Game:

Venineth (2020)

Duration: 8:53

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Varr is my favorite of all Venineth levels. It is the most atmospherically well-executed: A planet rife with sandstorms looked over by two stars engulfing it in burning light. It is perhaps the closest I have seen a place feel like hell without fire, brimstone and lava.

It is also because it is incredibly fun to break the boundaries of this level.

The main concept of this level is to navigate paths that aren't illuminated by the stars; if you do run into the light, your marble will burn... or that is how it's supposed to work. If you force the game to run at 30fps, you can outrun the light and avoid getting burned. This does require you running around the starlit field at near-max speed at all times, but at least on relatively flat surfaces, you can do so without much hassle. Also, since most of the area are where you aren't supposed to have access to, there seems to be little, if any, friction checks, so you can climb some surprisingly steep slopes without losing speed. Something to take note if you want to explore the various sand dunes sitting as the backdrop of this level.

...and there is going to be a LOT of sand dunes available for you to explore. When I say you aren't supposed to have access to "most of the area", I do mean it. Just looking around while running can seriously mess with your senses of how huge some of the hills or the expanses are, and because of this, if you try to travel to the edge of the map, you may end up falling off the world if you don't pay close attention to where the terrain abruptly ends. For a level that mostly revolves around exploring the sand-ridden stronghold, it has absolutely no business having an area this massive to be spent just for the aesthetics. Although that being said, as you can see throughout this video, most of the terrain that you shouldn't be able to see are just empty, and the terrain cutoffs are only visible when you are out of bounds, so... efficient use of polygons, I guess?

Anyways, even aside from the fact that you need to run around the terrain at max speed, sudden inclines, sudden declines, random bounces, and even just random out-of-bounds check that is completely separate from the starlight burn check and have no way of outrunning them (although I only found these at the end of the level, not the beginning as shown in this video) all contribute to the fact that boundary breaking this level can be tricky at times. Still, there are interesting things you may find if you travel far out... and in this video I find (probably) the strangest one of them all.

Weirdness starts at 5:37

At the beginning of the level, mid-air roll to gain some quick momentum and escape the map. Turn right, and preferrably towards the flattest parts of the terrain alongside the cutoff. From where the cutoff ends, turn towards the two stars until you reach the edge of the map. Travel alongside the edge, and when you see the corner, turn left towards the thunderstorm, and continue to travel alongside the edge. (It may be possible to cut down time by somehow scaling the hills, but doing so without losing momentum will be dicey, if not impossible)

Once you are facing towards the thunderstorm, I recommend using W+A strafing in order to get your camera facing inwards the map. At some point, you will hit an invisible slope and start ascending at an astonishing rate, enough for you to get a bird's eye view of Varr in all of its glory: its sand dunes, the stronghold, and a disguisting amount of terrain cutoffs. Now, you do need to be mindful of your camera angle because you must still be holding W+A and you are still climbing a slope, so turning your view left too much will cause you to lose momentum and let your marble burn from the starlight. However, if you keep your camera angle at a sane position, you will get yourself ample time to take a good look at what seemed to be a gargantuan labyrinth of a structure is really a tiny speck on this desert of a planet.

The slope eventually ends and you get yourself a hefty drop. There is not a single world that this marble survives this; in fact, a big enough drop that isn't a steep decline towards your desired direction kills most of your momentum, so the marble burns once it makes contact with the sandy floor.

I'll leave everything else for you to explore. Maybe you will end of finding something sillier?

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