I did Games development there, are you at UClan? Small world indeed :)

So I managed to download an old version using the SteamDB method. Gonna do some tests and find which version is fastest. Let me know when you start doing runs, I'll help you out where I can, I've put far too much time into running this game so I can give you a good idea on how the tricks work. It'll probably only take you an hour or so to learn the route, and none of the tricks are too difficult (the corner jump around 3 minutes in is probably one of the trickiest)

Would you be able to make a backup of those files? I'd really appreciate it. I bought it through steam so I'm SOL, and I'd rather not buy it again, but it won't be the end of the world if I have to. Someone on reddit showed me a way to download old versions of steam games, not had a chance to try that yet though. Personally I'd say a separate category would probably be better, seeing as the runs will be completely different and non comparable, but then again, with only two runners, probably won't make much of a difference

So the latest patch (1.005) broke pretty much everything about the route. Things I've managed to test so far include: Broken AI is fixed, currently no way to turn it off, which breaks a few skips. Because of this, we now have to do the last boss fight properly. Some buildings used for skips now no longer have collision. Witch skip is harder now as they've moved the checkpoint to inside the cannon room as opposed to just outside, can still skip it, but it's trickier now. Basement 2nd half skip is now fixed, kill plain added to bottom of graveyard so can no longer jump through, also can't pass girl through the fence like before. Simon says puzzle skip also appears to be fixed. Pretty much everything else is still possible, they're just a little harder now. Maze skips are still possible, but bits of it are trickier as we can't turn off the AI any more.

I've managed it once, not 100% sure what caused it but I have a few ideas. From what I've gathered, the crystal explosion does a decent chunk of damage if the witch is close enough (at least it feels like it does) So combining that with fast attacks I think it's possible to do 2 phases worth of damage in one phase, but the game can only move one phase at a time, which is why it still goes to phase 2. So in theory, you're entering phase 2 while the witch's health is in phase 3 (if that makes any sense) I'm guessing the script to end the battle overwrites the script to start the next phase, which is why it cuts out the last phase. But yeah, from what I can gather, it's too do with those crystals

I wish the forums had some sort of notifications for when people post so I could reply sooner :) But yeah, Greenmittenz pretty much covered everything, one thing to note is that you have to be holding forward to dodge forward, just holding right click and pressing dodge will still send you backwards, but you can dodge forward while standing still as long as you are already holding right click and holding down 'w' (or whatever key you have set to walk forward, this is pretty useful in stage 4).

The main thing to note is, don't be put off if you can't do the skips! You can still get a time under 20 minutes without all the fancy tricks, and honestly, trying to get the first clip will put you in a constant loop of resets. Fortunately, most of the skips after the first 2 levels are fairly easy.

I look forward to seeing your runs!

So I've been very busy with uni and work so I don't have a lot of time right now to verify all the runs I'm getting, so I'd appreciate if someone else in the community would be able to do it. If anyone is willing to do it let me know and I'll give them mod priveliges for this page. Good to see a large amount of runs though :)

So recently I've been experimenting with a new category that eliminates most of the 'RNG' of any% and 100% meaning the runs are definitely less reset heavy. My PB for it is 17.10 and sum of best is 15.35, so this category is a nice middle ground between any% and 100%. If anyone else is interesting in running this category I'd love for some help in routing it.