Rktcr is "tool-assisted speed run: the game"

ixchow

Edit history:

ixchow: 2013-09-15 10:30:47 pm

ixchow: 2013-09-15 10:30:32 pm

2013-09-13 09:52:43 pm

Hi all. Just wanted to shamelessly plug my labor-of-love game Rktcr (for Linux [64-bit], OS X [10.7+], and Windows [Vista+]).

It's a tough as nails physics/momentum side-view platformer wherein time moves only when you want it to. Rktcr has exceedingly deep control mechanics, but if you have the sort of persistent mind that's willing to invest time in playing near-perfectly... well, once things start to click for you, it'll feel really good.

Trailer:

"Learn to play" video series:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzceGO2K6_NT2wrsbR-RS9HJcjbIhgEF_

Keys (on humble store; provides direct download + desura):
(All Keys have been claimed!)

If these keys run out, well, there's always the demo... or, y'know, you could actually buy the game. I mean, it's only the thing I've been pouring love and work into full time over the last year (and in almost all of my free time for two years before that). It's one person's entirely skewed, twisted, perfected view of the world. That's gotta be worth five bucks, right?

Useful controls:

CTRL-c will copy the current path to the clipboard as text. CTRL-v will paste a path (replacing the current one). This allows both collaboration (paste paths back and forth in, say, a forum) and frame-perfect editing (change the numbers in a text editor, paste it back in to see how it works, repeat).

F8 will play back your current path at 1x speed, though CTRL and SHIFT will moderate it. Good for, say, recording youtube videos.

Anyway, apologies for disrupting your orderly forum time. But play my game, darn it! (Oh, and if you solve any of the impossible challenge levels let me know Smiley

)

Thread title:

Hi all. Just wanted to shamelessly plug my labor-of-love game [url=http://tchow.com/games/rktcr/]Rktcr[/url] (for Linux [64-bit], OS X [10.7+], and Windows [Vista+]).

It's a tough as nails physics/momentum side-view platformer wherein [b]time moves only when you want it to[/b]. Rktcr has exceedingly deep control mechanics, but if you have the sort of persistent mind that's willing to invest time in playing near-perfectly... well, once things start to click for you, it'll feel really good.

Trailer:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDzLySkmPtw[/url]

"Learn to play" video series:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzceGO2K6_NT2wrsbR-RS9HJcjbIhgEF_[/url]

Keys (on humble store; provides direct download + desura):
(All Keys have been claimed!)

If these keys run out, well, there's always [url=http://tchow.com/games/rktcr/#demo]the demo[/url]... or, y'know, you could [url=http://tchow.com/games/rktcr/#buy]actually buy[/url] the game. I mean, it's only the thing I've been pouring love and work into full time over the last year (and in almost all of my free time for two years before that). It's one person's entirely skewed, twisted, perfected view of the world. That's gotta be worth [url=http://tchow.com/games/rktcr/#buy]five bucks[/url], right?

Useful controls:
[spoiler]
[b]CTRL-c[/b] will copy the current path to the clipboard as text. [b]CTRL-v[/b] will paste a path (replacing the current one). This allows both collaboration (paste paths back and forth in, say, a forum) and frame-perfect editing (change the numbers in a text editor, paste it back in to see how it works, repeat).

[b]F8[/b] will play back your current path at 1x speed, though [b]CTRL[/b] and [b]SHIFT[/b] will moderate it. Good for, say, recording youtube videos.
[/spoiler]
Anyway, apologies for disrupting your orderly forum time. But play my game, darn it! (Oh, and if you solve any of the impossible challenge levels let me know :) )

Dangoo87

2013-09-14 01:32:40 am

Looks like a fun puzzle game, definitely going to try the demo and who knows i might buy it. i don't think the tutorials are entirely necessary though. sometimes the fun of a game is to work it out yourself

LLCoolDave

Edit history:

LLCoolDave: 2013-09-14 06:10:37 am

2013-09-14 05:57:45 am

This game is quite interesting, to say the least. I really enjoy the fact that it is, at best, barely controlable going at real time and that the frame precise manipulation is not only essential to the gameplay but also intricate and detailed enough to still be rather challenging to use. I applaud you for having designed and tweaked a physics engine for which this idea works so well.

It's a bit sad the challenge mode levels will probably be fairly easy to just brute force tweak with a bot, but it's certainly an interesting game to try to get better at as it currently stands. I'm still struggling with some of the easy levels and haven't gotten to trying to optimize some of them, but here's at least a start:

Bounce in 3.04

f59 cf67 c22 cf65 af91

Can probably go sub 3, but I haven't found any better inputs yet.

disruptable-gem in 2.10

cf61 f34 af115

ixchow

2013-09-14 08:19:11 am

Quote from LLCoolDave:

It's a bit sad the challenge mode levels will probably be fairly easy to just brute force tweak with a bot

"Scripting API" is actually on my TODO list Smiley

. I was thinking that the branching factor (and state space dimension) is high enough that it would be hard for a script to solve entire levels optimally. On the other hand, I think you are probably right that some limited optimization (e.g., scooting control transitions around a bit) is probably entirely possible with scripts.

Quote from LLCoolDave:

Bounce in 3.04
disruptable-gem in 2.10

I might just have to change the par times in my next update...

LLCoolDave

Edit history:

LLCoolDave: 2013-09-14 10:55:25 am

2013-09-14 10:26:02 am

The size of the state space is only important if there isn't a fairly obvious basic solution that needs to be tweaked. I'm kind of curious to throw some genetic algorithms at this game, they should work great for optimizing some of these.

I also wouldn't change the par times that low, both of those are fairly optimized for the general strategy I use so are hard to beat even IF you know the basics of how to approach the situation. That's, imo, not what a par time should be about. Beating the par time, at least for the easy levels, should be about showing that you understood the basic concept the level was trying to teach you. I think the current times do that just fine.

Some more:

Escape 4.40

af33 cf64 af95 cf248

Straddle 4.45

cf186 af15 cb10 cf73 26 f5 b13 ab98 af19

That one is still fairly sloppy, I feel, and is probably not at all easy to optimize. It still beats the par time by a significant margin.
Shape 9.14

cf264 cb69 af35 cb3 ab51 b33 cb250 b15 cb27 b167

There's probably still tons of time to make here.

The size of the state space is only important if there isn't a fairly obvious basic solution that needs to be tweaked. I'm kind of curious to throw some genetic algorithms at this game, they should work great for optimizing some of these.

I also wouldn't change the par times that low, both of those are fairly optimized for the general strategy I use so are hard to beat even IF you know the basics of how to approach the situation. That's, imo, not what a par time should be about. Beating the par time, at least for the easy levels, should be about showing that you understood the basic concept the level was trying to teach you. I think the current times do that just fine.

Some more:

Escape 4.40
[hidden] af33 cf64 af95 cf248[/hidden]
Straddle 4.45
[hidden] cf186 af15 cb10 cf73 26 f5 b13 ab98 af19[/hidden]
That one is still fairly sloppy, I feel, and is probably not at all easy to optimize. It still beats the par time by a significant margin.
Shape 9.14
[hidden] cf264 cb69 af35 cb3 ab51 b33 cb250 b15 cb27 b167[/hidden]
There's probably still tons of time to make here.

dwangoAC

2013-09-14 11:42:38 pm

Keeper of TASBot

Quote from ixchow:

Keys (on humble store; provides direct download + desura):

It was very generous of you to provide free keys! It looks like all of the keys you posted have been used, although I only checked after discovering that the Humble Widget (unlike the main Humble Bundle site) does not accept Bitcoins or direct credit cards as a form of payment. If there's a way to purchase the game with Bitcoins, please let me know.

One other thing - I encourage you to post about this in the TASVideos forums as well. Thanks, and best of luck!

A.C.
******

ixchow

Edit history:

ixchow: 2013-09-15 10:49:52 pm

ixchow: 2013-09-15 10:47:24 pm

2013-09-15 10:33:09 pm

Quote from dwangoAC:

It looks like all of the keys you posted have been used.

Thanks for letting me know; I've edited the post and its title to reflect that.

Quote from dwangoAC:

If there's a way to purchase the game with Bitcoins, please let me know.

Well, if you can exchange them for a government-backed currency, you can use that Smiley

. For that matter, how many bitcoin are you willing to pay? (Do they have fractional transfers yet?)

Philosophically, I'm not a big fan of scarcity currencies, especially those which have no use value, are somewhat illiquid, and undergo massive price fluctuations. But that's not going to stop me from accepting some as long as I can convert it quickly into something more reasonable, like USD or a sandwich.

dwangoAC

2013-09-16 06:20:33 pm

Keeper of TASBot

Thanks for your response. You have some completely reasonable questions that deserve answers.

Quote from ixchow:

Well, if you can exchange them for a government-backed currency, you can use that Smiley

.

Humble Bundle normally uses CoinBase to handle Bitcoin payments for bundle purchases and in those cases CoinBase shows the BTC price to buyers based on the current market exchange rate against USD, the buyer pays that amount in BTC, and Humble Bundle immediately gets paid in USD so they don't have to worry about ever touching the Bitcoins themselves. CoinBase charges a 1% fee to convert funds between BTC and USD (which is still cheaper than the ~3% fees of most credit cards, but I digress).

Quote from ixchow:

For that matter, how many bitcoin are you willing to pay? (Do they have fractional transfers yet?)

I anticipate paying for the game in the correct amount to pay your asking price of $5 USD, which at this exact moment is 0.039575 BTC (but regrettably at this point that amount changes frequently - more on that in a bit). Bitcoins can be divided to the 8th decimal place and have always allowed fractional transfers.

Quote from ixchow:

Philosophically, I'm not a big fan of scarcity currencies...

Even if half of all Bitcoins are lost, the remaining Bitcoins would become twice as valuable due to supply and demand. If necessary, the protocol could be adjusted to add even more decimal points than the 8 that exist today or adjusted in other ways to respond to the needs of the market, although any such change would require significant community harmony. Overall, I find a deflationary currency much better for users as they discourage loans and encourage saving; Bitcoin does not appear to be at any risk of a deflationary spiral based on the current market maturity.

Quote from ixchow:

...especially those which have no use value...

If you mean that mining Bitcoins serves no purpose other than to record Bitcoin transactions in the blockchiain, you are correct in your statement, although I'd point out that the "waste" of mining is far less than the waste of the existing banking industry, especially if you include lugging physical money around in armored vehicles. If you mean that a Bitcoin has no value in and of itself, I'd point out that a U.S. Dollar is just as intrinsically valueless at the whims of the market (even though a government may force its citizens to pay taxes in a given currency that currency is not prevented from dropping below any kind of hard floor of value, i.e. a U.S. Dollar could be completely worthless in the same way a Bitcoin could be worthless).

Quote from ixchow:

...are somewhat illiquid...

This is becoming a lot less of a problem. Going back to CoinBase for a moment, if you're in an especially big hurry they can even instantly verify a bank account and allow you to immediately transfer funds between BTC and USD. Having said that, MtGox has been the source of a lot of reputation problems here as they made the process incredibly difficult and failed to follow guidelines from FinCEN.

Quote from ixchow:

...and undergo massive price fluctuations.

I'd again blame MtGox for this. The issue here is that most websites that accept Bitcoins, such as BitCoinStore.com and Gyft.com rely on the current MtGox exchange rate to price their goods. Unfortunately, this means that the prices on a single currency exchange dictates what buyers have to pay, and MtGox acts a lot more like a single stock in a volatile stock market than a currency rate. The Bitcoin community needs a multi-site price index to even out the bumps of minute-by-minute day traders and to be honest I'm surprised an index hasn't emerged yet. In other words, this is a completely valid complaint but it's also something I see as a temporary and fixable issue as Bitcoin adoption increases.

Quote from ixchow:

But that's not going to stop me from accepting some as long as I can convert it quickly into something more reasonable, like USD or a sandwich.

That's good to know. Smiley

I'd like to see if I can get in touch with Humble Bundle to see if they have plans to allow bitcoin purchases for Humble Widget purchases. In the meantime, I have no expectation that you'll set something up for me in particular, although if you gave me a Bitcoin address and I paid you directly in BTC you could easily get your value back out by spending it on a Gyft card for yourself or something like that without worrying about an exchange.

Thanks for being willing to consider it. I find it completely normal for you and everyone else to be skeptical of Bitcoins - it's up to the community of users to prove we're not all crazy. Smiley

A.C.
******

Thanks for your response.  You have some completely reasonable questions that deserve answers.
[quote="ixchow"]
Well, if you can exchange them for a government-backed currency, you can use that :) . [/quote]

Humble Bundle normally uses [url=http://coinbase.com]CoinBase[/url] to handle Bitcoin payments for bundle purchases and in those cases CoinBase shows the BTC price to buyers based on the current market exchange rate against USD, the buyer pays that amount in BTC, and Humble Bundle immediately gets paid in USD so they don't have to worry about ever touching the Bitcoins themselves.  CoinBase charges a [url=http://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/585625-what-is-coinbase-and-how-much-does-it-cost-to-use-]1% fee[/url] to convert funds between BTC and USD (which is still cheaper than the ~3% fees of most credit cards, but I digress).
[quote="ixchow"]For that matter, how many bitcoin are you willing to pay? (Do they have fractional transfers yet?)[/quote]
I anticipate paying for the game in the correct amount to pay your asking price of $5 USD, which at this exact moment is 0.039575 BTC (but regrettably at this point that amount changes frequently - more on that in a bit).  Bitcoins can be divided to the 8th decimal place and have always allowed fractional transfers.

[quote="ixchow"]Philosophically, I'm not a big fan of scarcity currencies...[/quote]
Even if half of all Bitcoins are lost, the remaining Bitcoins would become twice as valuable due to supply and demand.  If necessary, the protocol could be adjusted to add even more decimal points than the 8 that exist today or adjusted in other ways to respond to the needs of the market, although any such change would require significant community harmony.  Overall, I find a deflationary currency much better for users as they discourage loans and encourage saving; Bitcoin does not appear to be at any risk of a deflationary spiral based on the current market maturity.

[quote="ixchow"]...especially those which have no use value...[/quote]
If you mean that mining Bitcoins serves no purpose other than to record Bitcoin transactions in the blockchiain, you are correct in your statement, although I'd point out that the "waste" of mining is far less than the waste of the existing banking industry, especially if you include lugging physical money around in armored vehicles.  If you mean that a Bitcoin has no value in and of itself, I'd point out that a U.S. Dollar is just as intrinsically valueless at the whims of the market (even though a government may force its citizens to pay taxes in a given currency that currency is not prevented from dropping below any kind of hard floor of value, i.e. a U.S. Dollar could be completely worthless in the same way a Bitcoin could be worthless).

[quote="ixchow"]...are somewhat illiquid...[/quote]
This is becoming a lot less of a problem.  Going back to CoinBase for a moment, if you're in an especially big hurry they can even [url=http://blog.coinbase.com/post/34357253898/you-can-now-buy-and-sell-bitcoin-by-connecting-any-u-s]instantly verify a bank account[/url] and allow you to immediately transfer funds between BTC and USD.  Having said that, [url=http://mtgox.com]MtGox[/url] has been the source of a lot of reputation problems here as they made the process incredibly difficult and failed to follow guidelines from FinCEN.

[quote="ixchow"]...and undergo massive price fluctuations.[/quote]
I'd again blame MtGox for this.  The issue here is that most websites that accept Bitcoins, such as [url=http://bitcoinstore.com]BitCoinStore.com[/url] and [url=http://gyft.com]Gyft.com[/url] rely on the current MtGox exchange rate to price their goods.  Unfortunately, this means that the prices on a single currency exchange dictates what buyers have to pay, and MtGox acts a lot more like a single stock in a volatile stock market than a currency rate.  The Bitcoin community needs a multi-site price index to even out the bumps of minute-by-minute day traders and to be honest I'm surprised an index hasn't emerged yet.  In other words, this is a completely valid complaint but it's also something I see as a temporary and fixable issue as Bitcoin adoption increases.

[quote="ixchow"]But that's not going to stop me from accepting some as long as I can convert it quickly into something more reasonable, like USD or a sandwich.[/quote]

That's good to know. :)  I'd like to see if I can get in touch with Humble Bundle to see if they have plans to allow bitcoin purchases for Humble Widget purchases.  In the meantime, I have no expectation that you'll set something up for me in particular, although if you gave me a Bitcoin address and I paid you directly in BTC you could easily get your value back out by spending it on a [url=http://gyft.com]Gyft card for yourself[/url] or something like that without worrying about an exchange.

Thanks for being willing to consider it.  I find it completely normal for you and everyone else to be skeptical of Bitcoins - it's up to the community of users to prove we're not all crazy. :)

A.C.
******

ixchow

Edit history:

ixchow: 2013-09-17 04:32:16 pm

2013-09-17 04:32:03 pm

Thanks for your detailed reply. I will look into getting set up somehow to accept a payment in Bitcoin.

Also, probably we should take further discussion of monetary policy to private message Smiley

.

ItsMarill_

2013-10-04 07:05:22 pm

I don't think there's enough charact

This shall be the beginning of the TAS career I'll never pursue.