New to Speedrunning! Looking for some games to start!

2013-04-30 11:37:45 pm

youtube.com/abraingaming

Hey what's up everyone! I have just started to get into watching speedruns and I want to attempt a few myself. But I have no idea where to start and what to start with. I'm open to any type of game and any game difficulty level. I just want some games that people think are fun to speedrun and won't make me rage quit to fast. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Abrain!

Thread title:

I have no name

2013-04-30 11:50:08 pm

Obscure games ftw

Rule #1: run the games you want to run, regardless of if others run them or if others want you to
Rule #2: Try a bunch of games, stick with what you like.
Rule #3: If you can't stand playing the game repeatedly, don't run it.
Rule #4: If you really want a suggestion, Super Mario 63 is a flash game that's easy to pick up but really hard to optimize.
Rule #5: Always play the game casually first.

Ghostwheel

2013-05-01 01:05:27 am

The artist formerly known as Qxy

All games will probably make you rage quit at some point, because the standards you have to put on yourself are often high no matter what the task is. Comes with the territory. Of course, some games have a higher learning curve than others, and often games with difficult glitches are tougher for an experienced new runner to pick up.

This is why you should start by playing the games you really love, that you've preferably beaten casually at least 5 times. I can deal with all the BS in Chain of Memories/3rd gen Pokemon/Sonic Heroes (All games capable of ending runs in ways you have no control over) because playing those games doesn't seem like a chore, even after a ton of playthroughs.

garik16

2013-05-01 02:38:18 pm

Yeah, the answer is this:

What games have you had fun with? Those are where you should start. Nearly every game can be run in some form. Even if no one else is running those games currently, pick one up and try to see what you can do - you can always quit and try to switch to a different game if you don't like it. And if you make a thread here and post about it, maybe others WILL pick the game up after you.

The Sid

Edit history:

The Sid: 2013-05-09 05:29:09 pm

The Sid: 2013-05-09 05:27:50 pm

2013-05-01 04:16:32 pm

raising the stakes on being bad!

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm new to speed running too and was wondering the same thing.
I think I'm going to try and pick up KH 1.5 and KH CoM after It comes to NA, and now that you say a five time rule is a good thing that means I need to search for a Chrono Trigger speed running thread maybe even MMx.
anyway thanks for the advice, and any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Edit*
thanks ghost wheel if you could link to the thread or vid on Chain of memories I would love to check it out!

also started to learn Chrono Trigger thanks to obdajr for posting all his run notes to make it easier to start learning any%

Ghostwheel

2013-05-01 05:08:17 pm

The artist formerly known as Qxy

CoH? Do you mean CoM?

If so, I can answer your questions and I have a tutorial up on running it.

peachyzora619

2013-05-03 07:50:35 am

You had ONE JOB

I would say always go with multiple games that you like because, as said earlier, you will rage quit at one time or another and it's good to have a game or two to fall back on when the rage does happen. For me it's SM64, OoT(strictly no WW), SADX, Sonic Heroes, and Dead Space. I haven't touched OoT or the sonic games for a while because, well, there was rage. I will end up going back to those especially when Dead Space starts to get old. But yeah. Go with multiple games that you can fall back onto.

kirbymastah

2013-05-03 11:01:48 am

<(^_^)>

Quote from I have no name:

Rule #1: run the games you want to run, regardless of if others run them or if others want you to

I cannot emphasize this enough. Nothing against super metroid because I love it, but I've seen far too many people jump on the super metroid speedrunning bandwagon, wanting to speedrun it only because it's very popular and developed, and then those new runners get turned off because super metroid isn't really quite their game (and then they stop learning to speedrun). Seriously, do games you want to do. Feel free to take people's advice about how technical, difficult, punishing games are, but ultimately the priority is learn games that you love.

Hsanrb

2013-05-03 12:51:41 pm

Biggest mistake is running a game you love to play casually. While those are the best places to start looking for games, theres no point taking a franchise you love to play, learning to speedrun, then zapping all the interest and fun that you originally had for a game smashing 2 bridges with 1 stone. Do that too much your out of bridges and never want to turn your console on again.

The Number one factor once you selected the game is keep it fun, and keep it fresh. Games with multiple catagories are fun because you can play differently and see parts of a game you skip entirely in a run.

I'm gonna stress this point as well, because it hasn't been brought up. Find a game with a soundtrack you want to listen to. Make sure its not so good you stop a run in progress, but sometimes having amazing music means you don't have to practice to your own songs. Levels or areas where you wanna turn up the TV a few notches when you get there, and turn it down a few notches when you leave. Those are almost more important than the actual game itself. Every game I either ran, or considered running, has that one point I change the volume (Okay, Jumping Flash starts high and goes low b/c 1-1 is the best song of the franchise, and I never even hear the best part where it opens up.)

Biggest mistake is running a game you love to play casually. While those are the best places to start looking for games, theres no point taking a franchise you love to play, learning to speedrun, then zapping all the interest and fun that you originally had for a game smashing 2 bridges with 1 stone. Do that too much your out of bridges and never want to turn your console on again.

The Number one factor once you selected the game is keep it fun, and keep it fresh. Games with multiple catagories are fun because you can play differently and see parts of a game you skip entirely in a run.

I'm gonna stress this point as well, because it hasn't been brought up. Find a game with a soundtrack you want to listen to. Make sure its not so good you stop a run in progress, but sometimes having amazing music means you don't have to practice to your own songs. Levels or areas where you wanna turn up the TV a few notches when you get there, and turn it down a few notches when you leave. Those are almost more important than the actual game itself. Every game I either ran, or considered running, has that one point I change the volume (Okay, Jumping Flash starts high and goes low b/c 1-1 is the best song of the franchise, and I never even hear the best part where it opens up.)

ProfessorBroman

2013-05-04 08:42:59 pm

Total agreement about trying to avoid games you play casually. I picked my favorite casual game to run, and though I still enjoy it I can never go back to that feeling of just playing it for fun, my mind is constantly running scenarios for optimization and quicker movement.

Also a personal recommendation. It's fun to find games that are quick to learn, I recommend a nice little game called Anodyne on PC (if you have one) learning it takes about 7 to 8 minutes. However, mastering Any% on it is quite difficult and will get you quickly accustomed to the idea of optimization and working with Out of Bounds, which can be very disorienting at first. Good luck and happy running!

Dalimyr

2013-05-05 03:02:32 am

Quote from ProfessorBroman:

Total agreement about trying to avoid games you play casually. I picked my favorite casual game to run, and though I still enjoy it I can never go back to that feeling of just playing it for fun, my mind is constantly running scenarios for optimization and quicker movement.

I think that might be rather dependant on the game, really. My first speedrun game was Uplink and in a speedrun of it (whether any% or 100%) you literally just do two or three hacks (including the tutorial) before you've got all the money needed to complete the rest of the game. But I still have fun playing it casually and I think it's because there's just such a difference between the two playstyles. The game is pretty open-ended and has a lot of fairly fun mission types that you never touch in a speedrun because they're too slow and nowhere near sufficiently rewarding to justify the time spent on them, so with casual plays I can still get to do those to my heart's content. I suppose it might have been more of an issue if the game were far more linear, but as it's not I have a very clear divide between casual and speedrun playthroughs of the game.

[quote="ProfessorBroman"]Total agreement about trying to avoid games you play casually.  I picked my favorite casual game to run, and though I still enjoy it I can never go back to that feeling of just playing it for fun, my mind is constantly running scenarios for optimization and quicker movement.[/quote]I think that might be rather dependant on the game, really. My first speedrun game was Uplink and in a speedrun of it (whether any% or 100%) you literally just do two or three hacks (including the tutorial) before you've got all the money needed to complete the rest of the game. But I still have fun playing it casually and I think it's because there's just such a difference between the two playstyles. The game is pretty open-ended and has a lot of fairly fun mission types that you never touch in a speedrun because they're too slow and nowhere near sufficiently rewarding to justify the time spent on them, so with casual plays I can still get to do those to my heart's content. I suppose it might have been more of an issue if the game were far more linear, but as it's not I have a very clear divide between casual and speedrun playthroughs of the game.

malagant

2017-02-11 08:33:21 pm

I just started speed running three weeks ago, and one game that I love to run is MegaMan x. Why I love this game is getting familiar with how important movement is, pixel perfect jumps, and dealing with RNG. One thing that really helped is once you played it casually four or five times, and gearing up for speed running, one other thing I found very helpful is look for speed running tutorials that break stages down and combine it with your style. I found that helped me with Mega Man X. It used to take me just over an hour to finish it, but now I'm at 51 minutes. Also note some of these runners spend years speed running it. Be proud even if your time drops by a minute,a second..You getting faster and will get there.

Gottie

2017-11-05 09:04:01 pm

Hey guys, Ive found myself time and time again watch GGDQ every year and thinking to myself man... I want to do that.

Well I tried to start and it quickly ended by me not understanding how im supposed to record footage of me playing older games like Super mario 3 on the NES or some games on N64. Due to capture cards being right over my head I stopped. Recently I found SEUM and I love the game, It's super fun and I really enjoy it. However, the game is dead and it feels like I got on the band wagon late.

So i guess my question is how does one Capture Gameplay on old consoles. I have high end gaming PC so im also down for suggestions on games for PC that can be ran.

OH yeah , and software... What software should I use. SEUM as build in Software so I havent had to download one yet.

Thank you guys in advance for the help.

hecatomb

2017-12-08 10:19:52 pm

dragons dogma on NG+ is pretty easy to run, since you can just max out your character to level 200, and max out your gear and your pawns gear, then speed run on NG+

Mishapr

2021-07-04 07:27:00 am

hello everyone I'm new to this forum. what game would you suggest me play (something like the witcher)?

LotBlind

2021-07-10 02:30:20 pm

Did you try the Gothic series? The third part especially some people like a lot cause it's quite open-ended and doesn't hold your hand too much.