The in-game timer starts upon choosing a character and stops when you die (in a speedrun, this corresponds to clicking "[Sleep]" in the Spire Heart event on floor 51). I think this timing makes sense, since floor 51 is basically an interactive cutscene, so you are still playing the game at that point.

In version 13, the in-game timer was also changed to not increase while loading, so on my machine, the in-game timer reports a time of about 4 seconds faster than the real time between choosing the character and clicking '[Sleep]'. In version 12, my timer and the game's time lined up exactly.

What do others think?

We're using the real timer with the points set per the rules. If this game gains popularity and runs start coming down to frame differences, we will need in game events that are single frame actions to use as markers. The health bar emptying and changing to "Dead" is a single frame action, where as many of the scene changes (as well as hitting the heart) are all multiple frame fades. Ending time as soon as the final boss' lifebar reads "Dead" is the most consistent way to track times, and they are how I am approving all runs.

In any game I have ever ran the ending for time has always been "when you lose control of the character", in this game that would be when you click Sleep. There's no odd happening around this sequence that would call for a change of this....the game has not completed, you can still click one more thing, until the sleep button has been clicked...therefore the timing should 100% be finished upon this.

I have no problem with that argument, but at least until this game goes full release, we will be using the splits that were initially submitted and approved by the admins. If everyone comes to an agreement on different splits - ones that are all single frame events and not scene fade outs/transitions - we will definitely modify the rules upon full release. I ask that you be considerate of everything rapidly changing. This is an early access game still. Something that I didn't even know SpeedRun.com would allow. They were kind enough to approve the game, but things will change a lot. Run times may be reset several times, splits will be modified or become invalid, etc.

For right now, lets keep the splits as they are because that is what the current submissions have been following. As we approach the full release date, we can revisit the topic and make some changes.

The current splits are functional and you do lose control of your character after you kill the boss. From there it is basically a cut scene. I just dont see a reason to nullify perfectly good spreedruns for the sake of arbitrary consistensy.

That logic doesn't hold, you don't lose control when that happens your character is still there and will not continue all the way to the end (AKA the credits) until you click sleep.

Regardless the IGT now ends when the last hit is given to the boss, so it does not matter; if the IGT ends there then the RTA should end there.