Lix Level Contest 2014

[mobius]

I'll leave the poll open for a while [longer than a week possibly].
I will post more details of the contest later. But here is a quick summary. If you'd prefer the rules to be different just say so. I am open to suggestion. A good contest requires lots of discussion.

There will be the designing phase lasting a month then the solving phase lasting a month, then a voting phase.

During the level designing phase participants will submit 1 level to be played and judged later.

During the solving phase; anybody [even people who did not submit levels] may play a level and send solutions (via dropbox or another website like mediafire) to both the creator and me) This is so I can keep a record and announce "so and so solved such and such" but solutions should not be revealed to everyone until the solving phase is over. The creators have this time to correct backroutes and embellish their levels for judging.
Players will get points based on how many levels solved and if they are backroutes or not. Intended solutions will be worth more than a backroute. The winner will be the player with the most points there.

Then during the voting Everyone will vote for their favorites levels based on different criteria like: appearance, playability, 'puzzle funness'. (I only used these three words because I cannot remember the creteria I used last time.)

[geoo]

I got a different suggestion for the theme: Make two version of a level where the only difference between the levels is that the second level has one skill from the first replaced with a different skill. Example: Buy One Get One Free (Part 1 & 2)

Combined with the usual format of getting a point for every level solved (probably in addition to other scores through voting), this makes for an interesting challenge as you'd have to try to make two very hard levels which I believe is very tricky, so at least one of the two levels would probably appeal to an audience that's not into solving extremely hard levels. What do you think?

[mobius]

sounds like a good idea chief except might seem a little complicated to some. Let's see what some others think.

Also, so everyone knows; if the majority doesn't want to do a full on solving contest we can just do a level creation or if everybody only wants to solve we can just focus on that.

[RubiX]

Im interested in this.  Haven't done anything with Lix in a about 1.5months now.   

Honestly, i'd be most interested in just a single level build contest only. 

If it could be just a straight up puzzle build challenge where maps were anonymously submitted to you (only you know the person who submitted the map)  and voted on after people all played them, that would be pretty sweet for revealing who designed which map after the results are in.

Just my thoughts.

[Minim]

I voted on the terrain template. At the moment, we seem to be picking on all the unselected options - We don't seem to have an agreement at all! But I do raise my point: Personally I find creating levels form terrain pieces generally tedious, so I thought it would be nice if somebody (or maybe I could do one if no-one's interested) could design a permanent level template (reminds me of the VGAspec levels) for competitors to experiment with. The terrain (which cannot be changed) is the only restriction. The number and positions of hazards, entrances, or skills etc is chosen by the competitors.

[Nepster]

I like geoo's idea as it makes level creation challenging while not restricting the competitor's creativity too much.
My second and third vote would go to "less than 5 lix" and "1 of each skill", but I fear that both of these choices will result in (some) extremely hard levels.

I have some doubts that fixing the terrain is a good idea: First of all it would make backroute fixes very hard (at least without tons of hidden traps). Secondly the terrain layout would reflect the style of its creator, which may suit some of us and not others. And thirdly (and most importantly) we would need some very very good terrain template to allow for many different and interesting solutions. Except for Rubix's "Aftermath" stage with 8 such levels, I can't remember having ever seen one terrain layout used more than three times (with different solutions).

[chaos_defrost]

Another write-in vote to geoo's idea for two levels. I quite like it.

[mobius]

it looks like geoo's idea iis currently winning

If it could be just a straight up puzzle build challenge where maps were anonymously submitted to you (only you know the person who submitted the map)  and voted on after people all played them, that would be pretty sweet for revealing who designed which map after the results are in.

I really like the idea of having the levels be anonymous. I think regardless of the theme or scoring method we will do this; everyone will submit their levels to me, don't post. Then I will reveal them anonymously. This will also prevent people's votes from being effected by knowing who designed it. All in favor holler aye. [don't worry I will make much more detailed rules when it begins]

I haven't decided if I myself will make a level yet. I will probably try but may end up not being able to submit anything; I've sort of exhausted most of my ideas lately. I will submit a level even if it ends up being stupidly easy. I don't want there to be too few levels like last time.

[Clam]

 http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" /> to the idea of making the levels anonymous.

I like geoo's idea but I think for a contest it could be made a bit more restrictive (eg. state which skills you have to substitute to/from). As it is, it feels too open.

[Proxima]

I don't agree; making a good pair of levels that both have interesting solutions with the same terrain and a single skill replacement is difficult enough already, so adding further conditions on top of that will just end up making it an "experts only" contest.

[Clam]

Maybe it's just me, but I find that limiting the number of options helps because then I don't have to choose between them http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />. But I can imagine why it might not be a good idea in this case - it could lead to entries being too similar, or it could be frustrating if your idea doesn't quite work but would if you could choose a different skill as your substitute.

Also...

[10:59:51]   <geoo> Also I really like the idea of anonymous submissions. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to still match them to the author just by looking at the style
[11:00:43]   <Clam> there could be a separate competition where you guess who made which level
[11:00:49]   <geoo> yes http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />

[mobius]

alright then, there will be a 'phase 4' in which anyone may guess who made each level  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />

Could everyone who posted about/agreeing with geoo's idea please vote "other" so it's easier for me to tell exactly how many people are really voting here.

[NaOH]

I'm really looking forward to this contest, regardless of the specific theme. But I think it would be cool if the theme led to easily-identifiable levels, so that you could take one look at some point in the future and think, "oh yeah, this was for that level contest."

Here's an idea I had in IRC: make a level out of a set number of terrain pieces, say five. They can be any five terrain pieces, but already that severely constrains a level. I don't think it would be too hard to come up with a puzzle, and it's a very approachable challenge for potential participants.

[RubiX]

I like the idea of an 'identifiable map to classify itself as part of X build competition'

How about a set number of Lix from say 5-8 only   
Each lix must have his own hatch, and 100% needs saving.
Width/Height is pre-determined and everyone builds that size of a map.