How Neon White Lets You Speedrun Speedrunning
VloĹžit
- Äas pĹidĂĄn 22. 12. 2022
- đ´ Get bonus content by supporting Game Makerâs Toolkit - gamemakerstoolkit.com/support/ đ´
Every year, I dedicated my last video to the most innovative game of the last 12 months. This year's pick is Neon White: a game that turns you into a speedrunning superstar through its clever "Insight" system.
=== Important Links ===
My Top 10 Games of 2022 | Patreon
/ 75863560
=== Sources ===
[1] Top Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrunner Nails Incredible Record | IGN
www.ign.com/articles/2018/02/...
[2] Neon Whiteâs Developers Being Too Good at Their Own Game Caused Real Problems | Vice
www.vice.com/en/article/n7znk...
[3] The Design of Neon White - Developer Breakdown | Noclip Crew
⢠The Design of Neon Whi...
[4] Neon White Dev Interview - Annapurna Showcase 2021 | Spawn on Me Podcast
⢠NEON WHITE DEV INTERVI...
[5] How A Neon White Level Is Made | Game Informer
www.gameinformer.com/feature/...
=== Games Shown ===
Snake Pass (2017)
Return of the Obra Dinn (2018)
Baba is You (2019)
The Forgotten City (2021)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
Neon White (2022)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)
Ghostrunner (2020)
Team Fortress 2 (2007)
Titanfall 2 (2016)
Halo Infinite (2021)
Slay the Spire (2019)
Donut County (2018)
Counter-Strike (1999)
Crazy Taxi (1999)
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010)
Donkey Kong (1981)
Gran Turismo 2 (1999)
Assault Android Cactus (2015)
Patrick's Parabox (2022)
Citizen Sleeper (2022)
Vampire Survivors (2022)
Hyperbolica (2022)
Trombone Champ (2022)
Tunic (2022)
Signalis (2022)
God Of War RagnarĂśk (2022)
Tinykin (2022)
Elden Ring (2022)
Return to Monkey Island (2022)
Kirby and the Forgotten Land (2022)
=== Credits ===
Music provided by Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicsound.com/referra... (Referral Link)
Super Mario Bros. Any% Speedrun | Niftski
⢠Super Mario Bros. Any%...
Celeste Any% Speedrun | Marlin
⢠Celeste Any% Speedrun ...
Super Metroid any% | zoasty
⢠Super Metroid any% in ...
Portal any% World Record | Can't Even
⢠Portal any% Former Wor...
Speedrun of DOOM (2016) (SPEEDRUN EXPLAINED) | tomatoanus
⢠Speedrun of DOOM (2016...
Summer Games Done Quick 2022 Finale Video | Games Done Quick
⢠Summer Games Done Quic...
Frappe Snowland: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Broken Track | Summoning Salt
⢠Frappe Snowland: The H...
Hollow Knight speedruns are much harder than you think | EazySpeezy
⢠Hollow Knight speedrun...
Elden Ring Any% Unrestricted Speedrun | seeker TV
⢠Elden Ring Any% Unrest...
surf_funhouse_v1 WR | SURFHEAVEN
⢠surf_funhouse_v1 WR su...
Neon White 2-6 Smackdown | Grollock11
⢠Neon White 2-6 Smackdo...
=== Subtitles ===
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/videos/IVpmTGbdcjWP/ - Hry
Neon White is my pick for the most innovative game of 2022 - but want to know my 10 favourite games of the year? GMTK Patrons on the video tier get a bonus video where I go through my top picks - www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-video-game-75863560
Did you try Warstride Challenges ? (totally different Idea behind it than neon white, but still pretty close)
Can you define coyote time and edge rounding?
There is a game based on the mechanic of First-Person shooter mixed with deck building. I think it is called 'Friends Vs Friends'.
@@reev9759 Coyote time refers to the time you can jump when you leave the edge of platform; You can learn more in his Celeste video
Will Bopl Battle be at least nominated for 2023 GMTK Most Innovative? It's such a fresh take on the platform fighter genre among the flood of smash-likes
probably the biggest surpsise here was learning that this was made by the same guy as donut county
I was surprised too
Haha me too
Not just Donut County, either. The same man was also responsible for Tattletail, What Remains of Edith Finch, and even Sonic Dreams Collection. Ben Esposito's resume is some of the wildest you can imagine.
Having played donut county recentlyy I don't think it's surprising at all
Donut County wasn't anywhere near as horny.
Loved the video.
If I had one remark though, it's that by playing Neon White you're not 'pretending' to be a speedrunner, you are speedrunning. You don't have to spend thousands of hours to speedrun, the same way you don't have to be a professional soccer player to play soccer. Just trying to have a fast time on a game is speedrunning, even if you do it casually.
This 1,000,000%
I always think of it as the next step in improving at a game you love. Similar to challenge runs speed running is just setting an arbitrary challenge and seeing how well you do at itđ¤ˇââď¸
You can play any game at any level and still speedrun. Just have fun tearing into the game.
Oh hey that's me at 5:56 :) Glad to see more people talk about the game, one of the best things I played all year
That's a massive coincidence that you already found out about it only a few minutes after the video got uploaded. Especially since you have less than 10 subscribers.
Edit: why do some people think that I think that he is part of some kind of conspiracy. I meant it literally. It is objectively a massive coincidence that this guy found out about it only a few minutes after the video got posted. Especially since youtube has billions of users and this video got maybe like 50k views in the first hour.
@@haroeneissa790 I watch this channel anyway, so I was bound to notice pretty quick
@@haroeneissa790 you can see his channel name
@@haroeneissa790 bro what are you on about lmao
nice
We GOTTA mention that the Neon White soundtrack was done by Machine Girl - which truly couldn't be better for a game about speedrunning. Literally one of my top spotify albums this year.
if you like those crazy ass Japanese movies, Machine Girl is definitely for you
Oh shit really? nice
Neon White owes a lot to Lovely Planet, a series of games I was absolutely addicted to, but Neon White definitely handles the approach so much better, it's 10/10 when it comes to roping people in for just one more try. Definitely a good choice for this year.
Oh yeah, I remember Lovely Planet! I think I won a giveaway for it way back in the day, and liked it a lot. Definitely see the similarity between it and Neon White!
i totally forgot lovely planet existed
loved the games so maybe i should try neon white
SEUM deserves mention too. Fast-Paced Speedrun FPS with ability pickups and a hidden item within each level.
We made Warstride Challenges and then we heard about lonely planet ! That was really cool
One of the first speedrun FPS's that 'hook'ed me was Cyber Hook: had a ton of fun with that crazy grappling tech and now I like seeing all these other games like Lovely Planet and Neon White which I didn't know a genre existed for. More recommendations, I say!
Couldn't have said it better myself. This game is fantastic. And honestly, the cringe dialogue and story is part of the whole charm of the game -- I might have not finished the game without it, I was looking forward to what silly turn would happen in the story next!
Honestly while there are definitely some select cringy lines, the story overall hasn't been too bad from what I've played. Just tropey, not super serious, mainly the characters are just weirdos. Which isn't inherently bad, its enjoyable partially because watching people be weird can be amusing. And I enjoy how much the story takes the piss out of its version of Heaven.
I had a similar experience with Door Kickers the year that came out. I couldn't bring myself to move on to the next mission unless I'd completed the previous one with at least a 2-star rating and no deaths. Then, halfway through the game, I unlocked the silencer attachment and suddenly every level had to be re-replayed, this time with perfect stealth. Then I unlocked the taser and learned that every level had a secret pacifist objective...
Door Kickers was great.
Indeed it is.
I want to push back slightly on one idea in the setup for the video. Speedrunning isn't about investing 4500 hours into a single run. Those are literally the 0.0001% of runners who are competing for milliseconds and for sub-pixel precision.
Personally, I've done a handful of speedruns and not a single one was worth submitting. They weren't even real categories. Memeruns are a great introduction to the "idea" of speedrunning. Instead of the basic "how fast can you finish the game" which will inevitably pit you against people who have spent more time and have more skill at the game, which is super demoralizing when you're just learning about what speedrunning feels like, take it one step further. "How fast can I beat the game using only the shotgun" or "how fast can I beat the game without killing anything but bosses" or something like that. Do the theory crafting and run it a couple times.
Maybe beat a survival horror game without crafting anything. Maybe beat a racing game without using the brakes or without using any boosts. Maybe beat a shooter using only melee attacks.
Don't expect it to be perfect or even good. Just finish them. If at the end of a run, you say "man I want to do this section better" then you can later go practice that section or mechanic. This is where the big timesink of running is - either running entire categories until you get lucky and don't choke or practicing very specific tech until you can do it reliably.
That is the pure essence of speedrunning. It is not a binary choice of "become the best or don't even try."
For sure, it's something you can just do for fun and invest as much or as little time as you want.
Also such a binary choice discounts glitch hunters and routers, who don't even necessarily place on leaderboards. Speedrunning is about community and cooperation, and having fun picking apart the games of your choice.
Do it for fun.
Why doing speedrun if you are not aiming to be the 0.0001%?
Absolutely, your own personal speedrun competitions are as valid as trying to get on those worldwide leaderboards.
And I've definitely used speedrun tactics to occasionally mess around in a game I've played a bunch of times, like mock ball in Super Metroid.
I adored Neon White, so glad you featured it here. Videogamedunkey said it best: "This is a game that will make you feel like you're good at games." By the end of the first two chapters or so, you're going to just feel so confident and clever and badass.
It's one of the best feeling games I played this year. It's incredible how you go from feeling like that time is impossible to improve only to do drastically better in a few runs later.
This is how I felt playing Cyber Hook. Just had to repeat one more time to beat my previous time. And another. And another...
Cyber hook is the game I downloaded after completing (relatively) Neon White (gem of a game)
Indeed. Cyber Hook was even better because you could watch the replays of other players, so you could see how they played better than you or the tricks they used. Shame it wasn't as popular as Neon White.
I saw Cyber Hook in a video about Indie Games, was already playing Neon White and felt like i needed more after it, so i bought it for like 3 dollars thanks to the Winter Sale
I need more games like these.
I wish people mentioned Lovely Planet when they are talking about Neon White. Such an underappreciated game.
this is the first thing that popped in my mind watching this video. love this gem
Or ShootMania, which is even closer to the roots
Love that game
Neon White is my Game of the Year for 2022. It is such a fun and well crafted game. I put in a total of 60 hours, first in my semi-casual playthrough that led into going for all the gifts and blue ace medals as I worked through the main story, then I discovered the red ace medals (after accidentally achieving one) and more than doubled my play time getting those on every level, then I went for the Heaven and Hell rushes, and White's Hell rush took me 3 days of attempts to complete (with a time of 54:01) which was one of the most satisfying achievements I've accomplished in gaming in a long time. I don't 100% many games but Neon White was just a constant blast to play and replay and I loved every minute of it.
Even with such a heavily blurred image in the thumbnail, Neon White is still so recognizable. Can't disguise that style đ
That absolute self-sass of "Pretend I have friends on Steam" (3:54), it's small things like that that make your videos even more enjoyable beyond the nuggets of knowledge and downright inspiration they already are. Amazing job Mark, I love it.
Watching the intro, I thought you were going to talk about Teardown. The game really scratches that speedrunning itch, end you end up spending two hours thinking "okay, if I stack this bit of rubber on that car, I can directly jump on the rooftop and get to this objective 0.8s faster and complete the map!"
Iâve played every game you deemed most innovative and always had a good time, happy to see your selection this year
I think for me the soundtrack played a big part in replaying levels too. It just felt so good to listen to the soundtrack in the game world that I really didnât mind sinking in extra time in each level just to keep listening
They could have never made a better soundtrack for the game. It is peak
It has been a great year for content on GMTK. I've enjoyed every video. Thanks for the quality
Had no clue that neon white was made by Ben Esposito! Excellent news
You've crushed this year and have really encouraged me to try and design. Saving up to buy a computer but keep the great content coming! Happy New Year, Mark!
As soon as you mentioned âspeedrunâ I knew what it was going to be đ
oh man that puzzle game in the honourable mentions sounds amazing
The dev somehow published two puzzle games on Steam this year (Patrick's Parabox and Linelith), both with a 99% positive rating despite 1700 and 300 reviews respectively. It's insane.
It is. I played it on release, and it has maybe the best difficulty curve of any puzzle game Iâve ever played. I never got stuck for long, but I also never felt pandered to. The game does a great job of making you feel smart. Itâs just delightful.
Patrick's Parabox is one of my favourite puzzle games of all time, simply a delight from beginning to end!
Iâd love to hear more on tunic! Itâs starting to feel more and more like a game thatâs been swept under the rug, but itâs still the game Iâve kept coming back to, trying to uncover all its mysteries. More discussion on how Tunic hides its puzzles would be an awesome topic, if your willing to give the game another chance and let it have its time in the spotlight before its forgotten forever!
The overarching puzzle in this game is simply incredible. The role and design of the gaming booklet brought so many nostalgia moments of playing video games as a wee lad. Definitely one the most memorable game of the year for me.
bruh the entire intro i was thinking it was certainly teardown lol
especially the "to break the game into a million pieces" got me exited (0:40)
this neon white game seems cool though
Congratulations on all the things done this year! your content is amazing
Ooh, looked GMTK just in time.
Happy new year Mark!
Happy New Year and thanks again for all the great videos you make.
Great visuals, amazing subtle comedy and love the way you explain. Thanks for another great video, always love watching these :)
what a great year for you Mark!
You totally sold me on this game, I've seen it already but the way the levels and medals work sounds really fun and accessible. I played Parabox and Citizen Sleeper and they're fantastic, so glad you were able to play them too and I hope more people will play them after watching this!
Thank you for another great year of content, Mark!
I bought this game for my switch few weeks back. Haven't gotten time yet to actually play it due to playing a game already. Thanks for showcasing this game to us Mark. I love both platformers and card games. I love how the designer combined the two genres together for a unique take. Can't wait to play this soon. I also would love to thank you Mark for starting on your own GameDev journey this year. It has motivated me to not give up on mine as I'm learning python for my game. :)
Big year ! Wonderful content, love this channel
Much appreciated!
Thanks Mark for another awesome year!
I will definetely check Neon White.
Happy end of year and keep on for years to come.
The subtitles were so good that I was able to watch the entire video without the sound on while waiting for my shift to end. Not many CZcams videos have that level of detail- thanks!
Trials Fusion has a similar mentality in my opinion: short levels, precise controls, medals that keep you coming back to shave off parts of seconds and optimum lines. At the harder difficulties that does switch from finishing quickly to just finishing but it feels as if there are similarities.
Looking forward to another year, Mark!
Glad to see hyperbolica get an honorable mention. Definitely the most innovative Iâve played this year
Thanks for making my day a little better!
Aaaaaand... So I'm a patron now I guess. ^^
Learned so much from you about the last years and got so many interesting recommendations and different perspectives on gaming.
Absolutely worth it and I'm excited to see what's yet to come.
Merry Christmas to you and all the rest of the community. :)
Awesome, thank you!
Probably in my Top 10 games I played this year! Maybe even 5. Always appreciate a game that makes movement fun.
How did you comment this fast?
@@chinbag Early Access probably
wow.
@@kizuati Yep.
its really a delight watching your videos! thankss
Thanks for another greate year!!!
Exactly one year after this video was realeased, I finally started Neon White, and you basically explained everything great about it so far. I will not move on until I get at least top 100k. I'm always trying to beat myself. The levels are quick but not overly frustrating. Movement is fun and experimental since every gun gives us a different movement option that is fun to move around with.
Though I think the best part is that there is zero load time when it comes to restarting a level. It gives little time to frustrate you because it's an easy to restart to try a new idea or try to perfect a manuver. I'm currently trying to get timeling down with bomb jumps on water, but I'm usually to early with jumping so I mess up a lot, but it's not too bad because there is no penalty for failures.
8:49 So cool that you've mentioned Signalis. I've studied with the devs at the same university in Germany and played a first prototype back in 2016 on a game jam. Amazing how much effort they've put in the development.
Just joined on Patreon. Can't believe it took me this long.
Keep it up
I can't stop comparing this game to Trackmania, I mean they are very different in almost everything but both games are made for speedrunning and time-attack. Cool to see this style of game being represented more
Really surprised that Tunic didn't win, but Neon White is a marvel of gaming so I'm not totally disappointed. It's crazy how they took an FPS and a Racing game, mashed them together, and wound up with something so addictive and replayable.
Holy cow I've been watching since the snake pass vid... has it really been that long? Keep it up fam, its good stuff!
Iâm so glad you picked this, I mentioned it when you asked on Twitter. Been having a blast with it on Switch, just played it an hour ago in fact! So much fun, âjust one more goâ
I was sure tunic was gunna be this years game :D Loved the vid
The moment 4-2 glitch appeared on the screen I knew it was Neon White!
I had the same feeling with ultra kill, because there's a secret that you only can open by perfecting all missions in the first act
Which needs you to be fast and effective
Also you need to kill almost everything.
I always play whichever game you give this award to, so this year I set out to try to play the most innovative games before hand. I was pretty sure I had the choices narrowed down to Patrick's Parabox or Hyper Demon or Hyperbolica, but Neon White wasn't out of my purview.
Yes Tunic! glad that made the honorable mentions list, that would have been my pick for the year.
Just tried Baba is you a couple months back. Really awesome. I also love snake pass. I will definitely get around to trying Legion as well. Great videos as always
I've just heard the word speedrun, I haven't finished the video, but my guess is Mark awarded Neon White as the most innovative game of this year.
"I've always been interested in 'speedrunning'..."
Me, who's been quietly crying about Neon White getting a raw deal from the Besties and the Game Awards: "EFF YEAH!"
I'm actually so happy u picked this game. It's story is super generic and the jokes are hit or miss but by God that GAMEPLAY THO it's literally if u made time trial modes a core game mechanic and it feels soo fucking good when u hit them ace tokens. God this game blew me away.
The dialog was terrible but I didn't think the story was generic. Is it an anime trope or something?
@@Blazik3n99 death game stuff is just super huge in asian cinema. Plus I read a ton of hunger games esk books growing up. Not saying it's bad cause of it. But I was never really surprised by the story and at certain points, I felt like I was mind reading the writers. Which, imo. Isn't a good thing, seeing that I'm a shit writer lol.
Decided to see if you had any new videos, saw this and bought this game instantly and it's already one of my favourites. I'm not even really a fan of this genre but this game is honestly an artistic masterpiece and is well deserving of the praise.
If neon white was made in a game jam, the developers would speedrunning speedrunning speedrunning
Once again - nice video! Would love to see a video essay where you talk about the sense of freedom in games or the illusion of freedom. The thing openworld games seeks to accomplish. In Fallout 3 for example - you really get the feeling that you are the one discovering megathon, even though we all did it.
YES!!!! I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH FOR THIS REASON, IT MADE ME BECOME A SPEEDRUNNER WHEN I HAD BEEN INTERESTED IN SPEEDRUNNING FOR SO LONG, THANKS FOR MAKING THIS VID ABT IT
You should try a 2021 indie platformer called Super Sami Roll. Itâs got a similarly addictive replay loop
Great video. It also reminded me of why I enjoyed "Lonely Mountains: Downhill"
You don't have to grind the best routes and chase the best times to have fun speedrunning other games. If speedrunning Celeste or Super Metroid or whatever sounds fun to you, just set a reasonable but challenging goal and have at it. It's plenty of fun even if no one's archiving your name into a wiki.
This is how I feel about Celeste. I'm never going to be a top runner but I've found it so fun to play through and my time has improved a lot.
This works for some, but personally I don't really enjoy competing if I am not "competitive". I don't mind losing, but being in the same arena as others that are at a level I will never reach demoralizes me. This is why the ranks with only your friends are so great.
@@TheXtrafresh Do you consider personal goals competition with yourself? To me, competition is extrinsic motivation whereas personal bests stem from intrinsic motivation, the latter being much more rewarding.
@@Muskar2 Interesting to think about it in these terms, I never really got beyond "I'm a competitive person". No, I don't find much motivation in competing with myself, other than as preparation for upcoming competition with others. Even in creative endeavors (writing, building, DIY), I mostly get motivated by imagining showing my creations to others.
so real, or if you do want to actually feel like you're part of the competitive scene find a small game with like 10 people who run it. the most fun ive had speed running is on indie games that just came out cause everyone was just as good at speedrunning it as me
3:12 it's crazy how Danganronpa has this power where whether you like it or not, it makes you freak out for the tiniest appearance
i think i have diamond medals in every single story mission, and had NO idea about the red medals lmao
Probably the reason I love racing games so much. For me it's about getting really good at one specific track. Finding the right setup and figuring out the best racing lines reliably sends me on an enjoyable gameplay loop
You got me wanting to play again, I only got through half the game but waS getting red medals on every stage , loved it to much I burned my out after 20ish hours. Thanks! Its a wonderful game for people who love the idea of speedruning. Have to say as well movement is so consistent which meant a lot to me, its easy to repeat a movement in comparison to many other games, no unintuitive momentum conservation like how I felt with ghost runner.
No mention of "The Case Of The Golden Idol" surprised me.
A couple of thoughts after watching this short documentary covering the video.
How easy is it to "reset" after each level, failure or not? When having a short >5 minute per level basis, the ability to reset is a very important feature towards speedrunning. It is why certain games get hated a lot or even why intro cutscenes are sometimes removed altogether in some situations. The standout one in this area is Super Mario Maker where manually resetting is more efficient than automatic letting it rest which still saps away your time at doing nothing.
Leaderboards is generally not a thing that you want to base a game around. Having games be around a competitive scene can actually hurt the game's reputation.
How "unique" are the levels? Are there reasons why a person might choose to selectively run only one level over the rest? This reasoning pushes someone to only run one game / level over many others even if they know they aren't the best of the best or knowing RNG is in the way.
How much actual content and variety is there? It seems like you aren't showing all of it off in this video but at the same time it seems very bland based on what its showing off.
Glad to see Patrick's Parabox getting an honorable mention! Haven't touched that game personally but man watching Aliensrock play it was a joy to watch how the game unfold itself.
Reset is one button press, takes about 2 seconds
The game's marketing was literally "from freaks, to freaks". I don't think they're concerned about appealing to the masses. Besides, it's a game about speedrunning. Speedruns and leaderboards go hand in hand.
Each level is unique, most of them have a specific theme or type of challenge the level is focused around. That said, there is not a lot of mechanics and the levels are short, so they're not drastically different.
There is ~100 levels and 3 bosses. Visual variety was good enough for me.
Hope that cover everything.
Love these videos.
The thrill of getting ever faster and reaching for at least gold reminded me a lot of my old days in Trackmania. This is the first time I'm actually interested in playing this game, thanks Mark!
and they even stole the green medal from trackmania lmao
1:56 Rocket jump isnât one of the discard abilities but rather the weapon ability of Dominionđ¤
this was such a good game; steam randomly recommended it to me and i do not regret one minute spent on this game. learning the movement was so fun
Yay! 8:47 Love seeing Signalis getting a bit of a call out. What an incredible, classic survival horror game. Anyone who loves old school Resident Evil or Silent Hill should give that game a go. One of the best games of 2022 for sure.
really glad you mentions patrick's parabox at the end
Ayo bro thanks for showing that dash level short cut LMFAO I died finding that hand 5:21
Playing through Neon White for my first time, this is one of those games that you can tell what the focus area was (plenty of negative reviews of Neon White cite the writing as... ridiculous at best and I agree with that notion but it's not dragging my experience down), and they did a really good job making that focus area thoroughly-polished
I typically run golds first then go back after finishing a mission to get all its aces and gifts (which the bonus levels tied to those gifts are a blast too!)
Also while they aren't FPSes, that initial "real-time combat deck-builder" concept has worked before - One Step from Eden and its predecessor/inspiration, Mega Man Battle Network, handle blending the real-time fighting with the deck-building really well, there's loads of options and synergies at your disposal (Battle Network can be a bit slow to get to the broad scope of customization especially when every card/chip has a code assigned to it that you have to match with other chips to use more varieties of between opportunities to draw new chips for use) so there's always other setups/strats to try your hand at if one isn't sticking
I absolutely love machine girlâs ost for neon white
Super Mario Maker 2 captures the speedrunning feeling pretty well with its "Ninji" speedruns. Basically, Nintendo releases a level and for ~2 weeks, players get to race and optimize on it while competing on a global leaderboard. Surveying the level, developing your own routes, and then searching what routes and tricks the best streamers and CZcamsrs uses is really fun and captures the fun speedrunning feeling. Plus, the fact that the winners are decided and medals are given out after ~2 weeks makes it much more approachable unlike games like SM64 where runners have been optimizing for years.
When I first saw the thumbnail, Neon White was my first thought.
The smooth controls surprised me more than anything in this. The insight system carrying the whole concept or the existence mikey still surprise me less than the how maniabillity, skills and LD make it so that you never get screwed by not knowing where you really are in space, unlike most FPS.
I love how as soon as you started talking about speed running I knew what was up. Neon white is amazing
Have a happy new year!
Absolutely think the same. I spend so many hours on my switch to ace the levels and it feels perfect. One of my goty definitely
Thanks for the video :)
I'm kind of surprised I don't see Immortality at least mentioned here. For me, it was the most innovative game design I've seen this year - I've never seen a game where a hidden game-mechanic is the plot twist, and once you stumble upon it the tone of the game immediately changes. Discovering it was one of the best aha moment this year, and my favourite piece of game design. Especially since it was always there.
I've also really liked how they end the game before you've seen all of the clips - watching all of the scenes from 3 movies at once and in random order was suprisingly interresting experience, and I'm glad I did not try to continue after the credits roll and 100%, since I think the experience is a lot more memorable, though-provoking and interresting when you don't have the closure - which I think was also a deliberate design choice.
this game is so good i bought it twice. I initially played on Switch until i got into the late game and realized it would feel much better on PC. happy to give the dev money for both ports tho.
Neon White was an amazing surprise for me. I don't tend to like first person games, platformers, or speed running focused titles. Yet the aesthetic, music, style, even the dialogue, interested me. So I picked it up on my Switch after playing a few levels on my brother's copy... Now, nearly 70 hours later, I got every red medal in the game, and am improving my times steadily each time I go back to the beginning to do it all again. I even cracked the top 30 of the global leaderboards, yet I'm craving more and am gunning for the top 20.
This game did something awesome, it's just the right mix of everything that nailed a fun, addicting game that I happily consider my GOTY for 2022. I love it dearly!
YES!!!! Neon White is probably the happiest I've been gaming, not just in 2022, but in years. I love speedruns, and Neon White nails that feeling where a speedrunner at GDQ does something incredibly technical and then says, "That saved 0.3 seconds." The first time I learned about red medals was completely on accident and it's going down in my personal list of gaming's best moments.
I'm glad to see games like Baba Is You and Patrick's Parabox getting some recognition; thinky puzzle games have been getting better with more thoughtful design, and I'm excited that they're starting to gain traction.
what a great year!
I hope one day you'll do a video about death stranding , as it is a unique take on open world games and it has got a lot of room to discuss its design aspects
To another great year!
For some reason CZcams stopped showing me your videos so commenting to keep engagement up
I saw the thumbnail and was able to recognize the cover of Neon White instantly.