ULTRAKILL has a problem...

Ultrakill has a problem... And that problem... Is you.
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VIDEO REFERENCES:
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Music from…
Ultrakill OST
Furi OST

INTRO: (00:00)
ULTRAKILL HAS AN ULTRAKILL PROBLEM: (02:58)
DIFFICULTY & BALANCING: (05:36)
THE PROBLEM WITH 'BEING OVERPOWERED': (13:20)
SPECULATION & AVERSION TO CHANGE: (17:27)
TOXICITY & GATEKEEPING: (27:03)
CONCLUSION: (32:08)

#DumpsterMan #Ultrakill #videoessay

[DumpsterManTV]

Whew, what a couple days since I released this video. I ended up crawling the comments a little more than I anticipated over the weekend, but I still had a bunch of unplug time which was awesome. Finally sitting down and catching up with everything, and for everything I said in this video it's funny to feel like there is still more I want to say...

TL;DR after thinking about it, the people who have criticized me for the choice of Tweets I highlighted in the nailgun section, are 100% correct, I could've done a much better job of selecting actually toxic and unproductive tweets to show this side of the community's response to changes like this, and I will admit fully I rushed this section thinking that for how quickly it flashed on screen people wouldn't care or notice... I was totally wrong and I messed up. I wrote a longer post with some additional thoughts, and a longer explanation here if you are curious: twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss7dfk

I am extremely happy with how constructive and civil the vast majority of the comments here have been, I'm trying still to read and respond to as many as I can. Keep on keepin' on Ultrakillers.

[Hakita]

As a community gets larger, the amount of bad people in it also increases, even though the percentage stays the same.
That's really just to say that don't let those people ruin your view of the community, because there are plenty more amazing people joining and having fun than there are annoying or toxic people, it's just a part of human psychology that you notice the latter a lot more than the former.
If the community keeps growing (which it almost certainly will) we'll eventually unavoidably reach the point of saturation where you'll start to see the "The game's good, but the community ruined it" or "I'm never going to play the game because the community sucks" takes become common (I've already seen some of both).
That's pretty much the inevitable end point of any indie game community that gets big enough, so I just want to remind people to remember to pay attention to how many amazing people there are and how much incredible fan content and engagement there is instead of accidentally focusing on the worst and thinking the community has rotted into garbage.

[nevinmyers]

I honestly think Ultrakill's lucky to have a lead developer who's so uncompromising in his vision. Developers that don't listen to the community suck, but a developer who listens to everyone can straight up ruin a game. I trust Hakita to make his game way more than I trust the entirety of the internet to do so.

[odkjqedlkd]

I like how some people dont realize that not everyone has that much free time to soak hundereds of hoirs into the same game

[DeepSpace]

As a player that joined after the Act 2 Update, I can say this game is designed almost perfectly. Gabe 2 definitely kicked my ass, and even Gabe 1. Minos Prime absolute JUDGED me, and I'm trying to P rank P-1.

[raygun]

as somebody who has ~600 hours in Ultrakill, you raise excellent points about the difficulty of Act 2's bosses that I never really considered before - like my biggest complaint about Gabe 2 when the update first released is that he felt way too easy, not realising this is a boss tailored for somebody who went from Act 1 to Act 2 immedately and not someone who had plenty of time to get very familiar with the game from when Gabe 1 was the last available boss

[ConsarnitTokkori]

the real problem with ultrakill is that who is ultrakill and why must they die

[kamisverycool]

I think that having a dlc where you play as v2 would actually be sick

It'd be like Shovel Knight's dlc, where you would look at the world in a different perspective

[maxgoldstein]

Very well written as usual. It really sucks that almost every community ever has to come with a "don't let a few bad apples spoil the bunch" warning plastered on it, but sadly that's the nature of the internet. It's been an absolute joy being able to grow as a player alongside the game as new content and secrets are added, and I doubt that will change anytime soon, especially with the next update (i'm so hyped for the Serious Cannon RL). I also very much agree with the points you made about taking a break from the game; while I have never taken a super long hiatus from Ultrakill, simply disconnecting from the community for a minute is a great way to a) enjoy the game more and b) start to develop a playstyle that feels uniquely yours.

[MageLufaine]

New player here! I got into Ultrakill roughly a few months before Act 2 fully dropped and despite some fears that my inexperience would be ridiculed by the community, I'm so glad to say that hasn't been the case. In fact, this community has felt like one of the most welcoming even with the game having such a high skill ceiling. I've never really seen a community be so vocal about a game's accessibility options and that it's valid to play the game on lower difficulties before (even Gianni pointed them out at the end of his Ultrakill stream). Yeah I'm sometimes sad that I can't do the fancy tech despite watching tutorials, but then I remember that I'm not only learning a new genre (my experience with FPS is very limited) but that I'm also getting familiar with a new style of gameplay (keyboard and mouse). And that's okay because in the long run I've had a blast, plus I've managed to P-Rank a few stages! And honestly it is down to the fact that I personally don't feel ridiculed for playing on the easier difficulties.

[EreNyn]

You've done an amazing job of clearly voicing the main issues we see in not just the ULTRAKILL community, but a lot of the game communities I'm a part of. Whether it be Team Fortress 2, Deep Rock Galactic, DOOM, or Minecraft... we just can't seem to get away from these types of individuals, can we?

However, I won't be using this video as a way to highlight the issues the ULTRAKILL community has, since I and many others here (Hakita himself included) have already come to terms with the inevitability that is having bad apples in the bunch. With games like ULTRAKILL which have become such huge phenomena, I'll use your video to push forward the idea that we should approach it all knowing full well that the scale of positivity will always vastly outweigh the negativity (which I'm sure you're very familiar with through your time making content, because I know I am hahaha).

The way I see things, it just so happens that the higher a game climbs in its lifetime, the more noticeable the potential falls are. Let's all continue to do our best with looking up and continuing to enjoy our journey with these amazing games knowing full well that we can support others who are going through the exact same problems as us, and that things can only get better from this point on through perspective.

Awesome video man.

[sr.nutella]

This whole video reminded me of two stories I had with some Discord friends

I had a close friend who I used to chat with about Ultrakill a lot, either making up theories, praising the music, sending each other memes, whatever; and we were both excited about the Act II update, until we played it. For me, it was a fantastic experience, getting new and fresh challenges, seeing all the new levels and concepts, fucking around with the rocket launcher, and all that stuff; but my friend started saying that the new layers were unfair, and that he kept dying too much, until we read the changelog. Basically, the problem was that his whole playstyle involved just using the pump shotgun and the knuckleblaster, and then using the whiplash when he needed to heal; and so it was killed with the whiplash nerf and the style meter rework, to the point where he just kinda gave up and abandoned the game because he didn't find it enjoyable anymore

And there is the case of another friend of mine, who despite being more used to JRPGs and playing with controllers rather than mouse and keyboard, bought the game after seeing the passion and love that me and some other friends had for it... but then he got stuck on V2, and he started feeling bad for not being able to do all the "cool stuff" that me and others talked about, and for playing on low difficulties; until we basically told him to just enjoy the game the way he wants and cheered him on, to the point where he could get unstuck and keep enjoying the game and having fun with it

[Lunite]

I will always be here. no matter who you disagree with, even if you disagree with me.

this game will always hold a special place in my heart no matter how I think of it.

sure, the community is growing to become something I'm starting to hate... but the game will never change.
And that's something I can guarantee.

[littletrucker]

Note on the difficulty and balancing section: this exact scenario has been happening in monster hunter and its community. Each game is designed with a difficulty curve in mind, and each game that curve gets reset back to 0. Many people started with monster hunter world, going through all the challenges for the first time and struggling, and when the next monster hunter game came out its difficulty was often compared to when people were experiencing the game for the first time, in a series where legacy knowledge makes a massive difference there were a bunch of people who were disappointed

[icefin]

I hate when instead of encouraging and informing newer players on mechanics secrets etc people go out of their way to make people feel bad for not doing it as well as them everybody experience is different and doing so discourages people from playing a game you love its bad for the developers the game and the community

[evanlee]

considering the ultrakill channel in the New Blood discord is the only channel in the entire server to be on slowmode basically permanently, and has its own dedicated mods separate from the rest of the server, really says a lot about the fanbase

[scpWyatt]

it sounds weird but ultrakill has felt so much like subnautica to me. a "hidden indie gem classic" (i fucking hate that phrase) that really is just so god damn much better than you think it is when you first boot it up, with a community is insanely passionate about it, improving it through development. Hopefully it never becomes insanely cringe like some other game communities are. but it really is one of those games that is so fucking rad the first playthrough, and you always feel like you're looking for that high again afterwards, which is dope to see you drawing parallels with subnautica for this game. ultrakill is like subnautica with guns.

[cyphinmas]

20:44 oh yeah, from what I remember it's because hakita forgot to assign a weight to the saws, they were supposed to have a weight of one, but because either as an experiment or because someone forgot, the saws weight was set to zero, which meant that magnets could have a lot stacked on them and they wouldn't break

[jackmckeown]

"Players will always find the best way to optimise the fun out of the game" Fallout developer

[ScaredJade]

slight correction- the most substantial content update to the game was adding buttplug suppourt