a contest between levels we've seen released over the last year! For the avoidance of doubt, this will count as December 2014 to November 2015 (inclusive), and the following conditions apply to qualify:

1. The level must be for Lemmix, NeoLemmix, Lemmini, SuperLemmini, or single-player Lix.
2. The level must not have been publicly released during the eligible time period. It is fine if it was released privately (eg. to testers) outside the time period, as long as it was also publicly released during that time. Only the release date of the level matters - if it was a later addition (during this time period) to a pack that was released outside the period, it's still eligible.
3. The level must not have been entered into any previous Lemmings Forums Level Design Contests. This rule has been revoked.
4. The level must be designed by a single author. Levels inspired by other people's levels are fine, but direct modifications of them (including from official levels) are not.
5. The author of the level must not have specificially requested that it not be eligible. So far, no authors have requested this for any level.

Being a derivative of an ineligible level (as long as it's from the same author) does not disqualify a level; as long as the level in question is clearly intended to stand as a seperate-but-related level rather than a newer version of the same level.

I'm attempting to make an eligible levels list here, but please note that it may be incomplete and/or may contain mistakes. If you're sure a level should be eligible but it's not on there, ask (or nominate it anyway), because what matters is whether it meets the above rules, not whether it's specifically on that list - the list is just a helping guideline.

So... time to get onto how to nominate levels!

To nominate a level for the contest, simply send me a private message with the list of levels you're nominating. But... to keep it from getting too crowded, some limits apply:
- You may nominate up to eight levels in total from authors other than yourself
- You may not nominate more than three levels from the same author
- You may additionally nominate ONE of your own levels if you nominated at least 4 other levels, or TWO of your own levels if you nominated a full 8 other levels

If you wish to change your nominations, that's okay, but please send an entire updated list, not just "remove this one, add this one, etc".

The list of nominated levels is publicly visible here, but who nominated which levels is not public unless they choose to disclose it.

Nominations are open until the start of December 25th, 2015. After this, I will double-check the eligiblity of all nominated levels, and those who have nominated ineligible levels will be given a chance to pick other levels instead. Once the list has been finalized, it will be posted, and a time period of around 2 weeks will be given before voting opens.

In order for the contest to go ahead, there is a certain number of nominations that must be reached. I won't disclose what this amount is, but in the event that it isn't reached but is close, I may consider continuing the contest but with only one prize.[/b]

The voteoff will occur in three stages, with the exact details possibly being tweaked depending on how many levels are nominated:

Stage 1
This will be done similar to how the first rounds of the voteoffs for the official games were. The levels will be put into random brackets, and the top ~50% from each bracket will qualify for Stage 2.

Stage 2
This will also be done in regular voteoff style. The aim here will be to get down to around 4~6 remaining levels, so exact details will depend on how many levels are entered.

Stage 3
This will be done in an elimination format over multiple rounds; each round, one level gets knocked out, and the others continue onto the next round.

Prizes will be USD $15.00 for first place, and USD $7.50 for second place. If you win and would prefer a non-monetary prize, that can be negotiated at the time. Alternatively, you can request it be donated to a charity.

Since I realise the format of this contest raises the possibility of someone winning who is no longer active on the forums - once the final voteoff round ends, I will contact the winners by PM as usual. If they don't reply within a few days, I'll send them an email through the admin panel. If they haven't made contact within 28 days of the initial PM, then their prize will be donated to a charity (within reason) of the other winner's choice; if both winners are unreachable, we'll sort that out when it happens, but most likely I'll get input from the forum to choose a charity (or charities) to donate to, or possibly just make the next contest's prizes a bit bigger than usual. If you do not wish for your levels to be included (whether a general "don't include any of my levels") or only specific levels, let me know - but please consider allowing it, and donating the prize if you do win.

The format also raises the possibility of a single user getting both first and second place. In this case, it will be treated as if that user won first place, and a user who cannot be contacted won second place - in other words, the user in question gets the first place prize; they do not get the second place prize themself but may choose a charity for it to be donated to.

Also - the rule about "you may not discuss contest levels anywhere on the forums" does not apply in any way to nominations (including that you may discuss, if you wish, the levels you're nominating), and I feel it would be unfair to impose this restriction on levels that weren't specifically entered, so it will not apply outside of the contest topic during voting, as long as the discussion isn't in the context of the contest (ie: you can talk about the level in general, discuss solutions, etc; but no saying "I voted for this one" or trying to encourage people to vote for it).

[Wafflem]

Considering how many people have released so many packs with very interesting levels, choosing levels can be very tricky.

A couple of questions:

1. If I, say, nominate six levels, can I follow up with a second PM of two other nominations to reach the eight?
2. Can I change my nominations when I send them to you, but then sometime later I change my mind?
3. When is the deadline?

[namida]

1. Absolutely. You don't have to give all your nominations in a single message. However, to keep things simple, it'd be appreciated if you could send a full updated list when you change your nominations, rather than just "add this level, remove this one, etc".
2. Yes, you can change them up until the cutoff if you like.
3. I'll announce a deadline once the current contest finishes.

Also - for the avoidance of doubt, in the case of community packs, as long as the level itself was made by a single author, it's fine. In the case of in-construction packs (such as the NeoLemmix Community Pack - although be aware that many of the levels there are disqualified due to the "no previous contest entries" rule), the deciding factor is whether it's mostly an open contribution system (ie: all levels are made publicly available even during the pack's compilation), or a closed one (ie: levels are privately submitted to the coordinator and don't generally see public release until the pack itself does).

EDIT: Please take note, I slightly changed the rule about nominating your own levels. You now must nominate at least 4 other levels to nominate one of your own levels, or 8 other levels to nominate two of your own levels. This is to avoid cases of everyone just nominating their own levels and nothing else - while I'm sure most of us wouldn't do that, it never hurts to have a protection against it just in case.

[namida]

Added some details and stuff to the OP:
- Added that level designers can opt-out of the contest if they want, though I encourage them not to and instead consider donating the prize if they win any.
- Clarified how the "do not discuss the levels" rule will apply in relation to this contest. Basically - it doesn't apply at all during nominations (you can even talk about nominations or potential nominations if you want); during voting it only applies in the contest topics, or if specifically discussed in the context of the contest (ie: encouraging voting for it, or mentioning that you voted it).
- The list of nominated levels will be publicly visible; but who nominated them will not.

[Wafflem]

If a person has released a level preview image (not the level itself) before December 2014, can that level still be nominated when that level is released in the December 2014 - November 2015 timeframe?

[namida]

The level itself must be released publicly during that timeframe. It doesn't have to be as part of a pack though; released as an individual level or part of a demo is fine.

[namida]

Additions:
- Specified that there's a minimum number of nominations. I won't say exactly what this requirement is, to try and minimize "strategic" nominating. To avoid doubt, it's in terms of the number of nominations themself, not the number of users submitting them or the number of levels that have received nominations.
- Described how it'll be handled if the same person wins both 1st and 2nd. They get the 1st place prize as usual, but the 2nd place prize will be given as a donation to the charity of the winner's choice.

[namida]

Rewrote the eligiblity rules. There is no changes to the rules themself; this is just an attempt to describe them in a more-understandable way.

EDIT: Also, I've announced a cutoff date for nominations - December 25th. I've also briefly described what will happen after the cutoff - in short, nominations will be double-checked for eligibility (and a chance given to fix any invalid ones), then a two week (or so) period will be given before voting opens.

[Nepster]

Two only tangentially related questions:
1) What is the cheatcode for GigaLems? I remember some good levels in there, but don't want to play through the whole pack again.
2) Where can I find Resident GigaLems? This thread ends with an announcement "All levels are created", and this thread ends with an extension of the test period, which is long over by now. But neither seems to contain a link to the actual level pack.

And one suggestion for the actual voting: Would it be possible to link to pictures of the various levels, similar to what was done in the "Best level in Orig/OhNo/... lemmings" vote-offs?

PS: namida's list of my levels seems to be essentially complete, though I wouldn't term the levels namida linked to as released. These were added as examples how the one-way-arrows can be used currently, and not to be played and solved.

[namida]

1) What is the cheatcode for GigaLems? I remember some good levels in there, but don't want to play through the whole pack again.

I believe it's just CHEATCODES. But you'd have to ask GigaLem for sure.
EDIT: Yeah, it's CHEATCODES. Do note that GigaLems does not save the status of cheat mode when you exit, so you must turn it on again next time you play. It does at least have the "press left/right to select level".

2) Where can I find Resident GigaLems? This thread ends with an announcement "All levels are created", and this thread ends with an extension of the test period, which is long over by now. But neither seems to contain a link to the actual level pack.

I don't think he's released the public version of the compiled pack yet, but the eligible ranks can be found (as LVL files) throughout the project thread.

And one suggestion for the actual voting: Would it be possible to link to pictures of the various levels, similar to what was done in the "Best level in Orig/OhNo/... lemmings" vote-offs?

Yes; I was planning to do this.

PS: namida's list of my levels seems to be essentially complete, though I wouldn't term the levels namida linked to as released. These were added as examples how the one-way-arrows can be used currently, and not to be played and solved.

Any kind of public release of the level counts; but if you don't want these levels to be considered, you can ask for them to be made ineligible. Perhaps I'll reconsider what exactly should count as a "release" for 2016; but I don't want to be changing the rules for this one now that people have started to decide on nominations.

[namida]

Some people have questioned whether we really should have the "no previous contest entries rule".

Should I get rid of this and allow even levels that were entered in previous contests? If there's a concern around people winning prizes twice for the same level, one possible workaround is to make it so that such levels can be entered, but they cannot win a prize (with the prize being passed onto the next position if they win) - or it could simply be argued that if a level is good enough to win this too, it deserves the second prize.

Another thing I'm wondering is whether this "multiple nominations = slight boost" thing is nessecary at all - perhaps it'd make more sense, especially with the nomination list being visible, to drop that and simply make it "any nominations = entered; otherwise not entered" and nothing else. So far, there isn't a single level that's received more than one nomination - and I somewhat suspect this is due to people seeing "ah, well that level's already been nominated, I may as well nominate a different one instead".

I'll announce a decision on this no later than the 10th; so that there's still plenty of time to take the change into account before nominations close.

[mobius]

I don't have a problem with anyone winning more than once.
I think I agree with your second point too

[namida]

Okay - I'm going to drop the whole thing of multiple nominations = better chances. So - there is no point in multiple people nominating the same level. So far there are no duplicates; if any do come in in the future, I'll let people know that they've nominated a duplicate.

I'll wait for more input / more time to think on the previous contest entries thing.

Updated the original post to reflect this, and add a voting structure that gives all nominated levels an equal starting position.

[GigaLem]

1) What is the cheatcode for GigaLems? I remember some good levels in there, but don't want to play through the whole pack again.

I believe it's just CHEATCODES. But you'd have to ask GigaLem for sure.
EDIT: Yeah, it's CHEATCODES. Do note that GigaLems does not save the status of cheat mode when you exit, so you must turn it on again next time you play. It does at least have the "press left/right to select level".

2) Where can I find Resident GigaLems? This thread ends with an announcement "All levels are created", and this thread ends with an extension of the test period, which is long over by now. But neither seems to contain a link to the actual level pack.

I don't think he's released the public version of the compiled pack yet, but the eligible ranks can be found (as LVL files) throughout the project thread.

And one suggestion for the actual voting: Would it be possible to link to pictures of the various levels, similar to what was done in the "Best level in Orig/OhNo/... lemmings" vote-offs?

Yes; I was planning to do this.

PS: namida's list of my levels seems to be essentially complete, though I wouldn't term the levels namida linked to as released. These were added as examples how the one-way-arrows can be used currently, and not to be played and solved.

Any kind of public release of the level counts; but if you don't want these levels to be considered, you can ask for them to be made ineligible. Perhaps I'll reconsider what exactly should count as a "release" for 2016; but I don't want to be changing the rules for this one now that people have started to decide on nominations.

Yes its CHEATCODES
and if you're wonder about Resident GigaLems
well i've been wait for a update to flexilemmix
but you can play the first three + the bonus rank you have to dig in the RGL Project thread

[Wafflem]

If a level has been released in the timeframe, but then the person changes the title and re-releases that level outside of the timeframe, which level title should be used when I nominate the level? The original title, or the changed title?