I've been thinking quite a while what else we could do with this game while we wait for its sequel (if it even comes out. No status update for 4 years or so).

I saw Galactic Star doing all 3 categories in one go, which is quite the fun idea. Is there any other ideas for what we could do? I feel the main category, Magic Rod, has already been pushed as far as we possibly can at the moment, being only able to gain a WR by a couple frames (or maybe up to 4 seconds or so with perfect execution. Though I dont expect that happening anytime soon...) is limiting the game a lot. Really any category would work. We had one way way long ago, "All Checkpoints", though thats really no need to do as you visit all but one anyway (not grabbing them all, however). Post your ideas below!

I also feel like putting this here, as I dont think a different forum post is really necessary, but if we could find any way to skip, say Sword, and save a lot of time, or some other time save in any category, that would be amazing. We've had the same route more or less for 2 years now, any possibilities of a new, faster route?

I don't think there is any way to skip the sword for the simple fact of our limited health, damage boost doesn't last long enough and also the cellings in the rooms for blue key are too low to be able to say spin jump on the spiny in the room however if there was a way to get past the first couple of spiny then it might be possible

In the case of new categories we are limited by the content in the game not being a lot. Now as you said this could have been different if the sequel or even deluxe versions came out but those haven't been updated in years and likely won't be. Although I'm sure someone could try reaching out if possible

Hey guys, dev here. Apologies that you've hit something of a brick wall. When I saw the game was being speedrun, I had a feeling this would probably happen before long. Game was made in a week, heheh.

Ancient Keys DX is still seeing active development, but most of the public updates have been on my Twitter and Discord servers. I'm pretty bad about keeping all sources up to date, I apologize. That said, I feel pretty confident that DX will give you a lot more to chew on when it's eventually released!

Super Ancient Keys is currently on hold, however. I don't know what the ultimate fate of the game will be, but it's not cancelled just yet. I will need to start thinking about my indie projects one of these days, though.

Anyway, thank you for your enthusiasm for the game! Really ups the motivation.

After a long time of thought, and a lot of boredom, I will be adding three more categories, these are mostly just for fun, but also to have more to do while waiting for Ancient Keys DX (Super excited!)

All three categories will be counted as Misc Categories, and will therefore not be counted as any main ones.

Added Categories: All Checkpoints | Ends once you have used the last checkpoint (You do not need to beat the game.) Genocide | Kill every enemy one time. You need to beat the game. Flawless | No Damage, Intended Key Order (Red > Green > Blue), All Checkpoints and Genocide. You need to beat the game. Basically as close to 100% as a game like this could get :P

I will not be adding doing all categories in one run, as the new Flawless is basically the same but harder, however submitting "all categories" runs in any given category will give you that time for said category, as Galactic_Star has done.

Hope these new idea's will be fun, Flawless will definitely be a hard challenge, No Damage is already quite difficult.