Speedruns and the pause button.

[Sapphic Falafel]

Does anyone know how the pause button does or doesn't affect the in game timer? What about the select menu? New Game+?

[YinYin]

Time always runs as far as I know.
You can test it with the swamp granny.

[mikker]

I know that being in the world map increases the in game timer, and that New Game+ keeps the final time from the previous game, but not sure about the menus.

I think the most important thing for speedruns if using the in-game timer is that whenever you restart a stage by going to the main menu or the map, it adds something like ~1-3 seconds to the time (dependant on if there are enemies roaming or not, which there should be for a speed run for the most part). The trick I used to get the speed run achievement was to keep a second save file as a backup that I can copy to get the time low even with multiple restarts.

[Sapphic Falafel]

I just tested and from what I can tell the timer runs anytime you're in game and in window. It seems like if you're not in window the entire game stops.

[YinYin]

Unless you change that in the options. You can let the game run on without focus.