First off, love this game as a speedrun. Second - I think some very minor adjustments need to be made to the rules

I think start time should be EITHER new game or just starting from the "Intro" level. This is a game with a lot of long term progress / collectibles + only one possible save file, so it may discourage other runners to wipe all progress & need to unlock the end game stages again (which takes a longggg time)

Yeah I think that could be something to consider, only difference is at the end of Violet-3 on a new save file it asks about the Player Assist which takes about 4 seconds to go through (not that that's a huge difference). Other than that, I don't think anything else is affected.

When I was making the rules, I figured for validating purposes it'd be easier/quicker to confirm a run from a new save vs just starting from the intro level and having to check to make sure each level was played all the way through without skipping any (not that I think this board will blow up with submissions lol).

I was thinking that I could make up a Resource tutorial on how to copy your save file from file directory for people who don't want to lose their progress with collectibles but still want to run the game that way they could just paste their file back in the directory when they want to go back to the full completion stuff.

So possibly have the 2 options like you mentioned but with the new file, subtract out the 4 seconds for the Play Assist screen. Thoughts?

The guide is great! I think consistency across runs would be best, appreciate the helpful walkthrough

I've been running this game for a while but haven't really gotten around to submitting it until now.

Just for reference my runs skip the intro level and just start from Violet-1 on a completed file and beat all the levels up to Red-Void because honestly... I don't like the intro level. If you don't want to add it to the leaderboard because of that, then whatever, the run speaks for itself anyway.

From what I can tell the in game time in this game is pretty accurate and only runs while you have active control so it would probably be better to use that instead and it could easily be converted for people who start at a different time. Would just need to factor in for level restarts.

Cheers. This game is sweet.

Apologies for the delayed reply, busy month IRL lol.

Agreed the game is sweet and feels great!

In regard to the IGT, as far as I've looked there is not a final time summary in game to compare so it's simplest to use and capture the Real Time and verify runs with that.

I did get a chance to browse through your run and it's clear that you spent the time to learn the game really well and be consistent in your runs so nice work there. Was a treat to watch! As far as the decision to include the Intro Level, it's in the rules for a few reasons but here are the two main ones.

1. On a new save file, it cannot be skipped.

2. Even though the level is easy, it's still possible to die or 'make a mistake' and have to redo a screen.

So while it may not be your favorite level, it's still necessary to include it in a submission because it's part of the game and established in the posted rules. If we were going by levels we didn't like, as an extreme example, someone could stay they don't like Red 5-2 and just not include it in a run which I'm sure you can see how that'd be problematic. Not that I'm expecting the boards to blow up crazy with submissions but need to keep it fair and consistent with general speedrunning standards.

So yes definitely you have a WR worthy run on your hands but submissions need to include the Intro Level as the current rules imply.

As discussed earlier in this thread you have the 2 proposed options. If you are understandably concerned about losing all your progress, then instead of starting from New Game you can just start from the Level Select on the Intro Level and there'll be 4 seconds added to your final time. Or you can use the Guide on the community page to backup your save file so you don't lose all your progress and start from a new save file.

Always open to suggestions to improve the page and willing to make reasonable changes that can be agreed upon.

The reason I start from Violet-1 is more for convenience sake, yes I could backup my save but I just don't feel like doing it. The intro level is boring as sin also and removing it doesn't change the dynamic of the run and there's been plenty of instances of speedruns not strictly starting at New Game or even skipping the intro. Hell, the Mario Sunshine community made a hacked save file to skip the intro because everyone hated it so much. Saying people would skip a level in Red on this same logic is a bit disingenuous.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter to me what's decided here at the end of the day as I've done what I've set out to do with the game. I got a run I'm happy with and got the game into SGDQ.