Doomsday Lemmings II - Development topic (100% Complete, in testing)

namida · October 20, 2015, 07:16:10 PM

A bit of a change of plan here. Rather than cutting down the number of levels, I've agreed to let another forum member design the remaining levels, and thus making Doomsday Lemmings II a collaborative project. I'll leave it up to them to decide if they want to say who they are, or if they'd rather keep it secret until the release.

I will of course be reviewing all these levels to make sure they're of a quality that I think is comparable to something I myself would make and release. I've been very impressed by what I've seen in the past from this author, so I'm sure they'll be of comparable quality.

namida · October 27, 2015, 09:09:19 PM

I've received 7 levels from this second author; I haven't played them yet, but they look very impressive. I'm going to actually play these levels myself now to get an idea about the difficulty, then discuss with the other contributor what positions the levels should be in as well as tidying up the levels a bit, and getting rid of backroutes (in both my levels and theirs).

All going well, the pack might even make the original intended release date of halloween.

GigaLem · October 31, 2015, 11:58:54 PM

I wanted to keep it a surprise but because its Halloween, I can't Resist
I have Volunteered to make the remaining 8 levels, i sent namida the last one he needed recently
as im still awaiting his response, i helped him in the nick of time

namida · November 01, 2015, 12:15:06 AM

Yep. At this point, all the levels have been received. There's just two issues left to iron out - one level has a major backroute, and one other level I haven't been able to solve and GigaLem hasn't provided a working replay for (I'm fine with not having solved it myself, as long as I know it's at least possible to solve).

Once those two matters are sorted (and some slight tweaks to in-game texts), the pack will be ready for a first version release.

namida · November 02, 2015, 08:28:55 AM

Okay so, Doomsday Lemmings II is all complete - all levels verified as possible (there's still two of GigaLem's levels that I don't know the solution to, but I have working replays for so I can be sure they're possible).

At this point, here's the big question -
Do I put it through pre-release testing, and thus have the release even further away from Halloween (which was originally intended to be the absolute latest date for release)?
Or do I release it as-is, while people are still hopefully at least somewhat in a Halloween-y mood, and possibly require more updates than would normally be needed, as well as possibly creating a not-so-great first impression (even though this may be fixed by the time the final version happens)? On the flipside, I really don't feel that (and this is not at all GigaLem's fault; his levels are some of the best ones in this pack) this pack is quite up to my usual standards anyway, so I don't know if I'm too worried about that.

I'll probably make a decision on this fairly soon regardless of if there's much input or not, but in the meantime, feel free to give your two cents on this matter. Do note that there will probably be an update or two either way; and thus in either case I'll ask anyone who does video playthroughs / etc to hold off on doing Doomsday Lemmings II until it's been updated a few times.

namida · November 04, 2015, 12:05:45 AM

Based on some feedback from someone I got to have a very quick look, I think it's best that this does go through testing.

So - if a couple of users are interested in testing, drop me a PM.

namida · November 08, 2015, 06:53:00 AM

Gotten some replays and suggestions, but the user in question wasn't able to solve a lot of the later levels, apart from those they backrouted. If any of the more skilled players (especially those who enjoy zombie levels, for obvious reasons) would like to have a shot at testing, let me know.

namida · November 18, 2015, 09:40:50 PM

Doesn't look like we'll be getting any more testers. I fixed up the backroutes this person found and have sent them the updates; depending on results, we'll hopefully see a release very soon. Sorry about the delays, just haven't really had the same enthusiasm about this pack as I have in general with my packs so it's kinda taken a back seat to other (both Lemmings-related and not) stuff.