Hello Gigalem,
I have finished all the levels here. I have attached my replays.
General RemarksFirst, let me describe the visuals. As usual, these are wonderfully designed levels!
Excellently made tilesets and many are quite eye pleasing to look at, especially with a great choice of a background. My only gripe is that on level 6 it's extremely difficult to tell what's background and what's terrain. If you must know, I'm one of those players who almost never uses CPM, not because I don't find it useful, but rather as a Lemmings player I believe in figuring stuff out as I go. Hence, I don't take the easy way out and use CPM to see what's background, what's terrain, what's a button/trap, etc. Also on level 7 the window bars can easily be mistaken for solid terrain when it's actually background. Otherwise, you've made some pretty levels in your other packs that I have played, and it continues to hold with this demo. Nice job!
Really interesting looking traps and custom objects here, especially the buttons on level 7 and 9. The frog-like trap kind of reminds me of Yoshi from Mario Brothers, where he generally uses his tongue to eat stuff. That's also a really interesting triangular warning symbol to mark the trigger area for that trap. I can see how it can get in the way at times, but I generally didn't have any problems with that while solving the levels.
Great music as well. That's really cool that the music that plays on level 8 is a track that also plays in the United pack. However, this appears to be a remix? It sounds slightly different than the one that plays on the Millas levels in that pack.
Feedback on the LevelsI can certainly agree with the difficulty of hard to an extent. Some of these were challenging. I think the only reason why I managed to breeze through the pack more quickly than I thought I would is due to all the training/experience I've gained from solving so many level packs over the years. I have, after all, solved some of the most difficult packs currently available, including United, Lemmings Plus Alpha, SEB Lems, etc. The longest I've taken on any single level in this demo was about 10-15 minutes. Honestly, many of your levels from your earlier packs were far harder, but to be fair, this is only a demo of 10 levels and thus I have yet to see some of your nastier levels for this pack. Hence why it's a sampler of things to come from you possibly at a later time. Not to mention that some are of these should definitely be backroutes
Ok, now feedback on the individual levels.
Sample levels 1 -
A Fine Display! Nicely designed, somewhat challenging level to start off the demo. Once again, not paying close attention to the save requirement in relation to the cloners got me into trouble again, as I kept thinking I needed to rescue the blockers that are used too
It's actually an easy level.
Sample levels 2 -
The Problematic Gap One of my favorites. Bit harder than the previous level, but not that much harder.
Sample levels 3 -
Total Construction Breather level. Great design here.
Sample levels 4 -
Wyrmwood Much easier than I thought. Probably a backroute?
Sample levels 5 -
Cy-clone Another favorite of mine!
Looks difficult, but it's not that hard. I absolutely love the solution here with the two tricks needed, especially with preventing anyone from falling to the bottomless pit on both sides.
Builder wall and extending a miner with a builder
Sample levels 6 -
The Good Ol' Switcheroo Oh hey, there's a level in the Bonus rank of United called Switcheroo, so you probably got some inspiration of this level from there? Then again, Switcheroo was a contest level that Icho put in the Bonus rank. Same concept, where there's two specialist groups, and they each take their own route to the appropriate exit. This is probably a backroute, though
Sample levels 7 -
Attack in the Capsule Another favorite of mine!
Somewhat challenging, but that was especially great with getting me to think, I'm a constructive skill short, how in the world do you solve this level if the two platformers go in the most obvious places and then you need one for after you mine the crowd out? Few minutes later I realized what needed to happen
Two separate miners so that when you stop them at around the same place there is a thin enough ceiling that the crowd can step up through with the mini miner staircase
Sample levels 8 -
Mi Laboratorio es su Laboratorio Difficult one. IMO the hardest one or close second for hardest of the entire demo. However, I love the solution here. That's especially cool with those spinning things in the air to be the buttons. Almost like playing one of them video games on a TV console. Some timing needed in the solution to prevent some from dying to the trap in the starting area. However, seems like it's generally not a problem as long as you free the crowd at the right time. Also, I think I realized that maybe timing isn't needed at all, as I probably could had done it the other way instead.
Sample levels 9 -
Build! Block! It's all in the mind! Surely it's not supposed to be this easy? Lots of skills leftover
Probably the level title is a hint to the solution? At least the first part of it.
Sample levels 10 -
Treehouse Trial I saw how there's plenty of skills, especially destructive ones. Then I checked the skillset again and realized there's no builders or any kind of constructive skill
and that made me scream. Joking here, of course. I said ok, I'll rise to the challenge and get the level solved
This is a really good no builders level to end the demo. It's definitely a difficult one, and probably the hardest or even close second for hardest in the demo. Luckily, there's way more than enough skills to get through the level. Really good puzzle in figuring out how to get through the level when the most powerful classic skill, the builder, is not provided. The only talisman in the demo, but you will always get it if you manage to solve the level, as that's exactly what it is.
Truthfully, I already want more. This was just too short and wasn't really all that hard for me. Ironic, since earlier today I said that I'm getting burnt out by all these hard levels I've been playing, especially since I finished LPing a 156 level pack earlier in the day. Even great puzzle solvers like me need a break from level solving
So, take your time, though I know you said that you're currently taking a hiatus from LPing and content. In the meantime, there's always the Festival Millas I said that I was going to LP. I'll likely do that in the upcoming weeks or so.
Once again, nice job with this demo, and I look forward to more content from you whenever you get your creative gears going again. Also, I will take a look through your earlier packs and let you know which ones I possibly would like to see remade. Just let me know when you would like me to do so. I'm already more than happy to do it, just let me know when you would like a list
