Official Lemmings Forums Level Design Contest #2 (Results)

[namida]

Another contest is over, and with that, two more winners!

1st Place
Nepster's "Criteria Fulfilled"
Prize: Advertising on news ticker (held for future use)

2nd Place
DynaLem's "Super Starship"
Prize: US$10, which was used to make a charity donation


This was a very close contest the entire way through; with the two overall winners being tied in the first round, and the ultimate winner being ahead by only one vote in the second round! But, a winner is a winner, so congratulations to Nepster on 1st, and to DynaLem on 2nd; and thank you also to Giga and IchoTolot for participating!


As the contest is now over, you're now free to discuss the levels anywhere, as well as release fixed / alternate / etc versions of your levels.

I'll put a new contest up fairly soon (within the next few days), to give some time for the winners to pick their prizes (in case one chooses to set the next contest's rules).

[IchoTolot]

Congratulation to Nepster!     This monsterlevel really deserved it! The 100% solution really must have taken a lot of time to plan.

[namida]

Alright, once again I've put up a poll of possible ideas for the next contest. Like last time, this doesn't mean for sure I'll pick the most popular choice, but I will take the results into consideration.

I'll briefly explain the ideas:

Tag-Team Contest
The idea here is that two people both design a level. One makes the terrain layout, the other places the objects and chooses the stats / skillset / etc. The two people who contributed to the winning level both get prizes (second place level doesn't). Until the playing phase starts, the entrants won't know who they're paired with (and it won't nessecerially be a two way thing; ie: just because Person A gets Person B's level for the second half, doesn't mean Person B also gets Person A's level).

Paired Levels With Mutually Exclusive Skillsets
The idea here is to create a pair of levels that are identical in every way except for the skillsets. The skillsets must not have any skills in common - ie: if one version has any bashers, the other version must not have any bashers. In the case of NeoLemmix, it'd be limited to eight total types of skills across the two levels, in order to keep it balanced.

One Type Of Skill Level
This idea is pretty self-explanatory. The idea is to create a level with a skillset only containing one type of skill. For example, a level where the skillset only consists of Miners.

Gimmick Level
This is also self-explanatory. For obvious reasons it'd be NeoLemmix only. Simply create a level that uses a gimmick. Certain gimmicks may be excluded either due to having negligable impact on gameplay (eg. SuperLemming, Reverse Skill Counts), not being "proper" gimmicks (eg. "Cheapo Mode", Bait-and-Switch), and so on.

Vertical Scrolling Level
Again, self-explanatory. Create a level that involves vertical scrolling. This might be expanded to only vertical scrolling (ie: the width must be 320 for NeoLemmix or 640 for SuperLemmini). For also-obvious reasons, it'd be NeoLemmix / SuperLemmini only.

[IchoTolot]

If it's going to be a tag-team, it should probably be limited to NeoLemmix or another platform, because if there is the one Lemmini or sth else level, people might guess which person sent it in.

[namida]

Not nessecerially. Given that specific parts would go to specific people, using an existing-but-unreleased level is probably not as viable as it has been in other contests; thus there isn't so much connection of what engine is being used. However, it does have to be taken into account what engines can be used - I might consider limiting it to the traditional engines (Lemmix and Lemmini), as they can be played on all platforms (DOS lemmings via DosBox rather than actual Lemmix, but this is basically the same; and Lemmini is Java), and edited (jLevelBuilder is java-based IIRC, and LemEdit is also an option via DosBox). I don't know how many people here (out of those who actually enter the contests) this would actually be a problem for, though.

[Wafflem]

However, it does have to be taken into account what engines can be used - I might consider limiting it to the traditional engines (Lemmix and Lemmini), as they can be played on all platforms (DOS lemmings via DosBox rather than actual Lemmix, but this is basically the same; and Lemmini is Java), and edited (jLevelBuilder is java-based IIRC, and LemEdit is also an option via DosBox). I don't know how many people here (out of those who actually enter the contests) this would actually be a problem for, though.

I don't think DOSBox and LemEdit are used nowadays, and I am not sure about the idea of limiting it to traditional engines. The traditional levels can still be edited in the NeoLemmix Editor, which is a lot easier to use than the other editors were (especially since you removed the need to Compile Styles). For me, limiting it to the traditional engines limits my creativity. The new NeoLemmix features that you've added have allowed me to be creative in how I want to design my levels.

[Nepster]

I do think, that IchoTolot has a point. We all have our preferred Lemmings engines, which will (usually) be the ones the contest levels are created for. So if someone gets the terrain layout for a Lemmini level, chances are that IchoTolot created it. And if you find a level with badly placed steel areas, ...

Given that specific parts would go to specific people, using an existing-but-unreleased level is probably not as viable as it has been in other contests; thus there isn't so much connection of what engine is being used.

I don't understand your point here. The contest criteria usually make sure, that already existing levels either do not fit at all or need modifications turning them into levels of poorer quality.

... the NeoLemmix Editor, which is a lot easier to use than the other editors were...

In my opinion it is much more important, which editor you are used to. Even LemEdit was pretty OK for creating standard Lemmings levels (only playtesting was kind of a nuisance).

[namida]

However, it does have to be taken into account what engines can be used - I might consider limiting it to the traditional engines (Lemmix and Lemmini), as they can be played on all platforms (DOS lemmings via DosBox rather than actual Lemmix, but this is basically the same; and Lemmini is Java), and edited (jLevelBuilder is java-based IIRC, and LemEdit is also an option via DosBox). I don't know how many people here (out of those who actually enter the contests) this would actually be a problem for, though.

I don't think DOSBox and LemEdit are used nowadays, and I am not sure about the idea of limiting it to traditional engines. The traditional levels can still be edited in the NeoLemmix Editor, which is a lot easier to use than the other editors were (especially since you removed the need to Compile Styles). For me, limiting it to the traditional engines limits my creativity. The new NeoLemmix features that you've added have allowed me to be creative in how I want to design my levels.

I was thinking more of people who aren't using Windows...

[Wafflem]

True that, it should indeed be taken into consideration.

However, I'm still not yet sure about doing the traditional engine-only rule if we do the Tag Team option, because I love the tag team idea and it's something that NeoLemmix/SuperLemmini would be excellent with; it also heavily encourages creativity.

On the other hand, the "Paired Levels With Mutually Exclusive Skillsets" and the "One Type Of Skill Level" ideas would work a lot better with traditional engine-only contests.

[namida]

There's no need to limit it in those cases though. It was to avoid, say, someone receiving a NeoLemmix level when they have no way of editing one.

[Akseli]

I voted for DynaLem's Super Starship and Nepster's Criteria Fullfilled in the first round, and Criteria Fulfilled in the second round.

I liked a lot the attitude in Criteria Fulfilled, which was reflected from the title of the level. The theme was set so that creating easier levels was kind of encouraged, but Criteria Fulfilled ignored this. It wasn't either just a dull, annoying level whose aim was to be as hard as possible, but this level was fun, interesting and strongly well-designed in many ways, that the difficulty wasn't at all a bad thing, and I could easily pick this level as my favourite of this contest.

Both votings were really close runs though among all the levels, yet again well done all the participants.