Just don't feel bad about a bad time for the first time. I heard from one of the Majoras Mask top runners that his first time was over 5h, which is almost last right now. Now he's not one of the last but rather one of the best.
tips
- dont feel bad if you aren't good at a game right away, learning a game is part of the fun of speedrunning.
- Try to find games that you like to play and won't feel bored of after a short amount of time.
- I recommend downloading Livesplit, best timer out there for speedrunning
- last but not least, go fast and have fun :)
also welcome to the community
Play games that you like to play, not the games you feel like you should be speedrunning cause everyone does it.
Don’t belive in “rust” or that taking breaks is bad.
Often times speedrunners talk about being rusty at a game because they haven’t run it in a while. They make it sound like it’s horrible to take breaks from grinding attempts because it’ll make you lose your skill at a game. That’s not true and don’t take it at face value. Sure, after a break it might take you a bit of practice over a couple days to get back into the swing of things, but it’s never as bad as you might believe and sometimes a break from a game let’s people come back and crush their goals. You’ll always have that skill.
Plus, taking some breaks can be healthy mentally so you don’t burn yourself out and start to hate a game or this hobby.
I would echo what Komrade and Timmiluvs said as my advice, run a game you love to play, not what everyone else is running. Made that mistake with Mario64 and it alnost made me wanna stop running. And taking breaks you'll find is a necessity. When trying to up my time on Resident Evil 2 I found my biggest improvements came after a bit of down time. Good luck friend!
Find a game you really really really really really really really really really really really really really really like to play. If you're at all "serious" about it (is anything we do truly serious?), make sure it's a game you really really really really really really really really really really really really really really like to play the beginning of, because once you get a good or competitive time, you're gonna be resetting a lot. (If you want to do every run as a no-reset run with little care if it's minutes and minutes slower than your PB, that's fine! I know some runners who hate to reset even if there's no chance for the run to PB)
Study existing runs of your game to learn strats. If it's a game no one else has run before (and there's plenty of those out there, trust me), you'll have to find strats yourself. Don't worry, that's not as daunting as it sounds. Just play the game and find out what makes you go fast. I have a game that I took from a near 2-hour first run that can probably be as low as 34-35 minutes now. (Still wish other people would run it, but that's my burden)
In the end, there's no trick or secret to it. Just do runs. What feels right for you will come naturally.
[quote]
Start with games that can be beat fast (10 minutes or less) or have Individual Level runs. If you start with a game that is too long, getting a decent PB and learning all the strats could discourage you from running.[/quote]
Nahhhhhhhhhh. My first speedrun was almost 5 hours long.
Yea my first and only speedrun is around 50 minutes for me on a good day. I think it's all just preference. I don't really see a benefit in starting off with fast games. I would recommend just picking a game you love that would take an amount of time you want to run. For me, 45 mins to around almost 2 hours would be ideal.