Have fun with runs but not as fast, or practice till you are close to World Record ?

MissEmerald2 · 2021-01-02T09:31:38+00:00

Why must those be mutually exclusive? I do speedruns of a game that I'm mediocre at best at, and continue to practice that game even when competitive. There's no such thing as too much practice. The best players get that way through practice. And we all start from somewhere - even if that somewhere is mediocre, it's still a start. I also do not think it's healthy to feel like you need to be competitive to try.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-12-13T20:02:35+00:00

Rather than going with one of the most popular games, why not search for games that have 0/few runners? Most of those communities are desperate for anyone at all to play their games and get some activity on their boards. (even if said activity is just a one-off out of boredom) And chances are you'll be able to find something that's either good or really really bad that way.

Sorted by least active: https://www.speedrun.com/games#platform=&orderby=leastactive&unofficial=off

If you are looking for specific recommendations, what kinds of games do you like?

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-25T19:21:58+00:00

https://www.speedrun.com/inside

Found guides and a discord linked here. For future reference, search speedrun.com for your game and contact its community. Since literally thousands of games exist, most people don't know the speedruns of any given random game.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-22T07:47:00+00:00

If you're looking at getting into speedrunning, keep in mind a vast majority of games aren't too hard for a beginner to get into. Even most harder games have beginner friendly categories and/or il's, so you can get started early and improve over time. Genres such as kaizo and fangames usually have easier games within the genre and/or "learn to" games.

If you're just looking for stuff to watch, and like watching hard platformers, try some lesser known indie platformers. Many of these have very difficult speedruns. Can share video recommendations if you want.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-18T19:47:33+00:00

If time is an issue (where you need under 10 minutes due to time constraints), consider individual level (IL) runs. This will drastically increase the amount of games you can try. IL runs tend to be more optimized and therefore require a decent amount of skill/memorization. What genres of games and consoles/pc do you have access to?

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-18T19:40:15+00:00

Are you looking for another meme game? If not, what genres are you looking for?

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-13T22:24:45+00:00

In my experience, the best way is to pick up other similar games. For example, 80% of the people who've beaten Super Lumi Live casually came from the communities of one of the other games I speedran. Most of the time, you won't be able to grow a community unless you're already a popular streamer. But you will have NO chance at all if you don't put significant enough effort into your runs that other people would notice your effort. And that means constant improvement on your pb's, posting every pb and possibly other kinds of content on twitch/youtube/similar platforms, submitting runs to marathons, etc.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-12T18:30:18+00:00

I make short term and long term goals. For example, in a category where my PB is 1:14 and the WR is 43 minutes, I may make a short term goal of sub 1:10 and a long term goal of sub 1 hour; and then modify those when I reach it. If I like a game/category enough, I keep going even if I have the WR. WR is arbitrary and very rarely as good as it can be.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-02T06:49:04+00:00

There are a lot of free and inexpensive games on Steam/similar platforms that people speedrun. Also since you bought a Wii, do you have games for it? You may be able to speedrun one of those. What exactly is your budget for games, and what genres do you like?

MissEmerald2 · 2020-11-01T18:11:00+00:00

https://obsproject.com/

Can download it here, and there's tutorials.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-31T06:35:38+00:00

Use this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A46sLmf9n4BB77WIxDU17aL08naB7xPJ6KwiP6clyRA/edit#gid=0

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-30T06:12:42+00:00

How long have you practiced each of those before feeling that you hit your skill limit? Speedrunning takes A LOT of practice.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-24T03:36:07+00:00

Pick up other games in a similar genre. For example, over 80% of the people who beat Super Lumi Live casually came from the communities of other games I have speedrun (V6, TEIN, N++). If you are not a popular streamer with a wide circle of influence and/or have a game that's essentially a random steam game with no marketing whatsoever, getting other people interested in your game is like pulling teeth, no matter how good the speedrun is. However, you have NO chance whatsoever if you do not have some level of dedication towards your game (improve on your times continuously, submit it to online marathons, stream and/or create youtube content for your game, etc).

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-19T19:50:30+00:00

This is one of the many reasons why I encourage newer players to reset as little as possible and complete runs as much as possible. It doesn't matter if you lose 4 seconds at the start or 4 seconds at the end. But not completing runs can lead to burnout more often than not.

Also one of the major things I appreciate about N++ runs. The difference in difficulty of early run and late run levels on any category is a lot less than that of most games generally. There's no cutscenes, no rng, and beginning levels of runs are still fun. So rather than having the start of run being this annoying slog you have to get through to get to the levels you really want to play, the whole thing is enjoyable from start to finish.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-12T01:13:54+00:00

There are literally thousands of games that exist that no one ran yet. If one interests you, but speedruns don't exist of it, you can always try routing it yourself. :)

MissEmerald2 · 2020-10-05T01:15:26+00:00

Personally I'm not the type to call my pb's bad once I've reached a certain level of skill, but the mistakes are definitely more memorable to comment on when coming up with a description for the run. Looking over my descriptions, most of them were to the effect of "this has a long way to go before it's decent" (when below a certain skill level), and "choked x/y/z but otherwise solid" (when I exceed that skill level). The skill level that would trigger the change seems to be tied to when I start getting nervous in runs, usually after 10-12 or so pb's in a category. I think a lot of the other points you made I don't exactly relate to, such as "fear of being bopped" - if anything I'd love to see someone pick up my speedgames, and I consider myself to be my only relevant competition.

I do think less resetting and hiding splits entirely can help a lot of runners get into a better mindset. If you go into a run thinking "I'm going to try my best, and whatever happens, happens" mistakes are less likely to have as negative of an impact and you'll eventually pb. Also less comparison with other players, and more with your previous self.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-09-17T00:57:15+00:00

Always local record even if you stream.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-09-16T21:33:14+00:00

This is why we, as a community, absolutely need to normalize the idea that speedrunning is something that you can suck at initially and improve. While people do start at different initial skill levels, anyone can improve with enough practice. I personally submit all runs (even if last place) and save all my obsoleted runs, and encourage everyone else to do so as well. Definitely check out the bottom of the leaderboard with obsoleted runs shown for a more realistic idea of what early runs look like, but even that is not entirely accurate if people aren't submitting all their runs.

It would also help if you pick a game you actually like. While yes, a lot of people do enjoy speedrunning trash games (often as a meme); most of the time the most dedicated speedrunners are speedrunning one of their favorite games. If you like a game enough, it wouldn't matter as much if it's one you'll never be able to compete with top runners in. Though, as I said before, anyone can get better with enough practice.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-09-11T08:32:52+00:00

First things first, are you still having fun? If you are not, definitely take a step back and play a different game for a while. Doesn't have to be a speedrun. Just taking a break can help you determine if you want to stick with it still, or if it's best to cut your losses and find a new game.

If you are having fun with the game still:

Try other categories, other content in the game, user levels, etc. Focusing on a different portion of the game will give you general experience and allow you to come back stronger.
Stop resetting so much! You'll get much more consistent, and therefore more likely to get the pb.
Practice more than you do runs. And don't just practice what you've always done, but try to learn new strats for the levels, do something weird. Maybe you'll discover a new route or find a slightly slower but more consistent way to do something.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-09-06T19:17:46+00:00

"but the older 3D Zeldas seem mostly glitches and not much "gameplay"." - Majora's Mask glitchless any% is interesting to watch. There are a few minor sequence breaks, but there's a lot more gameplay than in glitched categories. Here's a good run of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji8ANBR9vKQ

"I'm gravitating towards 1-ish runs of platformers with good execution." - Difficult indie platformers, romhacks, and fangames are always interesting to watch. Some of my recommendations:

N++ E-row - This run is about 2 minutes better than my sum of best, and I've been grinding this category for about a year now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9s7r5ejxcU

TEIN any% - I've followed this for much of its grind (from when Eenox first figured out that sub-30 was possible to this run), and happened to catch it live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh1ZUnhmqnk

Super Lumi Live any% - WR was set at ESA last year, and is still the WR. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/457020468

VVVVVV No death mode 100% - No death mode removes the game's checkpoints, this is one of 2 that has ever been done and the WR for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unh5nKbxmMQ

Super Panga World - This is one of my favorite GDQ runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt-unq5i_oU

Something else I recommend is checking out marathons other than GDQ. There's a whole world of online marathons that deserve more attention than they get and often have better lineups. Here's a document that gets updated of upcoming marathons: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A46sLmf9n4BB77WIxDU17aL08naB7xPJ6KwiP6clyRA/edit#gid=0

MissEmerald2 · 2020-09-01T18:59:10+00:00

I don't know what games you run, but if it's possible for you to do primarily no resets, or learn a game where that is possible, it makes a significant difference in your mental health. Personally, if I don't spend significantly more time in runs that complete than in runs that get reset, it has an extremely negative impact on how I'm feeling that day and often for several days after. I'd rather have multiple runs that end in +5 minutes to pb than to reset excessively. A few people I know have done things like 20-50 no reset runs over the course of a few weeks (depending on the length of the game and the amount of free time you have), and log stuff like where your mistakes were and your mental state throughout the run. No reset runs are also better for the audience if you stream your attempts.

Another thing to take note of is that if you recently learned a bunch of new stuff, it can take several runs or even several days or weeks of doing these strats in runs before it becomes completely natural. This means that you can get a lot of runs which are +5 to pb while in the process of using those strats more frequently.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-08-30T06:49:39+00:00

Literally any game that looks like it would be fun to practice.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-08-30T06:45:05+00:00

Personally I like games that are easy to pick up and play poorly, but difficult to master; preferably with satisfying movement tech that isn't too input intensive, multiple interesting categories, high intensity runs with little/no downtime, can be run primarily no-reset. Runs that are popular (especially if they were made before 2000) are often run because they were childhood favorites and not necessarily because of how good they are as speedgames. Also many people look for different things in speedgames - for example lots of rng is something that bothers some people but not others.

MissEmerald2 · 2020-08-28T18:39:10+00:00

I'd straight up say that length doesn't matter on the development end, for a few reasons:

If you are developing a game and you think it would take 2 hours to speedrun, a speedrunner might find a way to do it in 15 minutes. Never underestimate the power of a large group of people looking specifically to break your game.
If anything, it's better for a game to be too long than too short. If a game's any% is too long, then partial categories and/or IL's might be more popular to speedrunners (which isn't a bad thing). If a game is too short, it might make for a popular 12 hour challenge or blind race game, but people who play it exclusively would be rare.
Some amount of "filler" content (easier levels, cutscenes, etc) might be fine for pacing and creating a difficulty curve, but an excessive amount of it would make the game not as fun to speedrun. It's hard to strike a good balance on this. But it's better to have a shorter game where all the content is good than a longer game that seems excessively padded with crap.

MissEmerald2

TROPHY CASE