Thanks @Yolwoocle! Once I came up with the concept it was clear that I needed players to really sympathise with the plight of a tiny 8x8 sprite, so I tried to add as much personality as possible, to maximise the juxtaposition of killing Harold to progress. Even the utter pointlessness of going through a full day of torture just to return back where he started was completely intentional. Am I the bad guy?

@biovoid the silliness and lightheartedness definitely helps, the music is also pretty cool. I found the pointless ending quite funny.

Such a great game!

this game is hard! nice job makin this!

Thanks @Lowellgames and @Jaesoof!

basically, you have to kill yourself and use your dead bodies as platforms

First Time Longplay: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1430416351
Last level was like half of the lenght of the stream! ♥ Great Game! Thank you!

@Nbrother1607 There are quite a few levels where there's more to it than that, but yeah... that's the gist of it.

@RezoRinRin Loved watching your stream Beri! I think you're the first to livestream Harold, and I loved your chat helping you out. You found some new ways of solving levels that I haven't seen before. And my heart broke when you accidentally reset the cart, but you made it back pretty quick - well done! My favourite part was when you paused in the last level. I was expecting you to say "This is hard", but instead you said "I can do this". Strawberry power!

@biovoid thanks for your nice words! Let me know if you will ever make a sequel, or a new game!

It's good to see people finding different ways to appreciate this.

For a while I gave up. I knew there were better ways to do "Running the Gauntlet", but the timing was so precise that I was only getting through it about 20% of the time, which made running the rest of the game unappealing. Then I practiced just that level for maybe half an hour, and suddenly got the rhythm of it, getting through maybe 60% of the time. It's still been the scene of some painful run-ending moments, but it's achievable.

So, I present to you: Harold's Bad Day v1.5 in 5:42 with 37 Harolds saved!

New routes used in this run:

Having played a lot of Harold's Bad Day, the programming by @biovoid has proved impressively robust. But sometimes I've seen a flicker of motion while moving onto a new level, and finally caught it on video, twice in the same run:

The complete video is over here, but as a speedrun it's a mere 5:47.

I'm guessing that what happens is that the arrow traps fire on the very frame I move to the new level, so the previous level's arrows appear on the next level. It certainly takes quite a while for arrow traps on the new level to fire.

Is it reproducible? I think I've seen this happen before, but never on video. It looks like the arrow traps fire every 2 seconds, or every 60 frames? So if I'm right, there's a 1 in 60 chance of this happening, on levels where the arrow block placement permits arrows on the next level to be seen. Because it's a level transition, you can't simply reset the level and try again if you miss it.

Is it exploitable? I don't think so. You would need a pair of consecutive levels that resulted in the arrow to appearring, and the arrow would need to be in reach of the level start point. I think Harold can't even move left or right until his feet hit the ground, so the glitchy arrows have been and gone before he can do anything. I doubt any level permits this, nifty as it would be to enter a level and have an arrow with no visible source send Harold flying effortlessly to the level exit. It's probably possible to create such a level pair, however.

Also, in version 1.4 Harold did indeed turn red while on fire...

...but it looks like that's gone in version 1.5?

Well spotted @Cowirrie! I'm not sure how the code to make Harold turn red reverted between 1.4 and 1.5, but I'll be putting out a 1.6 release in the next day or so that fixes this, along with the stray arrows. I'm also going to fix the graphical glitch where Harold's feet shadows appear over the top of the flames. None of these fixes will have any affect on speedrun times.

Speaking of which, congratulations on the 5:42 speedrun! Sub 5:30 seems definitely possible. I'm constantly amazed at your speedruns - I'm genuinely humbled by your dedication to my little game. :D

@biovoid
Thank you for continuing to polish your game after so many years working on it. I had noticed the change in the black borders, but thought it might be intentional. I think they also appear while Harold is inside his house. And, talking of Harold's house, if you're making a version 1.6, something odd has happened to its appearance in version 1.5.

@Cowirrie 1.6 is up. Fixes the arrows issue, Harold not turning red, Harold's feet shadow, and the discrepancies between the starting level and the final level. Thanks for your support!

I just beat the game. It is super enjoyable and has a cool, original concept.

Nice work @LazerLazer22! Glad you enjoyed and thanks for the kind words!

This cart is just amazing! I eagerly await further games from you!

Thanks @ErikDebogande! Appreciate your comment and yes, there are definitely more games in the works!

Very interesting game. I like it :D
A very funny moment, at lv.5 I cleared it by taking an arrow which directly took me to lv.6 XD

@Lakshay Thanks for your kind words! Yep, there are numerous ways to complete each level, many of which are required to save the maximum number of Harolds. Some of which I never intended. You've discovered one of them! :D