Warp Reference: SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell Think Arcade

----- Context -----

SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell is about a man named Marty who has his beer stolen by Satan.

He proceeds to head to hell to get it back. That’s about it really.

The game focuses more on , only incorporating story to give some context as to why the player is running through hell.

----- What Worked Well -----

Short, Simple Levels: Levels were, for the most part, were very lightweight and were designed to be completed in 20 seconds or less. This allowed the game to have 80+ levels in it, and it doesn’t feel exhausting to players to complete them all. In addition, levels that introduced a new power up or mechanic were extremely simple and focused solely on that new element, and allowing other levels to introduce how it mixed with other mechanics. This created a sort of modular design, where each served a specific purpose.

Also, levels were cleverly named to describe what the player was supposed to do, learn, or overcome, which at times served as a hint.

Figure 1: A tutorial level

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Figure 2: A slightly more complex level

Figure 3: More difficult level still confined to a single tower

Instant Restart: Levels load incredibly fast in SEUM, and with the press of the ‘R’ key the player instantly restarts the level back to its initial state. There’s no lengthy death sequence, and as soon as the player knows they messed up they can immediately restart and be back in the action in well under a second.

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Power Ups: The player’s movement is made more interesting through introducing a secondary ability that the player has once they pick up a power up. They can use the power up through a secondary button press, and can be used infinitely until they change to a different power up, or complete the level. The different power ups include:

• Anti-gravity: When used, gravity pulls up instead of down on the player. • Teleport: When used, the player throws a blue orb, and the player will teleport (along the path) to the land location. The player can also choose to press the use button again while the projectile is in the air to perform a mid-air teleport. • Split: Make the player ethereal and marks the location where they used it – upon use again the player is “rewound” back the starting location. • Spawn Platform: The player shoots a red orb that, upon use again or impact with a surface, will spawn a platform that the player can stand on. The platform lasts forever.

These power ups are all used in conjunction with the player’s main ability, throwing fireballs. They’re also each color coded.

Figure 4: A spawn platform power up

Level Elements: There are many objects in the level that serve to make gameplay more interesting and challenging, while also guiding the player. Basic geometry mixed with these elements create lightweight levels that can be prototyped fast for gameplay testing, and are fun. They work well together, but also act as standalone features, with individual levels introducing them.

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Figure 5: A gate the player must move through to unlock the exit

Figure 6: A bounce subwoofer that launches the player

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Figure 7: A brazier that is lit by a player fireball; it acts as a switch to activate something

Figure 8: The exit portal to each level

Time: Levels need to be completed in a specified amount of time in order to be flagged as finished, allowing the player to continue in the story. However, if time runs out the player doesn’t die, just that if/when they do finish that attempt, it won’t count. This allows players to spend as much time as they like exploring the map, gathering an understanding before their next speedrun attempt.

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If the level is completed under the more strictly defined “fast time,” the player will have access to view replays of that level on the leaderboards.

Collectibles: Included in each level is a can of beer that the player can collect. They are usually placed in out-of-reach locations, where the player wouldn’t collect them during an actual speedrun attempt. Collecting cans of beer usually requires advanced skill of the mechanic the level is testing. By collecting these cans, the player unlocks bonus levels on each floor of hell.

Figure 9: A collectible can of beer

Bonus Modes: In addition to the story speedrun mode, there are bonus episodes of levels the player can complete. Also, there is an endless runner mode where the player is constantly platforming in one direction, with procedurally generated platforms, power ups, and instead of time, the distance reached is recorded. Lastly, there is a level editor, where the player can build their own levels and share them with the SEUM community.

Lightweight Story and Humor: Lightly layered on top of all the gameplay is the story of Marty getting his beer back, which is humorous and motivates the player to reach Satan. Certain levels and gameplay segments will prompt dialogue from Marty, and Satan chimes in on every death, which keeps the game from being silent. Overall though, each level doesn’t concern itself with being tied to the narrative, allowing it to focus on the gameplay challenge it was designed to test. ----- What Didn’t Work Well -----

Boss Levels: levels don’t actually incorporate a boss, but instead are just extra challenging levels…..that are longer. One thing the game does well is allowing the player to immediately retry a challenging segment when they fail, whether that be from their death or the player manually resetting. However, with some boss levels lasting well over a minute and chocked full of difficult

6 8/2/18 Warp Reference: SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell Think Arcade challenges, it becomes frustrating to re-complete earlier parts of levels to reach the uncompleted parts. This becomes time consuming, and ultimately doesn’t help the player get better at the objective they’re failing at.

In short, short levels work much better.

Figure 10: A large, many-asset boss level with many gauntlets within....no checkpoints

Difficulty: The entire game is challenging, but with quick respawns and infinite tries, the challenge is eventually replaced with the player’s developed skill. However, some of the later levels are very difficult, and are often punishing if timing isn’t near perfect. Coupled with some levels being longer than the rest, it makes the end of the game quite a challenge to complete and requires patience from the player.

----- Conclusion -----

SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell might be our best reference if we’re going for a speedrun archtype. They emphasize gameplay heavily, which still incorporating a strong theme without an overwhelming story. They accomplish this focus by keeping levels very simple – despite having a lot of movement requiring a lot of space, there isn’t a lot in each level to begin with (only some platforming geometry and background environment), which makes large levels easier and faster to produce (this could shed light as to how we can solve our level size problem).

In addition, the game introduces a lot of challenge but accommodating the challenge with tools to help the player get better (namely, quick respawning). Overall, the game is designed to help the player develop skill, so they walk away feeling like they’re better at the game with each play session. Also, the

7 8/2/18 Warp Reference: SEUM: Speedrunners From Hell Think Arcade game has a very high skill ceiling, so players won’t get bored with lack of challenge – they can continuously replay to get the fastest time on the leaderboard.

SEUM is definitely a skill-focused game.

Lastly, they play to their theme very well, and match the visuals with badass metal music. From the gameplay environment, to the menus and sound effects, the game feels polished and truly unique.

In conclusion, SEUM answers a lot of the questions that we’ve been asking about Warp, and we can use some of their techniques to create a similar experience of our own that itself can still feel unique.

(All screenshots taken by Andrew Chase, directly from gameplay)

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