SubLems: Large SuperLemmini levelpack

Colorful Arty · April 05, 2016, 01:24:24 AM

Hey, everybody!

Weekly news update, SubLems progress has been going slowly, mainly due to me finishing Reverse Lemmings this week, so I only made 1 new level, but I did touch up a few other levels in the process. As of right now, I am missing 2 levels in Scary, 2 levels in Chaotic, 4 levels in Insane, and 2 levels in Hellish, or a grand total of 10 levels in all. I also may change a couple of levels in Retro that aren't so great.

That said, the few levels I have made recently are pretty awesome, and I am taking great care to make sure every level has a unique song that matches the level perfectly, so I hope you will be impressed. Also, the reason I keep removing levels is because they don't match up to the quality I want SubLems to have. Ideally, I want a pack with a great difficulty curve, good puzzles, unique/beautiful scenery, excellent music, and fair tileset representation. (It is very easy for me to go overboard with the Hell and Crystal levels, while ignoring the dirt and bubble tilesets)

Hopefully this week I will get some good ideas, but until then, here are some more rejected levels!

A level that appeared in Sweet "The amazing floating exit" and Insane "Lemmings in the wild". The Insane version required using the glitch that let floaters enter midair exits. The funny thing is, I had an even harder version planned that required a lemming going "Oh no!" to enter the midair exit, but it was impossible to execute in SuperLemmini. After people told me they weren't fond of glitches, I removed the Insane version and there seemed no point keeping the Sweet version, so I nixed it too.

An early Hellish level: "The brink of death". I was really sorry to see this level go, but alas, it too required a definite glitch. It used the glitch that allowed bashers, miners, and diggers to fall a few extra pixels without splatting.

Colorful Arty · April 10, 2016, 07:03:37 PM

Howdy lemmings fans!

Just a quick update post, I have officially transferred all SubLems levels to the latest version of SuperLemmini to make sure that they all work fine. (They do!) I also am making replays of the solutions to make sure all of the levels are possible before releasing the final game. (I failed to do this for Reverse Lemmings with unfortunate results.)

Unfortunately, due to lots of homework, updating my let's play channel, and this level transfer, I only got around to making 1 or 2 new levels this past week. At least now, I can look on every level in SubLems with pride, since I really enjoy all of the levels.

Before showing more rejected levels, I have two questions.

Question 1: when you play SuperLemmini, do you play it in fullscreen? I only play fullscreen when recording, and I have designed the SubLems levels to fit window-size, not fullscreen. When you play a small level in fullscreen, the solid borders of the level are not in the place they appear, so this could be irritating to some players.

Question 2: as of right now, the Retro rating has no difficulty curve, but rather the levels appear in the chronological order they appeared in in the games. Thus, I have to ask: would you prefer the Retro levels to be this way, or would you prefer them to be in ascending difficulty order?

And with that, here are some more rejected levels:

The original first level of Scary: "The triumph of teamwork". It was too bland and the puzzle seemed redundant, so I nixed it. (You had one builder and one miner)

One of the few levels that could not be transferred to SuperLemmini from Lemmini: "HOW!?" (it was in Hellish)

A level from Scary: "The gullibility test". Needless to say, bashing through the wall is a very bad idea...

IchoTolot · April 10, 2016, 09:08:10 PM

Q1: I personally play it in the standard window mode.

Q2: An acending curve might be better here. Start with the easy stuff and get more difficult over the time. Quite a few ranks have a curve of their own.

Colorful Arty · April 18, 2016, 09:08:11 PM

Hey, everyone! Colorful Arty is here with the weekly update!

I was much more productive this week than the last few, and managed to make 4 new levels that are all awesome (in my opinion at least), and at least started 1 or 2 more! Hopefully, if this pace keeps up, SubLems will be released sometime in May (keep your fingers crossed!) Once the levels are done (and I only have about 3 left to come up with), it will just be prettifying levels, making sure the music is all good, and testing for backroutes.

And, here are some more removed levels!

"Athletic Lemmings" an early Sweet level. Basically taught you about athletes; it was removed because I felt it was unnecessary and boring.

"Superlemming returns" This one was late in Sweet and got kicked out almost immediately, for many reasons including being too small, boring, and was just not fun. I also kind of made the level around a piece of music I wanted in the game (it still made it in another level)

"Faster than a speeding lemming..." the other Superlemming level I made. I liked it because it was hard, had awesome music (which was moved to another level) and actually looked good for a bubble level. However, people vocally expressed distaste toward Superlemming levels, and it was a bit difficult, so I nixed it. It was for the Scary difficulty, which admittedly was not the right difficulty for it.

Colorful Arty · April 26, 2016, 06:09:06 PM

It's almost done!

I have just 1 level of Chaotic to create and 2 levels in Insane. After that, a few levels need touch-ups, and SubLems should be ready for playing!

Thank you all for your patience and support; it means a lot! I am very excited for SubLems to be done. It's been a long road, but a very enjoyable and rewarding one, and I am so happy I decided to get involved in Lemmings level design and the Lemmings Forum!

With that, here are possibly the final rejected levels:

"A landslide has occurred..." It had catchy music, but it was a bit too bland and precise, so it did not make the final cut.

"Frozen SteelWorks" A Hellish level that did not make the final cut for a couple of reasons. 1: it was too easy to backroute. 2: it was too bland. 3: the actual solution was not possible in SuperLemmini (it was possible in Lemmini though)

"No one mourns the Lemmings!" Another Hellish level that got cut very quickly. It required WAY too much walking bombing, and once again, the solution was not possible in SuperLemmini.

Flopsy · April 29, 2016, 02:29:57 PM

This pack looks great Arty and that is just by the looks of the rejected levels!

Sorry, only just noticed this topic recently and wanted to drop a reply. Can't believe I haven't noticed it until now and it is now nearing completion.

Got any advice or tips to pass down to someone else like me who is just starting out in making a level pack, perhaps things which you wished you'd have known at the very start of the project that would have made things a lot easier and smoother?

Colorful Arty · May 03, 2016, 07:45:47 PM

Thanks for the reply!

Honestly, I'm still new to making level packs, but I can tell you the advice I follow, but everyone makes levels and levelpacks differently.

1. Make sure you know how difficult you want your levelpack to be. I tried to stick to Original Lemmings difficulty, and only made more difficult levels for the last two difficulties. Once you know how difficult you want your levels to be, make sure you make a nice difficulty curve. I tend to dislike it when I face a level that is drastically harder than anything I've played up to that point, so a difficulty curve is essential.

2. Make sure your easier levels are especially pretty. I like levels that are easy, but if you want people to not be bored playing them (like the Tame difficulty form ONML) then make sure they have pretty architecture.

3. Be creative with the terrain pieces. Messing around with the tilesets has given birth to some of my favorite levels in the pack, or simple ideas like making a level that looks like a television. These tend to be really nice for the early levels and even better if you can find cool solutions for them as well.

4. Put in good music. I have found that an awesome piece of music can turn a kind-of-lame level into a really fun one.

5. Related to #4: make sure your music files are .mod or .ogg files, since these take up MUCH LESS ROOM. I spent the last two days converting all of the .wav files for my SubLems music into .ogg files. They sound identical, but they up less than a fifth of the space.

6. Mess around with the skills. A few of the levels I have made have come from me accidentally finding cool tricks you can perform with the skills.

7. Above all, have fun! If you have fun making and testing the levels you make, then chances are so will other people!

Colorful Arty · May 09, 2016, 08:14:47 PM

Just thought I'd make a quick update, yes I AM still working on SubLems. All of the levels are essentially complete, I just have to make a few major adjustments to one level, and a few minor adjustments to a few others, maybe change a piece of music, and it should be ready for release! I'm sorry it hasn't come out yet, I've been working on getting a job (I have one now!) and making levels for contest #10. Hopefully SubLems will be released some time this week!

grams88 · May 09, 2016, 10:42:12 PM

They do look very nice levels there Colorful Arty.

I had a look at that level (No one mournes the lemmings) interesting design to it. I like when you scroll to the middle part the bit with the green grass looks like a unique idea.

namida · May 09, 2016, 11:21:20 PM

Quote from: Colorful Arty on May 09, 2016, 08:14:47 PM
Just thought I'd make a quick update, yes I AM still working on SubLems. All of the levels are essentially complete, I just have to make a few major adjustments to one level, and a few minor adjustments to a few others, maybe change a piece of music, and it should be ready for release! I'm sorry it hasn't come out yet, I've been working on getting a job (I have one now!) and making levels for contest #10. Hopefully SubLems will be released some time this week!

There's no need to feel rushed. Some level packs have been in development for over a year before they were released; there's even at least one which despite the creator saying it was "more or less finished" around 7 months ago, and them still being active in the community, it hasn't seen release. Compared to that, a delay of a week or two is nothing.

Flopsy · May 10, 2016, 12:00:42 AM

I agree, a level pack is not something that should be rushed.

I've only just started making levels towards my unnamed level pack the last month and I've so far come up with 10 levels which are completely new and not seen by anyone on here. I don't intend on reusing any contest submitted levels in my level pack, I may include them as bonus levels but not as the main part of the pack.

Assuming I keep every level I've made so far and keep up at least this rate of creating levels, it would take me at least another year at least to complete my level pack.

Thanks for your response to my previous post by the way Colorful Arty, I appreciate the feedback