(Link to video)

Levels at quarter speed

Game objectives

  • Completes puzzles
  • Presses a lot of buttons
  • Does not save a princess :(
  • Does collect flowers :)

Comments

Baba Is You is a puzzle game. Baba moves tiles around his world that define how the world works. The text "Baba Is You" means you are controlling Baba. If that becomes "Wall Is You", suddenly you are controlling all of the walls.
The optimization in this game comes from picking levels with the shortest number of inputs, as you only need to beat so many of them to clear each area.

Route

Only 4 areas need to be completed before accessing the final level: the Overworld, Lake, Island, and Ruins. Levels are chosen based on how few moves are necessary to complete it, along with the travel time to get there for some levels.

Gameplay

Movement Quirks

Baba Is You's input system is a little weird. Most games let you press a button, then to press it again you must release it (wait a frame) then press the button again. Keep this in mind.
There are two ways to move Baba: WASD and the arrow keys. The system of waiting a frame to release the key before pressing another one applies to each entire group of inputs. For example, if you press W, you can't press A next frame, but you can press the up arrow. You also can't press W and A on the same frame (both are ignored), but you can press W and Up on the same frame, which registers two up movements.
Most of the run was made by pressing two inputs on one frame, waiting for a frame, then repeating. This is used instead of alternating WASD/arrow keys to save a single frame on a variety of levels (from getting to the goal earlier). The exception is the end of the final level which requires you to be standing on the same tile as a flower at the end of a frame to pick up that flower, so each frame alternates between WASD and arrow keys.

Overworld Movement

After the completion of most levels, there is a mini cutscene displaying the next levels that were unlocked, which we would usually need to wait for to be able to access the next levels. However, we can hit R to reset the "level" instead, which skips the cutscene. The small time waiting for the fade out/in from resetting is much shorter than the cutscenes.
Some levels don't require resets though, such as if the level we want to go to next is already unlocked, in which case we instead manuever to the next level as fast as possible. The same movement system as listed above applies, though the final movement also includes a press of the spacebar in the same frame to start the level.
So why exactly did I pause the game and change an option after the zeroth level? I was turning on an option that bypasses the confirmation screen when resetting a "level", which takes ~20 frames but saves ~5 frames each reset (from laggy menuing to hit the "Yes" button), which is done 16 times throughout the run. So, it saves around a second overall.
At the end of each area (determined by how many levels have been beaten, see the counter in the top right between levels), I return to the map by heading back to the starting tile of the area. This is one of the differences between RTA, where runners use pause -> exit to map, as it's much more consistent but a few frames slower from menuing. (TAS does movements during the fade in animation, whereas runners don't have as much time, so they have very little leeway for getting there in time to save the couple frames)

Small Tidbits/Miscellaneous

You can't enter levels/pause the game if a fade in/out animation is playing. Also, if one of the Area Unlocked cutscenes is queued (ie if you just beat a level and it's sparkling), you must wait until the frame before its first frame of animation to make inputs.
The first few frames after you open a menu don't let you click on anything, which is why menuing is avoided as much as possible.
This game has lag frames that don't output any audio/video and drop inputs from the frame before. No idea why this happens, but it forces us to hold inputs for two frames sometimes. Just thought I should mention it.
EDIT: might be a quirk of libTAS instead, here's a quote from Kilaye:
About lag frames, I suspect it's because the time tracking uses an arbitrary value to trigger, that is too low for Baba
Game version is v277, which is the latest at the time of writing. The related steam manifest ID is 4833052568574903351. See Annotations for more information on getting the correct version. The TAS has also been confirmed to sync on the latest public beta of the game, v362.

Author's Comments

Thanks to Hempuli (game creator) for providing some insight on game quirks in his Discord server and appreciating the run :)
And massive thanks to the hard work of the Baba Is You RTA community who have done an amazing job on the routing for this game. Every time I thought I found a faster strat, I saw the community already had a faster (or identical) path discovered. Run wouldn't be as good without them.

Samsara: SAMSARA is JUDGE.
Samsara: INPUT is REPLACE. ANNOTATIONS is FIX. RUN is not CHANGE.
Samsara: TAS is SYNC. FSVGM777 is THANKS.
OPTIMIZATION is GOOD. LEVELS is FAST. SLOW VIDEO is not ENOUGH. COMPREHENSION is LOW. HUMAN is SUPER. SHORT LEVELS is OFFSCREEN and not FUN. LONG LEVELS is FUN. BUILDUP is NICE.
BRANCH is CONCERN. BABA is NEW. SPOILERS is AHEAD. YOU is WARNED.
BABA has END and END. THIS is ONE. TRUE is OTHER. TRUE has LEVELS and TIME. THIS has PRECEDENT. MARIO is not END. MARIO END is DEFEAT. THIS is END. CREDITS is PLAY. BABA is END. THIS END is not TRUE END. ROUTE is DIFFERENT. CATEGORY is ACCEPTABLE. COMPLETION is FASTEST.
SAMSARA has CONCERN. AUDIENCE has FEEDBACK. FEEDBACK is MIXED and POSITIVE. TIER on FENCE is CONFUSING. SAMSARA has IDEA. FEEDBACK is not TASVIDEOS. FEEDBACK is ALL. TWITTER is SOURCE. COMMENTS on ENCODE is SOURCE. FEEDBACK is POSITIVE. FEEDBACK not on TASVIDEOS is not COMMON. OPPORTUNITY is GOOD.
RUN is ACCEPT.
fsvgm777: FSVGM777 is PUBLISHER.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6860: lexikiq's Linux Baba Is You in 02:48.70
lexikiq
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Missed a step in the annotations (you need to use 720p to sync correctly), updated here
Invariel
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I appreciate what this run does, and I think it belongs on the site more than it doesn't, but I can't claim to have been overly entertained. The movement is solid, the puzzles appear to be solved as quickly as possible, but, to me, beyond pressing the buttons really quickly and using known fastest solutions, there's nothing else here (to me). I appreciate what is done here from a technical standpoint (including alternating WASD and UDLR controls to press buttons as quickly as the game will acknowledge them), but I can't really appreciate the gameplay beyond that due to the nature of the game. I have voted meh on entertainment, though I must admit that I appreciate that this submission exists.
I am still the wizard that did it. "On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata <scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is Samsara last edited by Invariel on 2015-07-26 02:08:14
nymx
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Invariel wrote:
I appreciate what this run does, and I think it belongs on the site more than it doesn't, but I can't claim to have been overly entertained. The movement is solid, the puzzles appear to be solved as quickly as possible, but, to me, beyond pressing the buttons really quickly and using known fastest solutions, there's nothing else here (to me). I appreciate what is done here from a technical standpoint (including alternating WASD and UDLR controls to press buttons as quickly as the game will acknowledge them), but I can't really appreciate the gameplay beyond that due to the nature of the game. I have voted meh on entertainment, though I must admit that I appreciate that this submission exists.
I second this. If you compare this to other puzzle games, where response time is necessary, it would make more entertainment. But in this game, you are not required to speed through in order to make the solve any better. Vault run, IMO. No vote.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Memory
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I actually voted yes because it was kinda funny just how fast you moved. Never played the game before.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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I loved it, it's funny how fast Baba can go. This game deserves a place here in the site, and in advance i nominate this for Speedy TAS of the year.
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Patashu
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Deliciously destroyed! Yes vote. I found it a much better watch if all the levels were 0.25x and all the between-level stuff was 1.0x, and I suspect that this might be a good choice for a secondary encode.
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Spikestuff
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I believe this was a year in development... well one of the categories. With the work done and how it's set and being a person who has played the game. This isn't as entertaining; a 25% speed encode will help it to process what goes down. This isn't as technical as a game when all solutions (and movement) are known. Shocking to some, but it isn't... It's like Boxxle, weird comparison I know. However. This is a well made TAS and it definitely deserves a True Ending and 100% to be considered as well. Spike is Meh. Congrats on creating the TAS lexikiq.
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fsvgm777
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For what it's worth, the TAS syncs in Kubuntu 18.04 (64-bit), with the settings provided in the annotations.
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lexikiq
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Thanks everyone :) and thanks fsvgm, I didn't readily have access to a supported distro and admittedly didn't want to spend the hour or so setting up libTAS and Baba on a LiveUSB, so I appreciate the verification :P
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VOTE is YES.
lexikiq
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Very late, but I did my best at making an alternative encode with levels at 0.25 speed. It's been edited into the submission notes :)
Patashu
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lexikiq wrote:
Very late, but I did my best at making an alternative encode with levels at 0.25 speed. It's been edited into the submission notes :)
Perfect!
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
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4281] Linux Baba Is You by lexikiq in 02:48.70
mintcheep
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punchy eat your heart out (yes vote!)
TAS interests: - SM64 (120* update, 70*ABC) Plans: 1. SB: Truth or Square (DS - Any%) 2. SB:ToS (Wii - Any%; No Level Skips; 100%) 3. Pillow Pets (DS)
keylie
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Not sure how to handle this, but I updated this movie (User movie #637787978063843404) to a newer version of the game that don't feature any lag frame anymore. Gameplay is unchanged. It saves ~ 10 seconds
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There's nothing to do here.
Wiki: MovieRules#UseTheCorrectVersionOfAGame wrote:
Only actual gameplay is considered to be an improvement. If your movie has 600 fewer frames solely due to version differences, your total improvement must be more than 600 frames.
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keylie
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I didn't consider submitting a new movie. I was thinking if it would be relevant to replace the published movie with this one, given that the published one has spurious lag frames that artificially increase the movie duration. Also, with the exact same game version the published movie was done on, all lag frames could be removed if the framerate is set to a slightly lower value (59.999 fps) to overcome the game bug that does not enforce correctly the intended framerate. All of this has low importance because the final product is not affected much by this. Having a clean movie is much convenient to work on improvements, that is why I wanted to post is somewhere.
Post subject: Improvements
lexikiq
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keylie wrote:
Not sure how to handle this, but I updated this movie (User movie #637787978063843404) to a newer version of the game that don't feature any lag frame anymore. Gameplay is unchanged. It saves ~ 10 seconds
Well this will be a handy base for some puzzle improvements found by Really_Tall an eternity ago... got busy with college and work so I haven't found the time to implement them