Good Game Design - Speedrunning

[@geomancer64]

Another speedrunner-friendly feature is quick resets, specifically for practicing. Games that let you restart a level or restart from the last checkpoint with a single button. Meatboy, where you respawn in 2 seconds and are back to the troubled spot in 5. It's a slog that just wears down a runner when a minor-slip up sets them back 5-10 minutes. On a different note, my favourite speedruns to watch are platformers and glitchless categories. It's neat to see runners that have found crazy exploits that break the game in unexpected ways. But I find it way more impressive when they display mastery of the game mechanics. And the flow created by a deep understanding of the movement is just so satisfying to watch.

[@thekingslayer1831]

Telahnus My favorite example of this is the reset in Sonic Mania time trials. It's pretty great.

[@MattRose30000]

Yeah, I remember practicing Early Wild in Metroid Prime and if you fail that one incredibly hard trick, you have to beat a boss all over again to reach that point. I switched to an emulator just to have access to quicksaving.

[@hyperventalated]

Telahnus I completely agree with this. I speedrun The End is Nigh which has a dedicated death button to instantly reset a screen for practicing. It's wonderful!

[@spacejunk2186]

There is a custom script fot Titanfall 2 that does exactly this. It lets you quicksave and quickload anytime you want. Its great for practicing.

[@thecommenter653]

I agree with the resetting for sure! Of course if the saves are too often, it can make the game boring, but especially before really hard bits, it's really nice! And as for your second point, I agree mostly, but some would say you might even need a better mastery of the games' mechanics to pull of some of the crazy stunts. But again, I agree, glitch-less can be fun to see how the push the game to it's limits, within the restraints of what was intended!

[@Waffletigercat]

All games should let you skip cutscenes. There's literally no reason to force you to watch them every time. Speedrunning or not.

[@Waffletigercat]

And yet some games still don't. And that's nonsense.

[@celeste1823]

I remember constantly dying to Seymour Natus in FFX and constantly being forced to watch the same cutscene over and over

[@thecommenter653]

Yeah, especially once you've beaten the game at least once, there really is no reason to keep requiring them.

[@KookShanty]

Especially boss cutscenes, ugggggghhhhh

[@stella.bridget]

@@Waffletigercat Specifically the 8 minute unskippable cutscene at the start of Super Mario Sunshine

[@YowLife]

I can speedrun a visual novel. Only the most skilled players will even touch them.

[@EnZo1rst]

*Extremely fast clicking*

[@tunnelmansafro]

Speed running? Im more of a power walker.

[@tattersthebat6253]

Really? I'm a fan of Defense Tiptoeing.

[@austinreed7343]

TunnelMan'sAfro Fly Crawler here.

[@toadgatter7512]

Austin Reed I’m a standstill

[@sanspapyrus9564]

im a dodge sleeper

[@jarrodwalker9099]

I'm dying.

[@stuhp84]

I've been working on creating my own speed runner friendly game for a couple of years and just wanted to say this info is very spot-on and it's great to see someone covering it. Keep it up!

[@publicalias8172]

Did that game ever see the light of day? I know the struggle.

[@benbriggsmusic]

Aye! I clicked on this video in my subs because I love your content, then heard my own DKR remix in the background?? Thanks for repping my work, man... great video as always :D

[@snomangaming]

Haha wow! Didn't know you were a sub, appreciate it :D And yeah, you do incredible work, a big fan! Thanks!

[@benbriggsmusic]

You're welcome! Really enjoyed this episode in particular since I'm a big fan of speed runs myself. Keep up the great work

[@PedroAvelarGontijo]

Ohmigod it's the Ben Briggs! :DD

[@KbanjoK]

your OCRs are incredible

[@battyblu]

Yacht Club games even put the WR holder for the Shovel Knight speedrun in the credits!

[@pablobarea3322]

Zanee Yeah. They also assist to events like GDQ when their games are run, which is pretty cool.

[@omnisel]

The Yacht Club team is really nice and friendly. All they're doing now is making more content for Shovel Knight (which is all really good), but I can't wait until they make a new IP.

[@joshwa0443]

ZANEE you gotta get that second place back boi

[@battyblu]

Lol did you just coincidentally find me here?

[@joshwa0443]

yes

[@clayton_games]

I think having flow in your level design makes it better, whether it's for speedrunning or not.

[@robdavideogamer4119]

Tight controls. You can't talk about speedrunning and not mention the control. Your movement has to be tight and responsive. Making a character slippery might seem neat to you, but to a speedrunner it could be sections of your game frustrating and not very fun. (See every ice level ever made)

[@robdavideogamer4119]

Megaman offers ways around the floaty controls though, and Mario and Sonic have the same thing. They're still very tight and responsive as long as you know what you're doing. I'm talking more giving a character ice physics, or weird amounts of uncontrollable momentum

[@thecommenter653]

Well, tight controls are nice, but they may actually feel weird if they're too precise. I've played games like that before, but responsive controls, I'd say are a must. So even if there are weird physics, as long as you can respond in time, I think it's pretty much fine.

[@hitechnic7805]

Ayyy, I see you there. Putting Rivals of Aether music over the 'movement options' section. Those Melee inspired platform fighters are the pinnacle of movement imo

[@wizzmaw3093]

I speedrunned knack 2

[@cartonofegg]

DID SOMEONE SAY *K N A C K*

[@Serg24046]

♪♪ Here comes the moneeey ♪♪

[@Biskut]

Knack is back Babyyyy

[@asdfsdfsdf5114]

~Money, money, money, money, money~

[@Krong]

I speedrun sonic &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles &knuckles

[@gulfgiggleanimations4472]

Super Metroid is one of the earliest games to think about speedrunning on the level design. It's great for 100% both Any%. There are several areas that the first time player is going to go through, but an experienced player will skip because a different path is faster, none of those areas have any missile tanks, energy tanks, or power bomb tanks. In terms of 100% they are completely optional. Now compare that to the 3D Zelda games, where hidden collectibles (Poe's Souls, Golden Skulltulas, Korok Seeds) are distributed across the entire map. No one plays these games to 100% for a speedrun, it's not hard to see why.

[@masterneme]

And Quake which, IMO, is the game that started it all.

[@1twinsfan4ever1]

points are valid but uhhhh there's a decent community of LoZ 100% runners

[@jiodro7509]

Zfg

[@gulfgiggleanimations4472]

Jacob Bies okay, I've looked it up and I stand corrected. The 100% community for Zelda games are actually really big. It's not exactly a major problem with Zelda speedruns specifically because of the linearity of the games. (aside from Breath of the Wild) The only skips are completely unintentional, whereas the skips in super Metroid are mostly intentional.

[@1twinsfan4ever1]

yeah i just had to comment bc i've been watching a lot of Majora's mask speedruns lately due to a new glitch and my fave streamer recently switched from any% to 100% now that its mapped. MM is a great nonlinear LoZ game to watch speedruns

[@Stephen-Fox]

If you're going to do an individual level time thing, which is about as far as I'm ever going to go into a speedrun concept when playing myself, then I think the Sonic Mania restart button is really good for that, particularly the way it doesn't restart the music.

[@0cellusDS]

One of my favourite examples for movement tech is zelda a link to the past, where mashing the d-pad in a diagonal direction while moving left or up will sometimes make you go a tiny bit faster becauase it restarts links walking animation which alternates between 2 pixels per frame and 1 pixel per frame. So whenever you do it, you have a 50% chance of moving two pixels instead of one during that frame. This tech is basically omnipresent throughout the entire game, allows you to min-max it at every corner and rewards some really tricky finger acrobatics with your controler. Try using any D-pad and holding left while mashing up with the other hand. You constantly have to move your other hand to the d-pad to do it and the skill ceiling is limitless. The better you get at it, the more you try to implement it at very short parts of the game even when you know you have to switch your hand back to the buttons just half a second later.

[@thecommenter653]

That's a pretty cool idea! I think it's maybe similar to rolling? Just in that it provides a short burst of speed, but yeah. Thanks for the cool perspective!

[@c_mill2451]

Length is usually what I look for in speedrunning, specifically short in runs.It makes mistakes a little more forgiving and doesn't kill momentum as quickly when a run dies. Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth is a good example where playthroughs are generally short but can be very momentum based. By the way, I know this is small, but thank you for labeling the games in the video and the runners. Some of those games look really intriguing to play, like Furi, Cloudbuilt, and Antichamber.

[@snomangaming]

I'm glad you caught it, a lot of people still didnt see them! haha Thanks:)

[@xDOLPHINTV]

i'd like games to have shorter runs specifically so more games can fit into gdq. it's really annoying to have to turn it off because the entire afternoon is dedicated to one final fantasy game

[@thecommenter653]

DOLPHIN, Totally. If you have the time, and you like the game it can be great, but other than that, I love short runs. (Also because it usually means that they do crazier tricks)

[@watson_dabox2854]

man, i love your channel so much. I really love examining game design, and I love watching speedruns.

[@arquivoNPG]

Thanks so much! I'll add this tips in my game projects!

[@gioelepagani430]

Thank you for spreading the speedrun verb! As a spectator im so happy that this overlooked style of gaming is getting more and more attention.

[@gdnght_grl183]

I feel the Dustforce love every time you use the game's music in your videos, and was happy to see that you showed it to talk about in-game leaderboards. Bless up Snowman.

[@sixkayjay]

It could have also been in the movement section. Dustforce feels like it was designed for speedrunning, and you really feel that when playing. Quick restart, all the glitches left in, primarily spike jumps and adj's, helps make it an amazing game.

[@MrMartDK]

Super Mario Odyssey speedrunning is going to be damn awesome.

[@thecommenter653]

From the future, yes, yes it is.

[@FishSticker]

Oh god, it is Learning how fluid and smooth the movement can be is what makes it my no 2 game

[@Kittycat7070-]

The movement in that game is incredible, it's the first ever game I'm considering speedrunning

[@MorKsQC]

I love your Good game design series! I got caught by surprise seeing myself at 3:25 lolll. Keep up the amazing work!

[@capacraft2735]

Mario oddesy did a good job with boss cycles, in the game you can do hard to pull off maneuvers to skip invincibility parts of a boss

[@Se7enRemain]

Oh god, I used to speedrun Dark Souls and I swear to goodness the game just doesn't want me to have the Black Knight Halberd.

[@infamouspilgrim213]

I LOVE THESE VIDEOS!!! I wanna be a game designer when I get older so the "Good Game Design" series is great in helping me achieve that goal.

[@themightyant.]

Another great video SnowmanN and MANY THANKS for adding the game names in the bottom corner, classy touch! Agree with someone below to make a GGD video on Music & Sound Design.

[@kohakurensenko790]

I would say - the less RNG is main thing i want from games. Its much better if the enemy/boss action just appears as "random", and in reality have a hidden pattern. I think, a good representation of this idea is shopkeepers from Spelunky. To a regular players they look random, while in reality their movement patterns based on player current position and couple of other factors and can be calculated.

[@MattRose30000]

I just wanted to write that. Manipulatable RNG is the way to go. It doesn't make a difference for casual players (if it's well programmed), but for speedrunners it's a huge reward to memorize all the inputs and movements. Take the step count of Final Fantasy VII for example. I always thought the encounters were completely random until I saw this year's SGDQ run where they just manipulated every encounter in the run (except for the overworld).

[@snomangaming]

Spelunky is a great example of this with all of its enemies! They all have specific movement patterns, but the randomness of the level layouts/them interacting with each other can cause some absolute CHAOS, which I think is amazing

[@alxjones]

The reason older games have more manipulable RNG is because they generally needed to be careful about every bit of disc/cartridge space they were using. They couldn't just make a new variable for every random thing that happens, so the most efficient way is to use something else to determine the "random" number, like step count, game time, etc. Something else that is already measured for some other reason in the game doesn't take up new space but can be altered mathematically to seem random, but if you can reverse engineer it then you can make it take on any value you want.

[@thecommenter653]

I totally agree! I especially love it because TAS-ing is a thing. I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVE WATCHING TAS VIDEOS. On games like Mario Party: OMG IT'S SOOOO GOOD. When the manipulable RNG is such a big factor, just... yes. I love watching something that is supposed to be unstructured being so easily manipulated. It is MAGNIFICENT. (Sorry for all the caps lock btw, I just love it SO MUCH!)

[@FishSticker]

I either want all the RNG or none. I want to be able to perfectly perform the mech fight from mario odyessey consistently. Or i want to have a pure random experience in smash bros ultimate world of light because there is no cpu fighting route, it is just skill. But i dont want 1/3 chance of this, lose 10 secs 1/5 save 5 7/15 reset run

[@BintonGaming]

This was a super helpful video! I am considering developing my own games in the future, and I was just thinking about how making a game with speedrunning in mind could vastly increase replayability. This video definitely has a lot of good pointers. Thanks a lot!

[@PigGooN]

This was a great video and i agreed with everything! I really appreciated your B roll footage, the clips fit perfectly (delayed by a second so once you said something we got the example) and from all kinds of games and genres! I personally think movement has a much bigger role in what makes a good speed running game than alluded to in this video, but you covered it well! I loved the nods to SMS and SM64, since both games i watch religiously. Thanks snowman! Keep up the awesome content, haven't regretted subscribing one bit!

[@snomangaming]

Glad you enjoyed, appreciate it greatly :D

[@Azoolag]

If there's one thing I hope devs learn, it's to understand what makes runs entertaining. Most often games that can be beat right from the get go don't make entertaining runs. Simply focus on designing a good game, length doesn't determine a speedrun after all. Glitches are a case in point. They aren't bad game design, but side effects of making a game. So long as they don't hurt a game's playability, are they really a bad thing? They can be a dev's shame or a tool to play a game in an unexpected and entertaining way depending on how you allow yourself to see it.

[@Xerclipse]

I usually turn away from watching runs if they involve starting with "clip through the floor and beat the final boss in less than a minute" or worse "warping to credits". Glitch runs aren't always entertaining and thats because they can heavily sequence break 90% of the run. However I do find glitches to be acceptible if their only purpose is to skip a BS fight or something too RNG dependent. I know Sonic Mania devs didnt embrace their glitches, and my fellow runners were complaining about fighting heavy RNG bosses. Of course speedrunners will look for every possible way to skip stuff, but I agree to with glitches if they only skip things in bad game design.

[@thecommenter653]

I mostly agree. If it's too egregious, it makes the run un-enjoyable. However, as long as they're not skipping straight to the end, I think most of the fun (for me) comes from the discoveries of new ways to break the game. That's why I love obscure categories, such as in OOT, dank%. To me that is a perfect example of people finding fun where the fun is dwindling. Not to say OOT any% is boring, but the more brick walls it hits, and the longer there are no developments, if you're not on the forefront, it can get boring.

[@SeriousAwesome]

Glad to see your channel is doing well! Another great video man

[@themettking]

I hang out with a lot of speed runners, so I have a fair bit of know how even though I usually do it only casually. One time, we were talking about the upcoming Bloodstained and wondering if it would be a good speed running game. My friend said something I think holds true: if you make a game good in the first place, the speed runners will come on their own. I believe this is true. As long as people like playing your game in the first place, the it will generate a community of fans. The fans will get together and talk about it. They will begin exchanging information about things they find and eventually some will start putting these trick together into your early speed runs. Then they will refine it and these tricks will flow back to the casuals and some may find a hybrid of tactics to be their most fun way to play.

[@lorenzosciuga8559]

Holy shit An actually competent list of guidlines well explained Didn't expect this kind of quality good job

[@spongyoshi]

Nice video! I actually had speedrunning in mind since a long time since I wanna be a future game-developer so theses tips come in handy! I really wanna make a Rhythm Game suitable for speedrunning in the future, that's really something I wanted to see before and never really saw.

[@alphis7431]

clean 100k. happy to see this channel growing

[@AndreaslNetonthenet]

Excellent video as always, snomaN! I know you're a big fan of speedrunning so this video must've been a blast to put together! Although this was touched upon in the video I'd just like to expand on your leaderboards comment and add that speedrunning allows a single-player experience to be competitive, something you usually only see in multiplayer games. Which is why leaderboards can be fun to add, it makes players" fight" each other without having them actually meeting in an online server. For players it helps build a community of dedicated fans and for developers it can be a cheap way to add multiplayer. :)

[@AndreAlessiCastro]

I clicked this video for the megaman thumbnail, and I wonder why I couldn't found a good game design video about megaman or megaman x, since it's the sort of game everyone loves to play again and again, speedrun or not, and is so much fun

[@iliasa.5298]

Congratulations on 100K man. Great video too.

[@snomangaming]

Thank you!

[@QwertyuiopThePie]

The soundtrack of VVVVVV is definitely the most fitting choice for the "sequence breaking" portion.

[@THEDannyK]

In addition to the speedrun mode/leaderboards, a "ghost" mode can be an interesting addition. Having a ghost to race against for stages can give you a visual understanding on where you are against others, and maybe even how they are able to go so fast.

[@kavajarrace]

Danny Kay Mario kart has that.

[@raph2550]

I agree with all your points excepted for one thing: there is no need for achievements related to speedrun, or only "easy" ones. I saw the example of Braid which is in my opinion a very bad idea. Braid is not a speedrun game, so why is it necessary to do a crazy run for the last achievement ? Anyone can speedrun a game, this is fine, but don't force other players to do so. With that, other players are denied the completionist pleasure which IS part of enjoying games.

[@retrauk]

I like tough achievements, and speedrunning ones can be some of the hardest. The huge amount of satisfaction I got when I finally achieved Speedlunky was great.

[@fdagpigj]

Restricting your achievements to stuff anyone could easily get would be stupid

[@raph2550]

When I wrote this, I had the Braid achievement in mind, where it is litteraly needed to complete a full speedrun. I'm not against difficult achievements and I actually like them. I'm just opposed to really extreme achievements like that

[@0cellusDS]

This always depends on how hard you try to make your achievements in the first place. There are many games that have difficult and near impossible achievements in it. I remember beating Crypt of the Necrodancer (which is already crazy hard) and then noticed the speedrun achievement on Steam where you have to beat it in 15 minutes which seemed almost impossible at that point (my only run was close to 30 minutes). Today I have 300 hours on the game in Steam and I can relyably beat it in under 10 minutes unseeded. I still have some achievements missing and some I pretty much accepted that I will never get (to this day 8 people have beaten Coda with the DLC worldwide). But even The Stanley Parable which is a game about walking through doors had a speedrun achievement and it was pretty tricky to figure out since you have to hit a certain RNG in the beginning and then execute it pretty much flawlessly. And the RNG-part is not explained anywhere in the game, you have to figure that stuff out. But it works. Why? Because the RNG-part is in the beginning. You know that the designers thought about it.

[@snomangaming]

I still stand by that these achievements can help players start to think about speedrunning if they have never done it before - some people are achievement hunters and it might help them play the games they love in a completely new way

[@GodOfThings]

As an example of game devs leaving in speed exploits, I recall a puzzle in either Portal 1 or 2, where they found an unintentional faster way to complete it, but left it in because doing it was harder than the intended way. Things like that can feel good since you know you did something challenging.

[@vladimirtchuiev2218]

Movement is key. It's what makes game speedruns so much fun to watch. Example games are Ori and Megaman x2, those are a massive joy to watch.

[@danielstroup8777]

Being a speedrunner and an aspiring game developer myself, I gotta agree with all of this. I have a game planned out which will have a special event that happens if you reach a certain part at a certain time. You have to fight a relatively hard boss, but you're rewarded with an item that finishes the game for you as well as an achievement.

[@lolfelixlol]

It made me so happy to see a clip of Cloudbuilt in there, such a underrated speedrun game :)

[@Lugmillord]

Speedrunning SM64 is like the holy grail. When the glitches are used right, it can look super stunning but it's also extremely hard.

[@cloudcity4194]

You should check out Strider 2014. It has a timer and clearly supports sequence breaking (the developer has said so). There's even an OOW bug that the developer intentionally left in.

[@RancorSnp]

One of my favourite speedrun games would have to be Shantae and the pirate's curse. As in pirate mode you get to start with all the mobility items in a metroidvania game there is something incredibly satisfying about being able to use them in the early areas but it does still require a lot of skill to do everything properly.

[@armlesskirby]

Great video as always sno. Also ayy dustforce and rivals of aether music. I love those 2 games.

[@rikithelegendaryheropon8135]

Happy 100k! Also, great video as usual

[@1gnore_me.]

I agree with you about leaving bugs in. I used to game test for a company who I will not name (but I'm sure most people here know them :P) and I would constantly find bugs that let me sequence break various parts of their game. Every once in a while, the dev would decide to keep it in because it was "cool and harmless". At the time I found it frustrating, but now that I know more about speedrunning I think it's actually really cool and I have major respect for them as a developer.

[@kevdragon5122]

DOES ANYONE ELSE NOTICE THE RIVALS OF AETHER SOUNDTRACK? I GOT SO HYPED WHEN I HEARD IT. I love that game and play it in tournaments.

[@Seymour101]

Great video , you said pretty much everything good work man

[@RemixSSBM]

Music, sound design, atmosphere. Those all greatly help a game keep from being stale while speedrunning.

[@josher-ch6sf]

Wow the quality of your videos have skyrocketed recently. Keep it up!

[@seanstars6637]

Love your videos AND I love speedrunning. High hopes for this vid! :P

[@ShinoSarna]

In addition to no invulnerability timers on bosses, perhaps a good idea would be adding optional quick kills - a hard to pull off way to kill a boss quickly, probably in one cycle, with the right skill and timing. Most casual players will never find it (and those that do will be astonished), and speedrunners will love it.

[@Torts00]

I recognized the Duck Game music playing in the background :3

[@drex5242]

I love the Wind Waker HD speedruns. A glitch called item sliding that allows you to skip all dungeons in Any%, and break the game in All Dungeons category.

[@iammaybeasliceofpie4674]

Grats on the big 100K subs man! You deserve it!

[@SuperTwoU]

Mega Man X2 handles cycles in a cool way. Essentially a lot of platforms you need don't spawn until you're within a certain distance. Thus making it a lot easier to reach them first cycle if you can execute the movement needed to reach them before they move away.

[@theno1milkman]

If I make a game, I will have a classic option for the first play-through, then it will unlock an "ultra" and "speed" mode. The classic will be cutscenes and not much rng, ultra will be more rng for second playthroughs, and speed will be no cutscenes and maybe even a new movement ability for speed runs.

[@larsspargur97]

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus is what is getting me into speed running, and if you haven't played it I really recommend trying. 1. It's a really fun and great game to play casually. 2. Sly has controls that are very easy to learn and fun to master. 3. It's very short only having 5 "levels" (more like hub worlds) filled with short levels that can be completed in a couple minutes each. 4. Once you've beat the game for your first time, you can select any level or boss fight you want and replay for practice. 5. There are "Master Sprint" trials in the game itself, where you have a very short amount of time to complete a level. The window of time is so short that it feels impossible at first, until you think outside the box and start finding shortcuts and pull off moves you never thought possible. Completing these genuinely does make you feel like you've mastered that level. All of these things combined, have made Sly 1 the only game I've ever wanted to replay over and over again without getting bored. It inspires me to retry the time trials as many times as it takes to beat them consistently, so that in a future play through I know i'll have the skill to sprint through every level in the game fast as hell without taking any damage.

[@daring_fgc]

Rivals of Aether OST and a clip of you running Momo4. I don't know why I haven't found this channel before, but I am in.

[@OpXarxa]

I myself am very much NOT an speedrunner, but even so, I find that speedrun-friendly design can -greatly- improve certain types of games. I'll never speedrun a metroid game despite loving them so much, but the fluidity of their movement makes replays, just for the fun of replaying it, much more satisfying. I loved to replay megaman X and X4 just because it was fun, and discovering those optimal cycles through sheer replay felt damn great(back in the day, I actually could have competed for 100% speedrunning on X4, lol). And while I never replayed super meat boy, the amount of speed-friendly design made the inevitable tens of retries of every single level a LOT more enjoyable and fun. as for larger, non-platform games, it definitely has a place, too. in RPGs for example, using movement techs for the simple purpose of moving around the map faster made it a lot more enjoyable. Particularly, putting in some tech that allowed you to traverse the world faster but required some skill to pull off made those traversals more interesting rather than just being a game of patience. Speedrun-friendly design, just like accessibility, makes the games better even for non-speedrunners.

[@Rubikant]

Awesome video, and many of the comments here are great too! I think my designing Volgarr the Viking to appeal to speed runners from the start worked out quite well for maintaining long-term interest in the game, and so now whenever I'm thinking about a possible new game idea one of the first things I ask myself is "would this be fun to speed run?" :).

[@Retroduck7]

*talks about satisfying movement* *Rivals theme plays* yes

[@shanerpressley]

If movement options are plentiful, and more effective or fast in certain situations, than it will certainly feel better when a speedrunner can study the level design and apply his abilities in a great way :D

[@boynextdoorman]

Do yourself a favor and go watch the full run of sinister1's Punch-Out blindfolded challenge (reference at 1:13). Very entertaining stuff.

[@dstarr3]

Or the blindfolded Punch-Out race between him and zallard.

[@Sly_Maverick_31]

Amazing stuff indeed!

[@pazl3426]

Having a speedrun mode with it's on timer and ranking as MAINSTREAM.. This would be so awesome! In some games it would feel like you've 2 games

[@SirKinglink]

Excellent video, way to talk about speedrunning with mandating everything be a speed run. It's the first video I've seen of yours. Won't be the last. One thing you missed though is "talk to your QA department" especially when you have people doing 100 percent playthroughs. These guys tend to want to get the full playthrough done as fast as possible and will use some (but not most) of the tricks a speed runner will have access to, if they're speedrunning efficiently, and having a good time doing it, that's usually a sign that you're on the right track.

[@eproxy0671]

Great video. Lots of good ideas. Keep it up

[@rasmus7493]

Congrats on 100k you deserve it

[@jefferylei7330]

Shoutouts to the music selections: Don't F*ck with Duck - Duck Game Fight and Flight - Rivals of Aether That's how you know this guy has good taste.

[@EpsilDelta197]

My personal opinion on what makes for a good speedrun: The MOST important aspect as to what makes me pick which game to run is "game feel". Having solid movement mechanics, speed booster / shine sparking in Super Metroid for example, makes the game optimal for having a fun time for running. If moving through a game feels sluggish, laggy, etc. the the game just makes the time I'm dumping into it unenjoyable. Having full control over your movement at all times makes the run entertaining and raises the skill floor and ceiling by an enormous amount.

[@ZincFrog]

I'm still learning my speedrun preferences, though I know I appreciate games with level selects like the DKC and Mighty Switch Force games for indefinite retries on levels. Not having lives to worry about is helpful too.

[@s0nicblade353]

The games I speedrun the most are Sonic Adventure and Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil. Sonic in part because it's a series I've been with my entire life, as well as something just fast enough to still be enjoyable to me, and Klonoa because of how interesting it's gameplay mechanics can be. For example, you can use the 2.5D plane to your advantage by skipping little sections here and there in ways I'm sure the devs didn't intend to be done. Being a 2.5D platformer, it manages to find new ways to add some flare into what can often be a genre of basic design elements. I find myself finding new things every day about it, how to save time or skip parts that don't have any benefit other than looking cool. I would love to see more games follow these points, a good example being the recently released Sonic Mania and all the extra content for speedrunners. Looking forward to some great things next GDQ!

[@zwingler]

F-Zero GX has a mechanic where your speed doubles for 1 Frame but in order to achieve it you have to leave the ground for a few frames. This is mostly done by strafing off the track and strafing back on, so you either get big speed or die. Thats pretty good game design.

[@CalebCraft10]

I have too much OCD for an any%, but not enough time for a 100%.

[@antoniostum]

Inklink life is cruel

[@masterneme]

Real men go for 100%. I remember when the game Commandos was released I didn't finish each level until I killed all the enemies on the map.

[@DaddysFlipside]

Stop with the OCD bullshit you fucking idiots.

[@thecommenter653]

luca13knt, I understand your sentiment, but what if they actually do have OCD? I know they probably don't, but it would be pretty backwards to say that to someone actually suffering from OCD, right? Again, I see your point, and it annoys me as well when people act as though a little anxiety is even comparable to OCD, but my point is just that you come off a little strong, I guess? But, at the same time, the phrase "OCD" has kind of been absorbed into common use, and for people who say it, I'm sure they don't mean any offence. However I suppose it's a question of morality. To me, it's sort of the same thing as saying "cancer" to refer to something that in a scientific sense is not literally cancerous. I had several family members die of cancer, but I still find myself saying it in a colloquial sense. The problem is, that it's actually pretty fitting. I think that the whole "ElsaGate" thing that happened a while back was a bit of a cancer on KZbin. It spread really far, really fast, and was intensely problematic. In the same way, people hear what OCD means, and they think, "Oh! I get feelings like that!" but they can usually switch it off if they're not paying attention. It obviously comes down to your own morals, and if you think people should be held accountable, even if their intentions were benign.

[@fistoftheworldking3834]

Any% is for cowards. Quote this. 😉

[@GamerSwordsman]

Congrats on a 100k Snoman Gaming. You deserve it.

[@snomangaming]

Thank you :D

[@D3__]

I started to try and complete games as fast as I can when I was just little and had my first games. But I didn't start really actively trying over and over again for a lot of times until after I've seen some Wind Waker HD speedrun. Then I picked up my gamepad and booted up the game. I rolled and hopped through the world, trying to come as close I can to the record I've seen (which was WR back then before the barrier skip) and I got some tricks down easily, like jumping through certain walls but others remained impossible for my reflexes and skills. But I then tackled other games as well and actually got a World Record time in Mario Kart 7 on one of the Wii Sports Resport island tracks before a glitch was fixed there

[@Flat5Games]

Great video snomaN!! You never disappoint. Cool to see Thoth in your video montage btw. Great game that needs more attention. Jeppe Carlsen knows how to make a fun game!!!

[@RaoulWB]

In my opinion platformers are basically made with speedruns in mind. Often going fast is optional and it just add some difficulty which makes it great for skilled players, some of them tell even you how much time did you take you to complete the level, and sometimes you can even see obstacles, like moving walls, synced in a way that's suitable for a skilled players/speedrunner.

[@nicholaskane69]

I always appreciated Final Fantasy Dissidia 012 Duodecim for including a "skip all cutscenes" option in the main menu, that you can access before starting the main campaign. And that was way back on the PSP!

[@pierrestempin100]

in-game leaderboards to compare speedrun times between player requires online programming and online data stock solutions (own servers, cloud, etc.), and that can be a big deal for some little studios

[@jarkokoo]

Usually a good level flow goes hand in hand with a "speedrunnability", thus I'd go as far as saying, that in many game styles (like platformers, run'n'gun shooters and so on) a good level design is such, that it allows speedrunning. In that sense devs in many cases focus on speedrunning without even necessarily noticing it, while honing their level flow as good as possible. :)

[@hyperventalated]

In a speed game I mainly look for fluid fun movement. So Im mainly into platformers. I love doing the occasional SM64 run, but my main speed game is the End is Nigh. The runs of that game are completely technical and I love pulling off the precision platforming super quickly!

[@snomangaming]

LOVE that game, thought about running it myself even

[@ZekaiYS]

This is the first of your videos I've watched and I enjoyed it a lot. Subscribed! =D

[@snomangaming]

Glad you enjoyed :D Lots more of the Good Game Design on the channel :)

[@ben_burnes]

I can't stress the "unintentional glitches" enough. I started testing my game with a few speedrunners and they found all sorts of weird glitches. Some of these glitches slowed people down and were frustrating, I patched those out. But some of them actually improved the flow and fun of the game. In response to that I created super secret "platinum" medals for people who beat the levels beyond the intentional way of doing things.

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

Mighty no 9 is a great speed run game- the dash mechanic assures that. The first Ninja Gaiden as well. That game demands you move fast and in some rhythm and I love it

[@chillyn]

Congrats on 100k!

[@Zet237yt]

Good vid sno, didn't expect any less. :) Nice to see you're still pull off some of the tricks at 2:02. Remember, if you ever feel the urge to come back, the doors are wide open - especially now where the "All Levels" category exists. :D On a side not, I'd really like to hear your opinion about the rising hack/mods of the randomizer. I wasn't particularly interested in them until I saw the A Link to the Past randomizer Tournament in spring and boy was I hooked. The linear progression gets completely revamped into a surprise fest and you're starting to think and play the game completely different. Of course, the randomizer alone is interesting - but adding the speedrun component to it, i.e. racing each other with the same seed breathes completely fresh air into old games and you need to be able to think and play differently to not just beat the game but do it fast at the same time. If you haven't heard of it, be sure to check out the upcoming (2 days!!!) A Link to the Past Randomizer tournament, it's so worth it!

[@KaworuNagisa]

It's funny. I used to think of speedruns as something stupid and meaningless but thanks to some amazing Dark Souls speedruns I developed a huge interest in this way of competition and now I absolutely love watching them. :) Thanks for your informative video: what you say about fun movement rings so true. It's so much more fun to watch a speedrun if there are some crazy commandoes/movements involved ^^

[@naezith]

I focus my game on speedrunning a lot, it's been 3 years already and I think about speedrunning on every decision I need to take. It's a fast-paced grappling hook platformer named Remnants of Naezith.

[@WagnerGFX]

This reminded me of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory trickjumps. Since the jump was affected by your speed and the terrain angle, you could reach some absurd speeds and heights across the map. The community even made a whole selection of trickjump maps and mods. Even today, searching for trickjumps will most likely take you to a reference of Wolfenstein E.T. Now on every FPS game the jump is mostly fixed height/speed jumps. I feel there is an opportunity to make trickjumps a part of the player skills with a simple mechanic and without the need of a whole game about it, like Mirror's Edge.

[@NikSudan]

Great video! Makes me want to make a speedrunnable game now...

[@crafterlula1328]

God, the first thing I noticed is the speedrun in the background at 0:13. It's is Bonesaw's Jak and Daxter run!!!!! Literally my favorite run ever, may he finally find his car keys!! I am really sad he hasn't done an run at GDQ recently, the fact that he was temporarily banned was dumb.

[@SaturnProductions]

When I made my game Adventure (a platformer nothing to do with the Atari game) I made sure to have the mechanics support creativity and experimentation. You can double jump and wall jump to get to areas quickly, and even when I try to run my own game I can find fast ways to do things. Great video, if I ever try to make a sequel I'll be sure to add some of your tips in;)

[@Flea_ip]

Skippable cutscenes are an ABSOLUTE MUST

[@porky1118]

I also think about such things recently. I'm thinking about making a game, which also is suitable for speed running. I haven't thought about cycles yet, but I do not intend to add such kind of objects to my game anyway. I also wouldn't add randomness, not even like in a roughlike. There may be some kind of randomness by having complex rules, which the player almost doesn't have any controls about. I would also add an internal timer, which only counts up at gameplay time, so framerate drops won't cause problems and will also allow showing skippable cutscenes or similar without affecting the timer, and also add incentive for speed running for normal players, like getting extra content for taking tricky routes or finishing fast or having more difficult bosses, when fast or similar. I really should play Axiom Verge. It seems to have many elements I like in a game, and I don't want to make a copy of it, even if just conceptually. This video really helps me, even if most of this is also what I already had in mind.

[@furby1]

I'm extremely new into the game developing area, just started studying about it, hopefully I'll be a good game dev in a couple of years, i would love some advice from people who has played a lot of games. Great video btw, i always enjoy your content. Cheers from Mexico.