Thought it seemed a bit easy! I'll give V2 a look.

Well, in that case, I'm afraid Outside the Box Part 2 has got me beat. Much like The Oubliette, I just can't see what you want the player to do with this one. I'll be interested to see if someone else can do it!

I don't think there's anything wrong with it (even if it's not what I'd do myself) if an author never chooses to release their replay files, let alone just delays them a bit after the release of the pack (which I did do with my own packs) - but they personally should still have them, and be able to run a mass replay check and confirm every level is solvable.

Your solution to "Redneck Redemption" is a backroute - nice find @JawaJuice.  Released V2 in the Update thread.

No worries, @kaywhyn - I enjoyed playing R2 very much! I think your level looks great with the Dune tileset. It also gave me the most pause for thought outside of Armani's level in this rank, despite the minimal skillset. A nicely designed puzzle.

I think possibly R2 plays to my strengths: I tend to do quite well with only 1 or 2 lemmings (aside from Dexter's Lock and Key haha). On the other hand, I typically don't do so well with very limited skillsets where if I can't see the solution, it feels like there aren't that many things to try. I'll move onto R3 and circle back to R1 later; with the exception of Armani's level, I did come fairly close to solving the others. Yours sounds like it needs a trick, which I may not be aware of - I've played the game long enough to know most standard tricks, but there are still some obscure ones I probably don't.

Indeed that is a backroute, but I think in this case it's patchable.  Updated the "Outside the box" pair.  Hmmm, I'm starting to wonder if I should rename one version to "Inside the box" just for a change!

@JawaJuice

Your solution to my R2 is intended! Great job and thank you for playing! Regarding my R1, yea, it's a pretty sneaky one, so I think I was right to make the decision to leave it as a final rank level of my upcoming Lemmings Memories pack for the time being

Quote from: JawaJuice on November 25, 2025, 11:36:30 PMHi! Hopefully this topic is open to all, not just the authors? I thought I'd give these levels a playtest

Absolutely! These levels are open to anyone who wants to play them, not just the authors In the same way, there's no requirement that you must make levels to register to be a member of this site. There's plenty of members here who play levels/packs but don't create levels or vice versa, for example. I myself was once the former when I first signed up, but with some support and encouragement from Icho and several others to give the level making side a try, I decided to try my hand at level designing! I personally am not satisfied with some of my early Lemmings stuff, but I have improved slowly and steadily with my designs over the last several years according to several in this community I've also been told that my puzzles/solutions have always been excellent, it was the visuals that had plenty of room for improvement, but I think I'm pretty much there now for the most part even though I myself have never been an artist and still am not.

As mentioned in another topic, you can also play some of mine and other people's contest levels in Armani's LDC Compilation pack  

QuoteBut then I tried R2, and it seemed significantly easier. I dunno whether that was intentional?

There's generally no natural progression of increasing difficulty with the contest levels since these collection packs consists of levels from various authors. As you have already seen from trying these levels, some members tend to be associated with challenging levels. Both Icho and Armani here are a really good example. With the former, for example, yea, I generally have the same experiences with usually being a skill short anytime I play Icho's levels.

As for my stuff, I have the tendency to think my levels aren't that hard "relatively speaking" to the other levels in these contest collections. I still think this even though I've been given feedback plenty of times that my levels are challenging, which as you might guess surprises me to hear that. I have apparently made even Icho and Armani sweat hard with my levels, and the latter has even been kind enough to let me know within the past year that my more recent stuff is harder than his more recent levels Suffice to say, I probably haven't quite reached the high end of difficulty Icho and Armani can make with their levels yet, though I suspect I'm not that far behind them in that area

Some rulesets are very restrictive and challenging to design around and meet criteria for and hence some rulesets will have levels that are significantly easier than others for the most part. Even then, it's still very much possible to be able to make a challenging level regardless of how restrictive the rulesets are if one knows how and does it with proper care

You can see the rulesets I came up with for LDC #33 in more detail here: https://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=7212.0. This link is also in the OP on page 1 in this topic  

Hi! Hopefully this topic is open to all, not just the authors? I thought I'd give these levels a playtest

TBH I was about to give up after to failing to complete any of the levels in R1 (Armani's I just have no idea lol, it seems impossible, Crane's I always seem to be one pixel shy of a solution whatever I do, IchoTolot's I find I'm a skill short of being able to do it and kaywhyn's, I feel I have what must be the solution but the timing means I can only save 4 out of 5). But then I tried R2, and it seemed significantly easier. I dunno whether that was intentional?

Anyway, my replays for R2 attached - hopefully they are your intended solutions. I enjoyed all of these levels, especially Armani's Rusty Ruin Zone, which was the most challenging of the four I'd say.

Quote from: Armani on November 25, 2025, 04:49:44 PMI prefer not to release all solutions at the same time I publish my levels because I enjoy seeing how far players can get without having the answers available from the start. For me, part of the fun of creating levels is watching people try to solve them on their own first and many players also enjoy the challenge of approaching a new pack without immediate spoilers. That said, whenever someone tells me they're stuck on a particular level and asks for the solution I always provide it. This has been the case for every pack I've ever released without exception.

Adding to this: It's REALLY difficult to gauge the difficulty of a level you've just created, because you already know how it's supposed to be solved, and you can get all sorts of feedback as a result of people attempting the level; even if you only get back a set of replays, you'll see that the hardest levels (for that player at least) remain unsolved. If someone spoils themselves, though, then they can generate their own replay for the level, and you lose that feedback unless they explicitly tell you that they had to look it up.

Yep, your solution is pretty much the same as mine, which doesn't surprise me - I don't see any other way it could be done.