Level designing tips

[Timballisto]

If anyone has any tips and suggestions for building levels, put them here.

[tumble_weed]

Try to make your levels look decent when designing them, don't just scatter blocks just anywhere try to think about where you're placing them. Level's aren't just making places for bashers to bash and builders to build...the levels should look pretty too  ;D

[chaos_defrost]

The thing I always forget is: Play test your levels to make sure people can beat them... I submitted two impossible levels to McAleead at LU... And my first LE packs had enough back-routes to make two entire new packs with just back-routes...

Also, there are two styles of LemEdit levels -- the first starts with an idea for a level, and places blocks accordingly to fit the idea. This is best used, well... when you have a level idea. The other way is used best if you don't HAVE an idea for a level -- just start placing terrain blocks in a pattern that looks good, then run the level with many skills, and come up with a level idea from that. Adjust the terrain and skills given as necessary. My later level packs have a LOT of levels like this.

[tumble_weed]

Good job steve -_-

I posted pretty much what you wrote in your first paragraph before, but my computer stuffed up when I was writing it...>_<

yeah anyway...another note about testing...make sure you test every possible outcome in your level...and not only try to eliminate impossibilites...make sure there are no backroutes. And make sure everything works...sometime I find if the exit doesn't have a z value of 000 the lemmings just walk past it.

[chaos_defrost]

Actually, no interactive objects except entrances with a Z-order higher than 15 work... Maybe this is due to a single wrong character in the code... Also, although interactive terrain doesn't snap Y-coordinates like it does X-coordinates, I read that interactive terrains (Exits, especially) only work if their Y-coordinates are divisible by 8. That is why the exits or traps don't work sometimes.

[Conway]

I guess everyone knows this already, but in DOS Lemmings, interactive objects with the Y coordinates below 0 (above the top of the screen) cause the game to crash when scrolling to or from them.

 &#A0;Also in DOS Lemmings, no more than four trap doors can work in one level.

 &#A0;Now for an actual tip: In LemEdit or Cheapo, always test every interactive trap and exit to make sure they work, otherwise you could have a backroute from a faulty trap.

[Timballisto]

I've never had an exit that doesn't work before.

My Tips: As before mentined, make art out of your levels. &#A0;Another thing about the art is that sometimes it can be there, and look like it's simply art, but it is in reallity, a part of the level! &#A0;I did this when I made the level "Lemmings on the Roof!". &#A0;It's in my first level pack.

[namida]

I often slap together levels randomly - 90% of my levels are made this way.

As far as I can remember, my only level without any randomness, apart from the We All Fall Down/Up ones(which were based on Lemmings 1 levels) and The Parking Lot(which was also based on a Lemmings 1 level) is Oblivion. Even the ones based on it had randomness!

Oblivion, I had the idea fully made before I started. The only thing I added after making it(apart from things to make it possible - took about 10 attempts before it finally worked) was the word OBLIVION across the blocks.

[chaos_defrost]

I've never had an exit that doesn't work before.

My Tips: As before mentined, make art out of your levels. &#A0;Another thing about the art is that sometimes it can be there, and look like it's simply art, but it is in reallity, a part of the level! &#A0;I did this when I made the level "Lemmings on the Roof!". &#A0;It's in my first level pack.

See -- The Annoying One-Pixel Gap, Set 7 from LemEdit of mine.

[tumble_weed]

Steve ...thanks for the divisible by 8 thing...weird...where'd you find that out....and if you can only have things divisibly by 8 wouldn't that mean you can only have 4 objects?

anyway another think with Lemedit...steel's Y value cannot be out of the screen either

[namida]

The Y value must be divisible by 8, not the object number(or Z value, or whatever you call it).

[DragonsLover]

I dunno if it's the same thing for you all with Cheapo, but I always think more to the styles than the levels... I'm not a good drawer and I'm not habituated with the level editor. I mean, we cannot move terrain pieces that we placed before. We need to erase them and make a new one. It could be great if the editor could accept to move terrain pieces or get Undo/Redo buttons, isn't it? Do you have some tips on this that could help me?

[Ice_Eagle91]

How do I make a hard level?

[namida]

Just do what you can think of. A lot of the time, you won't find your own levels hard. Quite a few of my levels, I've been told by at least one person are hard, yet I find very easy... the best example of this is "Just Get Your Lemmings There" from Ultimate Challenge 5.

[Conway]

Unless you already have an idea for a hard level, just do as Steaver said and create a random layout, then find the very most that can be saved with the very least time and/or skills. Quite a few of my Lemedit levels were designed this way.