For now, I've added in Segmented run categories for each type. The idea is that it pretty much must all come from the same run, and load-> next save seems like the most convenient type of segment to work with. Each next segment would need to have the same items, exp, money, equipment, etc. that the previous segment ended with, which is pretty hard to do in a game like this in any other way than just going with the same starting file all the way through.

The only thing is that a full run couldn't be submitted until it's actually fully completed. You could still break the run into a ton of individual videos and submit the parts all at once though. I've seen segmented runs where a runner would work segment by segment, and release individual videos on Youtube whenever they finished a segment or a group of them. That might be a good way to keep making videos while working on a long segmented run.

I did downpatch my game on Steam. A while ago they made it harder to do for some reason, but I used these guides and eventually got it to work:

XeroGoFast's guide for downpatching Hollow Knight https://www.speedrun.com/hollowknight/guide/jlten

a more general guide for downpatching on Steam https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1086279994

The easiest way right now is to buy the game on GOG because they let you select whichever patch you want to play instantly. EDIT: actually GOG might only let you switch patch versions if you've already had access to that version at some point? So if you buy it now it might not let you switch to 1.0.1 sorry!

Hmm, I'm interested in adding any options that would allow people to enjoy running this game. While I would love to just say "Sure!" and add it to the leaderboards, there might be a few problems the community would need to work out first, but it might still work.

Chapter 1 wouldn't have these problems, but for the rest of the chapters, there's 2 main issues. The first one being that you can just grind to obscene levels before starting a chapter, then blaze through it since there's no level caps per chapter, and enemies never start giving reduced experience. If you're willing to, you can even grind up to the actual level cap of 30 and then start from there. The other issue is that there's no quick way to start an individual chapter, other than preparing a save somehow, so making attempts is pretty inconvenient.

There might be some solutions to this. We might need to impose level restrictions for each chapter starting point. The most convenient way for runners is if the modding community was willing to release a version of the game where you could have a chapter-select mode with a pre-made setup for each chapter. Maybe someone would be willing to work on a project like that.

If everyone is fine with just accepting that these problems will be part of the category, or if we could find some sort of solution then that would work.

For something similar, we could easily do something like a Segmented Run category. There you could stitch together attempts of each chapter or each save point as long as you keep the same levels and items between each load. Then you could route out each segment and redo each portion until you were satisfied.

I'm glad you're interested in running the game! Let's try and find something that would work best!