Lemmings Plus IV - Development Topic (Release in ~5 minutes!)

[namida]

Release date confirmed!
Unless any major issues that need to be fixed before first release arise (ie: not merely backroutes - they can be fixed in an update if need be; but crashes or major glitches), Lemmings Plus IV will be publicly released at midday UTC, June 3rd.

Once the release time passes, it'll be downloadable here: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/lpiv_download.php
Until then, that page will tell you exactly how long is left until release.


Lemmings Plus IV is confirmed and on the way!

I know I said I wasn't going to make any more Lemmings Plus games, but I just couldn't resist.

So, Lemmings Plus IV continues the normal pattern of what a main-series Lemmings Plus game is - a large level pack with new graphic sets! The target is 80 levels here, spread across four ranks. The overall aim for difficulty curve is similar to that of Lemmings Plus III, though with perhaps a steeper start and a smoother middle.

• Smooth - As usual, starting off relatively easy. This would be comparable to late-Timid or perhaps early-Dodgy from LPIII.
• Bumpy - Gets a little bit harder. I'd say still within Dodgy territory.
• Twisted - Aiming for a similar difficulty to Rough with this one. Still relatively short, but quite challenging levels.
• Insane - This one's intended to be of a similar standard to LPIII's Fierce. Expect multitasking, long and complex levels, rare tricks, and maybe even the odd tight time limit. Good luck.

There will not be any secret levels or gimmick/frenzy levels this time. There will be VGASPEC levels, but they'll just use the regular musics instead of having special ones - only the graphics will be special nope, I decided to give them special musics too.

The new Lemmings Plus IV graphic sets have all been revealed now. In the order they were revealed in, they are Candy, Space, Clockwork and Wasteland. For the first time in Lemmings Plus, these are not 32-color palette-based graphic sets, but full 24-bit color!

Lemmings Plus IV will make use of the new NeoLemmix skills, which have previously been seen in Holiday Lemmings Plus and Lemmings Plus Omega. NeoLemmix object types are also used, although so far no new ones are being used apart from moving decorative (no effect) objects. As Lemmings Plus Omega did, Lemmings Plus IV will mostly be avoiding time limits, though they will be used on some levels, usually as one of the major obstacles rather than an incidental added challenge.

As far as repeats go, it'll be the same as LPII / LPIII - generally no repeats, though there may be an occasional set of connected levels (like Cunning 1 / 7 / 13 from LPII), and there will be a once-per-rank level. However, there won't be large numbers of more-restricted repeats of earlier X-of-everything levels like LPI and LPO had.

Lemmings Plus IV will have talismans (achievements) from the first public release. There's also two new object types - moving background objects (harmless animations, but they move instead of staying in one place), and single-use traps (like normal traps, but they only work once); one graphic set also features splat pads and antisplat pads which existed in Cheapo (and thus in some converted-from-Cheapo graphic sets) but have not previously existed in any made-for-NeoLemmix graphic sets.

Like in LPO, time limits will be fairly rare - I did a count, and out of the 80 levels, only 9 levels have time limits (with 1 further level not having a time limit, but having a talisman for beating it in under a certain time). Two of these have time limits so high that they're negligable; it's because they're iterations of the once-per-rank level, and the time limit is less in each iteration.


A preview video has been uploaded.

The public demo of Lemmings Plus IV has been released:
Demo Download Link

Attached images: Smooth 1 and Twisted 1, the first two levels to be revealed.

[namida]

Graphic Set Completion

Candy: 100%
Space: 100%
Clockwork: 100%
Wasteland: 100%

Level Completion

Smooth: 20 of 20
Bumpy: 20 of 20
Twisted: 20 of 20
Insane: 20 of 20

[607]

Nice!
I haven't played any custom levels at all yet, but I think Lemmings Plus is definitely going to be the first custom pack I'm going to be playing, and it's nice hearing there's going to be even more!

[GigaLem]

new customizable skill bar?
Heck to the yes

[namida]

LPIII / Omega also had a custom skill bar graphic, though it was different from this one.
If you're meaning the color of the text, then that also worked like that in LPIII / Omega too. The color is based on the graphic set; eg. in the Sky set it was a light grey, while in the Circuit set it was green. The same thing also applies to floater/glider parachutes; they change color based on the graphic set too.

[namida]

I made the edges of the blocks in the "space" tileset stand out a bit more (I'm really thinking I'm going to rename that one, tbh), as well as finally added diagonal blocks.

By the way, feel free to give suggestions for graphic sets. Obviously I can't use all of them, and not promising I'll use any of them, but never hurts to have some extra ideas.

[GigaLem]

City, Mayan, Emerald, Kart, Peaceful
Those are my ideas
Choose any two that sounds interesting to you (I would love to see a Emerald tile set)
If you i can probably contribute a few levels or level ideas using the new sets

[namida]

I'm not sure exactly what the last two would refer to in terms of graphic sets. The first three could be worth considering...

As for level designs, I prefer to make the Lemmings Plus games' levels myself. Of course, you are more than welcome to use the graphic sets for levels in your own packs once they're released.

[namida]

Some more new Space graphic set stuff!

Rocket engines - guess it's starting to become a bit more space-y after all! Also, teleporters.

[namida]

I've put up a short preview video showing one level each in the Candy and Space graphic sets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaK_t_a5ITc

[namida]

Another one of the new graphic sets. Haven't picked a name for it yet.

(Just for the record for those who are worried about spoilers - I assure you, if you try what you see in the screenshot on this level, you will not complete it.)

[IchoTolot]

Another one of the new graphic sets. Haven't picked a name for it yet.

From the looks of it, the first thing that comes to my mind is "Clockwork".

[namida]

Just made the first level that's ended up in the Insane rating.

[607]

Oh, that looks very cool!

[mobius]

I like the mechanical/clockwork set a lot!

The space set: Do you like it that dark? I would personally make it at least a little bit brighter. As of now it's kind of difficult to see imo.