Speedrun - Common Procedures and Preparation

Common Procedures and Preparation

There are several important things that one needs to keep in mind during the making of a speedrun. These pertain to how good one is at playing the game, which primarily means that the player must be competent at using the gameplay mechanics, and must instinctively know the workings of the in-game physics and any special techniques or tricks that can be used to one's advantage. Secondly, good knowledge of the game and the events that occur within it are crucial, as one needs to know exactly what to expect during a "run" through the game, and also realize the optimal method to do so. Additionally, runners require perseverance, as it is quite difficult to be able to do a run correctly in a single attempt. As it requires some degree of luck to be able to perform all important events to a satisfactory degree, runners will usually have to simply try again constantly until they are all done right in the same recording (although this differs per run type; different run types were briefly mentioned in the abstract and will be explained further down). The requirement to do this depends on whether the runner is trying to beat another record. When attempting to do so, making mistakes could annul one's chances of doing so (especially if the holder of the current record did not make that same mistake). For some speedruns records, especially those of popular games such as Quake or some games from the Metroid series, years of intensive competition have brought about very high quality standards. Runners therefore practice intensively to attain the ability to play at such a high level of skill. In some cases, Internet communities that relate to speedrunning are able to keep active improvement on a particular speedrun going for years.

As mentioned, the actual recording of a run is preceded by a research phase. The things a runner can do during this phase pertain to finding out possible ways to save time, most of which are likely specific to the particular game under consideration. Naturally, it must be known beforehand that there is a certain route through the game that will yield a fast time. Such a route can describe various things, including a number of abilities that the game's character must obtain or avoid, which enemies to gain experience points from, or which levels to play (in case there is a choice at all). The devised routes can be highly creative and may include doing things that are out of ordinary or intended play style. It is not uncommon for routes to even "skip" parts of regular gameplay in events known as "sequence breaking", sometimes through the use of programming errors (called "glitches" in this case) that can work to the runner's advantage. These things both pertain to the most important preparation work: route planning.