Christmas 2016 Pack

[bulletride]

Here they are again

[Crane]

Thanks BulletRide - I actually finally figured out how to extract the levels from the NXP file by pressing F4 in the NeoLemmix menu.  I have 16 levels now, all Snow/Christmas themed.

I tried to convert my level "Deep Freeze" to the tileset, but couldn't make it work because the Crystal steel pieces are slightly larger than the Snow/Christmas ones, plus changing them ruins the aesthetic.  I also quickly worked out that while the level has a 'cold' theme, it's the unforgiving cold rather than the wintry one.  Oh well, I tried!  Now I have to make some new levels of my own, methinks!

These are the levels I have so far, in no particular order:

Chill out! - Oh No! More Lemmings
Christmas Cavern - BulletRide
Christmas Cross - Minim
Codrin, Iuliana & Stefan - Uci
Cool Steel - BulletRide
Crevasse - Clam Spammer
Ethereality - Akseli
Hit the Slopes - BulletRide
Ice Caps - BulletRide
Shaky Foundations - BulletRide
Ship trip to the caves - Minim
Someone must help us! - Matthias Witt
Spiralling Snowstorm - Clam Spammer
That Freezing Feeling - Ellischant
The race against cliches - Oh No! More Lemmings
Vignette - Proxima

[Crane]

I've gone through Minim's Holiday '95 pack and picked a few levels.  I've avoided the ones that are just long building exercises, since they don't really offer much of a challenge nowadays and are somewhat tedious.  I also chose a few that, while relatively simple, had some nice talisman potential.  I'm up to 22 levels now, with 10 talismans (5 Bronze, 3 Silver, 2 Gold).

Also, anyone got suggestions for Christmassy music?  So far, the only real Christmas tune that I've been using is the Christmas mix song (a remix of Jingle Bells, A Spaceman Came Travelling, The Twelve Days of Christmas and The First Noel) that appears in Revenge of the Lemmings.

Levels I chose from Minim:

All over the place
Another cold day
Down the middle II (renamed to "Down the Chimney!")
Lems come out to play
More Lemming Drops
Stocking Lemmings

[namida]

This track (which appeared in Holiday Lemmings Plus) should definitely be in there. Personally, it's probably the only Christmas-y song I can stand hearing more than once or twice a year.

[bulletride]

I found a playlist of festive videogame music that you can maybe snag a few from. Easy to turn them into mp3s.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB

Some interesting ones from the ones I have listened to so far..

Jazz Jackrabbit Holiday Hare level 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSQkFYziGNU&index=13&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB


from Mario Party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xPFETHr8vc&index=4&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB

Donkey Kong Frosty Fruits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwMzeLa8rBY&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB&index=14

Castle Crashers - Snow World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJW9XE1I5kc&index=48&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB

BomberMan White Ice theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmPSqmMoMAs&index=44&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB

Sonic 3 - ice cap zone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxlqTpZ-24&index=47&list=PLM5bioiDCzLcEEWxwxtmmY7zYtnpisKUB

Do you have an estimate of when you plan to release it by?

[Crane]

I intend to release the pack by Christmas Day. It seems fitting!

Ideally I want to avoid using copyrighted music (which is why the majority of the tunes from the original game are from the public domain), although I might have already broken that rule with the music I chose for "Hit the Slopes" (it's a nice loud surprise!).

I'm kind of enjoying myself putting this together!

[bulletride]

I made two more. This tile set is really fun to make levels for I can`t stop!

[Crane]

Those are pretty neat levels - I like them.  I tried to solve them without the replays initially, and came up with this for Polar Pass.

Spoiler

I was worried it was the intended solution because the precision required with the first blocker is a bit unfair... it has to walk one pixel forward after falling from the trapdoor, otherwise the miner can't free it.  Now I know that the leftover tools were meant to be red herrings!  My concern is that others might try this solution first... can I recommend either removing a Miner or exchanging it for a Digger so it retains the red herring nature, but the backroute is less unfair if attempted?  Removing 2 Blockers might be safest, but might make the solution more obvious.  What do you think?

I fear people will try my backroute first because Proxima's Vignette also appears in this pack, and that requires undermining both Blockers and will likely appear before Polar Pass (most likely, this level will be one of the last 5, if not the last 10).

Not to complain, but when you design your levels, try to make sure you position the candles correctly above the Christmas Pudding exits.  Your levels tend to have them either too low or off-centre.  The yellow pixels below the candles are meant to be the upward-curving parts of the candle holders.

[bulletride]

Polar Pass

Spoiler

I have fixed. First tried removing blockers, but I found another backroute where you could set the RR to 99 and then block all but 2 of the lemmings on the middle platform. With 2 destructive skills you can free him but with only a miner you can save the blocker but not the miner. I could not replace the miner with a digger because then you can just dig down on the blocker with a lemming falling from the entrance. Cant replace it with a basher either cause then you can build from the landing platform instead. So I had to take it out unfortunately oh well. I changed the design slightly as well.

I didn't even notice I was so bad at putting candles on lol. Apparently I put them on wrong like 50% the time. I have repackaged all the levels together with fixed exits to make it easier.

Edit: 1 more level added lol

[Crane]

I'm now at 27 levels.  Almost there!  Only one level has been designed from scratch by myself, and I've been given joint authorship on one of BulletRide's levels.

For the final three levels, which can be as easy or hard as you like, I would like them each to have a Gold-level talisman (exceptionally difficult to get).

[Minim]

I was about to come in and say I solved all of BulletRide's levels except for 5 and 7. Maybe these two would be ideal for the gold talisman if we add more skills to them (e.g. blockers for 5 and builders for 7)? I think I backrouted 2, doing some "speed-digging" to trap the other lemmings. It appears that I've left out 1 in the file because it's still too easy.

I'll look at my Lemmix-designed levels again and see if I can come up with any ideas...

[Crane]

Well, "Ice Climbers" and "Polar Pass" are just hard levels, the former requiring careful use of Climbers and spacing, while the latter has a lot of red herrings.  One can't easily turn their solutions into talismans.

[Crane]

Here's a little taste of things to come - this will be the first level of the pack, a classic Tricky level.

There is a talisman for this level - I'll let you guess what it is!

[bulletride]

I was about to come in and say I solved all of BulletRide's levels except for 5 and 7. Maybe these two would be ideal for the gold talisman if we add more skills to them (e.g. blockers for 5 and builders for 7)? I think I backrouted 2, doing some "speed-digging" to trap the other lemmings. It appears that I've left out 1 in the file because it's still too easy.

I'll look at my Lemmix-designed levels again and see if I can come up with any ideas...

Level 2 isn't really a backroute cause its kind of an easy do whatever you want kind of level. Level 3 you did differently then I intended but I did give an 2-3 extra destructive skills than needed. maybe I should cut them down/fix some terrain Ill have to think about it. It wasn't supposed to be a hard one so I may just leave it.

Level 8 is a backroute! I didnt even remember I added climbers to the skills set. Ill either have to fix that 1 ledge or remove them all together!

For Level 7 I dont think a single skill can be added without completely ruining the level. There is an updated version Crane helped me with to fix a few issues I was having with a slightly different skill set. I attached it if you want to try it out. For level 5 I can probably add a few more climbers, but I don't think I can add a blocker.

Have other stuff I need to do today but tomorrow Ill look into fixing most of these up. Thanks for the replays they are a big help!

[mobius]

"A Long way Down" by t3tesla (originally titled "Suicidal Tendencies") from Revenge of the Lemmings was a favorite of mine, in the snow set, it could be decorated to be more Christmas. I thought this one was tricky but I don't think I could give it a gold talisman. [The hardest solution can't really be enforced with the talisman limitations].