Level of the Year: 2016!

[namida]

For a list of nominated levels so far, please see the nominated levels topic.

Alright. We did this last year, and we're doing it again!

This is a bit different from the usual contests. You don't create a new level for this one; instead, levels released during 2016(ish) get nominated and a winner picked from them. To be precise, the eligible dates are from 1st December 2015 to 30th November 2016.

The following conditions must be met in order for a level to be eligible:
1. The level must have either been part of a large pack released during the eligible timeframe (1st Dec 2015 to 30th Nov 2016), or in some other way had its first public release during the timeframe. Private releases (such as sending to prerelease testers) do not affect eligibility either way. *
2. The level must be available for an engine that is usually eligible for the contests. Or in other words: NeoLemmix (must be compatible with at least one version from V1.47n onwards), SuperLemmini, or single-player Lix.
3. The level must be designed by a single author; collaboration levels are not eligible.
4. The creator of the level must not have specifically requested it be excluded.
5. The level must not have been nominated for LOTY2015.

* To clarify here: If it was released publicly prior to Dec 1st 2015 as part of a demo or preview, but the full pack was released during the eligible period, the level is fine (as long as it wasn't nominated for LOTY2015).

Being a derivative of an ineligible level (as long as it's from the same author) does not disqualify a level; as long as the level in question is clearly intended to stand as a seperate-but-related level rather than a newer version of the same level.



To nominate a level, please PM me with your list of nominations. If you wish to modify your nominations at a later date, please resend the whole list of levels you wish to nominate, not just the changes.

Each user may nominate up to eight levels from authors other than themself, up to a maximum of three levels per author. Anyone who nominates at least three levels by other authors may also nominate one of their own levels; anyone who nominates at least seven levels by other authors may also nominate two of their own levels. (These self-nominations do not count towards the eight nomination limit.)

Note that levels that won a level design contest during the eligible timeframe get an automatic nomination, unless their author requests otherwise.

Nominations will be open until the beginning of December 31st 2016 (UTC). No additions / changes to nominations will be permitted after this date, with one exception: If a level someone has nominated is found to be ineligible for any reason and this is not discovered until after the deadline, they will be offered a chance to nominate a different level in its place.

Similar to last year, the voteoff will occur in three stages:

Stage 1
This will be done similar to how the first rounds of the voteoffs for the official games were. The levels will be put into random brackets, and the top ~50% from each bracket will qualify for Stage 2.

Stage 2
This will also be done in regular voteoff style. The aim here will be to get down to around 4~6 remaining levels, so exact details will depend on how many levels are entered.

Stage 3
This will be done in an elimination format over multiple rounds; each round, one level gets knocked out, and the others continue onto the next round, until we have a winner.



As with last year, the prizes on offer will be US $15.00 for first place, and US $7.50 for second place. However, I have an extra prize available to throw into the mix - a copy of the Clickteam Humble Bundle that was available earlier this year, containing Clickteam Fusion 2.5 Developer Edition along with most exporters and a handful of games made with Clickteam products. In terms of pure price this is actually over $1000 worth of software, though the actual cost of it (while the bundle was available) was only $15. Either winner may choose to take this bundle instead of the monetary prize (however, if both winners want it, only first place gets it and second place will only have the monetary prize available). If you get this, you'll get a Humble Bundle gift link for the package, which you are free to do whatever you want with.

There are a couple of special cases that may apply:
1st and 2nd place are won by the same user - The 2nd place prize is passed down to 3rd, 4th, or whatever the highest place that was won by someone else was.
A prize is won by a user who cannot be contacted - They will be assumed to have chosen the monetary prize, and it will be donated to a charity of the other winner's choice (within reason).
Both prizes are won by users who cannot be contacted - Very unlikely, we will discuss what to do in this case if/when it happens.

Also note that, in the interest of being reasonable, the "don't discuss levels involved in contests anywhere on the site during the voting period" rule does not fully apply to this contest; instead, it will be "do not discuss them at all within the LOTY2016 topics during voting, and don't discuss them in relation to the contest anywhere on the site".

So, that's about it! Any questions, ask here; and feel free to start nominating levels!

[namida]

Eligible Level Packs

This is simply a list of levels that are eligible. They have not nessecerially been nominated, and the majority probably won't be. Please note that this is probably not a complete list, especially in regard to Lix levels; if you can think of anything that should be added, let me know!

- All levels entered in Contests #9, #10 and #11
- Colorful Arty: All levels from SubLems
- GigaLem: All levels from Resident GigaLems, except "Bashilvania", "Heated Delay" and "The bURns of DrEAD" (due to being nominated for LOTY2015)
- namida: All levels from Lemmings Plus V
- Nepster: All levels from NepsterLems except "Jump in the Ring" and "Final Frustration" (due to being nominated for LOTY2015, the latter under a different title)
- JW: All levels from JWPack V2
- Prince Jamie: All levels from Prince Jamie's Super Challenge Pack Set 1
- zanzindorf: All levels from zanzindorf's Special Pack 1 and Zemmings Vol 1



Excluded Levels

These are levels / packs that the author has requested be excluded from LOTY2016.

- Colorful Arty: "Hailfire Peaks" (Contest #11 level)
- Flopsy: All levels from SEBLems demo
- namida: All levels by namida except those from Lemmings Plus V
- Nepster: All Return of the Tribes levels
- Wafflem: All levels by Wafflem

[Colorful Arty]

I believe Reverse Lemmings and NepsterLems are also eligible level packs as well.

[namida]

You're correct in regards to NepsterLems (with one exception level, due to it being nominated in LOTY2015 from a demo). I actually meant to add it - even went as far as double-checking which level(s) from it were nominated for LOTY2015, but forgot to actually add it to the list in the end.

All the levels in Reverse Lemmings fail the 3rd condition, if I'm not mistaken.

[Colorful Arty]

Is that because the original DMA team would be considered collaborators?

[mobius]

I nominate: "teh evil happy faces" by  fishthekiller99

[namida]

Is that because the original DMA team would be considered collaborators?

Yes.

I nominate: "teh evil happy faces" by  fishthekiller99

Oh crap, contest is over, we have our winner right here.

[GigaLem]

As with last year, the prizes on offer will be US $15.00 for first place, and US $7.50 for second place. However, I have an extra prize available to throw into the mix - a copy of the Clickteam Humble Bundle that was available earlier this year, containing Clickteam Fusion 2.5 Developer Edition along with most exporters and a handful of games made with Clickteam products. In terms of pure price this is actually over $1000 worth of software, though the actual cost of it (while the bundle was available) was only $15. Either winner may choose to take this bundle instead of the monetary prize (however, if both winners want it, only first place gets it and second place will only have the monetary prize available). If you get this, you'll get a Humble Bundle gift link for the package, which you are free to do whatever you want with.

Im deeply sorry that this has nothing to do with the contest
Gonna be honest, the mention of Clickteam fusion made me wince, I've heard how much of a nightmare it is to work with (See Sonic Worlds and Freedom Planet)
And yet a friend of mine who goes by "Creepario" was able to make some of Freedom Planet's cut content work

But what if someone wants to win a humble bundle prize but doesn't want to get clickteam fusion?
What if someone wants a different humble bundle prize if available (Im not sure if the Humble Bundle for Game Maker Studio is still around, if anything I would've chosen that)

like if they don't want to have that prize but they still want something from humble bundle, what then? I'm sure there's an obvious answer im missing but still

I like the idea of winning a game developer tool, I really am but i don't want something as nightmarish as Fusion IMO.

Sorry about going off topic
I can go on about Dev tools and what not in either a different topic, IRC, or where i am the most Skype or Discord


And about Resident GigaLems, It should work with v1.47 how ever some levels required the use of the invisible wall in v1.43 and a report of one level was unsolvable due to the removal of Direct drop
but for the most part, its Solvable
Im going to get RGL compatible with v1.48 or v010.010.010 (God I hate typing that out) after the holidays are over

and as much as I hate repeating myself, Sorry for going off topic

[namida]

I don't have a copy of the Game Maker bundle in any form, let alone in a form that can be given away. I have a spare gift link for the Clickteam one. (Personally, I would pick Fusion over Game Maker any day, but each to their own.)

Nonetheless, if someone won a cash prize, they could ask that it be used to purchase any current Humble Bundle at the time rather than being given to them in monetary form.

[Colorful Arty]

Would any levels sent to me via stream be eligible? Or do they have to be released on the forums publicly?

[namida]

Public release of some kind is a requirement. But even if they aren't released yet, as long as they're released by the end of the month they're eligible.

[Flopsy]

I'm confused as to why demos are allowed to have levels voted for in this contest.

Why are the 12 levels in my SEB Lems demo even eligible for this contest, the pack is not even released?

[namida]

1. The level must have either been part of a large pack released during the eligible timeframe (1st Dec 2015 to 30th Nov 2016), or in some other way had its first public release during the timeframe.

So if the demo was released during this timeframe, it's eligible. However, you can request that your demo levels be excluded from the contest if you want.

[Flopsy]

I don't feel it's right that the 12 levels in the SEB Lems demo are eligible then they will not be allowed to be eligible for LOTY2017. I'd rather that SEB Lems as well as the demo levels had an equal right to be voted for in the same contest.

That means I would not like the SEB Lems demo levels to be included. Sorry

[mobius]

Public release of some kind is a requirement. But even if they aren't released yet, as long as they're released by the end of the month they're eligible.

in that case; I'll upload my revised level Arty did in stream here. Because I consider levels streamed to be "public" even though they may not be released to everyone. Everyone can see them.

duh; I forgot this level already appeared in the contest during the summer. well I want to upload the revised edition anyway;