Good Morning everyone :)
two Weeks ago, I decided to start Speedrunning (after watching "The Best of NES" xD). I thought, that it couldn't be that hard. Oh man, was I wrong. The first hard decision for me to make was: What game do I start with? I figured it out (asked a lot of People, got many good advices and such), but couldn't decide quite on the right Game for me. So I started with one of the Games, I loved playing as a young Kid: Pokémon Red/Blue. Mode: Any% Glitchless. I watched some runs, got some tools, set up my Stream, read through the Guide and all. But in the End I was just humilated by the Time and all the stuff, you have to take care of WHILE Speedrunning.
I started with a Casual run and resetted about 20 Times allready, before I got the first Part (if anyone knows this game, the first Part for me is defeating Brock, the first Gym Leader) correct. I got a bit frustrated by the many Encounters I got, even if I run a good route. I got frustrated maaany many times, as I wasn't able to get a good Nidoran, or even wasn't able to get a Nidoran on the first try like I allways saw in the best Runs.
I finally have to admit: Speedrunning issn't that easy as I thought. Why do I post this? It's a Thread for new Speedrunners, FROM a new Speedrunner. If you truly want to start Speedrunning, here are some tips: When you picked your Game, take your time. Read EVERYTHING you can find and make your OWN strategy. Don't just rerun that runs, you saw, try something on your own. Time - You need lots of it if you didn't pick a Game, where the fastest Speedrun is at about 10 Minutes or such (Pokémon Red/Blue is at about one Hour, 50 Seconds). You should take this Time for you only, don't get distracted by friends, family or stuff like that. Just take your time. If you do Casual Runs, also take your time. Try to do the route, you have in your mind, but don't rush it at first. Just get the feeling for it and if you restart, do it a bit faster. In this way, it's better for your Muscle Memory, to memorize every step to take. You won't be able, to do a perfect run in the first few weeks (especially not, if you are playing an RPG with so much RNG like Pokémon xD). If you do Casual Runs: save a lot. Split your game in different Parts. Learn these parts one after another. Let's take Shovel Knight as an example here and not Pokémon Red/Blue: Shovel Knight is an really good, but also hard, Jump'n'Run. I really love this Game, but it is hard as fuck if you wan't to Speedrun it and haven't really played it before. After watching some runs, I came with a plan for myself: First, learn the Movement. Second, learn the Maps and the routes to run. Third, learn to fight the bosses real fast. So the first part of this is for me, to learn the Movement. I just have to get comfortable with that. But you can't just stand at one point and jump 5 Million Times, you will just do it wrong when you are in the open field. So every Level I do, I start with some jumping around to get a feeling for the Jumps and then run it. I allways skip all Checkpoints, so that if I die, I can start from the beginning. With that in mind, I can allways run the complete Map and get better at every section of this. In terms of Pokémon, I would say it that way: Part One: Everything till you finished the fight against Brock. Part two: Everything till you finished Misty. Conclusion: I save after the fight against Brock if I'm comfortable with the outcome and the Time.
One big tip I can give you all: Start getting comfortable with Livesplit or stuff like that. Also, get comfortable streaming live, if you decide on streaming and not on YouTube.
So, I hope I could give something back with this thread to this great Community (one of the best I've ever seen in my Life, and I just started Speedrunning!).
It's a big mistake to copy the WR strats if you start to speedrun for most games. There are very often easier routes strats, that are slower, but much more consistent and when you get better and have more experience with the game you can start adding faster strats. It is also a bad idea to start out with runs immediately. Nothing goes over practicing, there is no way around it.
Personally I start new games by making notes and then doing runs (it's really important that these get finished if at all possible) with the notes, no practice. Then I practice what went wrong and do more runs.
It depends on the game, though, some games absolutely demand certain sections be practiced, while others all the practice you need is playing the game.
I love games with piles of clever routing; people will likely best my times on execution once they get popular. Really though, a good speed game for someone is one they can just re-run a million times and enjoy.
Playing the game through casually taking notes of what is important and must be done during the game is key, multiple playthroughs and trying various things is important before attempting to even build a route and then start practicing runs. You should never start with trying to do a run from a WR video without actual knowledge and understanding of the games mechanics and more advance tricks etc, that stuff comes over time and a can be added in later. I have created several routes for games I currently play doing exactly what I've said and that also had come with more then a few dozen runs and counting casually before I even began to run them.
Speedrunning is fun but from experience after you've been speed running a game a lot you tend to lose appreciation for the game (not say it's a bad game).
When you do going blind into speedrunning, especially if it's a game you're brand to new, always start by making my own routes. I don't use WR routes because more likely than not the person has had more experience with the game and know all the trick and widgets to the game... It's pretty easy when routing a game if you just route it level by level and not skip around. Get to know each level, if you don't have a solid understanding of each route there's a good chance your speed run wont be as solid either. But over all speedrunning is a great hobby (it's definitely the minority of gamers believe it or not) and I have tons of fun doing.
Good luck on your first run whenever that may be!
I would not say u lose appreciation for the game(s) you should be running if you enjoy them, but perhaps some people may get bored with it because of repetition and need to take a break from the particular game(s).
I've played the same game a few times every week even before i started running it, and I still love it just as much as before. Taking breaks from certain games that become tiring and moving to something else is likely something that works out nicely, having a second or third game to play and run is nice in that situation. I normally play and run a game or 2 allot within a month or so then take a break of up to a month or so to move on to other things, then come back another time is a great way to keep things more enjoyable for yourself.
Anyways just some more thoughts on the matter. <3
The biggest issue I have when I speedrun is trying too hard to be the best despite being new to the game. I constantly compare myself to others, or get discouraged messing up. And as the second poster pointed out, I try doing WR strats despite there being no reason to be doing it.
Gotta break these habits.
Thanks for all those great replies :D I think, many new Speedrunners, reading this thread, will get a good point of view where and how to start, what to do and what not (like for example attempting doing WR strats).
I for myself are now struggling with the following Problem: I finally decided to do a Secret of Mana Speedrun, but first have to play it normally. There are some glitches, that aren't that easy to learn/to do and I have to try them all out. The game is freaking hard, if you play it just "normal" but without killing everything like you would on a Speedrun xD The problem now is, I allready watched a Speedrun of it, and now get frustrated if anything doesn't work like I want it to work, because I've seen it like that on the Run and want to converse it to my run xD Thats a dumb habit I got here and I'm trying to overcome it by just playing the Game Casually and without attempting any Speed.