What makes speedrunning fun?
A few weeks ago, GDQ ran its annual fundraiser. GDQ stands for Games Done Quick, and is a community of people dedicated to speedrunning games. Well what is speedrunning?
Speedrunning the playthrough of a video game performed with the intention of completing the game as fast as possible. Now this sound very counterintuitive to how games are meant to be played. Skipping all of the story, running through puzzles as fast as possible, and even finding game breaking bugs to shave off a few seconds doesn’t initially seem enjoyable. And yet, it somehow is. But why?
Personally, the only game I’ve ever attempted to speed run was a calculator game called Block Dude. I used to challenge my friends and we would see who could complete the game first. Though this is a very mild version of speedrunning, if you can even call it that, I believe it demonstrates the aspect of fun in speedrunning. First, Block Dude is a puzzle game. Once you know the solution to the puzzle, the game become significantly less fun. There’s almost no replayability. So adding the extra element of speed bring new life into the game and allowed twelve year me many more hours of gameplay. Speedrunning brought a new challenge to the game. Speedrunning required both previous knowledge of the game and puzzle solution and dexterity, the ability to push the right buttons at the right time in the right order. This was a new aspect that made the game more fun after its initial playthrough. Second was the competition. Yes I could have ran through the game on my own and timed myself, but going head to head with my friends was way more fun. The competition of beating someone else, where one slip up could cost you the game was exhilarating. Without someone to run against, I found no point in practicing my Block Dude skills.
So what I draw from my own limited speedrunning experience is: Speedrunning brings new fun to a game that has already been completed and provides an interesting challenge that can be tested against other players. I believe this hold true of professional speedrunners. The new goal brings fun to a game, even when played multiple times, and the competition is between other speedrunners around the world, all clawing for a top time.
But there is still another aspect of speedrunning I haven’t covered. The viewer. Like I said before, my speedrunning skills are non existent, and I have no real desire to attempt to speedrun. However, I love watching other people speedrun. Why is it fun for me when I’m not the one playing the game? I think this is a question that runs very deep and can cover why let’s players exist, a topic I’m not going to get into in this blog post. However, personally, I think watching a speedrun is comparable to watching someone perform a very hard piece of music, or watching an olympic sport. Speedrunning takes skill, and watching someone that has mastered that skill is stunning. I also really enjoy seeing the secrets, or more accurately bugs, the runner finds in order to save time. These bugs are not one’s I would normally encounter while playing the game, so this is really the only time I would see them. There are a few very crazy bugs out there. If you haven’t watched a speedrun playthrough, I would highly recommend watching one, preferably for a game you’re already familiar with.
However, what if we look at speedrunning though a game designer’s lens? Would it be fun, or even desired, to have someone speedrun a game you made? Polygon’s interviewed Kyle Pulver, a developer who worked on the game Snapshot.
“It is both terrifying and exciting at the same time. One of the things I joke about with other game developers is whenever I see our games on Twitch, it’s really cool, but at the same time we’re all thinking, “Oh god. Please, don’t crash. Please, don’t have any crazy things happen. Make sure the game goes well.””
I am inclined to agree. It seems really cool to watch someone play your game in a new way, but also really terrifying, runners are notorious for breaking games.
Even though it might seem like speedrunners are by passing all of the content in a game, it is actually the opposite. Quite often speedrunner run a game that already have played and fell in love with. After that, they take a considerable amount of time and effort memorizing a game. Knowing all of the nooks and crannies that make up that game. Yes, in the actual run they bypass a lot of content, however, runners are probably the players that know the game the best.
In conclusion, I believe that speedrunning brings a new element of fun to a games by added new challenges and flavor.
