Scheduled: 11:00 CST, 5 January 2014 to 21:00 CST, 11 January 2014Schedule: Passed
I thought I should tell you guys about speedrunning, it's a community that's getting bigger and bigger for every year. Speedrunning is to complete a game as fast as possible without cheating, you may use glitches inside the game but no cheat codes. There's over 900 speedruns over at
Speed Demos Archive and probably more that hasn't been submitted yet. The guys over at
SDA got two events every year where they gather people from all over the world for about 6-7 days and play video games, these are called
AGDQ,
SGDQ, Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick. Last year at AGDQ 2013 they managed to raise
$448,423.27 for the
Prevent Cancer Foundation and Summer Games Done Quick managed to raise
$257,181.07 for
Doctors Without Borders and I thought that if I wrote about this there's a chance they could make even more money at the next events for a great cause. The point of all this is that I want more people to join the speedrunning community. I've done a couple of interviews with a group of really active speedrunners and I hope you'll like it.
The marathon is now over and I'm happy to announce that they managed to raise over $1 million, $1006990 to be exact. I'm proud to be a part of this community and I'm proud of all of you who supported this!
Let's start with introductions, Who are you?
I'm Jayson and I go by ZFG, I grew up in california and moved to arizona about 3 years ago.
What is speedrunning for those who dont know?
Speedrunning is simply trying to beat a game as fast as possible.
What is your main game and why did you choose this particular game?
The main game I run is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This was one of the first games I ever played as a kid and was by far my favorite game long before I even began speedrunning it. When I was younger I was also very interested in glitches in games, and I happened to stumble upon some glitches in OoT on the internet that I thought were very interesting, and it was a lot of fun just messing around with them. I later found out that some people, speedrunners, used glitches to try to complete games as fast as possible, and I thought it was a really interesting concept and wanted to check it out. Since I joined the speedrunning community, even more glitches have been found in this game, and with every new glitch the game becomes more open for speedrunning and there's more freedom to do basically whatever you want in the game, which keeps me coming back after so many years.
When and why did you start with speedrunning?
I first found out about the speedrunning scene and joined the sda community around late 2006/early 2007, though at the time it was mostly just discussion about speedrunning rather than actually doing runs. I began actually speedrunning around 2008-2009, but didnt really start to take it very seriously until around 2010.
Let's switch topic to AGDQ/SGDQ, could you tell the readers a little about these events?
Awesome games done quick and Summer games done quick are speedrunning marathons where a bunch of speedrunners come together and speedrun a ton of games, live, to raise money for charity.
Are you going to attend AGDQ 2014 and if so, what are you going to run?
I will be attending AGDQ 2014 and I will be speedrunning Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. Ocarina of Time will also be a race with Moltov, another great OoT speedrunner.
What's the thing you enjoy most by going to these events, playing games, to meet new/old players or maybe just for a great cause?
I'm really looking forward to everything. One of my favorite things about the games I run is that they have so many glitches that blow peoples minds the first time they see them, so it's really exciting to be able to show that off to many people who have never seen it. I also have a lot of firends I've known for years on the internet but have never met in real life that I'm really looking forward to hanging out with for the first time. And being able to do all of this to raise money for charity to top it all off is pretty amazing.
SDA is the one organizing the AGDQ/SGDQ events, what do you think the staff of SDA could do to make it a better event?
One thing that has always caused a bit of controversy is the fact that the games list is chosen pretty much by just one person, Mike Uyama. While he does consult many people about games he doesn't know much about to try to create the best game list he can, I feel a bit more community input or a slightly bigger team of people to chose the games may make the games list a bit better. For one person though, I do think he has done a decent job.
Last year the guys/girls raised a ton of money at AGDQ 2013, $448,423.27 to be exact and 100% of the donations goes straight to the Prevent Cancer foundation, how does it feel to be a part of this?
It's pretty amazing to be part of this event that raises so much for a good cause while everyone is just playing games and having a good time. When I first joined the speedrunning community, the most you got out of a speedrun was a few forum posts saying "nice job" and maybe some youtube comments. Now speedruns are watched by thousands of people and used to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. I find it amazing both how much speedrunning has grown and how a simple hobby like this could do so much good.
That's all for me, I wish you good luck on your future runs, any shoutouts?
I want to give a shoutout to a few other friends and runners that will be at AGDQ: Pheenoh who is running Twilight Princess, toufool running Diddy Kong Racing, moltov, my race opponent in Ocarina of Time, and Goronguy, who was originally going to be the runner for Majora's Mask but unfortunately couldn't make it.
Let's start with introductions, Who are you?
I am Samura1man, speedrunner from Finland, I have been speedrunning since 2008, I wasn't active in that time, in 2011 I got into speedrunning again and my primary game for speedrunning is Super Mario Sunshine.
When and why did you start with speedrunning??
I started with Metroid Prime 1 and 2 in 2008, I wanted to try something new because I felt games were easy for me, needed more challenge.
Super Mario Sunshine is your main game, why do you feel it's such a good game?
It fits me, it's colourful, I like the movement in the game and I feel it's easy to get back into later.
What kind of games do you think is bad games to speedrun?
I would say games where I can't show skill, I like to show skill than watch plenty of cutscenes.
Let's talk a about AGDQ 2014, Are you going to attend this year or are you just a spectator??
I am not going to attend at all, since I live far away and I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, so I'm only watching.
Do you think the events are as good as they'll get or do you think they should change things up?
What could change is having a lot of awesome games and not drop them out, ie. Super Mario Sunshine isn't played this year and it was played in SGDQ 2013 and it was amazing, that has been the only marathon where it has been played.
What's your next big goal in the speedrunning scene?
My big goal at the moment is archive sub 1:30 in Super Mario Sunshine Any%, my record is 1:30:02 (World record).
That's all I got, I thank you for your time and good luck on your future runs.
Let's start with introductions, Who are you?
Max Ylitalo, Finland, I'm an oldschool hardware nut studying embedded electronics. Outside of all that I spend my time doing casual level design and being involved with the demoscene.
What is speedrunning for you?
To me it's all about conquering the game, being able to pick it apart to a point where you are able to ridicule it, get a really fast outcome and share the discoveries with other people who are running the game. Running the game becomes it's own "metagame" once the plot and game elements blend away and you are left with the elements of the challenge and being in total control. Everything boils down to it being a labor of love and meeting other runners who share the same interest for the game. All about having fun while running, planning and competing with the game. Not to mention being able to see the result of what awesomeness that the other runners have accomplished with their completed runs :)
When and why did you start with speedrunning?
I used to do causal single level races and such with friends before stumbling upon the communities on the internet.
Around late 2003 I stumbled upon Nesvideos and tool-assisted speedrunning (nowdays TASVideos), shortly after that I discovered Speed demos archive and been following both communities ever since. Aside from some Duke3D activity and casual running, It took until around early 2011 when I discovered droogie trough streaming and he was working on half-life. Luckily I was really familiar with HL engine trough having mapped quite a bit for it so together we spent loads of time breaking the game apart and learning the common tricks seen in the speed runs, all this escalated quite quickly and the final product was the half-life run seen at AGDQ12. Half-Life being my first real project I worked on but that was only for planning so late 2011 I picked up GTA III.
Your main game is GTA III, Why did you choose this particular game?
Really loving the game, I was always impressed by the runs that people had done at the time, GTA III is a really unforgiving but a fun game to run. At the time Silmaranza was on the final stretch with his 100% GTA III run from what I remember and inspired by that I started running and playing the game pretty actively. GTA III at the time only had segmented runs for "fastest" and "100%" but no marathon runs and the worst of all, the game I loved was something that nobody streamed online. Even the other GTA games had close to no attention at all aside from rare forum posts on SDA. So instead of making a thread and complaining about no activity, I decided to start playing the game myself. Got plenty of single segment times and two marathon runs, activity on the series has exploded since. I consider my strategy a success :)
I know you enjoy other GTA games like Vice City and I've also seen you stream the new GTA V, do you like the latest GTA V and what are your thoughts of it?
Having just completed the game this day, It's a bit mixed. While It ticks a lot of the boxes I wanted it to tick and improved a lot on the negatives of GTA IV, it still has a lot of things to improve on and sometimes even feels like it's trying to please everyone without proper focus. Things like car driving, certain missions and generally faster gameplay really lift it when things like the "point & click adventure game" combat (cover shooter mechanics), weird physics while on foot and heavy scripting on certain missions make a return. The whole area had awesome contrast but the Los Santos itself is mostly a maze due to multiple levels with roads and relying heavily on the GPS navigation at times before you learn the bigger roads or you will find yourself backtracking a lot due to fences blocking certain connections. I could go on with the cool things and the letdowns, overall it's a high quality title that deserves a play trough.
You attended AGDQ 2013 with a GTA III run, will you be back for AGDQ 2014 with another run?
Unfortunately no, I'd love to go but I currently can't afford the dent in my budget. But ! Adam (adam_ak twitch ID) will be doing a Vice City All missions run ! People should check that run as instead of just focusing on the main storyline, it actually completes all the side missions as well, fun!
SDA is the one organizing the AGDQ/SGDQ events, what do you think the staff of SDA could do to make it a better event?
I honestly don't think there is much that I can think of right now. We have some cool ideas for the next ESA (European Speedster Assembly) Which is another really cool marathon held in Sweden, if these work out well then maybe *GDQ events could consider trying them out as well. Other potential improvements have been addressed or are in the scope but those are only really tech related.
You guys raised a ton of money at AGDQ 2013, $448,423.27 to be exact and 100% of the donations goes straight to the Prevent Cancer foundation, how does it feel to be a part of this?
Warm and fuzzy
Thank you so much for your answers. Any last words to say?
YADDAM! No seriously, Lots of love to SDA & TASvideos & SRL admins/mods for keeping the sites running. SDA and Ludendi crew for the awesome marathons, droogie, coolkid and quad for HL1 stuff, lotsofs & adam for kicking the GTA community alive, LLcooldave/fernito/hoe (? been so long :)) for Duke3D stuff. Freezy, Flicky and Adam for L4D Team 90s kids TV, People from sourceruns and #gta. Also other runners I forgot and loads of people from SDA.
Let's start with introductions, Who are you?
My name is Adam Kuczynski. I was born in the Netherlands and have lived here for the majority of my life. My family originates from Poland, so I have a kind of bi-cultural background. Next to speedrunning, I am currently working on a PhD in Economics. Other than that, I play the piano and do origami (paperfolding) among other things.
When and why did you start with speedrunning?
I started speedrunning back in 2005 or so. There is this "break the targets" mode in Super Smash Bros Melee, and I always tried to complete it as quickly as possible. I first stumbled upon SpeedDemosArchive by looking up videos for SSBM, as I was looking around to see what other people had accomplished. A few years ago, I also started speedrunning Metroid: Zero Mission a bit, which introduced me to the Metroid2002 website, which taught me quite a bit about the game. It wasn't until early 2011, however, that I actually signed up at SDA and started taking speedrunning more seriously, starting with Sonic Chaos (a Master System game). I'm not sure how I actually ended up in speedrunning. I've thoroughly enjoyed doing time attacks in some games, so I suppose it came to me naturally.
What is your main game to speedrun and why do you feel it's such a good game?
Right now, my main game is Grand Theft Auto 3. It's actually quite difficult to say what makes this game good for speedrunning, because in this game everything works against you. It's quite heavy in randomness, but after playing it enough you start to anticipate certain patterns, and come up with optimal ways to deal with every situation. This eliminates a lot of the aforementioned randomness, and makes it quite heavily skill-based. This game has no 'perfect' run - there is always room for improvement, and that lets me keep on pushing further and further. Every time I get a new record, I see tons of opportunities. It gets harder and harder to beat my times, but I haven't reached my limit yet.
You attended AGDQ 2013 with a "Amnesia: The Dark Descent run", will you be back for AGDQ 2014 with another run?
I'm definitely planning to go to AGDQ2014, but I won't be speedrunning Amnesia (unless I do Amnesia 2 for the bonus stream). The game has been featured in two previous marathons, and as much as I love it, I think the spotlight should be put on other games. Instead of Amnesia, I will be doing a Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [all missions] speedrun, along with Ninja Gaiden any% (on the Master System).
You guys raised a ton of money at AGDQ 2013, $448,423.27 to be exact and 100% of the donations goes straight to the Prevent Cancer foundation, how does it feel to be a part of this?
It's a pretty strange feeling, knowing that we've managed to raise so much money for PCF just by doing what we love. I always go to the marathons because they're great fun to attend, but it's nice knowing that there's a good cause attached to it as well.
What's the thing you enjoy most by going to these events, playing games, to meet new/old players or maybe just for a great cause?
I just like hanging out with random people and playing games. Meeting new people is the coolest part of the marathons. Speedrunning is a bit of a niche hobby, so it's great to hang out with like-minded people. The marathon stream doesn't necessarily always reflect just how cool the event really is. There are always tons of cool things happening behind the scenes.
Do you think the events are as good as they'll get or do you think they should change things up?
When it comes to the line-up of games, it can only get better. The events are getting bigger and bigger, which means that more cool speedruns can be shown off during the stream. As for attending it, I think there will be a peak at some point, where the event just becomes too big (and you miss out on a lot of things behind the scenes). I don't believe we're close to that point just yet, though. The best has yet to come.
Allright, Thanks you for answering my questions, any last comments/shoutouts?
Special shoutouts to Freezard, Flicky and Oasiz. I've had amazing fun doing L4D speedruns with them. I hope speedrunning will stay that much fun in the future.
Let's start with introductions, Who are you?
Mike Uyama, USA, and I now work as a contract fundraiser, with my first contract being contract fundraising for prevent cancer.
When and why did you start with speedrunning?
I started speedrunning way back in 2004 when SDA just started accepting other games. I started because I wanted to prove that I was good at games somehow and this was the way I accomplished that.
What is your main game to speedrun and why do you feel it's such a good game?
I guess my main game to speedrun is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, even though I haven't played it in about 6 months. I think it's a good game to speedrun because it's a very fast-paced, has skips a lot of execution.
What kind of games do you think is bad games to speedrun?
Aside from bad games, shmups and rhythm games are bad games to speedrun. There's not a lot you can even speed up in those games, and they lend themselves better to high score plays.
Let's talk a about AGDQ/SGDQ, What made you start this whole thing?
The Games Done Quick marathons started because some of us started watching The Speed Gamers (http://www.thespeedgamers.com/). We thought we could do better, and then learned it was a lot harder to pull off a marathon than it seems. And that is how CGDQ (Classic Games Done Quick) started.
You guys have done an amazing job with entertainment of speedrunning and all those donations, do you think you guys peaked or will this just keep getting bigger?
I haven't seen any sign of growth stopping. While I don't think we'll triple in donations every year (yes, that has been our rate of growth!), I definitely think our event is still growing. Spikevegeta had a stream of game predictions this AGDQ that had over 1k viewers at one point. The interest is definitely there.
What's your next big goal in the speedrunning scene?
My next goal is to make sure that the GDQs can sustainably grow in the following years and keep being successful.
AGDQ 2014 is just around the corner, what foundation will you donate to this time and why?
Our beneficiary is the Prevent Cancer Foundation because they've treated us well in the past.
You guys are awesome, before I leave you, any last words/shoutouts?
Shoutouts to the community for keeping things real.
I hope you got inspired enough to watch some of these awesome runs and hopefully you'll be speedrunning very soon! I will post some helpful links below to help you find everything you need to know about speedrunning.
Links: Speed Demos Archive,
Speedrunslive,
w00ty,
SDA Charity Marathons
Phyrigian is hosting an Australian One Day Duel Competition, his fourth Fridgecup ODC. After this, expect an exciting special announcement which is sure to rock Australian Quake Live!
Diabz
4SG Thread
evil, we are set for the second cup coming Sunday, starting at 08:00 CST. You can already sign-up now!
Daniel "ddk" Kapadia will be bringing all the action to you on 
Kevin "strenx" Baeza, joining us for the second time! 
#FACEIT, 
FACEITCommunity, 
@FACEIT, 
FACEITcom
Cypher, 
LeSzNy, 
Spart1e, 
twister, 
dem0n, 
Killer vs 
Mong, immediately followed by 
Britney vs 
nonviolent communion
Denmark /
, uaReaper, 
baksteen, 
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