Clockwork Cat is a classic flash game made for Ludum Dare 27, with the theme "10 seconds". You only have a limited amount of time to complete each section of the level before you run out of time.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: libTAS 1.4.4 + Ruffle Nightly 2023-08-28
  • Beat the game as fast as possible

Comments

Clockwork Cat has very simple platforming which doesn't require much explanation. I spend as little time as possible winding up the clock, and do a small glitch on each of the cranks to save time. When you reach a crank, you can teleport to the opposite side of it by quickly facing the other direction. This tech is used in RTA runs, but I do a slightly faster version of it with the inputs right+x, right, left, right+x, which causes the clock to wind up slightly more than if you do the trick normally.

Other comments

I'm not sure what framerate the game runs at. The highest framerate I can put without ruffle freezing is 59fps, and I don't think the game runs at 60fps because RTA runs sometimes get milliseconds that aren't possible at that framerate. There isn't a video of this TAS because I can't get it to encode properly.
I found a new strategy shortly after submitting this TAS that ended up being around .1 seconds slower. When you die, the clock automatically gets fully winded up when you respawn, and since you don't actually need a full 10 seconds to do any of the sections in the game, I was able to run all the way to the end from the spot I died without stopping. Unfortunately, dying due to running out of time plays a long cutscene before you respawn, so the only way to do this strat fast is to fall into the death plane, which is so far down I had to stop and wind the clock just so that I could reach it. This strategy has potential in other places, and it might be what is needed to go down to sub 1 minute.

InfoTeddy: Claiming for judging.
InfoTeddy: Replaced movie file with file with corrected platform annotation.
InfoTeddy: Nice gameplay. Accepting to Standard.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8682: Merl_'s Flash Clockwork Cat in 01:04.95
Merl_
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I could have sworn I put "Platform: Flash" in the annotations this time.
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Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Normally an editor or staff could change it to Flash on the site's end. But there isn't an entry in the Flash dropdown for 59 FPS, and I'm unable to add one. I think the easiest fix is to add Platform: Flash to annotations.txt like you meant to, save and upload the new .ltm, and ask a judge here to replace the submitted file with the new one. That should add 59 FPS as an option for Flash and keep the calculated time (1:04.95) correct.
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. ---- [5649] Flash Clockwork Cat by Merl_ in 01:04.95