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[Droqen]

recorded a playthrough of the first kilometer on the potential mode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6X1BYsSamM in rather average quality (only 20 fps, somewhat skipping on my slow pc)

being over 9 minutes, this is near longest that i can upload to a single youtube video, i'll have to cut my longer playthroughs or upload to rinku's privileged channel

yesss

Even if not monstrous, this is by far the best Probability 0 playthrough video I've ever seen :D

(Also I feel slightly uncomfortable with the fact that pzero speedrun is impossible; I'm not sure whether that's a good thing, or a bad one.)

[mokesmoe]

You can speed run the amount of time it takes to get every powerup. Would need a lot of luck to get lots of easy to kill enemies, but it's possible.

[ChaoSpectre]

I know that whenever I pop in here, I make egregious demands of you, D, for which I apologize. But would it be that difficult to either add a timer? Or, probably a simpler idea, add an option for modifying the scroll speed in the list of options?

[Droqen]

mokesmoe: Very true. I guess that's sort of the price to pay in an endless game, too.

Chao, what do you mean by "add a timer"?

[ChaoSpectre]

...I realize now that depth pretty much functions as a timer up until 1k, when stuff might get funky.

A timer would just read off the time elapsed for a new game. I don't really see a point for it, but I was hoping that kicking around some of these ideas might shed some light on your speedrun considerations. First of which would be that aside from the "Get to 20" concept, a speedrun requires a timer.

Now whether or not the mechanics of the game lend itself to speedrunning are questionable. The implication would be that the descent would be sped up, somehow (a speed up button, or some other mechanism). Which probably makes it harder to die by falling off the bottom edge. It also makes it easier to die by getting trapped and scrolling to the top. Whether that's an okay tradeoff for you would also be questionable.

Incentives for scrolling faster, etc. There are some things to think about. I think it's possible. It would also be a fair deal if not a monster allotment of coding.

[Parthon]

One method would be to have the screen scroll faster when you get closer to the bottom. Of course then enemies would turn up faster as well, so it wouldn't make it easier. The challenge is still to kill enough enemies to get the exp bubbles.

Now you could even have it so that the screen scrolls faster than the player, so they couldn't fall off the bottom anymore, in theory. Then you just make them go *splat* on the first solid obstacle if they fall too far so it wouldn't make it too easy.

Or, just have it scroll faster when the player is near the bottom, but not so fast that it protects them from falling out of the screen.

P0 doesn't lend itself well to speed runs because of the fixed rate, but I think that's one of the things I love about the game.

[ChaoSpectre]

I just think that the game, the minimalist wonder that it is, is open to being interpreted by a great number of rulesets.

At the same time, the game is a wonderful minimalist masterpiece that doesn't need manipulation.

So we can whip good ol' Droq until he provides more gametypes, or sit pretty and keep on pouring hours of gameplay into this gem of a game.

I'm torn.

[Droqen]

I won't be providing a lot more for Probability 0, I'm afraid. (Unless I find a big new idea to use and add.)

A sequel with more stuff and different stuff... is going to be made. It's a guarantee.

Sit pretty and get better at pzero; its incarnation to follow will still benefit from your skill.

[Parthon]

Awesome, can't wait.

Also: where did your totally spiffy signature go?

[Gimym TILBERT]

...I don't think you're going to find a video recording program that doesn't require an installation.

http://www.screentoaster.com/ try that, i didn't try it yet 

[ortoslon]

lest i forget those ideas:

make stars++ remove star cap instead of giving infinite stars
give punch+ range and animation of current superpunch
make superpunch a charge attack (hold button for more range, when you release it you thrust in the direction you're facing killing everything on your path)

[pen]

haHAHAhahahgdfhfghhahahaHAHahaha!

I've now gotten them all, all those upgrades in one game! I'm free!!! 

[ChaoSpectre]

You mean you don't feel compelled to continue helping The Character survive?

His probability of making it through is so low...

[pen]

You mean you don't feel compelled to continue helping The Character survive?

His probability of making it through is so low...

I think he should help himself survive, I can only do so much (more than 45k points = too goddamn much!) 

[capnmikey]

Oh man, I played this like a month ago but didn't post anything!  Just wanted to say this game is ridiculous-awesome, and I thought it was very polished.  I played for like 5 straight hours or something crazy when I grabbed it O_O

I don't know how to give good feedback, so I'll just list several things I liked.

- The tall, skinny window and vertical menu were unique and worked really well with the vertical descent.
- Awesome variety in the enemies.  You can differentiate at a glance, and the health & behaviour differences really demand different strategies for dealing them.
- Powerups are wickedly balanced!  There's no obvious "best" path, and I'd often have trouble deciding what to get.
- Music!  Man, the music is really good, and so tense when you're about to die or fighting a boss.  More games need dynamic music!
- The movement of Talent/Potential choosey screen was rather satisfying (the title, icon, and text sort of move independently?), and the copy was well written.
- Great style touches in the "health meter" and ever-changing depth units.

There were a few things I wasn't sure about, but ultimately ended up liking because of the situations they created.

First, the "probability" health indicator.  I'm a bit of an info freak, so at first it bugged me that I couldn't tell exactly how much health I had.  But it soon became clear when I would probably die, leading to some exciting tension - usually a choice between a fall that looked barely too high, and tricky enemy/spikeblock route.

The lack of aerial melee (if you don't have Stomp) made it pretty hard if you ran out of stars early on, but it was fun how your strategy would change to hunting for an enemy you could punch to death easily (ball or heat-seeker mostly, though space kitties worked out a few times).

Lastly, getting sorta-trapped was annoying at first, but then I'd often find myself nervously hanging onto a skill point just in case I got trapped.  Sorta weighing the upgrade choices until I was in a position where I NEEDED one was a cool experience.

...

The only actual issue I had was the dreaded text-turning-to-dots bug   Only happened when I played for a while without closing and reopening though, so I got in the habit of resetting every few rounds.

I talk a lot   Anyways, thanks for the great game, looking forward to the next one!