Sky is the Limit - An Interview with Two Owlboy Speedrunners

Anyone who follows speedrunning, even in the most casual of ways, probably knows that games like Metroid usually makes for great speedgames. Routing is usually a matter of carefully managing resources, hitting platforming segments just right, and incorporating some clever screen wraps or zips to reach areas faster. One well-received indie game has made for an incredible speedrunning experience with a community that has steadily pushed the run further and further, recently getting the Any% run down to below half an hour. That game is the delightfully beautiful and pleasant Owlboy.

Note: the study of Owlboy speedruns was done primarily through this leaderboard, not an official Twin Galaxies leaderboard. Both interviews were conducted through Twitter messages.

A game that was about a decade in the making, Owlboy hit the indie scene with a stellar reveal that eventually led to a release in November of 2016 that did critically well. While the game has been primarily on PC and then Mac a few months later, Owlboy recently hit the Switch and will eventually launch on PS4 and Xbox One. There is even a physical edition of the Switch game on the way, for those that are into ever-expanding game shelves.

With Owlboy having a lot of Metroidvania elements, the game was almost immediately picked up by speedrunners. In the Any% category, the run was taken down below an hour by the end of the year, not even two months after release. From there, the time kept plummeting, where it eventually hit that coveted 30 minute mark. Even the developers, D-Pad Studio, supported the speedrunning scene by patching in ways to keep key exploits available for use.

When speedrunning Metroidvania titles, just watching a run can get confusing, but actively engaging with the runner through livestreams or social media can provide a lot more insight. To figure things out, we talked to two Owlboy runners, imPurple, who is the one who got the Any% run below 30 minutes, and Zic3, who is known for holding the top spot in the 100% run and has also been at the top of the All Bosses category. Zic3 also did the All Bosses run at AGDQ 2018, with several other Owlboy community members backing him up on the couch.

Before diving into Owlboy specific questions, we asked imPurple to tell us a bit about his life and where his gaming hobby began.

“I was previously known as PurpleMudkip7, and I'm a college student from the United States. I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember, starting with the N64 as a kid. For me, gaming has always been a great platform for entertainment, but it's also been a great competitive outlet for me, whether through games like Team Fortress 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee, or by speedrunning.”

There is a love of music with imPurple that is also a big part of his life. “Outside of gaming, I'm big into music and have found enjoyment in playing the guitar, which I've played for about five years now. I would say music, music theory, playing music, etc. is my second favorite hobby, with gaming and speedrunning being my obvious first favorite.”

When it comes to choosing Owlboy, it was mostly a matter of imPurple and his friends that were also runners all picked up the game at launch and steadily picking it apart.

“After only a few hours, my friend SolidifiedGaming found a way to get out of bounds. My friends started messing around with the glitch to see what they could find, while I continued to play through and finish the game casually for the rest of the day. Yet, I became fascinated with how much we could potentially break Owlboy.”

Once the runners got out of bounds, things started to take shape. “The next day, they made a Discord server dedicated to Owlboy speedrunning and glitch hunting, which continues to be the server the community still uses. We spent a few more days doing nothing but glitch hunting until I finally put together a route and did what we thought was the first Any% run. I say thought because there was actually a second group of people in the D-Pad Studio Discord server and one of them did a run a couple hours before me.”

“Lucky for me though,” continued imPurple, “we had found more glitches and skips, so my run was faster. Ever since then, I've just loved to see how broken we can make Owlboy.”

Zic3, who is known for his 100% and All Bosses runs, also shared why he picked up Owlboy as a speedgame. “A combination of love for the game, the speedrunning community we've built, and the self improvement/competition that comes with speedrunning. Over the last two years the Owlboy speedrunning community has become an amazing group of people constantly pushing each other to improve and beat the game faster and faster.”

Doing the runs live is also a big appeal to many speedrunners, as it (usually) solidifies the validity of the run, as well as makes it easy to archive by sending the run to a YouTube channel. “Getting to do that while streaming it and sharing it with others has always been a very satisfying experience,” said Zic3.

When it comes to the execution of the run, getting out of bounds is a huge part of it. These will pop the main character Otus into areas that allow for shortcuts or will produce a zip effect, which will quickly push him to a particular place. Zips are used a lot in games like Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow speedruns, usually as a way to get a specific item earlier than usual.

Runner imPurple explained some of the basics of the Any% run. “Especially in Any%, which is the category I run, food zips are a big part of the run. Essentially, if Otus is able to grab a piece of food in the ground, you're able to almost instantly "zip" to somewhere else in the map (often out of bounds) by releasing both of the mouse buttons (or both L and R if on controller) on the same frame. The game runs at 60 FPS, so food zips can be a little tricky. However, I wouldn't say something like that should turn people away from learning the game if they want to.”

The Owlboy community continues to be vibrant and eager, according to imPurple. “We've got a super passionate community that has made multiple tutorials and are willing to help out with any questions or problems that somebody might have. We have a nice mixture of people that have been speedrunning for years and those who call Owlboy their first speedgame. I really do think it's a great game that anybody can pickup and enjoy running, whether they are new to speedrunning or long-time veterans.”

It’s that comradery that is bringing these runners back for more and allows for greater improvement as multiple players are working towards similar goals. “I feel a strong community does wonders for the success of any game as a speedrun,” said Zic3.

“I believe very strongly in a collective community effort in pushing a game to its limits,” Zic3 continued. “Sharing ideas and new strategies with everyone helps the speedrun of a game improve, and in the long run helps the community of a game grow rather than just hoarding ‘pocket strats’ from everyone to secure a time better than everyone else in the future.”

In speedrunning, depending on the game, there can be issues of what version the game is ran on. In modern gaming, just about every game gets updates over time. Sometimes an update can completely kill a run by taking out a crucial exploit or altering the effects of how the game originally worked. This has been an issue in Super Mario Odyssey speedruns recently that has shaken up the leaderboard and has made people question whether to run a particular version or just always the latest version.

Zic3 explained his thoughts on this, “Game patching can be tricky. Especially today where more and more people are speedrunning games on Day 1 because things can be subject to change. We've tried our best in Owlboy to stay on the current patch as much as possible and luckily we've had a lot of support from the developers to keep that a possibility.”

Of course Owlboy had the benefit of input to the developers, which were kind enough to keep exploits or bring them back into the game’s code. “I think staying on the most up to date patches is best if updates are necessary for a game because it keeps things easily accessible for new runners.”

When asked if speedrunning has improved other aspects of life, imPurple didn’t think that anything has changed. “At the end of the day, I'm just some guy that's quickly playing a video game and having fun.” He also mentioned that he just didn’t see an outside benefit like what ipie4fun did in his Job Simulator runs.

Zic3 on the other hand, saw himself approach things differently. “Whether that is solving a problem, or even just playing a different game. Seeing and figuring out how to do things optimally or faster is something I would say is an improvement or a side effect.”

The speedrunning community, for the most part, is one that is generally positive that pushes things to the limits, while providing a ton of benefits for those involved. Runners are oftentimes some of the most positive people around, and being involved in speedrunning has helped them in life in some capacity.

We asked imPurple what he thinks about the positivity surrounding speedgaming. “I think it's because we all just want to see how low we can push the time for our speedgames. So, generally, people will be friendly and help each other out because it encourages people to lower their own personal best, which will hopefully help to eventually lower the world record.”

Owlboy as a speedgame is a great example of how a community worked together to reach new heights. D-Pad Studio getting involved with the speedrun community is also something worth praise, but may not be the best approach for every game. Even as a viewer though, Owlboy is something that is just fascinating to see in action. Anyone who is looking to pick up Owlboy as a speedrun can easily access tools like the Owlboy community Discord or the D-Pad Studio Discord, as well as several video tutorials and written guides.

For now, it looks like there is still room for improvement on the various categories. With the game hitting Switch, there is also some work being put into seeing what exploits are viable on that version. Even outside of speedrunning though, Owlboy is worth checking out. Both of the runners we interviewed are also worth taking some time to find online.

Find imPurple on Twitch and Zic3 on his own Twitch.