Official Lemmings Forums Level Design Contest #3 - Tag Team!

[namida]

Alright, so this idea seems to be fairly popular, so let's give it a shot! And, I encourage those who haven't entered before to give it a go, too!



Here are the standard rules for all official contests:
1) You may not enter into the contest a level that you've (or anyone else) released before. You are, however, welcome to release it as part of another pack after the contest is over. This includes remaking a level on a different engine.
2) One entry per person, unless the contest's rules specifically state otherwise.
3) Anyone caught attempting to cheat at or manipulate the voting in any way is disqualified.
4) Whether or not a level meets the criteria is decided by the LF administrators; the winner will be decided by vote unless otherwise stated in the contest's rules (which may only happen if the winning criteria is purely objective).
5) Any deadline dates / times are in UTC.
6) Joint entries are permitted, but there will still only be one prize (unless the contest's rules specifically call for a joint entry); it will be up to the entrants to determine how they will split this.
7) Whichever staff member(s) is/are running the contest may enter just for fun, but cannot receive prizes - the prize will be passed on to the next position.
8) Entries should be submitted via private message to the staff member running the contest. Do not post them in the topic, unless the contest's guidelines say otherwise. If the contest allows for use of more than one engine, please be sure to specify which engine you've created your level for, and if you've used traditional Lemmix, please be sure to specify which mechanics set (Orig, OhNo or Cust) your level is intended to be played under.
9) Deadlines may be extended once, by one week, if less than four entries have been received. If there are still less than four entries after this, that contest will be cancelled, unless the staff member running the contest and all entrants all agree to continue it anyway.
10) If you are using an unofficial graphic set, you must include a copy of it with your submission, unless it's one that is always included with that engine (such as the Lemmings Plus graphic sets in NeoCustLemmix).
11) Monetary prizes may be claimed via PayPal or Bitcoin (or another well-established cryptocurrency, such as Litecoin or Dogecoin). You can also ask for them to be directly spent on a website for items up to the value of the prize (provided the website takes one of those options, or takes credit/debit cards directly and has a very good reputation), or for a donation of the prize value to be made to a charity of your choice (provided they accept online donations).



Contest #3

Tag team contest time! In this one, each level will be contributed to by two participants. Thus, the creation phase will be split into two sub-phases.

Subphase 1 - Terrain design
In this phase, entrants must create a level map. They may place as many terrain pieces, steel areas and one-way walls as they like. They may also configure the level options that are relevant to steel / one-ways (autosteel, one-way invert, etc). They may also make a VGASPEC for the level if they like. They may not place any objects (except one-way walls) or configure the level stats/options other than those related to terrain, steel, one-way walls and VGASPECs (this includes that they may set the size of the level). Once this has been done, it should be submitted.

Between phases
Once the deadline for Phase 1 ends, I will randomly pick people to receive other levels. Note that there will be no two-way swaps (ie: if Person A gets Person B's level, then Person B cannot get Person A's level), though three-way or more swaps may occur rather than having a full "circle" so to speak. You'll receive both NeoLemmix-format and SuperLemmini-format versions of the levels.

Subphase 2 - Objects and stats
When you receive the level you're assigned for Phase 2, you may place objects (except one-way walls), and set the stats and skillset for the level (and gimmicks, in the case of NeoLemmix). You are permitted to convert the level to a different engine than the one you received it in the format for. You should also give the level a title at this point.


Once the submissions from Phase 2 are received, the rest of the contest will proceed as normal. Once the playing phase starts, both contributors to each level will be revealed. Please note that if anyone participates in Phase 1, but does not submit to Phase 2 on time, both levels they are involved in will be disqualified, and to keep things fair, all remaining contestants will be assigned a new level to work with. This will of course be very inconvenient, so please especially make an effort to submit on time - or let me know well in advance if you won't be able to, in which case I may be able to alter the deadline if that'd help.

Please note that due to the limited terrain / steel options in the earlier engines, this contest will ONLY accept NeoLemmix or SuperLemmini contributions, and they must use one of the official graphic sets to avoid issues with sets that appear in one engine but not the other, without using one-way downs due to their non-existance in SuperLemmini or the "Fake"/"Invisible" terrain options due to their non-existance in NeoLemmix.

Engine-Specific Rules
Any content/options that don't appear in the other engine may not be used during Phase 1. Using exclusive features during Phase 2 is fine as long as no other rule is broken. The following list should cover most the features that can't be used (and thus, if relevant, should be left at default) for this contest:
- "Classic Steel" option (SuperLemmini)
- Adjustable borders (SuperLemmini)
- Fake or Invisible terrain (SuperLemmini)
- Steel areas exceeding 256x256 in size (SuperLemmini)
- More than 1000 terrain pieces and/or more than 128 steel areas (SuperLemmini)
- More than 64 one-way objects (SuperLemmini) *
- One-way down arrows (NeoLemmix)
- One-way arrows made with steel areas rather than objects (NeoLemmix)

* NeoLemmix supports up to 128 objects, but this limit is set to give plenty of room for the Phase 2 entrant to add objects.

VGASPECs / equivalent: Allowed (custom only), but not required. You must submit it in both .DAT and .PNG format (NeoLemmix-compatible and SuperLemmini-compatible).
Allowed Graphic Sets: Orig graphic sets, OhNo graphic sets, Xmas set. Custom / unofficial sets are not allowed.
Allowed Engines: NeoLemmix, SuperLemmini
Winning Criteria: "Vote for your favorite", as usual.

Timeframe:
1st Phase entries close 20th of March
2nd Phase entry close 30th of March or when all entries have been received, whichever comes first


Due to the tag-team nature, there's a bit of a difference in the prize structure. Only first place gets prizes; of course, both people who contributed to the level get a prize. As there's no clear "first" or "second" for this, the matter of who gets first pick will come down to first in, first served, but only *after* I send out the PM to notify of winnings. You are of course free to discuss with the other winner before making your choice, perhaps to arrange splitting prizes.


The prizes available for this contest are:
- US$10; see #11 of the general rules for more info.
- A new object type of your choice added to NeoLemmix; note that this only includes supporting it in the code, you are on your own for creating (or modifying) a graphic set to include it. This must be within reason.
- A new gimmick of your choice added to NeoLemmix. This must be within reason.
- Choosing the next contest's rules.



Phase 1 entries received: 3
Phase 2 entries received: 2

(due to the unknown-partner swap, only the quantity of entrants will be revealed, not the identities)

[Wafflem]

Some questions:
1. What happens if you add one-way down arrows to a NeoLemmix level in Phase 1, but then have the level converted to SuperLemmini format for Phase 2?
2. Are we allowed to have adjustable level sizes (including vertical scrolling)?
3. Are the NeoLemmix skills allowed, too?

[namida]

1. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll add a note that one-way downs cannot be used for this reason.
2. Yes; 1st phase choice.
3. Yes; 2nd phase choice.

EDIT: Just noticed, this is the 50,000th post! :O

[namida]

The responses were more in favor of "No", but slightly "Yes" (if you can count them as being a significant amount). In the end, I've extended Phase 1 by one day, and Phase 2's minimum by 3 days.

[mobius]

I'd like to find time to join this one but I don't promise I' can. But I'll make sure I can complete the whole thing before joining.

[namida]

If you can't join because you're worried about being available for the tag-team part, I can understand. While I'll probably run some more tag-team contests at some point if this is successful, the majority of contests are definitely going to be single-creator. (In fact, I already have a good idea for the next one... xD)

[namida]

First two entries are in! Keep 'em coming!

[namida]

Four days left to get Phase 1 entries in.

[namida]

Just over a day and a half left now, so come on and get those entries in!

By the way, a slight change to how levels will be distributed for phase 2: Rather than randomly choosing whether (or not) to reassign the format, I'm simply going to distribute all levels for Phase 2 in both formats, and entrants can choose which one they want to work with.

[namida]

Just a note to anyone using one-way walls: Please check your levels in the appropriate engine (you could temporarily add (and later delete) a window, or in the case of NeoLemmix, a pre-placed lemming, to avoid the level exiting immediately after starting), as at least one submission so far didn't take into account that terrain must be flagged as "One-Way" to have one-way walls applied to it (unless the "One-Way Invert" option is set, in which case, the "One-Way" flag on terrain makes that piece *not* have one-way walls applied to it). This applies to both SuperLemmini and NeoLemmix.

[namida]

The deadline has passed without reaching 4 entries, so the timeframe has extended for a week.

[namida]

There's less than four days remaining now. Although the official rule is that "if the deadline is extended, and there still aren't 4 entries by the new deadline, the contest is cancelled", if the people who've entered are all okay with it, I may just let the contest proceed with only three entries.

I think it's clear though that, despite people liking the idea of a tag-team type contest, in practice it doesn't have enough interest to be worth running in general, so there probably won't be any more of these type ones.

[namida]

Alright, all three entrants have said they'd like to go ahead with the contest anyway, so the contest will go ahead regardless of whether more entries are received or not. It's still open for more entries until the closing time though.

[namida]

3 hours left if anyone else wanted to get last minute entries in.

[namida]

Entries are now closed. I'll send the levels to the entrants for Phase 2 in a few houra when I get homw.