How To Pick Your First Speedrun?

2014-07-31 06:57:43 pm

Hello all! My name is CodeRunner, and I've been a lurker in this community for about a year now! There are a couple games that I've wanted to run, but have just found them either A.) not fun enough to devote hours upon hours in or B.) are just damn hard to run. Tongue

I really wanna get my feet wet and learn a game, but I don't know where to start... I own a PC with gaming capabilities, a PS3, a Wii, a 3DS (which I can use for GBA or DS runs as well), as well as a Dreamcast. If anyone either has help as to how to choose a game, or a story as to how they picked theirs, I would love to know! Thanks, and happy running!

CodeRunner

Thread title:

Cyrax

2014-07-31 07:45:26 pm

Konkey Dong

I picked my games because I enjoyed them then and now. That's how a lot of people picked their speedrunning game is because they enjoyed it. There's also the flip-side to hating a game so much, you want to break it as much as possible, but not physically.

Hsanrb

2014-07-31 08:33:30 pm

General rule of thumb for picking your first one
1) Find a game you go back to, even if its once a quarter... if you naturally going back to a game over and over, your likely to know what games you should look to
2) Don't overcommit to one game, if the game loses its luster, don't keep playing. Your likely to turn a favorite, into something you hate at the turn of a hat.
3) My personal favorite, enjoy the games soundtrack... you're going to be hearing it alot, preferably the first few levels if your going to be serious and go for a top time.
4) Have something you can break with, whether its Dota, CS, MMO XYZ, something that isn't relevant at all to speedrunning that lets you relax.

Biggest mistakes you can make?
1) Pick a game because other people run it, it can raise interest, but people come and go, so it needs to be something you want to play.
2) Commit to speedrunning a game before you've finished it, you can add it to a list, but don't go routing before you finish, you'd have no idea whats up ahead.
3) Having too big of a library to pick from, running lots of games is ok, but not knowing what to play means more time not playing while deciding on something to play.
4) RPG's... you'll likely to find one you like thats too long to run. Most of the top runners of long games don't do full runs every weekend/month, sometimes its two runs a year, rest of the time researching.

Honestly, if you need people to tell you what game to speedrun and they give you actual games, your likely to be starting in the wrong direction. ONly you know what games you want to play, so why ask us?

General rule of thumb for picking your first one
1) Find a game you go back to, even if its once a quarter... if you naturally going back to a game over and over, your likely to know what games you should look to
2) Don't overcommit to one game, if the game loses its luster, don't keep playing. Your likely to turn a favorite, into something you hate at the turn of a hat.
3) My personal favorite, enjoy the games soundtrack... you're going to be hearing it alot, preferably the first few levels if your going to be serious and go for a top time.
4) Have something you can break with, whether its Dota, CS, MMO XYZ, something that isn't relevant at all to speedrunning that lets you relax.

Biggest mistakes you can make?
1) Pick a game because other people run it, it can raise interest, but people come and go, so it needs to be something you want to play.
2) Commit to speedrunning a game before you've finished it, you can add it to a list, but don't go routing before you finish, you'd have no idea whats up ahead.
3) Having too big of a library to pick from, running lots of games is ok, but not knowing what to play means more time not playing while deciding on something to play.
4) RPG's... you'll likely to find one you like thats too long to run. Most of the top runners of long games don't do full runs every weekend/month, sometimes its two runs a year, rest of the time researching.

Honestly, if you need people to tell you what game to speedrun and they give you actual games, your likely to be starting in the wrong direction. ONly you know what games you want to play, so why ask us?

Uilnslcoap

2014-07-31 09:56:14 pm

F*ckin' sanity effects...

Make sure you're willing (and ideally, happy) to play your choice for long stretches (both in blocks of time in a sitting and over weeks/months/years), and as Hsanrb says, don't be afraid to put it down for a week or six if you're burning out on the game. I've only ever run one game, and I did it because there was not a good run out there, and I wanted to see it. So I did it. And about halfway through the run (segmented), I did have to put it down for a month and a half.

Santana

2014-08-02 05:33:53 pm

Simply pick your favorite game or a game you like a lot, and then do runs. It's as easy as that :). Don't over-do it though, because you can turn yourself off of your favorite game really fast. If you feel burnt out, that's when you take a break and run or practice up on other games.

I've been running Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix for a bit over 1 year now, not all day everyday, I take a good amount of breaks from it. However, still to this day it is my favorite speed game.

jc583

Edit history:

jc583: 2014-08-07 05:59:14 pm

2014-08-02 06:27:40 pm

AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA

Pick a game and start with races. Races are a fun way to push the mental envelope to places you never thought you could go while keeping focused, no matter whether you've played the game a million times or never at all. If you have nobody to race with, find a race on youtube and play along with their video, and pretend you're part of it. Or if you're feeling bold, use a GDQ marathon recording and race that. You won't always win, but that's part of the drive.

Sensory deprivation is a speedrunner's worst enemy, and you gotta keep finding ways to make it fresh and exciting.

Good luck!

Rotorstorm331

2014-08-02 09:02:32 pm

If your starting out like I did, you should consider games that don't use a whole lot of tricks, glitches, etc. and use them as a learning point; once you get the hang of the game you want to run, that's when you should learn tricks, glitches, etc. If you feel burned out, taking a break for awhile or for few weeks are good way to prevent speedrunning fatigue and gives you a chance to think strats, plans, etc.

Squaky

2014-08-02 09:38:38 pm

Quote from Hsanrb:

General rule of thumb for picking your first one
1) Find a game you go back to, even if its once a quarter... if you naturally going back to a game over and over, your likely to know what games you should look to
2) Don't overcommit to one game, if the game loses its luster, don't keep playing. Your likely to turn a favorite, into something you hate at the turn of a hat.
3) My personal favorite, enjoy the games soundtrack... you're going to be hearing it alot, preferably the first few levels if your going to be serious and go for a top time.
4) Have something you can break with, whether its Dota, CS, MMO XYZ, something that isn't relevant at all to speedrunning that lets you relax.

Biggest mistakes you can make?
1) Pick a game because other people run it, it can raise interest, but people come and go, so it needs to be something you want to play.
2) Commit to speedrunning a game before you've finished it, you can add it to a list, but don't go routing before you finish, you'd have no idea whats up ahead.
3) Having too big of a library to pick from, running lots of games is ok, but not knowing what to play means more time not playing while deciding on something to play.
4) RPG's... you'll likely to find one you like thats too long to run. Most of the top runners of long games don't do full runs every weekend/month, sometimes its two runs a year, rest of the time researching.

Honestly, if you need people to tell you what game to speedrun and they give you actual games, your likely to be starting in the wrong direction. ONly you know what games you want to play, so why ask us?

I really like this post imo. Another thing I would like to add is that if you - for example - run game X. Then you decide to pick up game Y at the same time, but start to end up investing more time in playing game Y than game X. Don't feel the need to be emotionally attached or obligated to play game X just because you picked it up first.

If you feel the need/want to run a game more even though you put a lot of time into another one, then it's time to put that first game on the back-burner. My grammar isn't the greatest, so I apologize if that didn't make a lot of sense.

[quote="Hsanrb"]General rule of thumb for picking your first one
1) Find a game you go back to, even if its once a quarter... if you naturally going back to a game over and over, your likely to know what games you should look to
2) Don't overcommit to one game, if the game loses its luster, don't keep playing. Your likely to turn a favorite, into something you hate at the turn of a hat.
3) My personal favorite, enjoy the games soundtrack... you're going to be hearing it alot, preferably the first few levels if your going to be serious and go for a top time.
4) Have something you can break with, whether its Dota, CS, MMO XYZ, something that isn't relevant at all to speedrunning that lets you relax.

Biggest mistakes you can make?
1) Pick a game because other people run it, it can raise interest, but people come and go, so it needs to be something you want to play.
2) Commit to speedrunning a game before you've finished it, you can add it to a list, but don't go routing before you finish, you'd have no idea whats up ahead.
3) Having too big of a library to pick from, running lots of games is ok, but not knowing what to play means more time not playing while deciding on something to play.
4) RPG's... you'll likely to find one you like thats too long to run. Most of the top runners of long games don't do full runs every weekend/month, sometimes its two runs a year, rest of the time researching.

Honestly, if you need people to tell you what game to speedrun and they give you actual games, your likely to be starting in the wrong direction. ONly you know what games you want to play, so why ask us?
[/quote]

I really like this post imo. Another thing I would like to add is that if you  - for example - run game X. Then you decide to pick up game Y at the same time, but start to end up investing more time in playing game Y than game X. Don't feel the need to be emotionally attached or obligated to play game X just because you picked it up first.

If you feel the need/want to run a game more even though you put a lot of time into another one, then it's time to put that first game on the back-burner. My grammar isn't the greatest, so I apologize if that didn't make a lot of sense.

Supercodebreak

2014-08-04 11:29:59 am

Just Keep Going

Well what is your favorite game or series of games?

Hornet85

Edit history:

Hornet85: 2014-08-06 03:27:45 am

2014-08-06 03:27:23 am

I'm new to speed running myself, and first of all thanks for all the advice shared here.

I do have one questions though. Would it be more helpful to start with games that others have run and there are resources out there that we can use as a guide?

The first game I took up was Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) as it was one of my favorite childhood game, and I was lucky as this game has been run by some people out there. There's a video here on SDA, and another on Youtube, both using slightly different strategy. With these videos as a guide,I was able to learn the game without much issues and I'm satisfied with the outcome.

However now I'm unsure as to what game I should pick up next. I thought of doing Robocop vs Terminator, another game I'm comfortable playing but the only resources I could find is a TAS run on youtube, and I'm unsure how useful TAS run can be ( I can't do the same fire rate they seem to do in this TAS video no matter how I mash the button ). I feel like I do not have any reference to tell me if I'm doing ok at certain things or way off the mark of what's possible. I could try Sonic which has plenty of resources (if this is the better approach for beginners), but I'll have to improve my normal play first as I've always found this game difficult

Thanks

I'm new to speed running myself, and first of all thanks for all the advice shared here.

I do have one questions though. Would it be more helpful to start with games that others have run and there are resources out there that we can use as a guide?

The first game I took up was Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) as it was one of my favorite childhood game, and I was lucky as this game has been run by some people out there. There's a video here on SDA, and another on Youtube, both using slightly different strategy. With these videos as a guide,I was able to learn the game without much issues and I'm satisfied with the outcome.

However now I'm unsure as to what game I should pick up next. I thought of doing Robocop vs Terminator, another game I'm comfortable playing but the only resources I could find is a TAS run on youtube, and I'm unsure how useful TAS run can be ( I can't do the same fire rate they seem to do in this TAS video no matter how I mash the button ). I feel like I do not have any reference to tell me if I'm doing ok at certain things or way off the mark of what's possible. I could try Sonic which has plenty of resources (if this is the better approach for beginners), but I'll have to improve my normal play first as I've always found this game difficult

Thanks

ais523

2014-08-06 04:37:42 am

Having an existing route is helpful if you just want to run the game. Routing a game can be pretty fun, though; I spend more time routing than I do actually running. Looking at a TAS can be helpful, but TASes will often do things beyond human ability. In fact, the most commonly stated example of a TAS trick that can't be done in realtime is the "30Hz mash" where you press a button 30 times in a second (which is the fastest that most games are capable of registering); that's probably what you're seeing there.

cMiPS

2014-08-06 02:27:34 pm

The first game I run was Kirby's Dreamland, was one game of my childhood and is a easy game (except the extra game mode) but isn't one of my favorites games, and my second game was Sonic 1 (SMS) because I love Sonic games series.

I think a good games to start speedrunning is take one game that you already played and you know it very well because it will be easier to you make a route and find new challenges when speedrunning a game.

Look routing of other people is fine if you just want run for fun or you haven't time enough to routing a whole run, you too can try the different routes you find, tips, glitches, etc.

Anyway make a route by your own can be fun too and very satisfactory when you get acceptable times for you... and you beat it with a new route desing!

Personally I don't like very much TAS videos because you need be a machine to do some things, so I only watch TAS when I looking for glitches for a game, can't find a route or so.

S.

2014-08-06 07:38:31 pm

You don't pick a game because you want to speedrun, you pick the speedrun because you want to play a game more. If you don't know what game to speedrun, then don't speedrun.

jc583

2014-08-07 07:08:42 pm

AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA

Quote from Hornet85:

I do have one questions though. Would it be more helpful to start with games that others have run and there are resources out there that we can use as a guide?

The first game I took up was Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) as it was one of my favorite childhood game, and I was lucky as this game has been run by some people out there. There's a video here on SDA, and another on Youtube, both using slightly different strategy. With these videos as a guide,I was able to learn the game without much issues and I'm satisfied with the outcome.

However now I'm unsure as to what game I should pick up next. I thought of doing Robocop vs Terminator, another game I'm comfortable playing but the only resources I could find is a TAS run on youtube, and I'm unsure how useful TAS run can be ( I can't do the same fire rate they seem to do in this TAS video no matter how I mash the button ). I feel like I do not have any reference to tell me if I'm doing ok at certain things or way off the mark of what's possible. I could try Sonic which has plenty of resources (if this is the better approach for beginners), but I'll have to improve my normal play first as I've always found this game difficult

Thanks

To answer your question, if by 'helpful' you mean getting the lowest time the fastest, then yeah definitely. But you know somebody's gotta come up with the route. Why not you? If you're like me, this is the best part. It's not hard, you just have to exhaust the possibilities until you find the right one, like a jigsaw puzzle. I think it was my third game I ever picked for a speedrun, The Wizard of Oz, that taught me just how much fun this is. I say give it a try with Robocop vs Terminator.

[quote="Hornet85"]I do have one questions though. Would it be more helpful to start with games that others have run and there are resources out there that we can use as a guide?

The first game I took up was Jurassic Park (Sega Genesis) as it was one of my favorite childhood game, and I was lucky as this game has been run by some people out there. There's a video here on SDA, and another on Youtube, both using slightly different strategy. With these videos as a guide,I was able to learn the game without much issues and I'm satisfied with the outcome.

However now I'm unsure as to what game I should pick up next. I thought of doing Robocop vs Terminator, another game I'm comfortable playing but the only resources I could find is a TAS run on youtube, and I'm unsure how useful TAS run can be ( I can't do the same fire rate they seem to do in this TAS video no matter how I mash the button ). I feel like I do not have any reference to tell me if I'm doing ok at certain things or way off the mark of what's possible. I could try Sonic which has plenty of resources (if this is the better approach for beginners), but I'll have to improve my normal play first as I've always found this game difficult

Thanks[/quote]
To answer your question, if by 'helpful' you mean getting the lowest time the fastest, then yeah definitely. But you know somebody's gotta come up with the route. Why not you? If you're like me, this is the best part. It's not hard, you just have to exhaust the possibilities until you find the right one, like a jigsaw puzzle. I think it was my third game I ever picked for a speedrun, The Wizard of Oz, that taught me just how much fun this is. I say give it a try with Robocop vs Terminator.

lecorbak

Edit history:

lecorbak: 2014-08-09 12:19:20 pm