Lemmings Forums Level Contest #22 - Results

[IchoTolot]

Ladies and gentleman, we've got our final results!

The winning level is:

"Childhood Dreams"

Congratulations to Armani for winning the contest!

Congratulation to Nessy as well as he reached the 2nd place with:

"A Rock And A Hard Place"


Choice for the prize for the first place is either:

- a month's advertising on the forum's news ticker
- picking the next contest's rules
- US $5.00 (PayPal would be the easiest here I think).

[kaywhyn]

My congratulations to both Armani and Nessy for their awesome R1 levels. Looks like the trend of Armani has indeed continued. 3 contests ago, he came in third, came in second in the previous two contests, and now the winner in this current one. Though I deemed Nessy's level my favorite of all the R1 levels, this was quite a tough decision, but I ultimately voted for Nessy's level. With my vote last night, I was surprised to see them both tied 6-6. I thought one level was going to clearly be in the lead instead of being so close and separated by just 1 vote. Therefore, someone voted after I did to ultimately give Armani the win instead of both him and Nessy being co-winners. As a matter of fact, both levels were still tied about 5-6 hours before the voting closed.

This being said, I also want to extend my congratulations to Flopsy for reaching 3rd place with his "The Cooler Side of Hell." Also, long before the playing phase started, I made a prediction that the eventual winner would be a R1 level. I can't quite explain it, but I had a feeling that a R1 level would win the contest. I think it's just due to how R1 is the "traditionalist" rule, where the levels are simply your standard L1/ONML design. Turns out to be a very correct prediction, though admittedly I kind of got worried that it would be an incorrect one once we got to the mixed rounds of voting. As a matter of fact, we nearly had the exact same situation as the previous contest once again, where the top 3 levels almost had a 3-way tie and hence we almost had to go into a "just one vote" again. Interestingly enough, the top 3 levels were all R1 ones

Whereas for me, as you all know LDC #22 was my very first foray into level designing, where these 3 levels are my very first ones I have ever made. I got to say that I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, and I didn't do as bad as I thought I would either. Even then, I still mostly prefer to solve than to design, but that's not to say that an eventual level pack by me has been ruled out. I'm still considering it, I just haven't made any more levels since this contest

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with my R1 making it past the first round of voting. In addition, my R1 was apparently the most popular of my 3 contest levels. In fact, the grouping that my R1 was in was the second most popular level, after rtw's "Warmth." At one point, my R1 briefly led with the most votes, which definitely took me by surprise, but it ultimately got the second most votes and was short by 1 vote. This was just the grouping my R1 was in. If all the R1's were grouped together or the grouping was different, my R1 probably would not had fared as well.

My R2 almost didn't make it past the first round, but it ended up tying with several other levels for third most votes. Finally, my R3 appeared to have been the least popular, having received no votes. In the grand scheme of things, I don't care how my levels do in the voteoffs, as winning a LDC is the least of my worries. However, for my very first LDC in which I participated both as a designer and solver, I got to say that it was heartwarming and a pleasant surprise to see a couple of my levels make it past the first round of the voteoffs.

However, as only about 3 people have played each of my levels, I'm wondering if any others had a chance to play them, and, if so, I'm confused about the silence and lack of feedback/replays. Were my levels too difficult for most? That's another thing that took me by surprise. Admittedly, people were kind enough to tell me that my R1 was difficult. My R2 was always intended to be the easiest, and I did intend my R3 to be the hardest, but it appears that thanks to all the pickups the difficulty has been reduced significantly. I've always had this thought that I was no good at making difficult levels, but I have been proven wrong in this contest

Granted, I realized the exact same thing happened with the other levels as well, not just mine. The number of people solving in the more recent contests seemed to have always been this low. That's just going off of what I observed in the other playing phase topics, though.

Anyway, I did have a great time solving contest levels once again, and I especially enjoyed playing levels by authors who didn't make a level in the previous contest. I will very likely take part in the next one, assuming the rules are something that I can work with. In any case, since I've practically hit a brick wall with the packs/levels I was attempting to figure out but have had no luck in more recent times, I think I'm done with Lemmings for a short while, as I'm currently taking a break from the game and playing other stuff in the meantime, most notably revisiting games that I used to play growing up. Lemmings has just consumed too much of my daily life for the past several months.

In case you're all wondering, no, I didn't vote for any of my own levels, not because I'm not particularly proud of any of my own work, but because I don't believe in voting for one's own levels. Instead, I simply let the others who voted for my levels do the work and the talking. It's only fair that way. You all have spoken, and my R1 was clearly the most popular of my own levels despite me being told that it's a difficult one.

Great job to all of the designers for the very awesome levels. It was quite a lot to get through (in my case, 25 since I pretested Icho's and excluding my own levels), but they were a joy to all play. Some were quite challenging, but they were very satisfying to figure out. I especially loved the traditional R1 levels. Looking forward to doing it again in the next contest, as well as recording my attempts at them on camera. Don't worry, my LPs will still continue in the future You all seem to enjoy watching them, so that will continue to happen      

[Armani]

Thanks for your congratulations! My favourite levels don't make it through the first or second round of voting though.
I'm quite surprised to see that my R1 won the contest. I thought that if one of my level advanced to higher round of voting, it would be either my R2 or R3. It seems a lot of forum members love traditional levels than I expected.

I want to pick next contest rules for my prize, so stay tuned

[NieSch]

Congratulations Armani!

[WillLem]

Well done Armani! I look forward to seeing what rules you pick for the next contest (if indeed that is your choice of prize, of course)

[Minim]

Wow. We have a new winner! Congratulations, Armani. Brilliant level, and a well deserved win.