Level of the Year 2023: Playing Phase

[IchoTolot]

Alright, so nominations are now closed. Before we open the voting, we first offer a period to play the levels again, to familiarize yourself with those you haven't yet played and review those you have.

The list of nominated levels can be found in the nominations topic, I see no need to duplicate it here. It also contains information on where to find these levels outside of my compilation here.

Download links:

- NL Levelpack of all nominated levels.

All Lix nominations are attached to this post!

Every author with 3 or more levels in this category gets an own rank in the pack. At the end there is a mixed rank for the leftover levels. Extract the zip file inside the main NL folder.

- Music tacks

The custom music tacks of the nominated levels. Extract the zip file inside the main NL folder.

- Replay collection

Some gathered replays from a few of the nominated levels. As this was optional, only a part of the pack is covered here.


All styles should be accesible over the standard NL styles library!

Playing phase will end: May 31th 2024

General level feedback and solution replays can be posted here in the topic if you want! Have fun playing!

If there are any errors I've made in the collection, don't hesitate to inform me here! As a reminder: This pack is nothing more than an optional service I provide as an attempt to make all nominated levels more easily accessible.

[Turrican]

 Recently Ryemanni , has updated his styles, something that has affected one of my levels , that is in the LOTY pack ( Cyberlems2555 ), that contains tiles , from some of these tilesets.

Because , the way the terrain of the level is affected by the updated styles , the gameplay of the level , is affected too.

In that case a fix is needed on the level , so here , I have uploaded , a fixed version of the level.

The fixed version of the level , works without issues , in both the newer versions , of the styles by Ryemanni , and in the older ones , too.

[IchoTolot]

Updated the pack with Turrican's new version of the level.

[Pieuw]

Awesome!
I took some time last night and played a few levels by Armani. I solved the first three levels which were quite excellent once I understood what the frick frack was going on (I'm not familiar at all with the "new" stuff ). Level 2 especially was confusing at first. But I enjoyed it in the end now stuck on level 4, I'll keep going later.

[Turrican]

Here is a new version of "Cyberlems2555" . It contains the needed modifications , that allows it to maintain it's original look , even if you have the new version , of the styles by Ryemanni installed.

In order for the level to work , you will need to put in your styles folder , the new version of the ''turrican_special'' tileset , that is also included in this post.

Many thanks to Ryemanni , who gave me his permission , to include the needed tiles , in the tileset!

[kaywhyn]

Finally got around to updating my level Fun Teleportation Race in Space to fix a backroute thanks to Simon. I also found a backroute of my own to the level

- Moved and removed some terrain to create another gap

- Reduced the Lemming count from 10 to 9 and as a result -1 to the save requirement, meaning it got reduced from 9 to 8.

I've attached the updated level here and also the intended solutions to my levels! These can be added to the replay collection if you wish. For this level, it's the second replay attached. The intended solution is the same, but just needed a minor replay tweak due to the reduced Lemming count.


I have solved all of the LOTY2023 collection pack and have attached my replay collection. LemFan's was the only level I haven't played, while kieran millar's Final Resting Place needed a resolve since he updated the level from last year when he decided to fix my backroute. Finally, Turrican's CyberLem 2555 needed a minor replay tweak, which I'm guessing there were some terrain adjustments which therefore caused some skill assignments to be in the wrong places.

For LemFan's level, this was quite a difficult level! I thought it would be a quick solve, but nope. It ended up being several short solving sessions over a period of a week or so before I finally succeeded. Not only are there a lot of red herrings, there's also one crucial solution element that if you don't realize it you will be stuck.

Spoiler

Getting two gliders to be the right distance from each other so that when you stone the one in front that will cause the second one to get stuck inside the stoner terrain so that he's trapped between that and the wall. This was very hard to see and one in which you need to allow the first glider to bounce off the wall and go back to the left for a pixel before stoning. I got this to work in the first few moments of my solving session, but because I didn't check to see what needs to happen in subsequent attempts, I eventually got very frustrated due to having wasted probably close to an hour but constantly failing at this part. I was very mad. In addition, you also have to platform at either of two specific spots so that the closest he gets is one pixel away from sealing off the gap in order to achieve the desired effect with the stoner. It also wasn't clear whether you're supposed to keep the crowd moving or use the pit at the start to keep everyone safe. I supposed it should had been obvious that you need to keep everyone safe, as you're going to lose too many to the pulley trap anyway, but well, there's plenty of distractions in the level. 

It's a good level; however, I criticize the extreme and unnecessary precision in several places, as well as the tight timing needed. For example,

Spoiler

why the heck does the builder near the exit need to be so precise! There's literally only one spot for it to work in order to get over the steel platform and get the pickups.

Anyway, I'll try and get LOTY2023 videos up in the coming days!

[kaywhyn]

All rightie, my videos where I show my solutions to the LOTY2023 levels are finally up

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/woKK3hjwjJc (Lix levels)

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/JVNhX-6Qeho (Armani's levels)

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/N6dsgrKPXZE (GigaLem's levels)

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/m9yqnNhfzJs (my levels)

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/lgLiHO_p7ug (kieranmillar's levels)

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/xeMhtk9HY2A (Niesch's levels)

Part 7 - https://youtu.be/BCd0X5iGoC4 (the remaining ones)