What's everyone's advice for a beginner speedrunner?

2015-07-28 02:15:54 am

I have recently started speedrunning and obtained a World Record in a game I am very accustomed to through excessive amounts of devoted time associated with my high liking to that particular game. I would like to submit my WR, but do not know if it's sufficient due to the fact that I am only running 1 game. I feel it would be a waste of time as the run is estimated around 14 minutes and I do not currently have another game under my belt. Any suggestions? Any advice? Do I submit, or dive deeper into different games so that I have a diverse range?

Thread title:

charleon

Edit history:

charleon: 2015-07-28 04:52:29 am

charleon: 2015-07-28 04:51:15 am

2015-07-28 04:50:29 am

What is a man?

Quote from God of Gaming fo' Realz:

I have recently started speedrunning and obtained a World Record in a game I am very accustomed to through excessive amounts of devoted time associated with my high liking to that particular game. I would like to submit my WR, but do not know if it's sufficient due to the fact that I am only running 1 game. I feel it would be a waste of time as the run is estimated around 14 minutes and I do not currently have another game under my belt. Any suggestions? Any advice? Do I submit, or dive deeper into different games so that I have a diverse range?

Before answering your question, i ahve some counterquestions.
1. submit your game, where and how do you want to submit it?
* do you want to run it at a marathon?

* Do you want your run to be put in the archives at Speeddemosarchive.com?
Please note that SDA has pretty strict rules regarding the capture of your run, and to be completely sure, you should capture yourself playing and post the video as a quality test in the Tech-part of the forum; here's a link to get you started: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/how_to_post_a_video_quality_test..html

And for your other concern, there are a LOT of games on this site where the runner has that game as his only submitted game (me included). There is no pre-requirement of you as a runner whatsoever, so if you got a good time in your game, please do post it to expand the archive!

on a separate note, might I ask what game you are pondering of submitting? the reason being that if you're running old-school games on console (like NES, SNES), the runs must be done on the actual console Hardware, and not on an emulator

[quote="God of Gaming fo' Realz"]I have recently started speedrunning and obtained a World Record in a game I am very accustomed to through excessive amounts of devoted time associated with my high liking to that particular game. I would like to submit my WR, but do not know if it's sufficient due to the fact that I am only running 1 game. I feel it would be a waste of time as the run is estimated around 14 minutes and I do not currently have another game under my belt. Any suggestions? Any advice? Do I submit, or dive deeper into different games so that I have a diverse range?[/quote]

Before answering your question, i ahve some counterquestions.
1. submit your game, where and how do you want to submit it?
* [b]do you want to run it at a marathon? [/b]

* [b]Do you want your run to be put in the archives at Speeddemosarchive.com?[/b]
Please note that SDA has pretty strict rules regarding the capture of your run, and to be completely sure, you should capture yourself playing and post the video as a quality test in the Tech-part of the forum; here's a link to get you started: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/how_to_post_a_video_quality_test..html

And for your other concern, there are a LOT of games on this site where the runner has that game as his only submitted game (me included). There is no pre-requirement of you as a runner whatsoever, so if you got a good time in your game, please do post it to expand the archive!

on a separate note, might I ask what game you are pondering of submitting? the reason being that if you're running old-school games on console (like NES, SNES), the runs must be done on the actual console Hardware, and not on an emulator

God of Gaming fo' Realz

2015-07-28 06:19:29 pm

Quote from charleon:

Quote from God of Gaming fo' Realz:

I have recently started speedrunning and obtained a World Record in a game I am very accustomed to through excessive amounts of devoted time associated with my high liking to that particular game. I would like to submit my WR, but do not know if it's sufficient due to the fact that I am only running 1 game. I feel it would be a waste of time as the run is estimated around 14 minutes and I do not currently have another game under my belt. Any suggestions? Any advice? Do I submit, or dive deeper into different games so that I have a diverse range?

Before answering your question, i ahve some counterquestions.
1. submit your game, where and how do you want to submit it?
* do you want to run it at a marathon?

* Do you want your run to be put in the archives at Speeddemosarchive.com?
Please note that SDA has pretty strict rules regarding the capture of your run, and to be completely sure, you should capture yourself playing and post the video as a quality test in the Tech-part of the forum; here's a link to get you started: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/how_to_post_a_video_quality_test..html

And for your other concern, there are a LOT of games on this site where the runner has that game as his only submitted game (me included). There is no pre-requirement of you as a runner whatsoever, so if you got a good time in your game, please do post it to expand the archive!

on a separate note, might I ask what game you are pondering of submitting? the reason being that if you're running old-school games on console (like NES, SNES), the runs must be done on the actual console Hardware, and not on an emulator

I have been speedrunning a Playstation 1 game called "Blasto", originally I did not know emulation wasn't allowed, but then later on did, which then lead me to redoing my World Record with the actual console. I have redone that WR since on the official technology required for the confirmation of the WR and have recorded it. I would say the quality and everything else fits the standards and rules.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it a lot and from what I understand from the link you sent me I have provided what is mandatory.

[quote="charleon"][quote="God of Gaming fo' Realz"]I have recently started speedrunning and obtained a World Record in a game I am very accustomed to through excessive amounts of devoted time associated with my high liking to that particular game. I would like to submit my WR, but do not know if it's sufficient due to the fact that I am only running 1 game. I feel it would be a waste of time as the run is estimated around 14 minutes and I do not currently have another game under my belt. Any suggestions? Any advice? Do I submit, or dive deeper into different games so that I have a diverse range?[/quote]

Before answering your question, i ahve some counterquestions.
1. submit your game, where and how do you want to submit it?
* [b]do you want to run it at a marathon? [/b]

* [b]Do you want your run to be put in the archives at Speeddemosarchive.com?[/b]
Please note that SDA has pretty strict rules regarding the capture of your run, and to be completely sure, you should capture yourself playing and post the video as a quality test in the Tech-part of the forum; here's a link to get you started: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/how_to_post_a_video_quality_test..html

And for your other concern, there are a LOT of games on this site where the runner has that game as his only submitted game (me included). There is no pre-requirement of you as a runner whatsoever, so if you got a good time in your game, please do post it to expand the archive!

on a separate note, might I ask what game you are pondering of submitting? the reason being that if you're running old-school games on console (like NES, SNES), the runs must be done on the actual console Hardware, and not on an emulator
[/quote]

I have been speedrunning a Playstation 1 game called "Blasto", originally I did not know emulation wasn't allowed, but then later on did, which then lead me to redoing my World Record with the actual console. I have redone that WR since on the official technology required for the confirmation of the WR and have recorded it. I would say the quality and everything else fits the standards and rules.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it a lot and from what I understand from the link you sent me I have provided what is mandatory.

ymh

Edit history:

ymh: 2015-07-29 12:17:42 pm

ymh: 2015-07-29 12:16:49 pm

2015-07-29 12:16:29 pm

There's no shame in running only one game. You say "submit or do more games" twice, but there is no need to decide between the two. You only submit one run at a time, you don't need runs of multiple games to submit (this is what your post sounds to me).

You said you have a time of ~14 minutes. At this year at AGDQ there was a live run done in 12:31:

.
Check it out if you haven't, and also consider how you are timing your run.
Saying that, you don't need to hold the WR to be able to submit to SDA, but it might be reason for rejection if there is a faster run around.

ShadowDraft

2015-07-29 12:32:04 pm

Get over here!

You might want to check out https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/blasto.html Smiley

God of Gaming fo' Realz

2015-08-03 12:26:16 am

Quote from ShadowDraft:

You might want to check out https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/blasto.html Smiley

Thanks, I have already read this thread. I appreciate the reply though

God of Gaming fo' Realz

2015-08-03 12:30:51 am

Quote from ymh:

There's no shame in running only one game. You say "submit or do more games" twice, but there is no need to decide between the two. You only submit one run at a time, you don't need runs of multiple games to submit (this is what your post sounds to me).

You said you have a time of ~14 minutes. At this year at AGDQ there was a live run done in 12:31:

.
Check it out if you haven't, and also consider how you are timing your run.
Saying that, you don't need to hold the WR to be able to submit to SDA, but it might be reason for rejection if there is a faster run around.

Yeah, that's the answer I was looking for. I was unsure whether it would be needed of a player to do more than one. I'm having trouble understanding this encoding, I am unsure how it works and what it does. I have read some information on it, but I still don't get it.

ymh

2015-08-03 03:36:12 am

What exactly do you mean by "encoding" ?

Crow!

2015-08-03 05:12:43 pm

What's that gemma?

Videos use a "codec" to describe how to convert a bunch of numbers that is the video file into a series of pictures. Encoding refers to taking your original video (usually one which doesn't drop ANY quality and is way too big to share), and turns it into something compressed by some codec and easily watched over the internet.

Look up the thread on "yua" in the technical support forum; that is a program by Nate that can encode most videos into something SDA-acceptable.

If you're concerned about how good your run is, the best thing to do is to get other people to watch it - bonus points if they're good at the game, otherwise them being good at games of the same genre is a good start. They should see things you can do better (if you really got it perfect on your own, it's apparently a pretty simple game). My rule is that I keep improving until I've run out of ideas for how to make it any better.

You should also search common game video sites (youtube, twitch, hitbox, speedrun.com, maybe niconico if the game is popular in Japan) to see if there are other speed runs to compare yourself to.

I usually prefer to just use the term "personal best" rather than "world record" for games that I haven't found a running community for yet. It's hard to tell if you're really the world record or if there's someone out there that you just don't know about.

Videos use a "codec" to describe how to convert a bunch of numbers that is the video file into a series of pictures.  Encoding refers to taking your original video (usually one which doesn't drop ANY quality and is way too big to share), and turns it into something compressed by some codec and easily watched over the internet.

Look up the thread on "yua" in the technical support forum; that is a program by Nate that can encode most videos into something SDA-acceptable.

If you're concerned about how good your run is, the best thing to do is to get other people to watch it - bonus points if they're good at the game, otherwise them being good at games of the same genre is a good start.  They should see things you can do better (if you really got it perfect on your own, it's apparently a pretty simple game).  My rule is that I keep improving until I've run out of ideas for how to make it any better.

You should also search common game video sites (youtube, twitch, hitbox, speedrun.com, maybe niconico if the game is popular in Japan) to see if there are other speed runs to compare yourself to.

I usually prefer to just use the term "personal best" rather than "world record" for games that I haven't found a running community for yet.  It's hard to tell if you're really the world record or if there's someone out there that you just don't know about.

God of Gaming fo' Realz

2015-08-04 08:47:16 am

Quote from ymh:

What exactly do you mean by "encoding" ?

It's something to do with changing the format of the video so the memory is reduced but the quality is still intact

God of Gaming fo' Realz

2015-08-04 08:51:00 am

Quote from Crow!:

Videos use a "codec" to describe how to convert a bunch of numbers that is the video file into a series of pictures. Encoding refers to taking your original video (usually one which doesn't drop ANY quality and is way too big to share), and turns it into something compressed by some codec and easily watched over the internet.

Look up the thread on "yua" in the technical support forum; that is a program by Nate that can encode most videos into something SDA-acceptable.

If you're concerned about how good your run is, the best thing to do is to get other people to watch it - bonus points if they're good at the game, otherwise them being good at games of the same genre is a good start. They should see things you can do better (if you really got it perfect on your own, it's apparently a pretty simple game). My rule is that I keep improving until I've run out of ideas for how to make it any better.

You should also search common game video sites (youtube, twitch, hitbox, speedrun.com, maybe niconico if the game is popular in Japan) to see if there are other speed runs to compare yourself to.

I usually prefer to just use the term "personal best" rather than "world record" for games that I haven't found a running community for yet. It's hard to tell if you're really the world record or if there's someone out there that you just don't know about.

Thank you a lot for this explanation, I fully understand now. So could I share my video with you please for your opinion? Also if you want to share your run with me I'd be happy to view it. Here's my Blasto World Record, and I did look at my competition and the previous World Record owner has been inactive for some time, but hasn't uploaded any run on this game with a better time than the one that's on his channel:

[quote="Crow!"]Videos use a "codec" to describe how to convert a bunch of numbers that is the video file into a series of pictures.  Encoding refers to taking your original video (usually one which doesn't drop ANY quality and is way too big to share), and turns it into something compressed by some codec and easily watched over the internet.

Look up the thread on "yua" in the technical support forum; that is a program by Nate that can encode most videos into something SDA-acceptable.

If you're concerned about how good your run is, the best thing to do is to get other people to watch it - bonus points if they're good at the game, otherwise them being good at games of the same genre is a good start.  They should see things you can do better (if you really got it perfect on your own, it's apparently a pretty simple game).  My rule is that I keep improving until I've run out of ideas for how to make it any better.

You should also search common game video sites (youtube, twitch, hitbox, speedrun.com, maybe niconico if the game is popular in Japan) to see if there are other speed runs to compare yourself to.

I usually prefer to just use the term "personal best" rather than "world record" for games that I haven't found a running community for yet.  It's hard to tell if you're really the world record or if there's someone out there that you just don't know about.[/quote]

Thank you a lot for this explanation, I fully understand now. So could I share my video with you please for your opinion? Also if you want to share your run with me I'd be happy to view it. Here's my Blasto World Record, and I did look at my competition and the previous World Record owner has been inactive for some time, but hasn't uploaded any run on this game with a better time than the one that's on his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzzK78FTzy0

Mindez

2015-08-04 10:25:11 am

I'm not familiar with the game in question, but if you believe that it's a new record and you're interested in submitting it to the SDA archives, your next step towards getting it put on the site is to check out this page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/submit_en.html for more information.

You should only consider submitting if you have recorded it separately from the stream though. The SDA values video quality highly, and Twitch/Youtube compression on a video will almost certainly lead to it being rejected. If you do have a higher quality copy of the run recorded directly from console using a capture device, you can submit your run on the page I linked above. You will have to encode your run using the 'yua' program, which will encode it into a format that the archive will accept. There are more instructions in the yua thread and on the SDA Knowledge Base, both of which can be found in the Tech Support section of this forum. Once you've submitted your run, it will go through a verification process so that other people can ensure that the run is free from cheating/video editing and has been legitimately timed. You should be prepared to explain your run to people and possibly to prove that it has been run on a console as opposed to an emulator.

You should also consider finding or creating a thread for Blasto in the "Older Consoles" section of this forum, so that you can share your notes on the game with others and find other people that might speedrun the game.

Congratulations on the run, and good luck getting it on the site!

I'm not familiar with the game in question, but if you believe that it's a new record and you're interested in submitting it to the SDA archives, your next step towards getting it put on the site is to check out this page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/lang/submit_en.html for more information.

You should only consider submitting if you have recorded it separately from the stream though. The SDA values video quality highly, and Twitch/Youtube compression on a video will almost certainly lead to it being rejected. If you do have a higher quality copy of the run recorded directly from console using a capture device, you can submit your run on the page I linked above. You will have to encode your run using the 'yua' program, which will encode it into a format that the archive will accept. There are more instructions in the yua thread and on the SDA Knowledge Base, both of which can be found in the Tech Support section of this forum. Once you've submitted your run, it will go through a verification process so that other people can ensure that the run is free from cheating/video editing and has been legitimately timed. You should be prepared to explain your run to people and possibly to prove that it has been run on a console as opposed to an emulator.

You should also consider finding or creating a thread for Blasto in the "Older Consoles" section of this forum, so that you can share your notes on the game with others and find other people that might speedrun the game.

Congratulations on the run, and good luck getting it on the site!

God of Gaming fo Realz

2015-08-04 10:38:50 am

Thank you and I made a new profile as I was having problems editing my last. If you have an apostrophe in your name, it doesn't allow you to edit your profile. I got the original file of the run saved onto my laptop before it was uploaded to YouTube, will that be okay then?

I appreciate the help, will submit when I read through everything and understood what I need to do

Mindez

Edit history:

Mindez: 2015-08-04 11:05:18 am

2015-08-04 11:04:39 am

The original file should be fine, as long as it wasn't recorded as part of a stream (By this I mean, not the XSplit/OBS local recording made while it was streaming, it should be the original game at full resolution, recorded directly from the capture device, preferably with a lossless codec such as Lagarith). If in doubt, use yua with the 'trim' feature to cut out about 1 minute of video and post it as an attachment in a new thread in tech support as a quality test. Then one of the admin will be able to give you the go-ahead if it's submission quality, or somebody will be able to help you fix your recording setup so that it can produce good quality video if it could be better.

Good luck!

God of Gaming fo Realz

2015-08-04 11:17:15 am

Thanks again! I will try that as soon as I get chance

hecatomb

2017-12-09 07:45:27 pm

maybe dragons dogma on NG+, you just have to max your character at level 200, max out your weapons and armor and then do speed run mode. Can be done in like 15 mins if you play that way.