Blogs - ArtFol

In the last article I talked about how speedrunners helped make the game better. This time I decided to answer the question - What is Ingression?

Ingression is a platformer game inspired by two classic games - Portal and Celeste. Set in the distant future, you play as a thief who must save the world from destruction. The story takes place in the 26th century, when the main character, Rina, is hired by a scientist named Kowalski (and yes, there is a reference to whom you think about right now) to steal an important part of a time machine that can save another world. This is not your typical "save the world" game, though.

What exactly is going on?

Rina must make her way through the Empire's research center, which is full of various dangers. Lasers, carnivorous plants, worms, robo-spiders, holograms, drones, and many, no, MANY, spikes. In this difficult path, she is helped by a former scientist of this very Empire, who has his own ulterior motives. He simultaneously seeks to save everyone and regain the invention that was stolen from him. And you will also be helped by portals (I always think that portals are cool), but behind them you can stumble upon something unexpected and very unpleasant.

Deaths

Each chapter has its own unique mechanics and threats, while the basis of the game remains fast reactions, portals, jumps, and deaths. Yes, you will die. Very much.

Death in the game is something that will happen to you not 1, not 10, and not 100 times. This is not a punishment here, but a part of learning the levels. Even those who have been working on the project since its beginning died at least a hundred or two times in one full game run. At the same time, death here is quick and does not really punish you, so you don't even think about their number (well, except for bosses, of course). There are no long animations, labels, or downloads. So after completing the game, you may be surprised that you died 1200 times (yes, this is my death count for the first playthrough), although it felt like it was only 100 times.

We also worked hard on the movement mechanics to make them as accurate as possible, and the fall into the spikes did not happen simply because Rina slipped off the platform or tripped over something. To help us polish the movement, we worked in collaboration with top speedrunners of the cult platformer and precision-platformer games. Yes, even in the development of the game, Speedrunners played a significant role. What I wrote about, for example, here (link).

Ingression relies very heavily and makes explicit curtsies towards hardcore players and speedrunners. So, the game has its own timer, and a leaderboard with a separate speedrunner level (and there will be more soon), and a death counter (there are already about 2500 deaths on my counter in the last save, 500 more and I will get the rarest achievement, finally).

By the way, the project looks really cool on all sorts of portable consoles, such as Steam Deck (the game has received Verified status), Rog Ally, etc., and, of course, work is already underway in two directions - a port to the Switch and the addition of a level editor so that everyone can create their own levels.

If you liked the project, subscribe and follow the news here or on Steam. By the way, on June 27 (today), a major update of the game will be released, with the new mechanics, levels and even more comfortable gameplay on handhelds!

Link to Steam - Ingression

What is Ingression?

Ingression is a precision platformer being developed by a small team with one coder and a few part-time sound designers, artists, etc. The game pays huge respect to and was inspired by Portal and Celeste, and is set in a far-future where a thief, Rina, must steal time machine modules from the Evil Empire™. Rina needs to go through a spaceship base filled with lasers, giant worms, holograms, drones, spikes, and many other things that can kill.

Echo Chamber and Playtests

Developing a game with a small crew can create an echo chamber effect. Everyone is close to the project, and of course, everyone loves it (Otherwise, why would they be working on it?). And that's great, until... you need objective feedback. You need external opinions to be sure that the game you're making is working. And here's where our struggle becomes real. Unlike companies like Valve, hiring a battalion of playtesters just isn't an option.

Yes, demos, trials, and festivals offered some possibilities to test our game and vision, but feedback was often limited in time (for example, we couldn't wait for the Next Fest or prepare everything for the open playtest at Steam in the coming week). So, Ingression needed something more specific and targeted as soon as possible since we were close to release. We needed all of this to polish the changes made after the open playtest.

Speedrunners and Their Help

Then it hit us: we are making a game for quite hardcore players, including speedrunners. What if we ask speedrunners to try the game and then tell us their thoughts? Since a list of games that are similar to Ingression had been collected for a long time for marketing and research purposes, the only thing left to do was to go to Speedrun.com and YouTube, type in the names of these games, and write to those who might be interested in the game.

It's important to write to speedrunners short letters and provide the key in the first letter/message. Don't try to say something like “if you're interested, request the keys and I'll send you the keys right away, blah, blah, blah.” This is an additional action for those who might be interested, so there will be fewer who agree. Just write that you noticed them because of their very cool runs on the game Y, you are working on game X, here is the key, and we'll be happy to hear feedback. Often, speedrunners agreed even if you just write to Speedrun.com, but, to be honest, the messaging system is really terrible and inconvenient there.

The Impact of Speedrunners

We captured the feedback in spreadsheets and asked for videos or logs if something went wrong. Among those who wrote feedback or impressions of the game, a third of the speedrunners were able to find softlocks in various places and provide the necessary info so we could reproduce and fix them, and half were able to find some in-level bugs (apparently, not without the help of their ability to find easy and quick ways through the game). And, most importantly, almost everyone wrote their feedback about the movement mechanics, which we asked for separately. As a result, we ended up with a very informative table, with the help of which we were able to further improve and finalize the remaining mechanics.

By the way, watching speedrunners discover unconventional ways to beat levels was a very unusual experience (in a good manner) for our team.

Final Thoughts

Thanks to speedrunners, we were able to realize that the mechanics in the game really got better. Jumping on platforms and using portals became much more enjoyable, and later, this was confirmed by the game reviews and feedback from influencers. So this story had a really good effect on the project at some point.

We noticed one interesting thing: the less popular and “pop” the game, speedrunners on which you write, the more chances that the speedrunner will answer you.

And don't forget to thank your speedrunners. This can look many different ways, for example, we've added to the credits those who have given us any feedback or comments. It's nice for small players and speedrunners to be mentioned in the game, and it leaves a good impression. And remember, they are not a free labor force and QA testers. They can do something of their free will, or not. But if they do, please, make at least something for them.

Also, a side note: this all took place a few weeks before release, but from the effect we felt, I'd recommend trying this earlier in development as well. We will definitely do that in the future with suitable projects.

If you like the project, subscribe and stay tuned here or on Steam.