The Felix Entr'CATe
Hello everyone! It’s a brand new week in the workroom. I hope you had a satisfying week! Let’s get caught up on the latest.
speedrun categories
McLepke speedrunning aficionados have likely noticed by now that I rarely run more than one category of a video game in a row.
Since not everyone who reads this blog is knee-deep into speedrunning, let’s explain this a little more clearly. Different video games have different categories that people compete in. For example, you can speedrun the game Claymates both using warps (the Claymates speedrunning community calls this “Any%”, a common name for the most-basic, non-restricted category of competition in a game), or you can speedrun it with the use of warps banned (the Claymates speedrunning community calls this “Warpless”).
I mention Claymates as an example, because out of all the speedrunning projects I have done to date, Claymates is the only game in which I played multiple categories. I completed my warpless project, and then afterwards I completed an any% project.
In the case of Claymates, warpless was the project I was more-interested in, and the one I did first. One thing about Claymates: once you’ve learned warpless, it’s barely any work to learn Any%. Any% is almost entirely a subset of warpless in Claymates. There is almost no new material you need to learn…you just play less of the game.
Because of that, Claymates didn’t really fully feel like a game where I played more than one category, even though technically I did. I only streamed Claymates Any% for one day. It was more of an epilogue than a separate project.
The extent to which different categories of the same video game contain markedly different material you need to learn varies from game to game and from category to category. Sometimes, two categories are completely different. Sometimes, they only vary in a few critical spots. Sometimes one category is a subset of a second, longer category.
In the case of Felix the Cat, the two categories differ a lot more than the two categories of Claymates differed, but they are still more similar than different. I will get into the differences between the categories more in a little bit. For now, let’s change gears and take a look at how the first Felix project wrapped up.
felix the cat act 1 - any%
To date, I have been practicing and streaming Felix the Cat Any%. The rules of Felix Any% are simple - there really aren’t any rules. You just beat the game as fast as you can using any strategies you desire. The timer starts when you hit start on the opening screen, and it ends when you hit the final boss for the last time.
I wound up live streaming Felix the Cat Any% attempts five different days, for 3-4 hours a pop. The streams went like this:
Stream one - July 23. I end with a personal best (PB) of 24 minutes and 2 seconds (24:02). This was #10 on the leaderboards. For context, the leaderboards have 61 total submissions.
Stream two - July 26. I end with a PB of 23:37. This moves me up to #7 on the leaderboard.
Stream three - July 29. Despite four hours of streaming, I fail to improve my PB. I remain at #7.
Stream four - August 1. I improve my PB to 22:51. I move to #5 on the leaderboards, and now have the fastest time in North America.
Stream five - August 2. I improve my PB to 22:47, and move up to #4 on the leaderboards. This will be my final resting spot, just 12 seconds shy of the world record. As the top three spots are all held by Russian speedrunners, I have the fastest time outside of Russia.
Here’s the final run if you want to check out the culmination of this work.
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbz8e08J2Og
On the topic of the top three all being from Russia, I was wondering if there was anything more to this. Like, was Felix the Cat really popular in Russia or something? Or is it just coincidence?
I did some Googling, and while I could find no reason why this game would be any more popular in Russia than any other game, I did find a newspaper article about a chubby cat named Felix who regularly appears near the tracks of the Staraya Russa train station as the 10:40pm Moscow to Pskov train is departing.
Apparently, all of the train conductors who work this route know Felix, and for several years now they have all been preparing sausage to toss out of the train car to Felix when he shows up. The article I found was from 2021, but I hope Russian Felix is still thriving to this day.
Back on topic of the leaderboards, my runs have not all been verified by the moderators of Felix speedrunning yet, so I am still listed as being in 7th in this photograph, but here’s what the top of the leaderboard looks like if you’re interested. Once my 22:47 gets verified, I’ll be sitting in 4th.
Intermission between acts
In contrast to Any%, which has a decent amount of competition in its 61 submitted runs on the leaderboard, Felix’s second category, Low%, only has two.
However, McLepke speedrunning aficionados know that I am happy to compete in a 33 year old video game among a three-person field. In fact, our last project, Mr. Nutz, was essentially a one-person leaderboard when I showed up, and I walked away twelve weeks later ranked #2 of 2. If it feels meaningful to you, then go ahead and do it. No one else is going to give your life meaning for you. That’s the work we have to do.
So, what is Felix Low%? Well, for the first time in my speedrunning career, I am actually trying to have a say in that.
See, I read the rules for Felix Low%, and there was one aspect of them that I think we will all be better off changing. Here are the rules as they exist today:
The bullet point I don’t agree with is the third. I understand why someone might initially think this a logical addition. The level in question features Felix in a space craft, as he takes to the stars to save his girlfriend Kitty.
The way Felix the Cat works, is you start out in your default form. What your default form is changes depending on what type of level you’re in. If it’s a standard level, you will be Felix holding his magical bag. If you’re in a flying level, you will be Felix holding an umbrella he uses to float. If you’re underwater, you will be Felix in swimming goggles. Finally, if you’re on the surface of the water, you will be Felix in a circular swimming tube.
Each of these default forms changes if you collect a power up. Basic Felix with the magical bag will become a Magician. Felix with the umbrella will become Felix in a hot air balloon. Felix wearing the swimming goggles will become Felix riding a sea turtle. Finally, Felix riding the circular swimming tube will become Felix riding a dolphin.
Each of these default forms has a few other things in common. First, unlike the spaceship shown in the image above, there will not be any hearts in the top left portion of the screen. The hearts in the top left portion of the screen indicate how much longer Felix can remain in his current form. But, each stage has a default form, which represents Felix’s lowest level of power. When you’re in that form, you can’t power down any further, so there are no hearts.
The second thing all the default forms have in common is that if you get hit once, you will die. If Felix is powered up, taking damage will revert him to his default form rather than cause a death.
Level 8-1 is the only level that doesn’t quite work like this. In level 8-1, Felix’s default form DOES have hearts - it is the spaceship shown in the image above. The spaceship is also unique in that it is the only default Felix form that cannot power up; collecting a power up will simply refill your hearts to the maximum. It does not change you into a more powerful spaceship or anything like that.
The developers designed this level to work differently than a normal level. In fact, if you don’t pick up anything that refills your hearts, you cannot beat the level without dying. This is why in the rules it states that you have to take a death in this level. This is the part of the rule that I think makes sense to change.
I took to Discord and the speedrun.com forum to lay out my case. Here is what it looked like:
As of this writing, the rule change is still under consideration. It has gotten a couple votes of approval from existing members of the community so far. Time will tell.
So, yes, I have started a Felix the Cat political revolution. Now this is my idea of a life well lived.
felix act two
One thing this complicates is the timeline of me actually learning and performing Felix the Cat Low%. Of course, my proposed rule change only affects one level, so I can still learn the rest of the run while I wait on the powers-that-be to deliberate on the matter. That’s what I will do. If the decision drags out and I feel ready to perform the run one way or another? I guess we will cross that bridge if and when it comes.
Anyway, that’s it for me this week. It’s a speedrunning-only update. I am making it a personal goal to come back with some game dev content in next week’s update; I have been slacking off a bit.
I hope you all have a fantastic week! You can do it and my belief in you is still strong. Go forth. I will talk to you next week.
