this is an abominable decision. i hope either you reverse this quick-like or you get thrown out as moderators by your community. speedrun leaderboards are not to be run by fiat.

i largely agree with this tbh. i was told by the mod in my own thread when i asked about it that turbo wouldn't be allowed bc they thought the mashing was part of the game (fair enough), but i feel like speeding the whole thing up whenever you want is changing a much more substantial part of the game - at least the turbo is better for your hands and has a precedent, e.g. omori speedruns.

at the very least i reckon the boards should have emulated/sped-up runs split from runs of the game in its native engine at its original speed. personally i'd also separate Reboot runs into a completely separate leaderboard page; given the changes in scenes and the battle rebalancing i'd say it's its own thing, and there are a number of games on src that have their "reboots" separate from their original versions like that.

just my two cents. granted i don't run this game (yet, if all goes to plan), but i figured i should chime in bc i'd like to see this game with a healthy speedrunning scene and i do care about it regardless of whether my life atm lets me speedrun properly

understood. thank you! :)

i thought i'd be notified about a reply but i never was. my bad 😅

cool! atm it doesn't seem like the boards are separated by version? there are filters active but not subcategories. idk if you changed it back or something else happened but it still looks like that to me

different topic - did you have any thoughts about turbo when running this game (esp. at 1x speed)? there's a lot of text to mash through in wadanohara, and i personally wouldn't want to fuck up my wrists, so i'd probably use a turbo macro of some kind. would that be something you'd take on the leaderboard, or would you disallow that?

thanks! ^^

hi!

i figured that runs of this game would probably be faster in the original Japanese, given how much text there is, but i realised that the download link for the original Japanese game on DSP's site has been replaced with a link for the reboot. after some digging on the wayback machine i was able to find the link for the last update to the original version (v.1.04) on an old archive of the website, and it still works!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9gn62w5b329307h/wadanohara_ver1.04.zip/file

this'll be more and more helpful the lower the speed at which you're playing the game is, so i suspect (though i've done no testing) that if you were playing at e.g. 1x speed you could save a decent chunk of time in Japanese compared to English - i found an old run of this game at the original speed and it was about 3h40m long, so getting it any shorter could be very helpful to some. theoretically there's also a Simplified Chinese version that could have even fewer characters of text in it and thus be even faster, but i haven't found a link of v.1.04 in that language yet - that might have only gone up to 1.03. not sure yet.

i hope this helps anyone thinking of running this game! i might run it myself at some point, but i'm not sure yet. i do at least have this bit of detective work for you though lol.

the previous mod of this leaderboard (HiipFire) has gone AWOL off the internet, so i applied to take the board over, and i got it! all runs in the queue (all two of them, including my own) have been verified.

i'll be sprucing the leaderboard up and making a clear ruleset soon! happy jablesing

i think it would be possible! i've thought about it a few times, maybe using a debug file to start at the end of dustbound, collecting all of them and then calling time when you visit the slime hidden in the nexus and he tells you you have more than 500. you could check how many you have using the metashop (iirc the total is 585).

if people want to run it then they certainly can! if it gains some interest i can also stick it on the leaderboard, so if you'd like to, go ahead! :D

Devwill is available here: https://amaweks.itch.io/devwill

It is also available on Steam, though personally I think using a standalone version works better for speedruns, as the game's engine interacts a little weirdly with both the itch and Steam clients with regards to closing the game.

Please buy Devwill if you wish to run it - it is a cheap game, and though I understand that not everyone is equipped with adequate finances, it's only fair to the developer. This is part of why runs on the training version are not allowed (aside from the obvious potential for abuse of the changes). Thank you.

also, i highly encourage you to join the discord in the sidebar here! it's much more active than these forums and should be an easier way to get help with the game :)

fall damage was patched out a while ago on pc. is that not the same on ps4?

in any case you can use savewarps instead of deathwarps. just save and quit to title from the menu and reload; since you've previously hit a checkpoint both for a deathwarp and a savewarp it should be functionally identical

it's also possible to pit-wiggle across larger open pits (though very input-heavy), like the ones somewhere in the labyrinth. i'm not sure that the appearance of them being individual pits in cases like the example above actually corresponds to their collision; i would wager that they're just "pit tiles" like a completely empty one, but decorated, and that the pit skip movement isn't so much about walking the line, but something weirder (that admittedly i don't understand).

i'd lean towards not allowing it, but i'll ask the devs about it. i'll also wait and see if frenzied_coder has anything to add before going and changing any rules.

btw, do you have discord? there's a speedrunning channel in the discord linked in the sidebar, it's quite helpful for discussions. you don't have to join, just might be a bit real-time than src forums.

btw, for future reference, speedrunning as a rule always rounds down. so even if someone got a 4:59.9x, they would have a "sub-5"/4:59. it's convention to just lop off the decimal points for considering something's time in less precise increments as opposed to rounding up (this is also how things work for less precise decimal points, so a 4:58.97 would be a 4:58.9 to the first decimal place rather than a 4:59.0)

i frame-counted that one a while back (before i got mod) and it's definitely a 4:56. i'll redo it now we have milliseconds and put in the final time (tbh i thought the reason it was on the board as a 4:56 was because it had been retimed prior to verification)

for reference, i time from the first frame of the main menu text darkening to the last frame of young's movement in the water

(edit: 4:56.433 is the final time. sorry wesey 😅)

Hi! Anodyne 2: Return to Dust will be out soon. I tried to get in touch with frenzied_coder privately through Twitch whispers (I couldn't think of any other way) to discuss adding the series to the site and including this one in it, but I haven't heard back. Is there a way I can contact you privately to discuss it? If not I can discuss here, but I feel like privately would be preferable. Thanks. :)

The directions in the link didn't seem to work for me, but you raise a good point about using a different version of the game to practice. Thanks. :)

I can ask the devs if the file I removed has any bearing on gameplay, which is probably the best way to get a clear answer, but I can add that after a bit more playing I still can't see any differences.

edit: I asked the devs (waiting on a response), but thinking about it more, it does seem like a safer bet to use an unmodified version for runs and a Steam-disconnected version for practice. Thanks for the suggestion! (not sure why it didn't occur to me myself tbh...)

edit 2: This is what I heard back from Sean:

So none of the Steam files interfere with any game functionality, apparently, only client features, but make of it what you will. Thanks. :)

Some of the more recent versions of Anodyne have the letter S appended to their version numbers; I have versions 1.514S and 1.522S myself. I assume it stands for "Steam", since even in the standalone builds from itch.io, there are Steam-related files in the game's directory.

Even if the game is not installed through Steam, these files will connect it to the client, enabling the overlay and Steam Cloud. I don't know if this is just a problem for me or a more general thing, but Steam Cloud makes me unable to swap out practice save files in the save directory - even if I disable it, it re-enables itself somehow, and no matter what I do, saves are always loaded from the cloud, making segment practice pretty much impossible.

This is a screenshot of my directory for v. 1.514S. If you delete the steam_appid.txt file, the game's connection to Steam is severed, making it work just like the standalone game (as far as I've seen while I've been trying it). The text file contains this, which I assume just links it to the right point in Steam for their client's features to hook in:

Deleting this file is what I've done in the directory of my v. 1.522S game - so my question is, would removing this specific file to sever Steam connections be considered game modification? In the absolute strictest sense it is modifying the files in the game's directory; however, the file appears to have no connection to anything regarding the game itself or how it functions, serving only to link it in with the Steam client. I would personally allow it, but I thought it best to ask, given that I'd quite like to run on the latest version (Marina Kittaka's old name is in the version I was previously using, and I'd rather have her real/chosen name in my runs. Sorry for the long post. Thanks. :)

P.S. Deleting the other files that mention Steam in the root folder cause the game not to load when its window opens; I don't know why.

thanks for the updates! i'd absolutely love the background positioning/scrolling/etc. options back. i appreciate you being responsive to feedback, and i hope you figure out a satisfactory way to get themes working on light mode. :)

(warning that this turned out to be a lot longer that i planned, so uh... yeah)

i have some thoughts about the game request rules as someone . i also discussed them with some indie-speedrunning friends of mine, seckswrecks and baldjared (secks later put the screenshot of the rules i made on twitter and got some more feedback from there). i'll try to organise these various thoughts. here's the screenshot of the rules i'm not really a fan of:

i'll try to go through them in order.

1. the first sentence doesn't seem relevant to the actual quality of the game itself, and instead focuses on predetermined judgements of what is expected to come from different stores (e.g. itch) or platforms (e.g.) mobile. even steam, with a large monopoly, is included in this judgement for some reason. i think this is biased (for lack of a better word) against indie games: games that come from platforms that are perceived as being of "lower-quality" in some way don't really deserve to be judged based on that perception imo. i think there are plenty of quality games on itch, and in any case, a game being "good" or "bad" doesn't reflect its qualities as a speedgame necessarily. i think a game should be looked at based on its own merits as a speedgame rather than given extra scrutiny based on where it's sold - besides, what makes a good speedgame is also at least partly subjective. seckswrecks also pointed out that an assumption has been made that a game will at all be on one of these storefronts or a similar one in the first place, when it might not be on a store catalogue at all - that wouldn't make such a game better or worse as a speedgame, though.

2. the first bullet point is again not something i feel has a bearing on whether something is a good speedgame or not. Sexy Hiking takes under a minute RTA and is still a speedgame with optimisation work put into it and different things to find. it's not a speedgame that's more or less "reasonable" because of its length; it's just... the length that it is, and it's not wrong for being that. Celeste Classic is another one that baldjared pointed out to me. it's a very optimised little game and one that a decent number of people have put time into, and the fact that it takes under 3 minutes to speedrun its 100% category doesn't change how good of a speedgame it is. it's still good, it's just short and good instead of long and good. it deserves to be respected on its own terms and merits rather than be subjected to an arbitrary standard of what should be "enough". even Super Mario Bros. has the Minus World Ending category, which takes a similar amount of time to Celeste (edit: Classic) 100%, but still has value and good qualities as a speedrun. i also feel this rule is biased against a lot of indie games - small game jam projects or deliberately shorter experiences could still be good speedgames, even if they don't take much time. those are the main themes here, really - i feel these rules hold games to standards that ultimately have no bearing on their speedrun value, and i also feel that they do a disservice to indie games, because a lot of indie games fall under at least one of these things and they don't deserve, in my opinion, to be judged more harshly than "larger" titles because of that.

3. the second bullet point is again a question of a game's "casual" qualities vs. its speedrunning qualities. i believe a "bad" or poorly-made game can still be an excellent speedgame, and that it should be judged on the latter. to go back to Sexy Hiking, it's a B-game looks like it was drawn in MS Paint, has no soundtrack and makes a really loud "well done" sound when you beat one of its levels, but people still speedrun it, enjoy it and gather some worth from it. things that might make it conventionally "bad" or "low-effort" don't affect how good of a speedgame it can be, as these are different qualities. the game Brilliant Bob is ostensibly shovelware that uses default Unity assets, the devs of which got banned from the Steam store for asset-flipping, but through an extended jump glitch, it was able to become a fun, interesting speedgame that had some serious optimisation put into it. Miner Ultra Adventures was made in Blender, an engine never designed to run full games, and goes so far in its lack of effort as to use unlicensed, default-instrument MIDIs of at least one Green Day song in its soundtrack, but serious work was put into it, and it even made it into a GDQ! the fact that it was poorly-made by conventional standards didn't change the fact that at least a few people found it fun to play, put time into, and optimise. it's still a perfectly legitimate speedgame. these examples and all others like them (imo) shouldn't be cast off as speedgames because of casual standards.

4. the last bullet point is the one i like the least. i'm the only person on a few leaderboards on this site, but i still put time and effort into developing the games i run, and i still think they're good speedgames that should have equal standing to any other. it might not be as efficient as a team effort but i work on optimising those games, and i care about making my runs of them "good" (not that that's how a game with a small player-base should be judged). the number of people playing a game doesn't change its quality as a speedgame. again, i feel this disproportionately impacts indie games (which typically have smaller audiences, and in some cases have very little audience at all).

i drafted most of this a few hours ago so some discussion has gone on since i started writing it. i appreciate the clarifications that have been offered. that being said i still think what i have to say here is relevant. i always want to look out for indie games, since they're what got me speedrunning and what keep me speedrunning, and i want the site to be a home for any game that has a place as a speedgame, regardless of its other qualities. i recognise the right of the staff to curate the site how they want, but the rules to me seemed like they were an attempt to make the site seem "official" and/or "legitimate" in some capacity by having a chosen selection of games that are "up to standard." (this is also an observation that baldjared made.) i don't think that's necessary - if a game can be run and someone is, i feel like it can have a spot here, no matter how much of a "fad" it may be. it's ok to let people enjoy what they want to and then move on. not every game's gotta be a bustling hub of players forever. putting a little time into a smaller project can be fun, and there's nothing wrong with that in my view. i appreciate that more game submissions means more work for the site staff and pre-vetting them with rules would alleviate that, but in the interests of fairness for every speedgame i think each one should get a chance on its own "speedrunnability". i hope that makes sense.

thanks for reading and considering what i have to say. i appreciate that you're taking community feedback, and i appreciate what you all do for the site, its members, and the speedrunning community. i mean no personal judgement by what i'm saying. thanks again. :)

np! thanks a bunch ^^

The Analgesic Productions Discord server has a channel in it for speedrunning - at the moment the discussion is largely about Even the Ocean, but it's for all Analgesic games, so Anodyne would fit there, too! I added it to the leaderboard sidebar for Even the Ocean, and I think it would be great to add it here as well, if you wanted to. Here's an invite link: https://discord.gg/34KpJ9g

Thanks. :)