Suggestions for a new Cheapo Copycat game

[DragonsLover]

New suggestion: Have the possibility to see the number of Lemmings that are under the cursor.

[Proxima]

Another suggestion: remove the thing on the title screen calling it a pathetic game. It ain't.

[namida]

How about fully customizable intro screens and toolbars and stuff? So you can move or even remove elements of it(such as for someone trying to copy Sega Master System style, taking out the level preview thing on the intro screen).

[Shvegait]

Just thought of an idea related to a level I made in LemEdit. It's related to the different colored lemmings/different colored exit idea, sort of. It would be cool if when you make an exit (could be a different kind of exit from the standard), you had the option of assigning a maximum # of lemmings that could go in the exit, and then it would "lock" and no more would be able to enter (a lock value of 0 lemmings = unlimited (or it could be fake exit)).

Suppose you have 80 lemmings, 4 exits. You could make each exit only able to hold 20 lemmings, forcing you to go to each of the different exits. Not that it would always have to be that rigid, you could make more than 4 exits but only require that you get to 4 of them. Just an idea.

[Essman]

It would be cool if when you make an exit (could be a different kind of exit from the standard), you had the option of assigning a maximum # of lemmings that could go in the exit, and then it would "lock" and no more would be able to enter (a lock value of 0 lemmings = unlimited (or it could be fake exit)).

Good idea. I'm still reading these suggestions and putting them on the wish list.

[Essman]

New suggestion: Have the possibility to see the number of Lemmings that are under the cursor.

The characters will not be lemmings. The game will, by amazing coincidence, just happen to play like lemmings though. I haven't actually made the characters yet, but it has to be my own idea, or at least an idea not owned by any company. If someone just happens to accidentally draw a bitmap of a character that is at max 24 pixels tall, then I'd be happy to look at it.

[DragonsLover]

Hee hee! Why not my little red dragons?

Here's another suggestion:

I the second Cheapo Copycat you made, the arrow that is above a Lemming while it's bashing or mining isn't placed properly when it's working. Sometimes, when we give another action (builder for example), the lemming doesn't start correctly at the right place, it starts a little bit before the right place. Compared this with the normal Lemmings game and Cheapo. If you look carefully to the arrow placed above his head when it's bashing in Cheapo, you'll see that the arrow appears on the lemmings when it's beginning to bash. While he's bashing, the arrow doesn't follow the lemming, it is jammed. It's only when the lemming restart to bash that the arrow changes place. Same thing for the miner. It would be nice that in the next Cheapo, the arrow "FOLLOW" the lemming correctly when it's working.

[guest]

Hee hee! Why not my little red dragons?

Haven't seen them yet.  Do they look good at a small size?  Can your dragons do all of climb, fall, block, build, bash, mine and dig in a manner that looks natural?

Actually, on the question of character graphics, I think it would be nice if the new graphics have as similar dimensions as possible to the original lemming character graphics.  After all, in gameplay things like how much the character can build before bumping into the ceiling, how close the character should get before starting to bash, etc., are all influenced by how big the character's graphics is, so I think it's best to keep the size similar if not exact to what it is right now.  (What is that size by the way?)

[Essman]

Actually, on the question of character graphics, I think it would be nice if the new graphics have as similar dimensions as possible to the original lemming character graphics. &#A0;After all, in gameplay things like how much the character can build before bumping into the ceiling, how close the character should get before starting to bash, etc., are all influenced by how big the character's graphics is, so I think it's best to keep the size similar if not exact to what it is right now. &#A0;(What is that size by the way?)

I totally agree and that is my plan. The height of a lemming is about 10 pixels. But that was at 320x200 resolution, so I want my characters to be 20 to 24 pixels tall. That size will look good at 640x480 or 800x600, and a little small at higher resolutions. But if someone chooses a really high resolution, they're probably doing it to see more on the screen anyway.

[guest]

I the second Cheapo Copycat you made, the arrow that is above a Lemming while it's bashing or mining isn't placed properly when it's working.

This is about more than just the arrow.

The arrow actually indicates the true position the game considers the lemming to be at, despite the fact that the animation indicates otherwise.  You can tell because for example when you switch the basher/miner to a builder, the builder will always start at where the arrow's pointing to, not where the basher/miner looks to be at on the screen.  Similarly with other skills.  Something similar also happens in PC Lemmings I think, although of course there the cursor's just a big square so you don't notice it.

I do have some reservation though whether the true position is in fact correct.  Most of the time it seems that the arrow should have jumped already if I were playing in PC lemmings, but in Cheapo it jumps much later.  I suggest Essman carefully check with the original Lemmings game to nail this down right.

[guest]

How about the width?  I'd expect that width to be about half the height but I don't know for sure.

Something like DragonsLover's red dragon I was a little skeptical because I couldn't see how a dragon could be drawn to look like it's walking in an upright position and looks good at the same time.  A normally-drawn dragon (like DragonsLover's user icon) would not have a width half that of its height.

[guest]

How about fully customizable intro screens and toolbars and stuff? So you can move or even remove elements of it(such as for someone trying to copy Sega Master System style, taking out the level preview thing on the intro screen).

Adding to that, it'd be nice to be able to customize an intro screen music (which currently doesn't exist) and to customize the font used for the text.

Oh, and of course, similar customizations should exist for the level win/lose screen.

[Essman]

How about the width? &#A0;I'd expect that width to be about half the height but I don't know for sure.

The width should be half the height.

[guest]

Another graphics-related suggestion.

Let's allow alpha transparencies on terrain and interactive object graphics (if not all graphics).  For example, water is a logical candidate for this.

Or imagine a winter-themed level.  You could now have an exit that's buried in ice, with the ice being semi-transparent terrain.  You'd have to dig down the ice to get to the exit, but the exit is not hidden since the transparency allows you to see it.

There are many other potential uses.  For example, you can make an interactive object that's just a large block of a solid color, but with a certain degree of transparency.  Then this interactive object can be overlaid onto selected parts of a level to give it a certain lighting tinge to certain areas of the level.  For example, maybe the level has an area with a large pool of lava, you can then use this tinge object to give a red tinge to that area, affecting everything including the lemmings.  Or maybe a certain part of a cave level can use a black, low-transparency overlay to create an effect of darkness.

[Conway]

Guest, that last suggestion could get VERY confusing. It could render certain areas completely dark, so you can't even see the lemmings.

  I guess I should have joined this discussion sooner! But anyway, a few thoughts:

  About multi-style levels: Wouldn't it be simpler just having separate files for the different elements? Example: Having a graphics set file, with just the terrain and the interactive objects, and a lemmings graphics library, with only information about the character animations, and a sound library, which defines a sound effects theme for events. When creating a level, you could simply load these files individually, rather than linking one element with another in a theme. Then, when loading the level, the game would only load the elements used in that level, and not every element associated with every theme used.

  For the ancient topic of the technicalities of on-way terrain: It should be fully penetrable, including by bombing, but only by lemmings walking or facing (if they're a blocker) in that direction.

  As for giving the position of a bomber five seconds before it explodes; this would be completely impossible without giving many false readings. For example, what if the lemming is in a tunnel being bashed? Will the game take into account the fact that in five seconds, the lemming will be in a newly created area? Or what if within those five seconds you stop the basher, or make him dig? Or what if you put a blocker right in front of the bomber, or make him a blocker? The game can't predict what you will do within those five seconds to alter the bomber's course. And some levels require a bit of skill in timing bombers well, so this feature, even when it's accurate, might spoil some levels. I'd certainly turn the feature off.

  About warning when you have too few lemmings to pass the level: Definitely not a message box, but maybe a small line of text in a corner of the screen, which can be turned off in the options screen/box.

  About missions: How would the level designer actually define when the mission is complete? It sounds like it would require a lot of programming. Wouldn't it be simpler just designing levels where you need to complete the 'mission' to save the lemmings?

  About skills you can pick up: Great idea! But I agree they should be available to all lemmings in that level. Otherwise, you\d need a way of distinguishing which skills are free-for-all and which belong to certain lemmings in the box at the bottom of the screen, and I can't imagine how this would work.

  About up and down one-way walls: Does that mean a down one-way wall can only be dug by a lemming the right way up, and an up one-way wall can only be dug by an upside-down lemming, but they can both be bashed in either direction?

  I also have a suggestion:

  This is a bit of a long-shot, and I'm not sure how easily it could be programmed. How about repeating levels, like in Lemmings Revolution? Not 3D, but where the level and all the lemmings repeat their pattern to infinity, so you can scroll a level with no edges. This can be applied horizontally or vertically, or both. And it can obviously be turned on or off by the level designer. This could also afford many possibilities.

  I may have more later.