(Link to video)
Headphone warning, the audio for this TAS got corrupted. Sorry about that, I don't know how to fix it.
Unlock Everything is a game where you play as a robot who has lost almost all functionality, and you must regain your ability to see, move, jump, and more throughout the game. This TAS aims to complete all three stages, beat the boss, and unlock the ending in as little time as possible. This TAS also completes the game starting from a new file, as opposed to beating the game in "time trial mode" which is how the RTA runners play the game.

Prologue

Before we can start the game, we have to go to the options section of the menu and unlock the "start game" button. I press the s and down arrow keys on alternating frames in order to navigate through the menu quicker. After selecting start game, there's a long cutscene I can't do much to speed up.

Stage 1

This level is very slow paced compared to the later levels. There isn't anything super interesting I do to save time here. At the end of the stage, there is an unlock that increases your max health from 2 to 20. As you'll see later in the TAS, it is possible to skip some unlocks, but this one is too important to skip. Damage boosting in stages 2 and 3 saves more time than it would save to bypass this unlock.

Stage 2

The beginning of the stage has lots of cannons which are tricky to avoid hitting. Cannons can point in three different directions, and they will always try to point towards Libra. I time my jumps precisely to manipulate the cannons into missing me. After skipping the background images unlock, I do a damage boost to avoid waiting for the enemies to move out of the way. Enemies knock you back in the opposite direction you're facing, so I turn around the frame before I get hit to get knocked in the direction I want to go. I then pick up the buster cannon and buster ammo unlocks. In order to clear this section without slowing down, I have to carefully time my jumps and buster shots to be able to barely kill both cannons on the last possible frame before getting hit. After that there's a vertical section. It doesn't really matter how fast we do the first half of this section since there's a cannonball that we have to wait for it to move out of the way. Cannons aren't able to shoot downwards, so as long as Libra is below the cannon it will always shoot straight forwards, so there's no way to manipulate the cannons. After getting the key, I unlock the door and progress to stage 3.

Stage 3

Most of the platforming in this level takes place on conveyor belts. Doing each section optimally is usually pretty simple, I just walk on the right-moving conveyors and jump on the left-moving ones. The section with the crushers was tricky to do optimally though, and there are some counter-intuitive tricks used to save time here. I do two damage boosts to get through this section, and the rest of the level is simple up to the bossfight. I jump over the health refill unlock, which isn't required since I don't take any damage in the bossfight. The boss himself is also easy to optimize. He has a lot of invincibility frames after getting hit, so instead of constantly shooting the boss I just shoot him on the first frame he's vulnerable again. Sometimes the boss jumps into the air, and when that happens I shoot at the peak of my jump to hit him as soon as he's in range of my attacks.

Possible Improvements

It might be possible to go a frame or two faster in stage 3, but I don't think any major improvements are possible. Maybe there could be a route improvement where you skip the buster ammo and use extra damage boosts to get past the cannons in stage 2? That's the only way I could see any meaningful time being saved.

ikuyo: Claiming for judging.
ikuyo: You Unlocked Delay! waiting on the author to provide an updated movie that finishes the game properly.
ikuyo: You Unlocked Judgement! Thanks for providing a file that gets to the credits.
This was a lovely game and a lovely TAS! While the game's straightforward nature makes it a bit limited for TASing, execution clearly makes it superhuman.
You Unlocked Accepted to Standard!
Note to publishers: Due to an issue between old releases of Godot and libTAS, audio encoding for the game is heavily distorted. I've updated the movie's annotations with instructions on how to patch the game executable to address the issue. It should cause no sync changes.

despoa: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8632: Merl_'s Linux Unlock Everything in 05:38.02
Patashu
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Short and sweet!
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
ikuyo
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Hi Merl_, I got a question: which version of the game are you using? And what drove this decision? Visiting the game's itch.io page, it appears the only officially available version of the game at this moment is v2.02, but the patch notes suggests other versions exist. I bring this up because according to the patch notes for v2.01, there is a glitch that allows you to skip the Level 1 intro cutscene in v2.00, which would save time. Our rules state that game and version choice are up to the authors provided there is good reasoning behind the choice. So, as long as you can tell me which version you used and why, I think we should be good in terms of judgement. Nice run btw, the game is pretty cute and I enjoyed the musical cues :P
Merl_
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I did specifically choose version 2.02 because of the decreased enemy health, which allows level 2 to be beaten without slowing down for enemies whatsoever. There is a limit on falling velocity in the later versions, but that doesn't make much of a difference. Since 2.02 is the most polished version (and the only available version), I went with that one. As for the level 1 cutscene skips, I just did not notice that in the changelog. Oops. I re-joined the speedrun discord for the game to try and look into that glitch and I can't find a single mention of the glitch anywhere in the server. I read through the itch.io comments and managed to find a short conversation about it, and apparently the cause of the bug might have been the game booting into time trial mode by mistake. This TAS is meant to be a TAS of normal mode and not time trial mode, so I don't think that the glitch would be useful. If that isn't a good enough reason, I'd appreciate it if you could just change the branch to "glitchless" so I don't have to ask the developer for an older build of the game and redo the TAS.
ikuyo
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Nah, this is perfectly fine reasoning! Thank you for the update.
Merl_
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Thanks, I'm glad I don't have to redo anything. Also I agree, the music in this game is very good. It's a shame the audio got corrupted in the video I uploaded.
ikuyo
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Actually, could you provide a file that does the epilogue stuff as well? Since the game doesn't have a credits sequence (outside of the one in the menu), we deem the endpoint of the run to be the return to the Main Menu, which this movie does not get to. Don't worry, this won't be accounted in terms of optimization as it is mostly non-gameplay.
Merl_
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Am I allowed to disagree with what you deem to be the endpoint? I think unlocking the ending is pretty clearly the end of the game. There isn't any gameplay after that either. It seems pointless to go back and skip through the cutscene
Spikestuff
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How's about extended input instead? It's is a good addition for a publication and that way it can be presented with a neater bow, but with the original time of 4:52.92. An example of this would be [4724] Linux Six Cats Under by Spikestuff in 00:41.83. The Publisher used the extended input so the camera doesn't go all the way left, and remains at the door but retains its time of 41.83. It would be listed as an "Additional Downloads" but it won't be the feature of the final time, instead it would be the original input's time.
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+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Merl_
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That's fine with me
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Merl_ wrote:
Am I allowed to disagree with what you deem to be the endpoint? I think unlocking the ending is pretty clearly the end of the game. There isn't any gameplay after that either. It seems pointless to go back and skip through the cutscene
Here's how we resolve it in our movie rules:
Movie Rules wrote:
The movie must be complete Your submission must play the game from the beginning, and must finish the game, or reach the most suitable endpoint the game allows. [...] Examples of suitable endpoints are:
  • A definitive ending, such as a credits sequence.
See how the game itself responds to your further actions: These messages tell you that you've actually played the game "til the end" and "finished" it. Showing them subjectively feels appropriate for a game titled Unlock Everything. While the credits don't automatically start, I think a perfect way to end the movie in a climactic (and definitive) way is to manually launch them at the end. If showing the ending dialogs is valuable as opposed to skipping them, we can have an alternate movie for encoding that doesn't skip anything but slowly goes through those dialogs.
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.
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On Discord, Merl_ wrote:
feos wrote:
These messages tell you that you've actually played the game "til the end" and "finished" it. Showing them subjectively feels appropriate for a game titled Unlock Everything.
There are tons of instances where I skip unlocks to save time. This doesn't make sense to me.
You don't skip unlocking those 2 messages though.
Merl_ wrote:
Also I would consider the jukebox and time trial mode to be post game "content"
The modes themselves are, but the messages are part of the ending sequence.
Merl_ wrote:
feos wrote:
If showing the ending dialogs is valuable as opposed to skipping them, we can have an alternate movie for encoding that doesn't skip anything but slowly goes through those dialogs.
I'm not sure what you mean by valuable?
Worth having in the encode without skipping them ASAP.
Merl_ wrote:
By an "alternate movie for encoding", are you talking about the extended input thing spikestuff suggested?
Yes.
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.
Merl_
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I want to finish a couple wips before I go back and "finish" this tas. You can set the submission to delayed if you want
Merl_
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Here's the extended input. I get through the ending cutscene and open the credits. https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638411215631184250
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. ---- [5804] Linux Unlock Everything by Merl_ in 05:38.02