Nothing gets in the way of the speedrunning community completely turning a game on its head. Through the power of stomping on the way a game is intended to be played, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, Minecraft and much more can be beaten in under half an hour. Hell, you can actually speedrun Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in around six minutes if you're fast enough.
Game devs don't often talk about speedrunning. Perhaps understandably, as it may be pretty jarring to see someone play your game in a way you never thought possible. But the team behind the upcoming Solar Ash feel very different. In an interview with PLAY Magazine, creative director Alx Preston admitted that he loves speedrunning, and wants to see the community "break the fuck out of our game."
In the interview, Preston shares that he is a big fan of speedrunning event Games Done Quick, and would love to see his game get the same treatment.
"I want to see people break the fuck out of our game, that would be really fun," Preston says. "Because our character has some physicality to her... who knows what they'll be able to do and who knows that they'll be able to like break paths in some way or another. I'm very, very excited to see, again, how they break the fuck out of it."
As speedrunning becomes more and more mainstream, we're likely to get more developers feel the same way as Preston. Every year, Games Done Quick pulls in thousands of views, as well as millions of dollars for charity. This year, even with the impact of COVID-19, the event managed to raise almost $3 million for Doctors without Borders, making it an increasingly attractive way to showcase your game.
Solar Ash is an action platformer game from the developers of Hyper Light Drifter. It is set to launch October 26, and is coming to PC, PS4 and PS5. Check out its gameplay trailer here, which was shown off as part of Summer Games Fest earlier this year.