User:V6 Man/Glossary

This page is a glossary of all terms relating to VVVVVV. Some of these terms are officially used in the main game, and others are used within the VVVVVV community.

A
Artificial difficulty: A design tactic that increases the difficulty of a level, but does it in a way that requires little effort from the designer. Common artificial difficulty methods include checkpoint starvation and pick-a-warp. These tactics are often frowned upon by the community. Auto: A room, section, or level where the player does not have to touch any buttons because the design elements do everything for the player. Auto areas may sometimes break between versions due to changes in the game's physics. Levels that only require button presses to advance through the trinket collection dialogue may still be considered auto.

C
Checkpoint: A point in a level where the player can save their game, as well as a spot that they will return to upon death. Checkpoint starvation: Either unintentional or deliberate lack of checkpoints in a room or section of rooms in order to increase difficulty. Cheese: To beat a room, area, or level in an unintended, easier way. Can also refer to getting trinkets in an unintended way. Cheesing a level by skipping rooms is often referred to as sequence breaking. Computer: Another name for a terminal. They share a high resemblance to real-life computers.

D
DTTHW: Short for Doing Things the Hard Way, refers to an infamous area in Space Station 2 of the main game where the player must go up six rooms before reaching a disappearing platform at the top and come back down, all for a trinket blocked by a one tile tall wall. The name of the challenge shares its name with the lowest room of said challenge. This term, by extension, is often used to refer to sections of a level that require a player to go up a shaft for an extended period of time before coming back down, often all in one life. These challenges may be required or optional, only leading to a trinket. Also known as a vertical challenge. Difficulty spike: A sharp increase in difficulty within a level. It can occur as either a section or as part of a section of rooms. Diode: A room or area that can only be passed in one direction, with entry in the other direction prohibited. A common diode is a set of spikes directly opposite of a drop, allowing players to fall into the hole but not come back through it. One-way tiles are also a tile whose purpose is to only allow travel in one direction.

F
Filler: Rooms that have little purpose other than to fill in every square in the map. Filler rooms are okay in small to moderate amounts, but too much filler will make a level seem boring and inflated. However, filler rooms are better than leaving them blank. Fork: A point in a level where the path splits and the player must choose which path to take. Often one path will continue while the other will lead to a trinket. However, a path may occasionally end or rejoin the other path with no benefit. A fork with an excessive amount of warps is often called a pick-a-warp.

G
Gate: An obstacle that often comprises of a set of warp tokens or a gravity line, whose purpose is to prevent entry to an area for unqualified players. Gates may be disengaged by collecting a set number of trinkets, by rescuing crewmates, or by completing a set criterion.

O
One-way room: A room that can only be traversed in one direction.

P
Partial warp: A room or path that only wraps in one direction. This is a common method of hiding trinkets. Pick-a-warp: Also spelled pick a warp, refers to a tactic in which there are several warps to pick, with some leading forward, others leading backward, some leading to trinkets, and others leading to death. These warps are often unlabeled meaning that players have to guess which warp is correct. In extreme cases, some warps will lead to inescapable softlocks. Playtest: To test a level by playing it. Playtesting a level is a good way of detecting and fixing glitches, sequence breaks, and unintended skips or softlocks. A playtest will also make sure a level is possible to complete. Not playtesting a level may result in glitches, massive skips, softlocks, cheesed playthroughs, and unbeatable levels.

Q
Quicksave: Quickly saving at a checkpoint by pressing enter followed by action. Quicksaving is often done before a difficult challenge or before a fork in the road.

S
Sacrifice: An instance where the player is required to die in order to progress or to obtain a trinket. An example is the trinket in "Prize for the Reckless," which requires a player to hit the checkpoint in the room and go to the top of the room without hitting any other checkpoints. The player then must release a moving platform before dying and returning to the bottom of the level. Save: Another name for a quicksave. Sequence break: An unintended route in a level that allows the player to skip large parts of a level or allows a player to reach areas that they are not yet allowed to enter. Sometimes used to refer to smaller skips. Softlock: A situation in which the player is permanently stuck in a place in a level and is unable to advance or go back. The only way to escape a softlock is to either reload an earlier save or to completely restart the level. An example of a softlock is a warp leading to a closed room with a checkpoint directly at the teleportation site.

T
Terminal: A computer-like device that allows the player to execute scripts upon interaction with them. Terminals can display text, activate commands, and can perform basic logic conditions. Trial and error: Also spelled trial-and-error, refers to when a player must guess how to beat a room with no idea of what comes next. Trial and error can include vertical challenges, mazes, or guessing games. However, completing a playthrough, watching a video walkthrough of the level, or inspecting the level through the editor can render the challenge moot.

V
Veni Vidi Vici: Another name for the DTTHW shaft in the main game. The name comes from the second, third, and fourth rooms in the challenge, respectively. Vertical challenge: Another term referring to a DTTHW shaft.

W
Warp: Another name for a warp token. Warp gate: A type of gate that utilizes warp tokens to restrict access to an area. Warp token: A flashing square that takes a player to a set location on the map.