Posted: 7/9/2021 11:47 PM
Post subject: Iconoclasts
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ikuyo
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Judge, Experienced player (506)
Joined: 7/8/2021
Posts: 101
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Link to video Iconoclasts is a Metroidvania-styled indie game released in 2018, available for PC, PS Vita, PS4 and Switch. The game is known for being the passion project of a single developer for almost a decade, its gorgeous animation and some surprisingly heavy themes. It also has a native Linux port and plays nice with libTAS 1.4+! As of this writing, I'm already working on a No Airswim TAS. I explicitly chose No Airswim because I want the first TAS of the game to convey as much of the game as possible while also making it accessible to me as this is essentially my first major TAS project ever.
Posted: 7/10/2021 12:31 AM
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Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
Awesome to hear this game plays nice with libTAS - good luck!
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Posted: 7/10/2021 7:16 AM
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Radiant
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
That's amazing to see. I remember keeping track of this game for years until it finally got released, and was highly impressed by the end product! I would love to see a run of this, keep it up!
Indie game developer
Posted: 7/11/2021 12:07 AM
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ikuyo
She/Her
Judge, Experienced player (506)
Joined: 7/8/2021
Posts: 101
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Since it never hurts, here's some documentation about speedrunning/TAS techniques for the game <h2>General movement mechanics</h3> Robin has a max running speed of 470 units per frame, assuming no modifications (this will come up later). She takes 6 frames to reach max speed from idle when on ground, and 7 when in midair. As such, accelerating from ground is best for speed. Robin's running speed is preserved when transitioning from air to ground or visa versa assuming no horizontal collision, and the cap is enforced in both ground and midair so we can reach max speed in any of them. <h2>Boosts</h3> The way Iconoclasts enforces movement speed caps only applies when Robin has less than her max allowed speed and is accelerating. This means that if Robin somehow were to obtain speeds greater than her max movement speed, the cap would not be enforced. There are two known ways to preserve speed and exploit this: <h3>Slopeboosts</h3> Robin can perform an stomp by pressing jump+down while in midair. After some frames of animation, she will plummet to the ground. This can be used to destroy blocks and kill enemies. When Robin lands from an stomp, she performs an animation and then proceeds to return to idle. If Robin lands in an steep slope (usually steeper than 45°), she will instead start sliding down the slope. We can then press jump to cancel out of the slide and keep the slope speed into our regullar running/jumping speed. Pressing jump for just one frame causes us to cancel into run, while holding the button cancels into jump. This gives us 700 speed and it's the best way of obtaining long term speed. <h3>Gunboosts</h3> Releasing a charge shot from Robin's gun gives her recoil in the opposite direction of 600. By inputting opposite direction when releasing the shot, we can preserve this speed boost and carry it with us in any horizontal direction as long as we don't turn or stop. However, it's worth noticing that guns have a cooldown after releasing a charged shot during which no shots can be fired or charged at all, so we have to manage the gun resource carefully for boosts. Additionally, we can use the gun boost to boost up (for an extra midair jump) or down (for a fast fall). While this method is more versatile than slopeboosting (since it requires no slopes and we have our gun available at almost all times), we need to be mindful to use it when we do not need our gun otherwise. <h3>F*** up shots</h3> For gunboosts, the game determines the direction the shot is released at using the direction Robin's facing and if any up/down input is being held. If those are being held, they take priority over the facing direction. However, the game only determines the direction for recoil the frame the shoot button is released. This means that with a frame perfect input, we can basically redirect our gunboost independently from the direction we shoot at. RTA runs use this trick once, but a TAS setting can abuse it in many more places. <h2>Kill Jumps</h2> Killing an enemy induces 4 frames of lag. We can release and press jump during those frames to obtain a midair jump, which acts consistently with regular grounded jumps. The run abuses this to quickly ascend vertical sections or reach points without having to climb ledges.
Posted: 7/24/2021 10:32 PM
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ikuyo
She/Her
Judge, Experienced player (506)
Joined: 7/8/2021
Posts: 101
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Link to video Just a little section i'm particularly proud of.
Posted: 7/25/2021 4:24 AM
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Atma
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
Looking good. I felt this game would make for a nice TAS when libtas came out originally, but at the time I was unable to actually get it to accept input for whatever reason. Regardless, keep it up.
Posted: 8/13/2021 6:26 AM
Post subject: Any% TAS by Serena
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ikuyo
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Judge, Experienced player (506)
Joined: 7/8/2021
Posts: 101
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BTW, Serena made an any% TAS as I was wrapping up the No Airswim one: Link to video