This TAS clears all 23 levels from the game Momentous: Monumentum in like two and a half minutes. I personally recommend watching the encode on half speed if you want to see what's actually happening.
Objectives:
- Complete all levels in the game in record time
- Runs in libTAS v1.4.7 on Linux Mint 22.2 / Ubuntu Noble 24.04
Game Information
Momentous: Monumentum is a 2D indie platformer game where the player must guide Biip through several different levels. The catch is that there is no horizontal velocity cap, and Biip can bounce off of walls, making for a game that is both frustrating and pretty fun. The game can be purchased here.
When a level is cleared within a certain time, the player is rewarded a medal for that level. From slowest to fastest, the medals are bronze, silver, gold, and dev. The dev medal is rewarded when the player clears the level faster or tied to what the developer's personal best is. From what I can tell, the dev times are optimized really well. Especially if my TAS can only do so much as tie three of them. These dev times are the only reference I had during the making of the TAS.
The different types of levels in the game are as follows:
- Horizontal levels scroll horizontally; this is where the "no horizontal speed cap" feature shines the most.
- Vertical levels scroll veritcally, usually making you climb upward
- Cart levels put Biip in a minecart that constantly accelerate to the right
- Two levels in the game are only a single screen
TAS information
The TAS uses inhuman precision to execute many skips throughout the run and remain in control under high velocity. Biip's speed has to be carefully manipulated in order to dodge spikes or to maneuver through the level geometry without bouncing off of a wall in the wrong direction. Since the game calculates horizontal movement first and then vertical movement, I can seemingly phase through upper corners, and also seemingly hit a wall when it looks like there are none in the way.
Since Biip's jump height is proportional to their velocity, the vertical levels will typically be spent bouncing back and forth to build up speed. Likewise, sometimes I will slow down so that I can land faster for another jump.
Some levels require a certain amount of medals to unlock. Since the TAS gets all dev medals, this isn't a problem.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the individual levels other than that I try to go as fast as possible and only slow down when necessary.
| Level | TAS time | Dev time | Improvement over dev time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brick Valley | 1.967 | 2.033 | 0.066 |
| Cloudy Heights | 3.283 | 5.767 | 2.484 |
| Booster Raceway | 2.417 | 3.583 | 1.166 |
| Spike Town | 4.033 | 6.450 | 2.417 |
| Needle Zone | 3.533 | 6.850 | 3.317 |
| Cart Hop | 6.200 | 7.600 | 1.400 |
| Jelly Climb | 3.517 | 9.450 | 5.933 |
| Springy Sands | 3.483 | 4.983 | 1.500 |
| Speedy Dunes | 3.650 | 6.550 | 2.900 |
| Frozen Oasis | 3.583 | 5.267 | 1.684 |
| Popsicle Peak | 4.983 | 10.333 | 5.350 |
| Rolling Ride | 9.067 | 11.267 | 2.200 |
| The Box | 1.317 | 1.317 | 0.000 (tie) |
| Speedjump Ascension | 2.817 | 9.100 | 6.283 |
| Frosted Plateau | 5.950 | 10.400 | 4.450 |
| Highspeed Hijinks | 7.233 | 12.433 | 5.200 |
| Mortar Valley | 6.850 | 16.100 | 9.250 |
| Propulsion Pilot | 11.817 | 17.350 | 5.533 |
| Bounce Cave | 4.000 | 4.717 | 0.717 |
| Frigid Rise | 5.083 | 8.883 | 3.800 |
| Elastic Chasm | 2.583 | 2.583 | 0.000 (tie) |
| Finale | 7.400 | 26.850 | 19.450 |
| One Last Jump | 0.750 | 0.750 | 0.000 (tie) |
Where it can be improved
I'm confident the vertical levels can be optimized better. Those took the most thinking and i'm not confident that they're all optimal. I also once encountered a wall jump glitch when I hit a wall too fast, but I couldn't re-create it where i would've needed it. I'm certain that would save time too.
ikuyo: Claiming for judging.
ikuyo: Replaced with updated file from the author.
Well, this was a frustrating little gem of a game! The tricky momentum management really elevates this one. I tried my hand at optimizing some levels and quickly discovered how evne small changes cascade into major movement differences. Given this, I think the current work is good enough for acceptance, but please someone give it a second look. I'd love to see this game pushed even further!
Thank you a lot, and accepting to Standard.
fsvgm777: Processing.