You have great taste in games. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for some Oddworld content!

Name's Busker. I'm probably a little bit too old to be getting into this as a new hobby, but not old enough that I'm totally out-of-place.

Right now, I'm a single-game runner - namely, Out There Somewhere, which I recommend aggressively whenever I get the chance. I'm thinking of picking up Polarity soon, and seeing where that gets me. I take a pretty chill approach to speedrunning - I enjoy the process of improvement, problem-solving, and optimizing and focus on that much more than the product of a top-tier time.

I also like to stream casual play of off-the-beaten-path Steam games that I get on sale for the price of a gumball. Last but not least, I'm a musician, so I sometimes arrange video game music in classical instrumentations on-stream. Feel free to come say hi!

With apologies to Prettzl, I am going rogue and posting an open invitation for races THIS FRIDAY!

WHO: The OTS Community

WHAT: OTS Any% IGT Races

WHEN: 29 April 2016, @ 21:00 UTC

WHERE: SpeedRunsLive - join from either SRL chat or LiveSplit.

WHY: Because Grigori is still... OUT THERE SOMEWHERE!

HOW: If you haven't already, register on SpeedRunsLive IRC following their instructions: http://www.speedrunslive.com/faq/

Learn a few of the commands for how to join a race channel, enter the race, and ready up: http://www.speedrunslive.com/faq/commandlist/

Also, please RSVP to me, either in this thread, or on Twitch, Twitter, Skype, or Discord. If nobody can race, that's fine - I'll probably just stream then. :P

Does anybody know what is in the screen above Strange Formation? It seems that using this technique, if you get an optimal GBJ with your teleshot on the far left of the beam, you could climb out of the screen. My guess is that it is just a blank screen with invisible floor, meaning no time save, but now I have this dream where it would be possible to climb up into one of the later rooms.

Gotta promote my lone speedgame here: Out There Somewhere. The most-run category has plenty of times, but there are only six or seven active runners, and the other two categories are neglected.

Out There Somewhere is a 2D platformer with a teleport gun, leading to some creative movement technique. It is bookended by 2D shooting segments which, while simple, play fluidly. Platforming reigns supreme over combat, and several rooms demand creative use of the teleport gun. You will have to apply the principle of conservation of momentum and think about where you will be, rather than where you are, as shots land. It is a very short game - depending on your thoroughness and learning speed, a first play can range from 40-120 minutes - but it definitely earns the description "short but sweet."

There are three main categories, each interesting in their own right:

Any% IGT: the "flagship" category of Out There Somewhere, Any% IGT uses the in-game timer for accessibility rather than technical reasons. That said, the IGT restriction creates an implicit barrier that distinguishes Any% IGT meaningfully from Any% (see below). Any% IGT includes the full narrative scope of the game and has a simple, linear route, making it a good starting point (hence the leaderboard size). Taking advantage of the game's treatment of momentum, most rooms feature advanced strategies that gain a second or two at a time, giving Any% IGT a very rewarding learning curve.

Any%: the RTA ruleset opens up two timer-breaking techniques that skip a substantial portion of the midgame and endgame. By carefully avoiding checkpoints, you can collect the Gauss Gun and savewarp to the opening screen. There, it was discovered that the smoke graphics on your spaceship eventually overflow. No new smoke is rendered, the framerate slows, and the game can no longer load screens. You can then climb the ledge off-screen and trigger the final boss. Unfortunately, the Smoke Overflow Glitch takes nearly three minutes of idling to activate, and so this category, while fascinating, is rarely played.

Collectibles%: this RTA category is not named 100% because the game tracks the number of unique screens visited, and Collectibles% does not require traveling to every screen. However, it requires collecting every item as well as visiting an NPC to exchange some of these items for an upgrade to your spaceship. The WR in this category was set just before the discovery of a major out-of-bounds skip, so it is currently the least-optimized. It is also the category with the most route subjectivity, and where tactics are just as important as fluid platforming. I would love to see more people run Collectibles%!

I realize that I can hardly complain at the size of the Any% IGT leaderboard, but I do still hope that more people give this great game a try! Make sure to run the Steam version, which is usually on sale and bundled with Polarity, Camera Obscura, and BEEP.

Sorry for the double post! I am bumping this thread to announce a race tomorrow (or, for the European runners, later today)!

WHO: All of you, hopefully!

WHAT: Out There Somewhere Any% IGT Races (Well, that's the category - technically the races are RTA, but if anybody PBs based on IGT, it counts!)

WHEN: 7 April 2016, UTC 21:00

WHERE: SpeedRunsLive - Prettzl or I will create the races, and you can join from SRL chat or from LiveSplit.

WHY: To encourage community interaction, and to keep the new runners running!

HOW: If you haven't already, register on SpeedRunsLive IRC following their instructions: http://www.speedrunslive.com/faq/

Learn a few of the commands for how to join a race channel, enter the race, and ready up: http://www.speedrunslive.com/faq/commandlist/

Simple as that! Hope somebody joins in. :D

Busker

Good day, community,

I am thinking about getting into speedrunning Polarity, and I am amazed by the top runs I have watched! I definitely need to get much better at the basic gameplay before I worry about shaving seconds and putting together runs, but I was wondering if anybody had any recommendations for planning my learning.

I was thinking of starting with ILs, for the obvious reason that this helps me focus on small sections at one time, and also allows me to spot "problem" areas for runs. Beyond this, are there certain levels that would be better to start with? I could see where some of the middle levels would be harder than the later ones, or where certain levels are better for learning certain tricks.

The category that catches my eye to learn is Story 100%, but if you guys recommend starting with a different category, please let me know! Thank you for your time.

I can't see the YouTube vid because it's marked private, but that's really interesting! I am wondering if it could have a use in the room after the GIF, with very creative positioning and a little good luck/manipulation from the ghost movement?

If I'm not mistaken, wasn't there a glitch with the Sector Gates that allowed clipping out of bounds, removing the need to talk to a the first two Guard Aliens? (Sorry, I can't actually watch the video you shared right now.)

Congratulations! It is inspiring to see your early-game runs. I have been working on the Jumping Over strat, but I am still having trouble jumping late enough to make the shot in Junkyard Exit. It will be a long time before I attempt to copy you on this, but this was an amazing find! :)

I like a lot of these, Prettz! Not to be argumentative, but with your suggestions for seamless running, would that mean that our default category in OTS 2 would be NG+? For me, personally, part of the allure of speedruns is the sense that a game can be taken out-of-the-box, then utterly dismantled, by anybody. Obviously I see why an OTS run without any stoppages would feel much more natural, but I would almost miss the "true Any%" nature of a run where all play-throughs are created equal.

Multi-directional shooting is such an incredible idea - but can you imagine how massive and/or difficult rooms would have to be to prevent us runners from lining up a single pixel-perfect shot to just clear the place? ;)

I agree SO SO SO much with the last point. In fact, what if not everything that harmed you was a "bad guy," and there was some reward system for keeping local fauna alive?

I actually thought of a suggestion this morning. I like the 2D shooting segment of OTS, but I wish that it was more integrated into the game than just as "bookends." I don't know how much time/budget the project has, or how small you were hoping to keep the file-size, but what if the game consisted of multiple planets each roughly the size of the first OTS? Like, you would get to the end of one planet, fight Grigori in one form, but he'd make it to a getaway ship. (Sorry, Yuri, our princess is in another castle.) Then, you'd hop in your ship, and actually have to survive the 2D shooter segments to get from planet to planet? The ship upgrades would be more meaningful that way, and then we wouldn't just be having a contest of "who can die the fastest."

This is fantastic news - thank you for posting here!

I have tried to talk this game up to at least fifteen or twenty people by now. I bought it on a huge sale this summer, as part of the bundle with Polarity and Camera Obscura. I felt guilty when I saw how professional and polished all three were, so I have tried to get other people to try the games.

I think, for me, there are three primary things that made me become addicted to Out There Somewhere:

1. It understands the difference between "complex" and "difficult." There is a time and place for both in game design. The game ramps up and integrates new mechanics at a very sensible pace, so that the challenge comes from core gaming skills, rather than remembering how to work your keyboard. In rooms that are complex, it gives you time to assess the problem so that, even if you can't figure it out, you aren't dying left and right just trying to get a moment to think.

2. It handles very nicely. You guys nailed it when it comes to Yuri's pace of movement, jumping, etc.

3. Its sense of style is very tasteful. There are a few NPCs that break the fourth wall and make meta-jokes - but they're out of the way, and don't totally shred the atmosphere. Everything is bound together with a sense of mystery, a little bit of quirkiness, and just a touch of that sense of isolation that made Metroid so great.

Honestly, if the sequel didn't add a single new gameplay element, and OTS 2 was just the same stuff, bigger, I'd be happy as a clam. I cannot wait to pay full price for this one. :D

I am VERY interested! :)

I am across an ocean from most of the runners, so I may not be able to join very many because of the time difference, but I will check from time to time to see if there is one that I can do. Thank you for making the thread!

I'm still new, so I'm basically commenting as an outsider/spectator. But I think it's worth it to think about the debate as a pragmatic one, rather than one on hard principle. The "no 3rd party software" rule is explicit, but I think the basis for those rules is always accessibility - not every person who plays a game can be reasonably expected to make physical modifications or acquire specific 3rd party controllers for a decisive advantage, for example.

This sounds like a program that isn't actually directly altering OTS, and it sounds like it would be safely available to any PC user. While purists can debate what preserves the integrity of a speedrun, if the majority of us would be willing to download and use the program ourselves, then it only makes sense that in our game, and our category, it would be allowed.

That being said, scrolling instead of mashing fundamentally changes the task performed, which is a substantial strike against it. If, for example, the remap was to left mouse, that would arguably be similar enough to mashing. If, though, we were talking not about a scroll wheel (fairly common) but a synthesizer pitch wheel to accomplish the same, which answer would you be leaning toward?

Thinking pragmatically, though, the difficulty enforcing this could stifle the enjoyment and growth of the community - for basically a finite time save. To me, that is an implicit argument in favor of allowing it. Any% IGT is such a fun category, and so representative of the game, that I would hate to see it become unmanageable. I started with Any% IGT because it was the most fun and accessible, not because it was first on the speedrun.com page.

If scroll wheel binding is banned, I personally would not want to see a hand-cam requirement, but any other solution I can think of would be arbitrary. Would it be possible to implement something similar to SRL proofcalling, where proof of setup could be requested at mods' discretion? It would perhaps be biased against skilled mashers, but it seems like a 5-second boss fight is strikingly distinct from even a 7-second one visually. I just hope that runners wouldn't sabotage their boss fights by a couple seconds to avoid the hassle of a proofcall.

I was 100% in favor when I watched ghuia get (pending) WR with it, but even as I finish this post, I see why this is such a dilemma. Perhaps it could come down to a simple community poll that asks the question:

"Would you be willing to download and use 3rd-party software concurrently with the game?"

Thank you so much! I have very little coding experience (from a long time ago) and so I wouldn't have known what to do with that information even if I had found it myself.

Hi, OTS community!

From the looks of it, you guys all got done shredding this game a while ago, and I'm very late to the party, but I just wanted to say I've had a blast watching many of your runs and trying a few myself. I'm learning... slowly... and I had one curiosity, just in case it can be helpful to a run somewhere.

What determines the movement of Chompers? The first several times, I assumed they just moved on a fixed path, and that the cycle started when the room loaded. But I've noticed in Null Field, that little guy doesn't always behave predictably. Sometimes he does his thing, but sometimes he gets squashed. If I die just past the checkpoint, a lot of times he gets bopped when the room reloads. Then, sometimes if I feel punchy and spam teleport shots, the same thing happens. Is it that the game just tells it to turn around at set intervals, and reloading the room/mashing commands de-syncs those intervals?

I can only think of two or three rooms that even involve close calls with Chompers, and so I don't know if this is worth exploring if not known. I'm just really curious if anyone happens to know!