Speedruns get brought up every now and then in related threads (most recently an offhand mention in the “puzzle v game” thread), and we talk about the GDQ events every now and then, but there is no thread to discuss the whole concept/culture.
I’m not deeply immersed in it by any means, but I really like watching speedruns, and I usually tune in to Games Done Quick for several hours each time they put it on. At one point in my life, I gave Dark Souls 2 speedrunning an honest shot (that lasted about one week).
I’ll start with the Summer Games Done Quick schedule here. Personal looking-forward-to’s:
A Hat in Time - Any%, 1 hour.
Cuphead - 100%, 55 minutes.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Any%, 40 minutes.
Final Fantasy VI - 100% (all characters and espers), 7 hours.
Do you like speedruns? Have you ever attempted one? Do you like Any%, 100%, or glitchless runs?
I’ve never seen a speedrun. But a 100% run of Cuphead in 55 minutes sounds pretty awesome. If I ever give up on the game, and decide I just can’t make progress anymore, that sounds like a good way to see what the rest of the game had for me.
I can only stand to watch speed runs that are either very short (~10-15 minute ones like SMB) or ones with great commentary (like the amazingly awesome Bloodbourne AGDQ 2017 run).
I enjoy watching https://www.youtube.com/user/RWhiteGoose 's speedlore series on GoldenEye speedruns. He goes over the entire history of speedruns on a particular level in GoldenEye, showing footage of old runs and discusing how the strategy evolved.
I got into speedruns back in the old Quake Done Quick days, where I learned about the intricacies of rocket jumping and running/jumping at an oblique angle to the direction you’re facing to move faster. I recently found this guy DraqU who ran the latest Doom game on its higher difficulty in about an hour. Stuff blows my mind.
I have no particular interest in speedruns in isolation, but Summoning Salt’s YouTube channel goes into incredible detail about the evolution of speedruns for certain games, how they got from 14 hours down to 6 minutes. They’re little nerdy history lessons, and he makes it entertaining too.
Also he owns the Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! world record himself, so he knows some stuff.
Start with his deep dive on Super Mario Bros. level 4-2.
Awesome thread idea! I too once gave it a shot with Dark Souls 2 and 3. I’m not very good at it.
I do enjoy watching them though. These people have real skill, and I’m especially impressed with the ones who are able to discuss what they’re doing while it’s happening. I recently watched a SR of ME:Shadow of Mordor right after I finished playing it myself, and I’m blown away by what the speed runners are able to accomplish.
As for the upcoming schedule, I’m really only interested in D:OS2, but I will continue to watch any new attempts at records of the Dark Souls, or Shadow of Mordor.
I’m also into speedruns in a “follow the GDQ events and maybe some other one-offs, but it’s not a huge part of my life” sort of way. I tend to like the speedruns that are about executing the game as intended as quickly as possible more than those that are about heavy glitches or following an extremely specific structure. The speedrun races that have really picked up popularity over the last few GDQs are another great twist. Games AND competition!
Looking at the SGDQ lineup, I’m pretty excited about that FFVI run, seeing Celeste for the first time, getting Super Metroid back in after it finally took a break, and the SM64 race. I’m sure there will be something that I don’t think I care about that will end up being really entertaining, as well.
Semi-related, after seeing the Link to the Past randomizer race at AGDQ this year, I got into that scene a little bit. It takes all of the dungeon and overworld items and scrambles up where they are in the world, to locations that are different each time but guaranteed to let you logically complete the game.
I really like the Keysanity mode (which just had a tournament finish up - this match from the finals is a great watch), which goes even farther and moves all of the keys/maps/compasses/etc around as well. It’s a great combination of problem solving, risk/reward balance, and execution. I’ve played that enough that I’m pretty good at it, though I don’t think I’m willing to spend the time learning dark room strats (finishing rooms where you’re intended to have a lantern without a light source) that I’d need to really compete.
Oh hey! It didn’t occur to me that this thread was also about actual Speedrunning games yourself, not just watching others do it.
I love it when games make it a part of their gameplay. I’m not so into it when it’s just informal (people just doing it without any in-game interface for the speed run). A great example of incorporating speedruns is in Rayman: Origins. After you have collected everything and got your gold medal, you can do a speedrun through the level, and it keeps a clock in the corner to show you how much time you have left. And if you want to start over, you can do so at the touch of a button. I really loved the Speedrunning aspect of that game.
I think this is where I’ve ended up too. It’s cool the first time you see someone warp from the beginning of the game to the end in like ten minutes, but it’s way more interesting to see routes develop over time. I don’t love glitches and prefer completely glitchless runs, but I’ve made my peace with some of the smaller ones that the community accepts (like the Dark Souls one that lets you skip into Sen’s Fortress from the blacksmith).
I also like when they do speedruns of traditionally long games, as long as they have decent commentary. When they did GDQ at the beginning of this year, someone did a Fire Emblem run that was just so hard to follow. But I generally like Kingdom Hearts runs, and I am definitely excited for the Final Fantasy run.
I liked how the Crash Bandicoot games had Time Trial goals that basically forced you learn the optimal route. I wonder how much world record holders have improved on the in-game Time Trial times.
I hate time trials in games, with two exceptions: where it makes sense, like a sports or racing game, or in the Mirror’s Edge games. For some reason finding the fastest way to beat time trials in those games is an obsession.
Hell yeah! One of my favourite aspects about the game and sadly absent from the sequel.
I don’t really follow speedrunning but I do find it absolutely awe-inspiring. As somebody who enjoys a good time trial or score chase every now and then, I understand how difficult it is to reliably nail even little sections of a level or circuit or whatever but when you take that and blow it up to the scale of an entire game, sometimes spanning hours, with all kinds of things that can screw you over throughout… that kind of combination of dexterity, memory, composure and stamina, as well as the commitment and patience to get there in the first place is every bit as impressive to me as watching a world record being broken on the Olympics. It floors me, particularly when you’ve played the game being run and you know what you’re looking at, what they’re up against and how difficult it is to pull off some of the things they’re doing effortlessly.
I’m currently watching this in chunks:
I’m never going to argue about whether gaming could be considered a sport because I honestly don’t give a shit, but I would certainly argue about speedrunning getting the same kind of respect as one.
No. For some reason I bounce off this concept so very hard. Doing or watching.
Sure, sometimes it is part of the mechanic.
But even when it is an added mechanic, like some of the speedruns needed for gear in D3, I dislike it. I dislike it in MMOs. For a single player game, I can see if someone else wants to try it. Their dime, their time.
I look at it sort of like how I look at competitive eating. I don’t get that in exactly the same way I don’t get speedruns.
I’m enamored with speed runners. The time invested on figuring things out, analyzing and practicing again and again to get the entire run done in one feel swoop takes a huge commitment.
I do have to agree with above that i like glitchless runs a lot more because it is the game vs glitching through geometry or other bugs/loopholes the game devs accidentally created.
For example the DoS runs are all glitched. It’s so disorienting as they find some edge of the map they exploit and leap through the darkness. I really liked watching the subnautica normal runs.
I finished Shadow Tactics a few weeks ago and that game had lots of speed run achievements. But I’m like, no way. It took me hours to get through each level, meticulously studying guard patrol patterns and planning out moves.
However a lot of very good players posted their speed runs on YouTube and since they are quick it’s easy to watch them and I’m always impressed with what some people can do.
I don’t mind utilizing glitches as long as the run makes any kind of sense. Watching someone spend the whole run going outside the game’s geometry is not as entertaining.
I do draw the line at tool-assisted speed runs though, not so much because I think they’re illegitimate but just that they lack spontaneity, just seem less in the moment.
I only ever lightly got into speedruns, but never had the time or patience for them. However I was able to get respectable times in a few games, namely SMB3 and Metroid Prime. Nothing that would make a record, but firmly in the range of ‘you can do better, but only if you dedicate dozens of hours’.
Getting 15 minutes and 2 hours 100% felt great. But it’s a young mans game, and I just kinda lost interest in the whole concept. Probably because there are so many games to play now that dedicating on a single game makes little sense.
Yeah, that’s just it. I enjoy playing games too much to turn 1 game into a full time job. That’s about what it would take to get good enough at speed running. I’m not willing to miss out on all the other great games.
That’s another aspect of it - I don’t want to devote the time and effort becoming expert enough to speedrun one game when I could be playing a dozen other games. I need more variety in my gaming experience.
