Speedrunning Thread - Page 50

Introduction
“So do you copy Michael Phelps, the man who puts in the hours but is clearly naturally talented or from the 38-year old amateur Shinji Takeuchi who finally taught himself to swim after years of failure? Learn from the Shinjis of the world, they are foolproof”
Tim Ferriss -

I’m going to let you in on a secret. It’s a secret that every speedrunner knows and… well I guess it isn’t a secret but here it is: Speedrunning is easy. I’m serious, it is. If you compare it to learning a language (not that bad), playing a musical instrument (sort of hard) or learning to write (urk) it’s really simple. The problem is: getting started.

My name is Lee Reeves but I’m probably better known as flicky. I’ve been a fan of speedruns for a long time and since 2008 I had dreamt of having a speedrun accepted to SDA. It finally happened in 2012. Four years of trying and failing before I finally achieved what I set out to do. “Wait, what? Why would I want to learn from you?” I hear (… imagine) you ask. Well here’s the why: I have no natural affinity for speedrunning. None at all. As far as time-trials in video games went, I played a lot of Timesplitters, but only to unlock characters. Aside from that, the only time-trial I did just for fun was Baby Park in Double Dash. In fact, I didn’t even enjoy going against the clock but goddamn I wanted to be a speedrunner.

Simply put, I was in the position you might find yourself in now. I want to teach you how I got through it and how you can too. I waded through the advice of “just play” or “copy me” which isn’t helpful for a majority of us. So how am I going to teach you? I’m going to pass on everything I’ve learnt and figured out and present it in a manner that has a low failure rate and is practical. We’re going to play Super Mario World together and after X WEEKS you’ll be finishing it in under 12 minutes.

Learning a speedrunner mindset takes time. Learning the ins and outs of your game takes even longer. Learning a route and executing it is easy and it’s where we’ll start. But that’s not all you’ll learn: You’ll find out about smart goal-setting, practice methods, how to route, how to optimise and finally – how to do all of this easily.

Here’s the first thing I want you to remember before we get started. How many hours have you played video games for? Too many to count, right? For me, I started when I was 7, have probably averaged out to two hours a day since then, so that’s 11,680 hours of video games. Figure out your number. That’s how many hours of potential practice you’ve already done. Let’s make it count.

It’s easy to go wrong with starting out and lose your way. With the right method, anyone can learn anything easily, I truly believe that. That’s what this is – the first speedrunning manual. Welcome to Twelve Minute Mario.

Lee Reeves
6th March 2013

The Course Overview

Here’s some more information about the method. It is designed to work for those low on time and for those who can cram – you already know which one you are.

How to Learn
It’s a simple step-by-step guide to Super Mario World’s any% and how to approach your first run. The goal is simple, a 12-minute time and a manual you can apply to learning the route for any game. Some games are highly competitive and have a lot of existing material out there for you to learn from. We’re starting here because it removes a lot of the confusion and complications that can overwhelm new runners. First we learn how to execute and how to learn.

This is split up into five simple sections:

Play – A simple run-through from no experience. You’ll see how to do the key parts, then get a crack at it. You’ll learn about natural development of skills and the importance of foundations.
Learn – We start learning the route in full and begin the pursuit of speed. You’ll learn about smart improvements, how to practice and where to focus for the most effective uses of time.
Attempt – You’ll get to use what you’ve learnt and experience firsthand what it’s like to run a game. You’ll learn about not caring and the importance of quantifiable data.
Improve – We’ll go back to practicing and introduce more advanced concepts and methods. You’ll learn about chunking, improved practice methods and how to approach hard tricks.
Time – You get another crack at the run and will hit your 12 minute goal. No, really.

Following that, we’ll review the whole process and what we’ve learnt. From there, you are free to go out and run on your own or you can continue onto the next steps. Remember, finish this and you’re officially a speedrunner. Or you would be if there was an official body governing such a thing. Let’s not bother making one of those…

How to Create
The next step in speedrunning is creating your own product. Routing a game is, for many, the main goal. The problem is, it’s a hard goal to start off with. Once you’ve learnt the basics, routing becomes a lot more straightforward. This section will teach you:

• How to build a route from the ground up - without burning out & while practicing
• How to understand a game
• How to pick a game
• The importance of dicking around
• How to collaborate with other runners
• The beginnings of optimisation

Here, you’ll get to pick your own game and make your own way towards your goal. Remember, getting started is the hard part.

Routing is one of the most important parts of speedrunning. A good route comes first, good execution second. Once you have learnt to route, you’re basically set and could probably just go solo from there, but for those who want to take the final step, there’s one more:

How to Master
The difference between the best runners and the second best are down to two things: practice methods and mindset. Time is a factor, undeniably, but with smart practice and the right mindset, you can overcome almost any amount of difference in practice time. Mindset allows you to spot mistakes and practice methods allow you to improve them. This will teach you about how to RROAR! That’s right, I made a goddamn acronym:

• Record
• Review
• Optimise
• Apply
• Run

If you ask any experienced runner they will tell you same things about mastering runs. Record your runs. Review your, and other people’s, play. Optimise what you see and fix the mistakes. Apply your new improvements. Run your game. That’s it really. This section will be surprisingly simple but it is incredibly important to do it last. Mastery can remove chunks of time from a run but only once the run has taken shape. I could make a fantastic analogy to carving a sculpture out of wood, but I think you’ve all got it.

In amongst all this goodness there will be whole loads of advice from people (not just speedrunners), there will be stories about the community as well loads of guidance and tips from myself. You can read as much or as little as you want and you’ll only need to finish the first part course to get the basics.