There are several programs to time runs, but I guess most people use Livesplit. I dont quite understand what you meant by the last bit. Maybe you are refering to a sprite mod that make all character and enemies be outlined in black., but its not related to Livesplit at all.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmgTFguyBT88dHU3ODZrLUdRRTdTd3RDS3BsZVBzOEE#gid=0
This is a list of all levels. Just run around the "Nexus" and you will find all the no-key-maps soon.
So tomorrow is /u/CriticalCyd 's run. Check when the time starts here http://www.europeanspeedsterassembly.com/schedule If for some reason the site doesn't work you can use these
12:00 - 12:30 CEST (Amsterdam, Paris)
07:00 - 03:30 BRT (Rio de Janeiro)
06:00 - 06:30 EDT (New York)
03:00 - 03:30 PDT (San Fransisco)
Or use this countdown
It starts at roughly 12:15 CEST right now but it's hard to be exact because they're live-updating their schedule depending on how fast or slow some games end up being. Just be sure to check the schedule itself to be 100% sure!
Good luck Cyd!
Although it will have non-linear levels and an assortment of items, It's not a Metroidvania.
The items are completely optional, although most people will find it hard to survive with out them.
We started out telling people it was kind of like quake/nethack, but after recently playing Hexen II and Brogue for the first time. We found these two game resonate more with our current vision.
Hopefully we can spend the time to write up some articles about it. unfortunately the design of the game (mechanically/artistically) means we can't really show anything right now. Hopefully in a few months it will start looking like a game.
If any of you have a 360 controller lying around I've attached an XPadder profile which will map your analogue sticks, triggers buttons to the keyboard and even the mouse on the D-Pad.
XPadder is easily the best key mapping software out there. 100% worth paying a few bucks for, and you get updates for life. Joy2Key is a free alternative, but doesn't really come close to XPadder.
Dustforce supports native button binding, so you could use that for movement + normal buttons, and then just use xpadder to bind mouse movement, escape, enter, etc.