Lemmings Forums Level Contest #27 - Results

[IchoTolot]

Ladies and gentleman, we've got our final results!

The winning level is:

Simon's "Rhizome"

The 2nd place is going to:

Simon's "Inside Your Router"

Congratulations to Simon for winning the contest!   (This is also the first Lix entry to win a contest! )

Congratulations to NieSch for reaching the 3rd place with:

NieSch's "Splash or Splat"


Choice for the prize for the first place is either:

- a month's advertising on the forum's news ticker
- picking the next contest's rules
- US $5.00 (PayPal would be the easiest here I think).

[NieSch]

Congrats Simon!

[Simon]

Thank you! And congrats on third place!

I'm really happy to see Rhizome win. Before the release, I must have sunk 30 hours into backroute-fixing. I designed the solution on paper first, with a loose inspiration from It's Hero Time. Then I spent a night to built the terrain, fine-tuned the various timings, and had several days of backroute testing.

I've cut some parts from the early paper brainstorming (second floater, a blocker, and a 3-builder-wall) for their backroute potential. Don't be afraid of cutting scope in your own levels! The remaining ideas are often strong enough to keep the level interesting.

Spoiler: Purpose of the notch near the bottom in Rhizome

If you've attempted to solve Rhizome, you may have tried to use this notch in your solution. It looks purposeful and deliberate, and it's placed at an important spot.

But it shouldn't be possible to use skills in the notch to help you solve Rhizome; the solution would remain conceptually the same with straight terrain instead of the notch.

The purpose of the notch: It turns the floater right-to-left after the floater has finished platforming rightward. All lix are then back with the main pack, and there are no stragglers far away from the pack. It's eye candy during the final walk to the exit.

Inside Your Router arose the opposite way. I placed the terrain first, gave myself 10 builders and started toying around. When I found the solution (which I didn't design), I was surprised how well it worked. Backroute fixing was minimal, too: Builders 10->9 to prevent a 3-builder ramp block near a hatch, and the lasers in the center. Unless you know this story, you'll likely have a hard time guessing that the solution wasn't designed.

The competition was tough. Excellent levels, everybody! I've had a soft spot for Natural-born. And had I been forced to bet on the voting, I might have bet on Clown Fiesta.

-- Simon

[Simon]

I'll pick the rule-setting as the prize. Here are two rules so far.



Four Corners

• Put exactly four entrances, one near each corner.
  
• Put exactly one exit, near the center.
  
• Set the save requirement high enough so that we can't ignore an entrance entirely.
  
• No horizontal or vertical wraparound (in Lix).
  
• No teleporters (in NeoLemmix).
  

The terrain can be anything, with as much or as little interplay between entrances as you like. Map dimensions can be as large or small as you like, whether square, tall, or wide. Pre-placed lemmings are okay as long as we must save some lemmings from each hatch.



At the Zoo

Make a level depicting an animal.

The animal might be the entire level, or it might be a smaller part of the terrain. It should be of significant size and play a significant role in the solution. The shape of the terrain counts; you may ignore color.



The third rule will probably be a lenient skillset restriction. I'll see.

-- Simon

[Simon]

The third rule: Design a miniature, in the sense of my 2017 topic about Miniatures:

• The level's width is at most 320 (Lix) or 160 (NeoLemmix); it may be smaller.
  
• The level's height is at most 200 (Lix) or 100 (NeoLemmix); it may be smaller.
  
• Have 9 or fewer lemmings.
  
• Give 9 or fewer skills.

Pre-placed lemmings, neutrals, zombies, ... are allowed, but count towards the maximum of 9 lemmings. Pickup skills are allowed, but count towards the total of 9 skills. The skill limit is about total skill usages, not about different skills.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Congratulations on the win, Simon!