(Link to video)
  • Genre: Shooter
  • Fastest Completion
PICOHOT is a first person shooter game released for the PICO-8 in 2020. The game is an official demake of Superhot, developed by three members of its team. As such, it inherits the same base structure and mechanics of the original. The game is a first person shooter with an unique twist: the game will move as fast as the player does. Actions considerably slow down or stop altogether with no input. The game focuses on heavy action and as such has a limited color palette for clarity and readability.
This movie aims at beating each level of the game, all of them requiring us to defeat every enemy to proceed. This movie was produced using the official Linux build executable of the game, downloadable from its page on itch.io.

Game stuff

Being a PICO-8 game, we’re limited to the arrows keys and two buttons. One button can grab and throw objects (such as jars, flasks, bottles, and guns) while the other either uses the object or punches nearby enemies if we’re unarmed. Enemies die in 3 punches, and punching can be done every 4 frames. Despite this efficiency, it is usually not our preferred option to kill enemies. Shooting an enemy with a gun of any kind is usually much faster, with all of them requiring only one shot to die.
Interestingly, if an enemy currently holding a weapon is punched, they will drop the weapon they’re holding. As such, we can kill any armored enemy in just 4 frames by punching them, grabbing their dropped gun two frames after, and shooting it two frames after.
Guns usually go through some cooldown animation after they are shot. As such, it is usually faster to throw them after shooting them, especially if doing so would allow us to grab another one in less time. This is showcased in both the first and last level. Interestingly tho, the window to do so is extremely small, which I have yet to decide is intended or not.
Throwing objects at enemies damages them and stuns them just like punching them does. This grants us a safer way to approach enemies and also sets us up to steal their weapons.

feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Replacing with an improvement and accepting.

despoa: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14856
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7793: ikuyo's PICO8 PICOHOT in 00:46.45
Editor, Experienced player (608)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
What an incredible-looking demake, though much too short. You destroyed it with this TAS, well done!
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11264
Location: RU
RTA runs are missing the noise blocking your action in the last 2 levels. Is it related to running the game before? Link to video
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
ikuyo
She/Her
Judge, Active player (500)
Joined: 7/8/2021
Posts: 98
feos wrote:
RTA runs are missing the noise blocking your action in the last 2 levels. Is it related to running the game before? Link to video
Thank you for helping me look into this. Turns out our enemy foreground_sleep_ms is at it again! The official build for PICOHOT assumes the old value of 2 ms for foreground_sleep_ms in ~/.lexaloffle/pico-8/config.txt. By deleting the file and then creating it naturally (by running the game outside of libTAS) I was able to fix the issue. Naturally, however, this causes the movie to desync. I've uploaded a resynced movie, which is also a 91 frame improvement
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11264
Location: RU
Updated video Link to video
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14856
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4964] PICO8 PICOHOT by ikuyo in 00:46.45