Your signature level design elements

[Strato Incendus]

This is a thread for every "wizard to share some of their secret tricks" : Certain things you like to put in your levels / certain skill combinations you like to demand from the player on a regular basis.

Rather than spoiling solutions for individual levels, this may provide a general insight into the mind of each level creator, so that whenever you are playing a pack by a particular level designer, you can look here to find some hint about how the level designer thinks in general, to maybe get a different inspiration for what might be a possible solution.

I'll start, and then you're going to see what I mean .

I like to...

Spoiler

• make levels only requiring a particular supertype of skill (creative, destructive, lethal, upward-moving, downward-moving, etc.)
• make 1-of-everything levels (not necessarily restricted to classic skills)
• make save-everyone levels, so that freeing blockers and/or doing crowd control via "terrain pits" is required
• use radiation or slowfreeze in combination with blockers, so that the execution is less annoying, however the area in which the lemming can bomb / stone is restricted, compared to a pickup skill which can be assigned anywhere in the level once it has been collected
• enforce the miner-cancels-miner trick, which does not work if the miner doing the cancelling is a climber
• enforce interrupting staircases through a low ceiling, so that one has to drop a stoner in between and start another staircase from there
• enforce digging down into the stoner-terrain before building said staircase, also through a low ceiling
• enforce digging into terrain to get below a low ceiling, and simultaneously use that digger shaft to turn lemmings around
• enforce the use of a scout swimmer who then has to build or platform from the other side of a water pont to save the crowd - usually, this is done via a protruding ceiling, so that it is not possible to build from the side where the crowd is, because the staircase / platform would end in a wall above the water
• let the player build into updrafts / anti-splat pads so that they become useful for catching lemmings
• put stoners to their multi-purpose use in the same level (i.e. for breaking a fall, closing a gap, and for turning lemmings around)
• exploit the relative distance between lemmings when it comes to picking a scout lemming (i.e., the second lemming has to be the scout rather than the first one, because the first one has to do the crowd control, and therefore needs more space to prevent the next lemming from catching up to him too early)
• use shafts-in-creation to turn a second lemming around; once the basher-, fencer- or miner shaft is completed and there is no "wall" left, it's too late to turn the second lemming around
• exploit lemmings slipping by a stack-in-creation
• enforce the use of multiple stackers on top of each other to prevent any lemmings from slipping by
• use stackers and/or diggers to create vertical shafts climbers have to climb up
• use cloners in combination with creative or destructive skills
• enforce 6 pixel-jumps
• use stoners to turn gliders around (only works if you stone a descending glider, so that the next one can land on top of the newly created terrain)
• exploit miners tanking on steel to turn them around
• and perhaps, my most famous signature element: turning animal-terrain into traps

I have trouble with...

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• levels in which you don't have to save everyone and where it's not obvious which lemmings are allowed to die (i.e. a lemming slipping by and going into a trap rather than a lemming having to be bombed / stoned, which can be identified in advance by looking at the skill panel)
• levels where you have to compress lemmings to bypass traps, because it's not obvious how many will die in the process, see above
• time-limited levels where you have to use several lemmings in combination to either remove or create terrain quickly enough
• levels where you have to make two lemmings using creative or destructive skills go through each other, because I'm not always aware which skills can pass through each other without cancelling each other out, and which can't
• levels with red-herring skills that don't have to be used in the intended solution at all

A "Hard-for-Strato" level would therefore probably include:

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• a time limit requiring several lemmings to work together at creating or removing terrain - possibly some of these lemmings going through each other
• probably without a lot of options of crowd control
• you don't have to save everyone
• with red-herring bombers and/or stoners which must not be used, because the lemmings who are allowed to die perish elsewhere
• at the end of the level you need to compress the crowd to get past a bunch of triggered traps

[Nessy]

Nice idea for a thread here especially seeing how lovely it is that everyone seems to have their own style when it comes to making levels, and everyone brings something different and unique to the table.

I'm going to follow the format of your original post here:

I like to...

Spoiler

- Make small levels. I basically start building a level using the default width and height of the canvas and it usually works out pretty well. Sometimes my ideas go beyond the default width and height and so I just expand accordingly.

- Make 1-of-everything puzzles. Yep, I love making these too. It's just so fun making them but they can be really tough levels at the same time if done correctly.

- Make levels with two entrances. I don't really know how this came about but a lot of my levels have two entrances even though one entrance works just as well

- Make levels with a symmetric design. They are rarely "the same solution works on both sides" though

- Make levels with creative uses of crowd control and release. Basically levels where containing the crowd or releasing them isn't obvious and is part of the puzzle itself. In fact, I love making levels that don't even contain the crowd but relay on clever strategies to control their flow throughout an entire level.

- Make levels where old, classic tricks are used but it is very nonobvious that it has to be used in a level. I also try to make sure that the trick is merely part of the solution and not the entire solution. Of course, I'm not saying that I'm against that, just saying what I like to do

I don't like to...

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- Make levels with a large skillset. This is just my own personal style and I have nothing against it. I like making levels where the max amount of skills you have on the panel is around 4 or 5, and the quantity of each isn't too large either. This isn't always the case, but I have found that some of my hardest levels had that small skillset Of course, the biggest danger is always that the solution can be made too obvious, so extra precaution is required to avoid this.

I have trouble with...

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- Levels where you have to spam builders to either save a large amount of lemmings from falling to their deaths or to delay them because 100% is required and you have nothing else to use. Think about the 100% solution to "Turn Around Young Lemmings!" with only builders. That's basically a good "Hard-For-Nessy" example right there

[Colorful Arty]

I love this idea for a thread! Let me put in my 2 cents.

I like to...

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• Make X-of-everything levels, especially 1-of-everything levels with the original skills and a 1 minute time limit. Those are almost always my favorites and usually are challenging, but not brutally difficult.
• Make levels with time limits. Call it nostalgic, but I like time limits, and for than 90% of the time they help you out by weeding out long solutions instantly, leading you to the right solutions more easily. The one exception is if the time limit is so tight and precise that you can fail the level even if you have the right solution.
• Use cloners in the skillset. Cloner are probably my favorite skill, especially when paired with builders and miners.
• Give lots of skills. An empty skill panel seems lonely, and the more skills you give people, the more intricate the solution can be. This also does open a lot of backroute opportunity.

I don't like to...

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• make levels with lots of stackers or disarmers. Stackers are OK in moderation, but excessive stackers ruin a level for me. Disarmers I have found have few uses that make for cool solutions, and are my least favorite skill because of it.
• make a lot of button levels. Button levels can be fun in moderation, but too many buttons spoils the soup as they say.

I don't like levels with...

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• intense crowd control. I'm not talking about holding crowds back, I'm talking about levels which demand Lemmings be in specific places at specific times for the solution to work. Generally, this involves unfairly precise flow control or just magically knowing where to use certain skills to delay lemmings and ensure they're where they need to be. I also dislike compressing lemmings to get past traps.
• teleporters. Specifically levels that involve slow teleporters that can only take 1 lemming at a time. It really ticks me off that teleporters don't function like they do in Revolution where all lemmings go through a teleporter when they touch it, which is why my lego and silhouette teleporters are as fast as possible. This frequently overlaps with intense crowd control.
• A nuke solution when it is not obvious that the nuke is needed. I am all for nuke levels as long as it's obvious the nuke is needed and doesn't turn into a luck-based level on "I hope you press the nuke button at exactly the right time with exactly the right setup!"

[Strato Incendus]

It's interesting to see what people notice as their own signature level building styles vs. what other people perceive as typical of that person.

For example, Colorful Arty also likes to...

Spoiler

- give skills that are red herrings, as he repeatedly mentions in his playthrough of Sublems
- make skills pass through each other, i.e. digger and basher, miner and digger
- on a similar note, make skills go through which would otherwise be interrupted (i.e. connecting different terrain pieces with builders so that one miner can go all the way through)
- and, of course, "painting" with level tiles in general

[Colorful Arty]

It was very interesting to hear your thoughts on my design preferences Strato. My reactions to your choices:

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I agree with SubLems I loved seeing what was possible in terms of destructive skills crossing each other, but I really don't put those kind of tricks in my levels anymore, as they're very fiddly to get right. That's why in SubLems the levels requiring those tricks have those tricks as the ONLY thing you need to do in the level.
I also don't put red herrings in my levels anymore, as that just invites backroutes; especially on very large, complex levels.
Those last two I do still love doing. They make for beautiful levels with elegant solutions.

[GigaLem]

mine is short so here you go

Strengths

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-Making artsy levels
-Making a busy challenging level
-using fun tricks
-cramming lemmings together
-trying to make use of every skill in a X of everything level

Weaknesses

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-Backroutes
-making a not-brainless easy level
-making a good level that has a lot of builders
-testing a hard-for-flopsy level
-changing a plan in the level without breaking the design

what is "Hard-for-Giga"?

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Put it simply, Where it feels like im one skill short

[nin10doadict]

My signatures:

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Trigger trap management. Often Lemmings must die to traps and you must figure out how to avoid losing too many, or there will be a wide variety of traps to avoid.
Easy puzzles that aren't entirely brainless. My favorites are the ones that end up being way harder than I thought they should, like Perky 12 - "Look at them shimmy!" from Casualemmings.
Levels with a variety of solutions but some sort of task or obstacle that can only be approached in a limited way.
Troll levels that force you to repeat an obnoxious task far too many times.

My peeves:

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Obnoxiously hard or obscure levels.
Giant levels with only one solution.
Levels requiring incredible precision. This is made even worse if you can see what the solution is but just can't make it work. Sublems Hellish 2 - "Christmas Crossing II" is a good example of this.

Hard for nin10 would be:

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A big level with lots of skills but only one solution that requires some kind of precise placement or obscure trick.

[Flopsy]

What the hell, I'll bite on this...

I like to....

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1. Make levels in tilesets I have made myself which usually depict my favourite video game characters.

2. Make good use of Blockers in my solutions, I don't like to use them to keep back the crowd under the trapdoor but rather find more creative uses for them.

3. Make levels which use a wide variety of skills, I am usually bummed by the fact that you can only have 8 skills in the skill panel because some of my levels could have been much better if the amount of skills were unlimited. It leads me to think I could potentially be a good Lix level creator.

4. Make X of everything levels (where X<10) where the level is large enough for X of everything to even not be enough skills and you need to think about how to make your skills count.

5. Put bombers or stoners in 100% levels JUST BECAUSE I CAN!

6. Use multiple trapdoors in my levels, I usually start out with a single trapdoor but then I get an idea and want to make it happen and it usually involves a lemming coming from another part of the level

7. Have fun making videos and playing level packs - usually when levels are fun and aren't too unneccesarily difficult, LPs and video making is very easy.

8. And just to address something which was raised recently, I like the freedom to make levels the way I want to make them and not have to answer to it being "too big", "too tight on timing", "too many trapdoors", "too much multitasking" for example.
If people are able to solve the level without too much trouble then I consider the level a success, if you don't like my levels, I'd rather you didn't play them.

I don't like to....

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1. use preplaced lemmings - Yes, I have some levels with preplaced lemmings in SEB Lems but I usually like to use another trapdoor when possible. Preplaced Lemmings just tend to make solutions too obvious. I have found some uses for Preplaced lemmings like when I want to have more than 8 skills, I would just eliminate a permanent skill and have a preplaced lemming with said skill.

2. use disarmers - Disarmers is such a limited use skill and I have never liked it, I've managed to use it on some levels I've made but they are very few and far between.

3. use stoners - One thing that scares me about stoners is how much back route potential they give: they can effectively make a massive drop of up to 125ish pixels survival in a single frame and that is nearly a whole screen length. Whenever I have used stoners, I have had to make sure that they cannot break the level and that is what makes this skill not so good because of the level breaking potential.

4. make levels with small skillsets or a small variety of skills - usually the smallest skillset I'd make is a 1 of everything level but people tend to like those. I don't have many levels where you have less than 5 different skills to use, I try and make use of different skills as much as I can. I feel like the level is too easy to solve if there are less than 5 skills on the skill panel.

I have difficulty with....

Spoiler

I'm sure everyone knows the Hard For Flopsy quota by now, it's what started this whole shenanigan!
But just for shits and giggles.
1. Levels with tight time limit, 99 Release Rate, Lemmings heading for immediate danger, no blockers, 100% save requirement, all in one level!

The lesser known Hard For Flopsy mk2 is
2. Levels with gliders and stoners which require gliders to land on stoners, this is because of the odd trigger area on lemmings which are gliding, it is actually really low down and lower than you think it is!

Not really hard for Flopsy territory anymore but just general dislikes.
3. Levels using the original Purple or Tree tilesets from LPII.

4. Levels which require an obscurely known trick or glitch to solve, like Floaters being able to enter exits in midair.
5. Levels where you are required to compress Lemmings through a LOT of traps.

6. Levels where I am scratching my head or "errr"-ing at on videos on my LPs

7. Levels with horrible music!!!

[Strato Incendus]

With regard to disarmers, since several people mentioned them as difficult with regards to coming up with creative solutions:

Most of the levels I created which I consider to feature "intelligent" use of disarmers turned out as stalling levels: You have only one disarmer who needs to disable a lot of traps, so you need to keep the crowd busy in the meantime (like in "Athletic aesthetics" and "A trip to Yugoslemmia" from Pit Lems or "Do not fear" from Lemmicks). Also, sometimes the disarmer is indeed the easy part, but you have to get it first, because it lies around somewhere as a pickup skill (like in "Have you seen my screwdriver?" from Paralems).

[namida]

I don't know if I can really categorize things as "I like to" vs "I don't like to".

Just general comments on my level design process. Contains moderate solution spoilers for several of my levels, including some LPO2 levels that very few people have solved.

I more commonly take one of two approaches: Either I think of a central trick and design a level around that (possibly implementing more tricky stuff along the way), or I simply design a layout then find a solution to work into it. Often this doesn't involve actually playing and seeing what I come up with; rather, part-way through doing so, I'll get some ideas and from that point on I basically fall back into "design around the trick" mode. I've got a video on my YouTube channel that shows me creating a level - at the start, I have no ideas at all for what the level might look like, but by the end, I've got a complete level (minus a few later backroute fixes). Specifically, "Dangerous Detour" from Lemmings Plus V.

In the case of building around a trick, I do notice that the trick often relates to how crowd control is achieved - you figure out how to control the crowd, and [almost] everything else falls into place - often because the crowd control also creates part of the route to the exit, or at least part of the route to get another worker where you need them to be. The most notable example of that would be "Drawing Dead" from Lemmings Plus Omega II - I'll do a seperate spoiler tag for the specific details. Don't read it unless you've either solved or given up on that level (or have no interest in playing it in the first place), as this spoiler describes about 80% of the level's solution, including the most important trick.

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The crowd is actually contained here by the oldest trick in the book - using blockers to hold the crowd by the entrance. In this case, you only need one blocker, as the other side has a wall anyway. The tricky part is not actually in how to contain the crowd, but how to free them without using up skills you need elsewhere. The level has a Stoner pickup skill, which at first glance may seem useless. The actual way you free the crowd? Use the Stoner on the Blocker, then bash through it. The biggest trick of all is the interaction between crowd control and creating a route - the worker lemming will come back to the start area twice during the solution. I mentioned a wall on one side of the entrance area - above the other side, there is a platform. Quite clearly a worker lemming needs to get to this platform at some point; there's no obvious reason why the crowd would need to (and indeed, they don't need to). The gap between these is VERY slightly more than one builder's length, but one builder is all you have spare to deal with it. The first time the worker gets here though, they need to go back to where they started, so this is perfect - the builder takes them far enough that they fall and walk through the blocker. The stoner is then used on the blocker before they come back again, and that stoner provides the few extra pixels the worker needs to get to the aforementioned platform. When all this falls into place, the rest is very straightforward.

In fact, I notice even when I use the general approach of "just put something together for now, find a solution later", the action often ends up being concentrated near the start of the level for some reason. Probably the most significant example of this is "The Golden Rule Of Lem", one of my NeoLemmix Community Pack submissions - the first half of the level is very action packed, while the second half mostly solves itself once you've got the first half right - but there are plenty of decoy elements in the second half that make you think significant parts of the solution might in fact take place there.

Of course, I do have levels that defy all of these typical elements of my design. "Variety Day" from Lemmings Plus I is an example of this - it could be said to have a core trick (the another-lemming-walks-ahead-of-worker-to-block thingy) but it really is still a puzzle of how everything, overall, fits together.

In terms of what I find hard...

Usually, the biggest difficulty for me is levels that require cooperation between multiple workers. And ironically, a lot of the things I tend to use in my level design, such as creative methods of crowd control, are also among the same things I find difficult.

[Proxima]

This is a great topic I'll do my best with it...

I like to...

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* Make resource-management levels, i.e. there is no specific intended solution, but skill counts are low enough that finding any solution is hard. Usually, I make these by starting with a terrain, playing through it while trying to optimise (and especially to keep my skill usage balanced, not using too many of any one skill) and then setting the skillset to a nice X-of-everything or some other pattern like 2-3-2-3... I'm always okay with it if people solve these levels by other routes than the one I used, but if there is a solution that feels too simple, sometimes I will tighten the level afterwards.
* As mentioned above, I like nicely patterned skillsets, even on levels that do have a specific intended solution, e.g. 0-1-2-3-2-1-0-0 (with the original 8 skills) on "Drop the Dead Lemming". Oh, and I will include bombers and cubers you can't use if it makes the pattern neater.
* For specific-solution levels, I like requiring multiple workers, either because one must bomb/block/cube so the other continues, or because the workers must compress through a trap, or just building separate parts of the route.
* I love disjoint unions, i.e. separate levels on the same "page", where the player has to work out how to divide the skills and allowed losses between the sections. Sometimes the sections aren't completely separate but share an exit, which also opens the possibility of solutions that actually involve cooperation between the sections.
* I like synergy between skills and unexpected uses of skills, e.g. blocker turns digger, or builder makes a miner continue, or two diggers make a wider pit for building back up.

I don't like...

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* Objects other than the traditional set of trapdoor, exit and hazards. There's more than enough puzzle potential in those to keep me going. I especially dislike radiation/slowfreeze, splitters, and updrafts.
* Small bits of terrain, or layering of eraser pieces over terrain, to make a map where you have to look closely to work out how the lemmings are going to behave at all, never mind factoring in the player's ability to modify the terrain with skills.
* Really precise timing, where you have to keep fiddling about with how you assign skills to a certain lemming to get the correct spacing between two lemmings much later.

[Dullstar]

I like to....

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*Make small levels. If I can fit it all on one screen, I will.

*Make levels designed to ease new players into the series. It's easier for me to come up with and sometimes I like trying to come up with different ways to get through a 20-of-everything. Besides, most custom levels are insanely hard, so it can be good to come up with something a little easier.

*Use tilesets that look like they belong in either Lemmings 1 or Lemmings 2. Most of my levels straight up use the tilesets from these games. I only consider custom tilesets if they look like they'd fit into those games.

I don't like to....

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*Use vertical scrolling. If I make a level that uses it, it had better be a design that won't work at all without it.

*Leave portions of a level blank. Back in the Lemmix days I solved this by either filling the level in with decoration (fine), or by filling it with unnecessary padding (never do this). Now, you can just shrink the level size and cut off all the unused blank space.

*Make precise levels. A solution should fail because it's wrong, not because I didn't *quite* start the builder close enough to the edge, or because I set the blocker *slightly* too early, or because the lemmings weren't aligned *just* right when the skill was used. I consider this to be a minor flaw in Test Chamber, the only level I've made which has ever been nominated for Level of the Year, but unfortunately removing the somewhat precise skill assignment would likely have trivialized it (I'd have to see people try to solve the level to confirm that though). The assignment is a little picky in that level, although it's not too egregious - if you know how to line it up, it can easily be done consistently even without framestepping. If I recall correctly, the somewhat precise assignment was

Spoiler

that a blocker needed to be set with a specific number of lemmings on one side of it, and the lemming that was assigned the blocker skill needed to be facing a specific direction; if it was facing the wrong way it would die after being released.

I have difficulty with....

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I'm no good at solving custom levels, so designing a level that's hard for me is not at all difficult. As for what I have the most problems with: I have a lot of trouble finding creative new ways to combine skills. I've definitely looked up a few level solutions and walked away thinking, "Wait, you can DO that?" For instance, there was a level in a past contest that involved using a blocker to turn around a miner. It makes sense that you can do that, considering you can do it with builders, but I never would have thought to try that on my own.

From a design perspective: I have trouble actually finishing and releasing any levels! Back when I was younger and more active around here, I released a lot of crap. I have dialed that way back in recent years, and now I usually only release what I consider to be my best work. Most of the time, I don't see the level design going anywhere, and I abandon the level before its completion. I currently refuse to begin any pack projects; I think it would make it too easy for me to fall into the mindset of "I need to make 20 levels! Go go go!" and then have maybe two or three if I'm lucky that are actually any good. After all, back when level packs were usually released in .dat files of 10 levels, a lot of the crap I made was just trying to fill those up. I'd much rather just release the two or three that are actually good as independent levels, and leave the seventeen bad levels to rot on my hard drive.