Level of the Year 2025: Playing Phase

[kaywhyn]

JawaJuice and Simon got intended/acceptable solutions to all my levels except for Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem. Both solved it with different backroutes. Thanks for catching and showing me them! I've attached an updated version of the level which hopefully fixes the backroutes. Simon's backroute was easy to fix with a flamethrower, while JawaJuice's was what I thought was impossible to fix without hackish changes needed around in the starting area. That is, until I looked in an entirely different area and spot to modify which should now hopefully force the intended solution. How it boggles the mind!

I'm also attaching Oh No! Another Hardcore Molten Problem as well since the rule here is that we make two levels which have the exact same layout and objects and hence one is a repeat of the other but with differing skillsets and, entirely up to the author, can also differ in number of Lemmings, RR, etc. JawaJuice got the intended/acceptable solution for Oh No!, so no resolving of that level needed. Just Oh Yes! needs resolving!

For Simon, yes, Oh Yes! is intended to be played first while Oh No! is the repeat version. Hence b_jonas was right!

The feedback I've received on this pair of levels is that Oh Yes! is the harder of the two despite the Oh No! level kind of referencing ONML in the title and its much higher difficulty compared to L1 Needless to say, I've subverted it here!

Shame you didn't have the music I intended playing on them. They're both remixes of an official Lemmings track! In particular, Oh Yes! has a Rainbow Island remix, while Oh No! has an ohno_5 remix

kaywhy's Oh Yes! A Hardcore Molten Problem: We conjecture that our solution is a backroute.

Seems you were in a hurry that you didn't even notice that you made a typo with my username. I expected better from you, considering you're one of the admins of the Forums! Would love it if you can fix it though. I tend to get very worked up when people make a typo of it despite it being a nickname I'm using for my online accounts

I also don't know if it's a bad thing that I made you groan in anger while you were trying to solve Oh Yes! Then again, I know it's a tendency for German people to do that but that it doesn't necessarily mean they're mad out of frustration. You did after all compliment me in the end that I managed to make a hard level with it even though you solved it with a backroute by joining heads with some people who were in the chat during the stream. Thanks, I appreciate it!  

'kaywhyn's Organic National Park' gave them a good run for their money though; had me stumped for ages, that one!

Wow, thanks for the compliment! I know you mentioned it to me in a PM, but honestly it really surprises me that that particular level of mine managed to stump you for a while The intended solution requires way more precision than ever, but here you can thank Crane for that! He kept backrouting the level so much and hence why it looks and feels pretty hackish with all the changes I made!      

[kaywhyn]

All rightie, I have now played and solved all of the LOTY2025 nominated levels. My entire replay collection is attached

Here, I needed to resolve Dexter's The Split and Epilogue levels, as my solutions were determined to be backroutes when I solved them in his Lock & Key level pack. My new solutions to these levels are in the zip. The former still seems to be a backroute, while the latter seems to be good now!

The rest of these levels I have previously played, except for Gigalem's levels and Crane's in the Mixed rank. In addition, I had previously solved GigaLem's Lawful Neutral and Re-Enlistment from when he posted them while the new 12.13 objects were still in experimental NL, but here I needed to solve them again due to them being remade in a different graphic set. As usual, Gigalem's levels are visually quite impressive, but my biggest gripe with them that I've been saying for practically all of his Festival Millas packs is it's extremely difficult to tell what's solid vs what's background in them. At least without using CPM. Also, I'm not going to lie, but Lawful Neutral and Palace of Ice really stand out and glare out way too much and were way too distracting for me that they hurt my old eyes too much to be able to focus on playing them properly while trying to solve them. Please consider toning down and making the visuals clearer so that it's easier to distinguish between solid terrain vs background, and especially so that it doesn't hurt and strain one's eyes too much! Then again, I've been wearing glasses for almost 30 years now, so I've been blind for a really long time!

As for Crane's level, I was able to solve it and obtain the talisman to boot all without having first opened it up before playing! Nice one and certainly one of the easier levels than the usual affair by Crane.

Nicely done to all the nominated authors and best of luck to everyone! Will try and record and post videos showing off the levels and my solutions in the coming days!