I'm New, can someone help me with some (probably dumb) questions?
Ireland

I have some questions, sorry if these are better suited to another place on the forums.

I want to speedrun a game that isn't on here already, do I start a thread to request it get put up? If so, where?

The game's got minor differences between the US and EU versions, these are just graphical differences, should I still specify which version I'm playing?

I have a ton of other questions but these are the most pressing at the moment. I'd really appreciate the help.

France
xDrHellx
He/Him, It/Its
6 years ago

First question : https://www.speedrun.com/requestgame

Second : I guess you could, either way if you do speedruns you'll be able to select the region you're using (JP, US, EU etc) when submitting / adding runs on the game's leaderboard.

Ireland

Thank you so much for your help!

I'm curious about the Moderator thing. I'm confident I would set up the rules well enough, and I love the idea of seeing other people's speedruns of this game, but I have a lot on my plate irl. What if I wasn't able to moderate after a while, would I be able to 'resign'? I mean, it's hardly a game I expect more than 20 people are aware of and would try speedrunning, but still.

Antarctica

If you stop moderating a game for whatever reason and someone comes along with a run that doesn't get verified, they'd start bothering you to verify it or they'd request to become moderator if you never responded. I'd suggest finding another runner who is active in the game and modding them to help with anything if you need to disappear for a while.

Oklahoma, USA

the moderators usually correct any mistakes you make :) greetings!

Ireland

Thanks again everyone! :)

I just recorded it (the videos processing as I type this), and I'm really excited. I'd say it turned out really well, especially given that I'm only doing it for fun and I wasn't too worried about making mistakes (it is the first speedrun of this game, after all). But I have one more (very, very embarrassing) question:

I used Camtasia Studio 8 to record it, which annoyingly has this thing where the audio desyncs whenever there's no sound, even for half a second. A bunch of times in the game it has a split-second of silence as it loads in the next level/segment. Sorry if I did a bad job of describing it, I'm dreadfully bad at this stuff.

Point is, the audio desyncs about 5 minutes in and desyncs further and further. I could fix the audio, but it would take a pretty long time and I barely know what i'm doing. What I'm currently doing is having it slowly fade until the first point of desync, then have the sound off for the rest of the video. Does this make the run invalid? Is this fine? If it doesn't count then I'll either do my best to fix it (which i'm not sure if I can do) or I'll have to redo the run with Youtube streaming (which will be annoying, but if i have to I have to. Assuming I can get it set up).

Antarctica

Having no sound is generally a problem. Audio is one of the biggest ways to detect a cheated run (not saying you cheated, I’m sure you didn’t) so not having any sound usually sets off a lot of red flags for moderators.

I’d look into better recording/broadcasting software like OBS or XSplit which will probably give you much better recordings that don’t desync on you.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Oklahoma, USA

That wouldnt matter to much though long as the rules dont clearly state audio is needed. cause i know some do.

Ireland

Thanks, I'll send it in, explain everything and see if it's accepted. If not then I guess I don't have that much of a problem with redoing it with better recording software. There's silver lining in that I meant it to be a 100% complete run but I missed one thing and couldn't go back, so I'll be able to do it again 'properly', at least.

Ireland

Sorry if replying to a thread of mine after I made the last post is gauche, I've never really used forums much. The game's verified! Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy if you're curious, it's hardly a good game but I have a soft spot for it. Suffice to say, there are some things I'd appreciate help with.

I've made the Any% category, and there's only one collectable in the game. Looking at some other games on here, I think the right thing to do is make '100%' it's own category, correct? (and not make it a subcategory or variable?)

The rules that I feel make the most sense for it are that the timer on the run starts the moment the first level starts and ends when the 'END' appears after the credits. I'm assuming that these are things that I, the mod can set and if someone has a good reason to dispute it I could change it? (Or does a run need to start with the game booting up or need to end with the credits?)

Regarding the previous rules, should I make a post in the game's forum explaining that?

Do I need a Splits I/O account to submit the run?

Antarctica

I’ll start with the easier question - no, splits I/O is optional and is there if you want to share your splits. It’s not required.

As for the 100% question, yes, 100% should be it’s own category. It should consist of collecting “everything” in the game. How you define everything is up to you. Some games define it as everything on a pause menu or everything that is not consumable. As long as it can be measured in a clear way, it’s up to you and the community how you define 100%.

As for the timing question, most games follow Standard Western RTA rules which means that timing starts on first input (like selecting a file to play on) and ends on last input usually not including text boxes. So last input on a boss or movement if you will.

For your own knowledge, there are some other timing methods that are used in some communities. For example, the Japanese community times from console power on to when the words “The End” or their equivalent appear on screen. The SDA (SpeedDemosArchive) method of timing was from gaining control of character to losing control. The most popular is the first one I mentioned though so I’d use that.

Hope that helps.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Australia

Hi Drinkplentyofmalk, welcome to the site. I hope you have had you daily dose of Vitamin R.

Thanks to the other uses for answering some of these questions. I would strongly encourage making a comment in your games' categories about the rulesets - so if anyone else would like to submit a run they know what they have to do in order to have a verifiable run.

As for recording, you can download OBS and get that to local record to your machine. Might be a small amount of set up, but it's likely you won't have the same audio issues and it sets you on the way if you want to stream your content later on with OBS as well.

Otherwise, I've checked your game, looks all good to go! Have fun!

Ireland

Just recorded the 100% run with OBS (thanks!) after a ton of issues with trying to get Camtasia's audio desync fixed and Xsplit working perfectly for two minutes until crazy slowdown starts, it was a real relief to get something simple and that worked for me.

I'm very happy about the run (I mean, I did die to the first and final bosses and twice went to the main menu to make sure I didn't miss anything, but it probably only added up to two or three extra minutes) and I succeed in the two little goals I set for myself, one, to try something completely new and two, to feel happy with the fact that I made the first-ever speedrun for this meh-at-best game that I have a real soft spot for. That'll be a fun little talking point for years.

I didn't think that I'd try any other speedruns after this, but looking at few leaderboards for games I like on here I've thought 'oh, I'd love to see if I could do better than the last place entry on this!', so we'll see! Thanks again, everyone.

gooperman and MelonSlice like this
Scotland

awesome good job :D hope you stay a while and you never know you might be able to beat quite a few times :)