Hey all! Just posting to say that an update for the styles has been released, see the OP for more details / the download link.

Hi kaywhyn and IchoTolot!

Thank you for your responses!

Sorry for the delayed reply, we've both been busy recently.

We've both looked through all of your replays, and all of your solutions were very creative! We've decided to respond to the level replays that were the most surprising to us:

Quote from: kaywhyn on August 02, 2024, 09:26:24 PM
Lemmings Faithful is the newest level pack by both Dexter and ∫tan x. It is a pack featuring and showcasing 5 brand new tilesets for NL made by Dexter. These tilesets are Autumn, Mosaic, Circuit, Palace, and Rust. For some screenshots of the tilesets, see the spoiler tag in the OP, as well as the styles pack linked. Because Dexter was attempting to imitate the original feel of the L1 and ONML tilesets, he intentionally imposed some restrictions/limitations when making them, such as 6 up to a maximum of 8 colors. For more information on how these tilesets were in these official games, see namida's post in the topic linked in the Lemmings Faithful styles topic.

As several others have stated, the tilesets look amazing. Dexter did a great job with them, and you get to have fun navigating levels in these tilesets with this pack. The levels are all open-ended and therefore shouldn't be too difficult. If you're looking for a greater challenge, you can try going for the talismans, which every level of the pack has. There's only one talisman per level in this pack. Indeed, some of these were difficult to figure out, but they still weren't too hard IMO. In particular, I thought the time attack ones were quite simple, while I find the skill limit ones more challenging. Tricky 9 is probably the hardest of this type to achieve, but is in general not too hard of a level if you don't care for the talisman despite being the penultimate level of the pack. Even the final level isn't very hard but its talisman is a very worthy challenge to finish the pack on. I checked my solution against the talisman solution after I solved the levels and obtained them myself first, and they're all different compared to mine. That's the beauty of the game of Lemmings

Even though this pack is easier than their usual affair, I still enjoyed this pack very much. A lot of the talismans were especially fun to figure out. In this way, some of them kind of remind me of the ones from Lemmings Plus VI. They do increase the challenge, some more drastically than others. I really had to think hard on how to obtain some of them. Some of the ones that require saving all combined with some other restrictions (usually, skill limits) were the hardest talismans of the pack. With this, IMO the hardest one to get was Tricky 3, followed by Tricky 9, Tricky 4, and Simple 9.

The best talismans to figure out IMO are Simple 3, Simple 5, Simple 8, Simple 9, Tricky 1, Tricky 4, and Tricky 10. Simple 2 to an extent, but you can either really overcomplicate it like I did, or do it in a much easier way like Dexter

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words! As always, it was a joy to watch your let's play on youtube.
Here's my response for my levels:

Spoiler

Fields of Gold - I made the talisman for this level with going underneath the one way arrows in mind. I should've known you would manage to go over it instead! Amazing!

Lazuli - This one was a blast to watch you solve! I was kind of blown away by your solution, as I didn't think it would be possible to do that with the limited number of builders! The name is a reference to lapis lazuli, a blue-coloured rock.

Stepping Stones - Great work! You certainly saved a lot of time on this one.

Dodgy Plumbing - I'm glad you liked this one! The talisman for this is one of my favourites, too.

Shantytown - Nicely done! Your solution actually differs from mine quite a bit - your use of the platformer mechanic to turn a lemming round actually makes way more sense than my solution, and could be used to save a lot of time.

Which Way, Mr. Scarecrow? - I was initially surprised that you found this one so hard, but in retrospect it's a very tricky talisman because it's difficult to plan ahead - there's no real way to predict how the lemmings / zombies will be moved around by the scarecrows. Your solution of changing the release rate in order to help with the save/skill requirement is a genius idea that I hadn't considered at all when I was creating the level, amazing!

Beware the Serpent! - This one was a blast to watch you solve! I can't believe you missed that ramp in the upper right, either! Great work!

Vive La Revolution! - I actually laughed out loud when you dug a pit and buried the zombies inside of it. Very fun and creative solution!

Fear Knot - This one is one of the few levels where I made the level first with no solution in mind (as you can probably tell based on how chaotic the landscape is ). There's probably a ton of solutions but they're all tricky to find with the very limited skillset. Great job!

My brother's response for the tricky rank:

Spoiler

The Triad: Nice solve! You mentioned in your video that you found this level to be somewhat easy, and that's entirely fair. In truth, my brother and I are really bad at judging the difficulty of a level. This one seemed like it fit near the end of the rank!

Zen Rock Garden: Some nice ascension skills here! Getting everybody up that wall was very fun.

Quote from: IchoTolot on August 03, 2024, 06:36:42 PM
I want to throw my replays into the ring as well.

Nice pack concept with easy levels that turn into quite the challenge when trying to get the talisman.

I've just finished watching your replays, and there are some really amazing creative solutions here!

I was particularly amazed by your solutions for Simple #6, Simple #8, Tricky #1, Tricky #7

Spoiler

Lazuli - Another fantastic solution to this one! Very intricate, how you dug down to create a one-pixel high platform - I could easily see somebody making a difficult puzzle around that concept

Stepping Stones - Very similar to kaywhyn's solution, you both saved a ton of time by building straight up to the second row. In retrospect, I probably should have put another button on the far side of the level.

Dodgy Plumbing - That staircase made from bashers in the latter half of the level was extremely fun and satisfying to look at. Great job!

Danger, Danger! - I was actually surprised that there are so many possible solutions for the talisman for this one. Both you and kaywhyn opted to disarm the floor traps in order to save more lemmings which I hadn't thought of, but which makes total sense. Brilliant!

Shantytown - Another level that I didn't realise how many solutions it had! I thought for certain that with the very restrictive skillset there would be only one.

Vive La Revolution - Another very satisfying solution, especially when all four climbers jump off the wall simultaneously.

My brother's response for the tricky rank:

Spoiler

The Triad: Some nice lemming control here, and you saved more than enough builders! Nice one.

Zen Rock Garden: Wow! 100% saved! That's crazy!

Just played through this, and wow! These levels look amazing, great work!

I really like the solutions, they're quite easy, but just challenging enough. They remind me a lot of the ohno/orignal levels. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your pack!

QuoteThese are just the sorts of styles we need - clear theme, beautifully crafted, high versatility. Excellent work, Dexter

QuotePhenomenal stuff. Wow!

QuoteAutumn:  Very nice!  If I didn't know better, I'd say this was a style that they just forgot to ship with the original game.
Circuit:  It's alright.  Like the Brick style, the primary color is a little overpowering.  Brick has the advantage that it's used for real-world structures.
Mosaic:  I stared at this for a long while, and I almost can't believe that this follows the palette restrictions.  Marvelous!
Palace:  Not bad, but I think some of the the wood and marble textures could be a bit less realistic somehow.
Rust:  It looks monotonous yet very busy.  It's kinda depressing.  Taking parts from other styles and junking them was clever though.

Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful words!

QuoteMy apologies if that was more negative feedback than you wanted.  Even my least favorite of these styles was better than a lot of styles I've seen over the years, so don't take it too harshly.

Any and all feedback is much appreciated, even negative feedback as this helps me to improve my work in future, thank you!

QuoteI really hope you'll make more of these palette-restricted styles in the future.  It really gives it that retro feel that I love.

I think I definitely will do another pack like this again. In fact, I think all my new packs will be like this in the future, since I'm really proud of how it turned out. I don't have any plans to make any styles right now, however.


I've released a new update for the style pack, this is just a quick fix to correct an issue with the water in 'dex_circuit'.

Thank you all so much for your kind words!

However, I must inform you that the old version had a mistakenly huge file size due to lack of compression/optimisation - this was a massive mistake on my end. If you've already downloaded the old version, please download the updated version 2 and replace the old files with the new ones. The new files are identical, just much smaller in size.

Thank you!

Hey everyone!
I'm pleased to present my new level pack, 'Lemmings Faithful' - another collaboration with my brother, tan x dx!

You'll need to first download its accompanying style pack here:

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6713.0


As I explain in that thread, the gimmick behind these new styles is that they are designed to mimic the style of the original/ohno colour palettes as closely as possible.

This level pack is meant to show off the terrain pieces and objects of the 5 new styles that I created.

There are twenty levels in total, divided into two ranks.
The first rank is very easy - suitable for beginners.
The second rank is slightly harder, but still relatively easy.
The levels have multiple solutions and aren't intended to have any specific solution as the 'correct' one.

If you're a more advanced player looking for a challenge, each level also has an accompanying talisman, some of which are very difficult to obtain!

Here are some screenshots:

Spoiler

Link to the level pack:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/9z370ejmfccdfayjddro9/levels-LemmingsFaithful.zip?rlkey=p42q66j1shgbdidhu7hq1h6mw&st=ljtbck52&dl=1

Link to the solutions for the talismans:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/67qekumsgfemrboco20f5/Replay-LemmingsFaithful-talismans.zip?rlkey=4wj90s93k3bses0yjdgrj3cqq&st=w693q2pd&dl=1




Let me know what you think!

Hey everyone!
I'm so excited to announce my latest style pack, 'Lemmings Faithful'!

As its name suggests, the gimmick behind these five new styles is that they are trying to be as faithful as possible to the original and ohno styles. This basically means that these styles have a very strict and rigid colour palette, following the same rules as the classic styles as closely as possible, whilst still being visually and thematically distinct.
To clarify, all of these styles:
-Have terrain pieces which use a shared palette of 8 colours maximum.
-Have objects which use those 8 colours, as well as the 'fixed' default colours, much like the classical styles.
-Each RGB colour value used is divisible by 16, resulting in a much more limited selection of possible colours.

(Namida elaborates on this much more in this thread: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6686.new;topicseen#new)

The new styles are:

Autumn - Heavily inspired by the 'orig_dirt' style, as well as 'ohno_rock', this is a naturalistic style - a garden during autumn, or a field ready for harvest - with bright golden foliage.

Spoiler

Circuit - A technological style, similar to 'ohno_brick' and 'ohno_bubble', this one features a lot of green motherboards, wires and batteries.

Spoiler

Mosaic - This one is inspired by 'orig_dirt' and 'orig_pillar' - the ancient ruins of a lost civilisation, with a heavy emphasis on water and blue tiles.

Spoiler

Palace - This borrows elements from 'orig_pillar' and 'orig_marble', although it has a much different colour palette! It's rich and palacial, with white marble and gilded mahogany.

Spoiler

Rust - This one's the most similar to 'orig_crystal', in that its palette is all mainly one colour, allowing for more detailed shading. It also has pieces similar to 'ohno_bubble'. It's not quite a junkyard, not quite a sewer and not quite a shantytown!

Spoiler

Link to the style pack:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5ixdfy7uqeg5ebcuimguf/styles-LemmingsFaithfulV3.2.zip?rlkey=wrmqxi87vo8cr7h6473x0iqnz&st=532k3lir&dl=1

I've had a bunch of ups and downs when making these styles - at one point I had to completely remake each colour palette from scratch after I mistakenly used too many colours. That was a huge upset, but it definitely taught a lot about reducing a colour palette. Overall, this was a really fun challenge, and I'm really proud of how they all turned out - I feel as though these styles are my best work. I've had a blast making these, and I hope you enjoy using them too!

Be sure to also check out the accompanying level pack, meant to show off each style. The levels are quite easy, but have some very difficult talismans for more experienced players who want a challenge!

https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=6714.0

Let me know what you think!


Update - version 3.2



Hey everyone!

I'm pleased to announce a small update for the Lemmings Faithful styles.

The above download link has been updated to the new version.

I've added several new objects:

+Skill adders (Palace)
+Skill removers (Palace)
+Neutral adders (Palace)
+Neutral removers (Palace)
+Portals (Each world has its own coloured portal)
+An extra trap for circuit world

Spoiler

The skill adders and removers are adjustable - the height and hitbox can be adjusted.

Currently, the skill adder's height cannot be adjusted, as this resulted in graphical errors with the skill mask icon.
UPDATE - added a shorter version of the skill adder with a much smaller hitbox.

To avoid duplicates, the skill/neutral adders/removers are found in the 'Palace' theme.


Let me know what you think, or if there are any errors!

Quote from: namida on May 02, 2024, 08:16:29 PM
The restrictions in DOS are:
- Each individual RGB value must be divisible by 4 (not necessarily by 16).
- The style can pick up to eight custom colors subject to that rule.
- There are also eight fixed colors. Black from the fixed colors gets treated as transparent in most contexts (the Crystal style has solid black terrain by also including black as a custom color). The last fixed color is not actually fixed; rather it's a duplicate of the first custom color.
- Terrain pieces (across the whole set, not per piece) may use only the 8 custom colors, plus transparent.
- Objects may use all 16 of the colors (subject to black = transparent).
- The skill panel and other UI, as well as lemming sprites, may only use the fixed colors (including the one copied from the variable colors). Some elements / sprites can only use the first four fixed colors. There are a very small number (eg. Burner) that can use the custom colors too.
- Builder bricks and the minimap use the fixed color that's copied from custom.
- When using a vgaspec, the custom colors are replaced with the vgaspec's palette. A vgaspec may have 7 colors plus transparent in its palette.

Thanks for sharing!

I think my new tilesets all follow those rules!

QuoteTerrain pieces (across the whole set, not per piece) may use only the 8 custom colors, plus transparent.

I went back through the original/ohno tilesets, and noticed this rule myself recently. It caused me to have a massive freakout, since I initially violated this rule pretty extensively - my styles' terrain used a combination of the 8 custom colours, plus the fixed colours, which was only true of objects, not terrain.

I had to go back through and do an extensive palette reduction and modification of all the terrain pieces, a process which took several hours. Fortunately, I was able to fix this mistake. The style pack will be released very soon, likely within the next few days - I'm just finishing off a few demonstration levels to go along with it, and tan x dx will also be contributing a few levels.

This was a really fun challenge, I hope you guys enjoy it!

Spoiler

Just looked into the palettes for the original tilesets some more. I forgot to take into account that the original colours use 4096 colours. This basically means that the RGB values of each colour are all divisible by 16.

So now I need to go through and modify the colours of all the terrain pieces and objects to convert them into 4096 colours.

QuoteI think a really good beach/tropical theme could be good, but it's difficult to come up with abstract shapes. The tendency is to go full palm trees and beach balls!

I did think about a beach themed style, or possibly a desert/sandy themed one. I'll workshop it.

QuoteLooks GOOD!

QuoteYour style looks fantastic, there is a lot of detail and a very clear theme.

Thank you so much!

QuoteI don't really know why it seems to be a bit more "high res" than the original tilesets. This may be due to the gradient effect on some elements?

QuoteHowever, I wouldn't necessarily consider it to be in the same visual style of the orig and ohno tiles; it's much more detailed and almost seems higher resolution, which I imagine was no easy task with the aforementioned colour limitations.

It looks high-res because this particular tileset is heavily inspired by the 'crystal' world, in the sense that it's mainly all one colour, which allows for much more depth in terms of gradients. The other styles I'm working on won't be as high-res, since I'm using more varied colours in the palette which will mean the gradients won't be as deep.

QuoteWhat other style are you working on?

The other styles are still very early in development. Currently, I'm working on white-marble style castle/palace, similar to the original marble/pillar styles but with a much different palette.

I also have plans for a more naturalistic type of style, similar to orig-dirt, except with a blue/yellowish colourscheme with red leaves (think autumnal).

The other styles are still in the 'ideas' phase of development - I haven't fully decided what I want for those styles, or what colour palette to use for them. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Quote from: WillLem on April 15, 2024, 05:48:04 AM
Which of the custom style sets are closest in character and quality to the orig and ohno styles? Those have a very specific vibe to them which is difficult to replicate, it would be good to see some other styles which aim for a similar aesthetic.

It's a funny coincidence that you should mention this, as I've recently started to create a new style pack that aims to mimic the style of the original/ohno aesthetics.

From what I'm able to understand, each of the orginal/ohno worlds have a palette of 8 colours max, as well as several (6?) 'default' colours. These default colours seem to be constant across all worlds and are used for things like lemmings and the HUD.

Spoiler

With this in mind, I've started working on several styles that follow this guideline - no more than 8 unique colours maximum, in addition to the 6 default colours.

Here's a sneak peak:

Spoiler

QuoteHi Dexter,

I have resolved your level Cause and Infect. I was able to do it with a much smaller chain, but I'm guessing it's still fine since the core idea of the intended solution is still there. Maybe that's why the timing in my solution is tighter than it needs to be

Hi Kaywhyn!

That is indeed a perfectly acceptable solution, great job!

Quote from: mobius on January 15, 2023, 12:46:40 AM
started taking a look at this; these styles look amazing!

Thanks! This pack took a long time to make, and was definitely a passion project, for both me and my brother.

Just updated the OP to included some screenshots, as recommended by Proxima on discord

QuoteHi Dexter,

I have solved your level "Cause and Infect." Replay attached. Very different from the intended solution, though Still, this is a pretty clever level!

Woah, nice solution! I should've known better than to underestimate you!

Attached is the updated level, intended solution is the same.