About
Lemmings is a 1991 puzzle and strategy game developed by DMA Design for the Amiga and published by Psygnosis, programmed by Russell Kay, Mike Dailly, and David Jones. It was inspired by a simple animation Dailly created while experimenting with Deluxe Paint. LixD is the current, actively maintained Lix, a puzzle game inspired by Lemmings with over 700 single-player levels, a built-in level editor, and real-time competitive multiplayer for 2 to 8 players. It's written in the D programming language using Allegro 5 and enet, and is packaged for Windows plus several Linux distributions (Arch AUR, Debian, openSUSE OBS, Fedora COPR) and Flathub.
How it differs from the original
Unlike the cooperative puzzles of Lemmings, Lix adds real-time competitive multiplayer for 2–8 players, where each player tries to route the most lix into their own exit, including their opponents'.
Getting started
The easiest way to play multiplayer is via the built-in central server option in the Network Game menu, though private games can also be hosted directly by forwarding a UDP port. Windows users can download a build from GitHub releases, or install a package for Arch, Debian, openSUSE, Fedora, or Flatpak; building from source needs a D compiler, dub, Allegro 5.2, and enet 1.3.
History
LixD is a full rewrite of the original C++/Allegro 4 Lix in the D programming language using Allegro 5, replacing that now-discontinued version.
Additional notes
- License note
- Most of the game's assets — code, graphics, levels, sound effects, and most music — are dedicated to the public domain via CC0, but the DejaVu Sans font and some music tracks carry their own separate licenses.