Author Topic: Level of the Year: 2015 (Voting Round 3 Winner: IchoTolot's "Heroes of Lemkind") (Read 9962 times)

namida · « **on:** February 11, 2016, 08:36:38 AM »

Alright. Here we are. Seven levels, from four different authors, remain. Which one will be crowned the best level of 2015?

The voting has been changed back to the normal system - so vote for the levels you want to keep.

The first two sets will eliminate two levels each, which will bring it down to three remaining levels. After this, the remaining levels will be eliminated one at a time until we have our winner! In each set, the number of votes will be such that you can vote for one level less than the number intended to survive (for example, if there are 5 levels, and 2 are being eliminated, you will be allowed 2 votes). <--- I will probably change this in the last few rounds, actually.

In the case of ties, the following rules will apply (and the structure of subsequent rounds may be adjusted as appropriate):
1. If exactly one more level than the target will be knocked out, then all tied levels get knocked out (unless this would knock out every remaining level, of course).
2. Otherwise, if it's a round where two would get knocked out, and only knocking out one is possible without any ties having to be accounted for, then only the one will get knocked out.
3. If all else fails, some kind of tiebreaker set will occur.

namida · « **Reply #1 on:** February 11, 2016, 08:36:56 AM »

Level List

GigaLems, Scorching 13 "It's Not Time For Flying Toast"
~~Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 16 "The Three Seals Of Memphis"~~
~~Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 22 "The Face Of Evil"~~
Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 24 "Heroes of Lemkind"
~~Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Nightmare! 16 "Another Brick In The Wall"~~
~~"Parking Garage" by Geoffster~~
~~"Tough Call" by Crane~~

Since there are very few levels remaining, and all of them are NeoLemmix levels, I put together an NXP containing all of these levels. You can get it here:
(Download NXP) | (Download Music Pack)

Three of the levels use high-quality OGG musics, hence the music pack. If you don't have the music pack, you'll get regular Lemmings musics on these levels if you're using NeoLemmix V1.41n, or silence if using an older version. But if possible, get the music pack - play them the way the author intended!

Note: I've reuploaded the NXP with the fixed version of the level that was previously impossible in NeoLemmix V1.40n-C / V1.41n, so it's all good now.

namida · « **Reply #2 on:** February 11, 2016, 08:37:01 AM »

Set 1 Eliminations:
Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 16 "The Three Seals Of Memphis"
"Tough Call" by Crane

Set 2 Eliminations:
Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Nightmare! 16 "Another Brick In The Wall"

Set 3 Eliminations:
Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 22 "The Face Of Evil"

Set 4 Eliminations:
"Parking Garage" by Geoffster

Nepster · « **Reply #3 on:** February 11, 2016, 06:34:41 PM »

Please change the voting system to the equivalent "You have 4 positive votes" that everyone is used to. I had already selected my three favorite levels and my mouse was hovering over the Submit-button when I realized the difference in voting system.
Moreover I feel bad to vote against levels when they are all excellent ones!

namida · « **Reply #4 on:** February 11, 2016, 06:41:19 PM »

Eh, okay. Changed it.

Anyone who already voted will need to vote again.

namida · « **Reply #5 on:** February 11, 2016, 09:26:40 PM »

For those who are interested but don't know / can't be bothered hunting down all the levels - I put up an NXP containing all 7 remaining levels; check the 2nd post. They're in there in the same order they're listed in that post, and all levels are unlocked by default so you can press Left / Right at the preview screens to select levels.

namida · « **Reply #6 on:** February 11, 2016, 11:35:38 PM »

The NXP has been updated with a fixed version (supplied by the author, of course) of a level that was impossible in V1.40n-C / V1.41n due to the climber bugfix. The music pack has not been changed, so no need to redownload that.

namida · « **Reply #7 on:** February 13, 2016, 10:52:53 PM »

Less than 24 hours left to vote on this set. If you haven't already voted, don't forget to do so!

namida · « **Reply #8 on:** February 15, 2016, 12:34:06 AM »

Alright... say goodbye to the two levels with the least votes (although it's still very impressive that they even got this far!):

Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 16 "The Three Seals Of Memphis"
"Tough Call" by Crane

The survivors have begun their next battle... good luck!

namida · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2016, 02:06:00 AM »

We had a tie between two levels for 2nd-lowest place, so only the lowest will get knocked out this time:

Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Nightmare! 16 "Another Brick In The Wall"

Four levels remain. Two votes per user will be allowed again this time; once again two levels will be eliminated (unless there's another tie for second-lowest place).

namida · « **Reply #10 on:** February 21, 2016, 09:24:32 AM »

Another tie for second-lowest place. So once again, only one level gets knocked out:
Lemmings Reunion (IchoTolot), Ultra-Violence 22 "The Face Of Evil"

We now have our top three levels of 2015! A huge congratulations to GigaLem, IchoTolot and Geoffster for these levels! However, we still need to find out which one is number 1!

This round will also allow two votes per user, and only one level will get knocked out.

namida · « **Reply #11 on:** February 24, 2016, 10:39:45 AM »

Well, this was the closest yet! The top two levels tied, the bottom one only one vote behind... but that one vote is enough. So we're now saying goodbye to:

"Parking Garage" by Geoffster

Nonetheless, that still marks Parking Garage as the 3rd best level of 2015, so congratulations to Geoffster on this!

Now, who made the best level of 2015... was it GigaLem with "It's Not Time For Flying Toast!", or IchoTolot with "Heroes of Lemkind"? Let's find out!

One vote per user, obviously.

namida · « **Reply #12 on:** February 26, 2016, 10:05:34 AM »

About 24 hours left until the voting closes. Seems we haven't had as many votes as the previous set yet, so those who haven't voted - your votes might make a difference!

namida · « **Reply #13 on:** March 01, 2016, 12:43:56 PM »

Sorry that it took a while to do the finishing announcement; had a few busier-than-normal days and somewhat forgot.

Anyway - by 6 votes to 3, our best level of 2015 is...

IchoTolot's "Heroes of Lemkind", Ultra-Violence 24 from Lemmings Reunion!

Congratulations! And make no mistake - having the second best level of 2015 is still a huge achievement, so congratulations to GigaLem too!

I will PM both of you in regards to prizes.

Now that the voting is over, feel free to discuss your thoughts on the levels, which ones you voted for and why, etc!

IchoTolot · « **Reply #14 on:** March 01, 2016, 04:55:36 PM »

As I already said in IRC:
I never thought that this level would be the one of my bunch that gets through

Always believed that other levels were a lot more popular than this, but hey! ---> Lesson learned and I am trying to make a few more of ~ this kind

Nepster · « **Reply #15 on:** March 01, 2016, 05:41:20 PM »

Congratulations to IchoTolot, GigaLem and Geoffster for the first three places.

However I too am wondering why IchoTolot's level "Heroes of Lemkind" was for example preferred to "Face of Evil" or Geoffster's level "Parking Garage"? What do you find so ingenious/brilliant/... in this level when compared to the other levels among the last 7?
I am not interested in learning how everyone voted, but rather in learning what makes this level so highly valued in order to optimize the level I create.

namida · « **Reply #16 on:** March 01, 2016, 05:47:02 PM »

From #neolemmix:

Quote

<namida42> i can see why. it's completely fair, and doesn't rely too much on precisely-timed multitasking, yet is still extremely challenging. it also has a very nice appearance, and the music is very catch too
<namida42> it also doesn't involve too much guesswork, as compared to, eg. Nightmare 29
<namida42> you can sort of get an idea of what goes where, but working out exactly how it's done is where the challenge lies
<namida42> and yes, the chain trick was genius

For me - when it got to the point in Round 3 where I had to choose two levels to vote for, I had a hard time picking between Parking Garage, It's Not Time For Flying Toast and Heroes Of Lemkind. In the end, the only deciding factor I could think of to set these levels apart from each other came down to which ones were the most challenging to me; as I couldn't actually decide which ones I thought were the best - all three are amazing levels.

Flopsy · « **Reply #17 on:** March 01, 2016, 06:31:10 PM »

To be fair I liked both levels in the final. No Time for Flying Toast had the best visual design while being a challenging level.

Heroes of Lemkind was just a genuinely hard level, I haven't attempted it personally, just watched others play it on youtube.
I don't remember the solution but it involves doing something strange with a hanging chain but I know when I saw it I was thinking this level is amazing.

Well done to both IchoTolot and Gigalem for being the top 2, and also well done to everyone else who had levels nominated

geoo · « **Reply #18 on:** March 01, 2016, 08:39:06 PM »

I feel the same, out of Icho's 4 levels that made it to the last round this was clearly my least favourite and I wonder what people like about this level. You have those pixel-precise builder placements on the chain which are very untypical for Icho's levels (and feel somewhat cheap to me), and once you realize that this actually works the level is straight-forward and very standard, except for one nice digger placement where digger later walks around and makes it back to the main path.

Flying Toast was a nice little puzzle and it took me a while to figure it out. The eventual solution was simpler than some things that I tried out while trying to solve the level though which left me a little disappointed. I certainly quite enjoyed the level though.

So while both of them are very decent levels, neither of them would have made it into my personal Top 3 from the last 7 levels, so in the end I also didn't vote in the final round as I didn't feel super excited about either of them.

I'm somewhat surprised Parking Garage seemed to be a slight favourite when there were 5 levels left but then didn't make it past the last three. That would have been my favourite, followed by 'Another Brick in the Wall' and 'The Face of Evil'.

Akseli · « **Reply #19 on:** March 01, 2016, 09:38:36 PM »

Congratulations for the designers of the top levels!

I nominated Heroes of Lemkind to this voteoff, because it stood out for me the most from the entire Lemmings Reunion for its immense enjoyability factor. In my case it's mostly subjective why I like this level a lot, so I can't point out accurately objective details, except maybe digger placement that geoo mentioned. This was a memorable, awesome looking level and really satisfying to solve.

Parking Garage was the clear front runner all the time, and it won its every round until there were 5 levels left. In the semifinal it got eliminated, which was a huge surprise. I would've voted for it all the way.

The crucial point in my solution for The Face of Evil felt backroutish so I didn't vote for it. No Time for Flying Toast was an amazing level, even though it resembled a bit levels I had played before, like mobius' Five for Fighting.

Oh, like always, I would've liked to see a full score breakdown of the whole voteoff.

Poll

Round 3, FINAL SET - Vote for ONE level!

Author Topic: Level of the Year: 2015 (Voting Round 3 Winner: IchoTolot's "Heroes of Lemkind") (Read 9962 times)