Lemmings Plus III - Development Topic

[namida]

ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to personal circumstances and not wanting to compromise the quality of LPIII, nor take too long to finish it, I have decided to reduce the number of levels by about 40%. See http://www.lemmingsforums.com/index.php?topic=1004.msg21395#msg21395" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">this post for more info.

Two demos are now available! Get them here:
Demo 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7q38qm2em1757mg/LPIIIDemo1.zip" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.mediafire.com/download/7q38qm2em1757mg/LPIIIDemo1.zip (Runs on NeoLemmix V1.07n)
>> 3 levels from Timid (though one has since been moved to Rough and made harder)
>> 3 levels from Dodgy
>> 1 level from Rough
>> 1 secret level
(No levels from Fierce in this one)
>> Uses Sky and Circuit styles only
>> To enable cheat mode, enter the code "DEMOCHEATS" (you can't set it in the INI file)

Demo 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/79dqs0de0yb1ds1/LPIIIDemo2.zip" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.mediafire.com/download/79dqs0de0yb1ds1/LPIIIDemo2.zip (Runs on NeoLemmix V1.09.5n*)
>> 2 levels from each rank (including Fierce)
>> 1 secret level
>> Uses all styles except Lab
>> To enable cheat mode, enter the code "DEMO2CHEAT" (you can't set it in the INI file)

* The version used for the second demo isn't V1.10n as that wasn't yet ready at the time of release, but does contain new updates/features/tweaks not found in V1.09n, hence the labelling as "V1.09.5n".

Also, please note that some details about the game (which affect positioning) have changed since the demos were released.

Well, yep, LPIII is officially under construction! Actually, it has been for a couple of weeks now, though I didn't want to announce it until NeoLemmix was in a fairly good state *and* NeoLemEdit at least had the underlying code (if not the interface) ready, since both of those are quite important to LPIII's construction, especially the former.

Yes, unlike the somewhat-messy (although to be fair, I wouldn't say they're in a completed state yet) conversions of LPDOS and LPII; LPIII is being built right from the start for NeoLemmix and taking full advantage of its features! Of course there'll be new object types in use - including some that I've added to NeoLemmix but haven't revealed (experiment, you might find something http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> ) - and another new set of styles; it isn't going to just use remastered and/or expanded versions of the official or LPII styles. Likewise, one of the graphic sets is *entirely* rough-edged - even including the steel! NeoLemmix's autosteel makes this possible. =D

As a bit of a change from LPDOS and LPII, Lemmings Plus III is only going to have four difficulty ranks. 15 levels each (not including secret levels), so you still get around the same number of levels as last time. One thing different is that the initial difficulty curve is going to be steeper - of course I'm putting a few of those X-of-everything levels at the start and then the odd one scattered throughout, just as I've always done, but I'd say the first rank is more comparable to Cheeky/Wimpy, perhaps even very-early Medi/Sneaky, than it is to Mild/Nice. (The original intention was 25 levels each, but for reasons relating to my personal life I decided to cut this down.)

Now, unlike in LPII, the gimmick levels won't be mixed in randomly with the normal ones - this time, all gimmick levels will be secret levels. There'll still be a couple of frenzies among the normal levels, but I don't plan on having one in every rank - probably only two, maybe three, in LPIII as a whole. Also, there'll be two secret gimmick levels per rank. Within one rank, both of these levels will use the same gimmick, and the first secret level will be much easier, kind of like a tutorial level for the gimmick, with the second one being a proper puzzle using it. Note that I'm not promising that the gimmick levels are the only secret levels; just that no non-secret levels will be gimmick levels (except an occasional frenzy). Also, apart from Frenzy (and perhaps SuperLemming + Frenzy combo, but I haven't made any levels using that yet), all gimmicks will be new ones, not re-used LPII ones. (Sorry to anyone who wanted more Karoshi levels; but hey, you're more than welcome to have a go at making your own ones. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> ) It has been confirmed what the four gimmicks being used are.

Initially only the first two rank names, Timid and Dodgy, were revealed. The third rank's name was revealed a bit later on to be Rough. When the first demo was released, although it did not contain any levels from the fourth rank, its readme revealed the name of the fourth rank as Fierce.

I'm only going to do four styles this time, partly because creating styles is a lot of work and partly because with more object types and 32 colors, I reckon it can stay interesting without needing a 5th style. And just so you know - the "test" style I've posted in the NeoLemmix topic is, indeed, an LPIII style. That was probably obvious from it being far too detailed for a true test style. xD

Since I'm kind of out of Lemmings musics to go with (well, I guess I *could* use Holiday Lemmings http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> ), I'm using an assortment of video game musics for the backing musics in it. Older games, though not nessecerially as old as Lemmings. The tracks being used (all but the 5th in the rotation and the Frenzy music can be heard in the demos) are:
1) Regular in-game music from Bust-A-Move 4
2) "Burning Blood" from Final Fantasy Legend II
3) Windmill music from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4) Bubbly Clouds music from Kirby's Dreamland
5) Secret/boss stage music from Super Mario Land II
6) Overworld music from Final Fantasy Legend
7) "Don't Give Up" from Final Fantasy Legend II

Frenzy) "Screech's Sprint" from Donkey Kong Land 2
Gimmick) "Diggin' It" / "Bee-having" music from Crash Bandicoot 2
(There are a few more tracks for specific purposes, but you'll have to wait and find out what they are and what they're for!)

It's being created using the updated version of LemSet for the graphic sets, and mostly MS Paint (the old XP version; can't stand that new one!) to create the graphics themself, with some use of Paint.NET. So far level creation has been done in LemEdit, but that'll be moved to NeoLemEdit once it's capable of actually making levels rather than just loading graphic sets and levels into memory and spitting them out as PNG files. xD

Additionally, Lemmings Plus III will feature VGASPEC levels - the first Lemmix-based Lemmings Plus to do so; while these kind of levels were a staple of the Cheapo Lemmings Plus packs (though to be honest, I can't remember if LP2 had any - but LP1 and LP3 definitely did), LPDOS and LPII did not feature any. Just for the record, NeoLemmix doesn't support beyond the normal 7 colors in a VGASPEC (at least not at the time of making the LPIII VGASPECs), so those levels aren't quite as color-varied as the others - but the use of simple concepts for the designs mostly covers this up quite well. The four share a common theme to some extent, though I won't say what that theme is - you'll have to wait and find out when it's released!

By the way - don't worry too much if progress on this is a bit slow at first. I'm primarily working on NeoLemEdit at the moment, since that's going to be an important tool for creating LPIII; use of traditional LemEdit (or any other existing editor) is doable but not exactly ideal.

The first completed style (circuit style, VGAGR1) is already made available to anyone who wants to use it; it's attached to this post. In this case, it's numbered VGAGR16 as that would be it's number in CustLemmix if the LPIII styles were to be appended to the already present ones. The main reason for making it available is to show off some NeoLemmix objects and a style specifically designed for it.


Completion so far:

--Styles-- (Weighting: 35%)
VGAGR0 (Sky): 100% complete
VGAGR1 (Circuit): 100% complete
VGAGR2 (Martian): 100% complete
VGAGR3 (Lab): 100% complete

--Levels-- (Weighting: 50%)
Timid: 15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2
Dodgy: 15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2
Rough: 15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2
Fierce: 15 of 15 (100%) + 2/2

--Other-- (Weighting: 15%)
MAIN.DAT: 100%
Musics: 100%
Player: N/A (Uses NeoLemmix; the very small amount of LPIII-specific code is done)



Style distribution so far: (Note: I don't nessecerially update this every time I make a level, so might be slightly out of date)
Sky: 16
Circuit: 16
Martian: 14*
Lab: 15
VGASPEC: 4**

* This is only counting the once-per-rank level once, not four times.
**These levels are not also counted under the regular style that they use for objects. Two use Sky and two use Martian.

Note a correction to the demo 1 readme: It lists the 3rd demo level of Timid as being Timid 9. This was true at the time of the demo's release; but it has since been moved to Rough 2 (along with being given 100% requirement and only 1 each of bashers/miners/diggers).
And a change for demo 2 too, although this is more minor: The 1st level of Rough is listed as Rough 9, it's been moved to Fierce. (Originally to Rough 16; I haven't revealed the exact positions of demo levels following the reduction to 15 levels per rank; so that's why no position in Fierce is given.)

[namida]

Demo 1 100% List

Timid 1: 100% is possible
Timid 2: 100% is possible
Timid 3: 100% is possible*

* This specifically relates to the demo's version of this level; the level has been changed since (and accordingly moved to a different position) and one of the changes is that it now requires 100%.

Dodgy 1: 100% is possible
Dodgy 2: 100% required
Dodgy 3: Record is 97%

Rough 1: 100% required

Secret: 100% required

(TOTAL: 3 required, 1 impossible, 4 optional)

Demo 2 100% List

Timid 1: 100% is possible
Timid 2: Record is 98%

Dodgy 1: 100% required
Dodgy 2: Record is 90% (I suspect 100% might be possible but haven't been able to acheive it)

Rough 1: Record is 90% (Likewise, I suspect 93% might be possible on this one)
Rough 2: 100% is required

Fierce 1: Record is 92%
Fierce 2: 100% is required

Secret: Record is 97%

(Total: 3 required, 5 impossible, 1 optional)



Demo 1 High Scores
Timid 1: 16058 (namida)
Timid 2: 17360 (DynaLem)
Timid 3: 11764 (namida)

Dodgy 1: 13628 (namida)
Dodgy 2: 17853 (DynaLem)
Dodgy 3: 14475 (Akseli)

Rough 1: 16908 (namida) <--- Akseli was only 9 points behind me though!

Secret: 14634 (DynaLem)


Demo 2 High Scores
Timid 1: 18386 (Akseli)
Timid 2: 15416 (namida)

Dodgy 1: 16334 (Akseli)
Dodgy 2: 14156 (Akseli)

Rough 1: 13529 (DynaLem)
Rough 2: 15685 (namida)

Fierce 1: 11121 (namida)
Fierce 2: 14048 (namida)

Secret: 14385 (namida)

[LJLPM]

that's cool: I like it!

[namida]

Taking full advantage of NeoLemmix:

[Wafflem]

Great! You've made three excellent Lemmings Plus packs. I'm looking forward to this pack.

The Sky style looks very cool. I've also noticed that you've changed the font of the number of skills.

[namida]

Indeed. I was actually wanting to go with like a "digital clock" style display for them, but the limited space makes that a bit less good-looking than I'd like. So, I slightly modified it into that - which actually turned out very similar to the original font, just slightly less vertically stretched. Although one touch I did add - and this is exclusively an LPIII thing, it's not a mandatory NeoLemmix feature (in fact, it didn't require any coding; it was done by modifying MAIN.DAT) - it won't display a leading zero. (Eg: If you have 5 builders, it will display "5", not "05".) (EDIT: A picture's worth a thousand words, so...)

I'm also planning to customize the skill panel, too. I just haven't got around to doing so yet.

[namida]

So, this level you've seen around a bit (image attached just in case you're not sure which one I mean). I'll reveal it's position in the pack...

Timid 1.

Haven't done much more development, apart from a little bit of work on VGAGR0, because I've been focusing on NeoLemEdit - once that's done, LPIII levels will be much easier to make, so should get done fairly quickly too - though I don't think it'll be as fast as LPII was.

In case anyone forgot, the level has 50 lemmings, requires 90% (45 lemmings), has a release rate of 20 and a time limit of 4 minutes, and gives 15 of each skill.

[namida]

Added some new extra info relating to secret levels, gimmick levels and frenzies. It's in the original post, but basically:

• All gimmick levels (apart from Frenzies) will be secret levels.
• Frenzies will be among the normal levels, but won't be one per rank; but rather, just two or three within LPIII as a whole.
• There'll be two secret gimmick levels in each rank; the first one will be kind of like a tutorial level for the gimmick, and the second a proper puzzle using it.
• All the gimmicks used in LPIII will be new ones, not re-used ones from LPII.
• Although I'm saying all gimmick levels will be secret levels, I'm not nessecerially saying all secret levels will be gimmick levels.

Haven't made any gimmick levels so far (but I have made a couple of gimmicks themself), but I have made one of the Frenzy levels. This one is pretty much just Floater Frenzy with a twist - there's enough lemmings that even at RR99, they won't all enter the level before the time runs out. And, you have infinite floaters. And, it's RR99. Obviously, the requirement is set lower than most of the Floater Frenzies were, but this one does feel far more intense than even the Cunning or Genius Floater Frenzies. Any other Frenzies will be a bit more like the sort seen in the LPII Bonus pack than Floater Frenzy clones. (An interesting trivia point: This level has 500 lemmings, which is double the most that any LPII level had! However, in general, whereas LPDOS generally used 80 as a "default" value for lemming count and LPII used 100; I'm using 50 for LPIII.)

Also, I haven't yet decided if I'm going to to a once-per-rank level for this one. If I do, expect it to be far more along the lines of No Salvation than those of We All Fall Down or Floater Frenzy.


Some music-related revelations: I won't reveal which tracks, or which is which, but the gimmick and frenzy musics; one of them comes from the Donkey Kong series (within the Gameboy entries) and the other from the Crash Bandicoot series (within the PS1 entries).


Also. Here's another level you've already seen in an incomplete form, but here's the complete and most likely final map for it. Mostly just added decorations compared to previously; also came up with a pretty challenging skillset and stats for it. The final result is third-rank material... though it does happen to be the first level of the third rank. Only specific detail I'll give is that it has a 100% requirement; you have all skill types except diggers; and you don't have more than three of any one skill (but you do only have one or two of some skills). This also marks the first time (if you don't include the LPII bonus pack and only count the main entries) that the first level of a rank has required 100% in the Lemmix-based LP series.

[namida]

Okay, well! NeoLemEdit may not be perfect yet, but it's at a state where it *can* properly create levels, so progress will start to pick up again now. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

Here's one of the levels from early Timid (it's in the high single digits). It features one-way down arrows. I briefly mentioned them as a possible idea at one point; I actually implemented them a while ago. They work as I suggested - miners and diggers can destroy them (in the case of miners, their direction doesn't matter) but bashers cannot (bombers, of course, can).

The core elements of this level were created quite a while ago in LemEdit, but I added the decorative elements just now using NeoLemEdit. So I guess you could say this is the first proper LemEdit/NeoLemEdit hybrid level. xD I have two more levels I've made in LemEdit that need extra decorating (and no doubt NeoLemEdit will be the tool of choice; it's much easier to make it look nice when you can see it in the proper colors), and I have a few level ideas I've been saving too.

This level is nothing overly flash in terms of difficulty or anything - you can lose a handful of lemmings (IIRC, 50 lemmings and requires 80%) and have plenty of time; the skillset is 3 of each which mostly rules out approaches that avoid dealing with the one-way-down wall while still giving plenty of room for error and experimenting. It's probably the easiest "new object tutorial" level, to be honest (although some objects don't even have a tutorial level yet - only really the teleporters, these, and the radiation field; and the last one is very hard so I'm thinking about making it into a later-game normal level and making an easier tutorial level for them).

And, I'm gonna reveal one more thing. The source of all the musics. Not the exact tracks, but just which series they're from (remember - these are series, not specific entries):

Track_01: Bust-A-Move
Track_02: Final Fantasy Legend
Track_03: Legend of Zelda
Track_04: Kirby's Dream Land
Track_05: Super Mario Land
Track_06: Final Fantasy Legend
Track_07: Final Fantasy Legend
Frenzy: Donkey Kong
Gimmick: Crash Bandicoot

(Keep in mind that it's possible, though unlikely, that I may still change some of the tracks. And yeah, it's a 7-track loop for the normal levels.)

[namida]

Here's the first LPIII level to be made *entirely* in NeoLemEdit (though several others have, like the one above, been started in LemEdit then later finished in NeoLemEdit).

Dodgy 1 - "Boost Jumper"
60 Lemmings, 95% required (57 lemmings)
Time limit 3:50, RR 30
Skillset: 4 Climbers, 6 Floaters, 3 Bombers, 4 Blockers, 7 Builders, 5 Bashers, 3 Miners, 3 Diggers

Of course you don't need nearly all of those skills. It's like a lot of the LPII levels particularly in Cheeky and Sneaky; it gives you excess skills, but not to the point of being "X of everything"; just a bit more than you actually need. The time limit also isn't that tight; it was originally 4:20, but I found this was leaving WAY too much time to spare so I knocked it down by 30 seconds, it can still be easily beaten with well over a minute to spare.

I originally had placed this level at Timid 15, but after playing it a few more times I felt it's a bit too hard for Timid (actually, it's quite similar in difficulty to Timid 25, so an early-Dodgy position works well). And you may notice that as much as ever, I still have the whole OCD thing about making sure (at least in my opinion) the levels somewhat fit the musics - you might notice Timid 15 and Dodgy 1 would both play the same track. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" />

Also, just for reference - the obvious steel blocks are steel, but those support structure things (the long vertical/horizontal ones with the circular holes along them) are also steel. Everything else is not.


Another interesting fact - VGAGR0 (the sky style), which is still relatively incomplete, already has a larger VGAGR file than any LPII style except for Desert. VGAGR1 (the circuit style), which is complete, has a larger VGAGR file than the purple, psychedelic or metal styles (although it only beats purple by a couple of hundred bytes). Of course, a lot of this probably comes down to the LPIII styles having an extra 1 bit of color depth.

I'm wondering what direction to take the sky style from here. Objects are more or less done, though I still need to add more terrain pieces to it. So far I've been going for an exclusively rough-edged design, but the fact is, rough-edged level design isn't exactly my specialty - sure, I have a few good rough-edged levels (Genius 4 and Genius 6 being the first ones to come to mind, although the latter is more a mixture of both types), but I think we can agree that the majority of my best levels are predominantly straight-edged. So it's basically - do I keep the original concept of a purely rough-edged style, and risk the sky levels being in general somewhat subpar compared to others (or the sky style being underused in the higher ranks)? Or do I take away one of the unique aspects of the style in favor of making it more useful? (Keeping in mind that, just like with the LPII styles, I will of course release the styles eventually so that anyone can use them; although I haven't noticed anyone else using the LPII ones yet. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> ) One other factor I need to keep in mind is that a lot of this also comes back to what I can plan out in my head - a lot of my straight-edged levels are a matter of "get an idea, build a level around it", while most of my good rough-edged ones are the reverse - "build a level randomly, find an idea that works well within it"; both of the LPII levels I mentioned before were cases of the latter.

One other thing I've been thinking - I remember in an old topic on here, someone gave a somewhat unique comment about LPDOS - that it had quite a good number of good builder-free levels; I noticed that LPII by comparison had very few of these. I'll have to try and make some more good ones of those for LPIII. I probably won't do another "20 of everything with 0 builders" level though. *remembers there's already a level with that exact skillset, although it's a very early, easy level; not a level along the lines of To The End / No Construction Zone*. Actually, (normal) X-of-everything levels aren't too common this time, and 20+ is especially rare (actually, I don't think I've made ANY level that gives you 20+ of everything yet) - for "X-of-everything" type levels, the most common amounts so far are 15, 3 and 2. xD


Another random trivia: The level currently placed at Rough 5 has in fact been, at some point during its development, in every rank except the 4th one. It started as Timid 5, was moved to Dodgy 5 and then later Dodgy 19, and just now I decided it was still too difficult even for that position and moved it up yet again.

[namida]

Development has begun on the 3rd style, which at this point is simply titled "Red". I'm not sure if I'll develop it into a theme, or if I'll simply base it around "lots of different red stuff" - that's what I did for the purple style in LPII and the results turned out pretty good. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

Here's the exit (though the design is, of course, subject to change). Apart from this, I've only done the window (as usual, it's a recolored one, not an original graphic) and one-way arrows (which aren't that interesting), so this is all I have to show so far of it.


Also - suggestions for the 4th style would be appreciated! Quite open to ideas here, the only things I have in mind is that I'd like it to be primarily blue, and also mostly (but not completely) straight-edged. Think along the lines of VGAGR2 from the official styles - mostly straight, but it does have the odd rough piece in there.

[Wafflem]

Hmm...I had some ideas in mind before you suggested that the style should be blue:
Castle / Cobbler – this style is like that of a castle. The water includes lava. Fire traps involve swords - if a lemming touches the blade they die.  The exit can be similar to that of the Hell style - a gargoyle.
Ruins – these look like that of Macchu Picchu, or the ruin levels that you mostly see in Crash Bandicoot 2.
Noir - a city that takes place in the 1940s. All the buildings are gray, and traps can include cars that run over lemmings and criminals that shoot them. There can also be sewers, and one-way fields in the form of flashing road signs, while the one-way walls may look similar to that of the Psychedelic style. As an added touch, everything is black and white (including the level preview screen, the skillset, the lemmings, and the success/fail screen).

I've also been thinking of this idea, which I can now expand upon:
Ocean / Aqua – you may have two areas: above the ocean and underwater. This idea originally started as underwater.

For above the water,  there are ships - these can range from navy ship to pirate ships to ghost ships. There should also be a docking station.

For underwater, this is also where you can use the low-gravity zones, as if the lemming is "diving" underwater. The straight edges can be the submarines and underwater ruins, something very similar to Atlantis, while the rough edges can be seaweed and sand. Traps may include sharks or piranhas that eat lemmings, electric eels as Fire traps, and there can also be a whirlpool as a portal (this was one of the objects in your poll, where it's a teleporter in which multiple lemmings can use it). You should also add a scary blue sea monster as another trap.

The Red style exit looks very nice. I wonder what you'll develop it into (of course, it shouldn't look like the Brick style).

[namida]

Nope, the red style is nothing like the brick style, apart from maybe that the exit looks like it'd fit right in. xD In terms of the shape of the pieces, so far it's probably closer to the Snow style than anything else. I've attached an image of a level I made it in; obviously this level will need further decorating once the style is more developed.

I do kind of like your idea for an ocean+underwater style. The only problem comes out of water usually being deadly to the lemmings; additional mechanics like water lemmings or a "swimmer" skill is beyond the scope of what I plan to include for LPIII. Maybe some kind of water-related style but not nessecerially underwater. I had thought about a space style, but I think that's a bit overused by now, although it would work well with quite a few of the new object types. :/ Another idea I had was an ice style, but then the problem is how to make it sufficiently different from the snow style (and there'd also be at least some degree of overlap with the sky style too, which is an even bigger problem). I also don't want to go with two styles that focus more on a color than a theme; while Purple style had pretty neat results, I don't know that designing *every* style with that formula would turn out so great.

I have one absolute "last resort" idea for this style, but it's kind of the thing that'd be more suited to a one-off VGASPEC level than a dedicated style.

Hm, perhaps one option for it is a nuclear reactor or science lab style or something? (After all, you know, blue radioactive glow, etc...). It'd be perfect for the radiation object and teleporters, probably work well with the locked exits too. Both would also fit in quite nicely with the idea of a predominently straight-edged style.

Or perhaps to go along the same path but slightly change the idea so it fits the context better - maybe a swamp style? Although that would admittedly be far better suited to a mostly rough-edged style...

As for your other ideas; I don't really like the "noir" one. It just feels like it wouldn't work too well in a Lemmings context. Also, doing it in black and white isn't an idea I'd be too keen on when I already have the primarily white / light-grey Sky style. The castle one is not a bad idea in itself, but again, the color overlap with the Sky style is quite strong. The ruins style could be interesting if I can't think of anything blue that I like. (Of course I realise (after all, I'm the one who added the feature http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> ) that I'm no longer as limited in terms of colors as I was when doing LPII; but I'm still trying to retain the classic feel of styles revolving mainly around one or two colors and each one being fairly unique.)

[Wafflem]

The Red style is very nice. It does have the feel of the Purple style (though I wonder why the steel isn't red). The one-way arrows have a very neat design too.

The science lab idea sounds very cool. You can still use the low-gravity zones there, and the blue radioactive glow sounds very cool. You can also make potions that could have different effects on lemmings? Based on your ice style idea, there can also be a freeze ray trap, where a lemming is zapped and frozen into ice, turning that lemming into part of the terrain. Fire traps can include electric fields. The rough-edged terrain can be that of melted walls and sludge.

[namida]

I'm probably not going to add any more new object types. If I do an LPIII bonus pack, I might add a couple more of them in at this stage, though I'm not planning on it. (There again, I wasn't planning an LPII bonus pack while I was making LPII, but one happened; and LPIII *does* once again have some pretty interesting gimmicks).

That's actually a very good idea for how to have rough-edged terrain in such a style. I like it! http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

The steel is white so that it stands out; due to the wide variety of red tones in the terrain, I felt red steel, even if I used unusual shades, wouldn't stand out enough. Plus, it kind of provides an interesting contrast, I reckon. I don't know, I might change it later.

And by the way, some strange-looking ZIP file appeared in my LPIII working folder earlier...
http://www.mediafire.com/download/rc0r68yvq58o61b/MysteriouslySuspiciousZipFile.zip" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.mediafire.com/download/rc0r68yvq58o61b/MysteriouslySuspiciousZipFile.zip

(EDIT: It's a demo! http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/tongue.gif" alt=":P" title="Tongue" class="smiley" /> Since people are worrying about what it could be... xD)