I tried to speedrun a game

[Calavera]

I've seen alot of speedrun videos but never really wanted to attempt one myself. I recently saw a speedrun video for Bioforge that was 1hr 11 minutes 23 seconds. I've played that game countless times since it came out, so I figured why not give it a try. I didn't record it though since I haven't played it in about a year or so, this was just going to be a practice run. I had a couple slow parts and even died once which added about 3 minutes to the total. In the end I came in at about 1hr 10minutes and 30seconds, so even with the couple issues a had and a death I beat the speedrun video of the 1hr 11minute guy! Just barely. I looked on speedrun.com and there are only two people that have ever submitted a speedrun. 2nd place is the guy I watched, he got his time down to 56 minutes and 26 seconds. First place is 51m 34s. I'm not wanting to keep playing Bioforge over and over to try and beat that time but I may just have to try it again to see how much lower I can get my time. I might as well record and submit it, worst case would be I get 3rd place

I know of a trick in the game that saves around 2 minutes and 30 seconds and neither one of the submitted speedruns use it, so I've got an advantage there. There are only a couple of areas I have trouble with, one is making a keypad light up in an O-ring configuration. The other is an anti-gravity room where you have to use your blaster to get from one side to the other. I also lost a couple of minute basically goofing around since it was just my practice run. If I had gotten both those parts the first time and not been messing around that probably would have saved close to 8-9 minutes. So if I hadn't died and had gotten through those two parts quickly I'd have probably gotten under 1hr. If I sat and played it over and over I think I could beat the first place time but I really don't want to do that. So like I said I'll probably try at least one more time and record it and worst case be 3rd place for Bioforge.

[melancholy]

So as much as I follow the speedrunning community, I’ve never actually ran a game before. I watch speedrunners on Twitch every night, and I even went to SGDQ 2017 (you can even see me on the back couch during the Crash Bandicoot run). But I only do individual level time attacks and not full games. I have a bunch of top 10 IL times in Sonic Forces, a couple top 1000 times in the Koopa Races in Mario Odyssey, and a lot of top 100 times in Trackmania Turbo VR, including one world record time.

After SGDQ, i bouught the equipment to stream my old consoles on Twitch with the intention of speedrunning Klonoa and Donkey Kong Country games but never did it. I just can’t find time to play video games for even a full hour every night, let alone dedicate myself to running one single game. I might someday when the kids are older and don’t need me watching them every 5 minutes, but for now I’ll just have to suffice with IL speedrunning.

[Calavera]

So as much as I follow the speedrunning community, I’ve never actually ran a game before. I watch speedrunners on Twitch every night, and I even went to SGDQ 2017 (you can even see me on the back couch during the Crash Bandicoot run). But I only do individual level time attacks and not full games. I have a bunch of top 10 IL times in Sonic Forces, a couple top 1000 times in the Koopa Races in Mario Odyssey, and a lot of top 100 times in Trackmania Turbo VR, including one world record time.

After SGDQ, i bouught the equipment to stream my old consoles on Twitch with the intention of speedrunning Klonoa and Donkey Kong Country games but never did it. I just can’t find time to play video games for even a full hour every night, let alone dedicate myself to running one single game. I might someday when the kids are older and don’t need me watching them every 5 minutes, but for now I’ll just have to suffice with IL speedrunning.

The only reason I tried Bioforge is because it is such a short game and there really isn't a lot of places where you can fail and totally ruin the run. Something like Donkey Kong Country I could see trying to speedrun if you had played it alot and was really good at it. What I'll never understand is why people speedrun games like Skies Of Arcadia. There are 8 entries for SOA: Legends on Speedrun.com, with 1st place being 12h 16m 16s and 8th being 18hr 39m 56s. I love Skies Of Arcadia and have played through it several times, but it would be such a miserable experience trying to speedrun that game.

[Calavera]

I commented on the two people who have did a speedrun of the game about the cutscene skip trick I know that neither of them used. A few days later the fastest guy did another run and used my trick and now has a 46:39. Glad I could add a little knowledge to the speedrunning community!

[melancholy]

What I'll never understand is why people speedrun games like Skies Of Arcadia. There are 8 entries for SOA: Legends on Speedrun.com, with 1st place being 12h 16m 16s and 8th being 18hr 39m 56s. I love Skies Of Arcadia and have played through it several times, but it would be such a miserable experience trying to speedrun that game.

You should try running running Baten Kaitos 100%. Current world record for that game is 341hr 20m. The guy has attempted multiple runs too.

[Calavera]

What I'll never understand is why people speedrun games like Skies Of Arcadia. There are 8 entries for SOA: Legends on Speedrun.com, with 1st place being 12h 16m 16s and 8th being 18hr 39m 56s. I love Skies Of Arcadia and have played through it several times, but it would be such a miserable experience trying to speedrun that game.

You should try running running Baten Kaitos 100%. Current world record for that game is 341hr 20m. The guy has attempted multiple runs too.

Wow That is insanity! I always assumed the game had to be beaten in one sitting for a speedrun, obviously not with a time like that which comes out to over 2 weeks! That is just crazy, he can almost be guaranteed to hold that record for a long long time if not forever because I doubt many people are wanting to play for 340hrs to beat it.

On a side note the game itself looks like it could actually be pretty interesting. I might have to give it a play sometime, not for a speedrun though just for fun.

[melancholy]

What I'll never understand is why people speedrun games like Skies Of Arcadia. There are 8 entries for SOA: Legends on Speedrun.com, with 1st place being 12h 16m 16s and 8th being 18hr 39m 56s. I love Skies Of Arcadia and have played through it several times, but it would be such a miserable experience trying to speedrun that game.

You should try running running Baten Kaitos 100%. Current world record for that game is 341hr 20m. The guy has attempted multiple runs too.

Wow That is insanity! I always assumed the game had to be beaten in one sitting for a speedrun, obviously not with a time like that which comes out to over 2 weeks! That is just crazy, he can almost be guaranteed to hold that record for a long long time if not forever because I doubt many people are wanting to play for 340hrs to beat it.

On a side note the game itself looks like it could actually be pretty interesting. I might have to give it a play sometime, not for a speedrun though just for fun.

So to explain how that run works, basically there are certain cards that age with the in-game timer to become new cards. Most rare cards fall somewhere between 20-80 hours of aging. But one card, Shampoo, requires 336 hours of aging to become the new card Splendid Hair. Obviously it’s a joke card, but if you’re trying to 100% the game, it’s required.

The big challenge to this run is that the in-game timer only runs during gameplay and not in menus. And this being a card based game and all, nearly the entire damn game is menuing. So to world record, there are basically 3 requirements:
1. Find the fastest way to acquire Shampoo at the start of the game.
2. Determine the minimum amount of times the menu needs to be accessed, then be as effiecent as possible when using it.
3. Once Splendid Hair is obtained, beat the final boss as fast as possible.

Beyond that, the rest of the game can be casually played. The next longest card for aging is 80 hours, so he has plenty of time to collect everything as long as he stays out of menus as much as possible.

[Calavera]

What I'll never understand is why people speedrun games like Skies Of Arcadia. There are 8 entries for SOA: Legends on Speedrun.com, with 1st place being 12h 16m 16s and 8th being 18hr 39m 56s. I love Skies Of Arcadia and have played through it several times, but it would be such a miserable experience trying to speedrun that game.

You should try running running Baten Kaitos 100%. Current world record for that game is 341hr 20m. The guy has attempted multiple runs too.

Wow That is insanity! I always assumed the game had to be beaten in one sitting for a speedrun, obviously not with a time like that which comes out to over 2 weeks! That is just crazy, he can almost be guaranteed to hold that record for a long long time if not forever because I doubt many people are wanting to play for 340hrs to beat it.

On a side note the game itself looks like it could actually be pretty interesting. I might have to give it a play sometime, not for a speedrun though just for fun.

So to explain how that run works, basically there are certain cards that age with the in-game timer to become new cards. Most rare cards fall somewhere between 20-80 hours of aging. But one card, Shampoo, requires 336 hours of aging to become the new card Splendid Hair. Obviously it’s a joke card, but if you’re trying to 100% the game, it’s required.

The big challenge to this run is that the in-game timer only runs during gameplay and not in menus. And this being a card based game and all, nearly the entire damn game is menuing. So to world record, there are basically 3 requirements:
1. Find the fastest way to acquire Shampoo at the start of the game.
2. Determine the minimum amount of times the menu needs to be accessed, then be as effiecent as possible when using it.
3. Once Splendid Hair is obtained, beat the final boss as fast as possible.

Beyond that, the rest of the game can be casually played. The next longest card for aging is 80 hours, so he has plenty of time to collect everything as long as he stays out of menus as much as possible.

So once he makes it right before the final boss does he just lay the controller down for a few hundred hours and wait for the card to age? Or is there more to it than that, is he actually playing the game the entire time he is waiting?

[melancholy]

He said it takes about 60 hours to get everything in the game that isn’t timed items. There is also apparently 13 islands in the game and each one takes about 4 hours to complete. So he breaks it down into an island a day after getting the initial timed items. The rest of the time is just letting the game idle and hoping the power doesn’t go out.

Since Twitch won’t let anyone stream an idle game, the guy previously had no recordings of his runs. But last December he partnered with SpeedRunsLive to broadcast a full run of the game on Twitch as part of a marathon called Really Really Long A Thon. Basically other speedruns would happen while his game was being shown in a window at the top right. That way active games were being played while still showing his idling game. He sadly did not break his record during the event, but at least he now has verifiable proof he did it.

[Calavera]

I gave the first place speedrunner on Bioforge a couple of tips that I was really surprised he didn't know of. One of the tips was simply pressing escape at the beginning of the game to skip watching the earthquakes happen. I told him about that and there is an alien you meet later in the game, he talks to you for about 2m 45s, a long time when it comes to speedrunning. All you need to do is shoot the alien and pick up the battery he drops and move on. I told him about both of these and with that plus one other trick that I didn't even know about he was able to get his 51m 34s run down to 43m 52s.

I don't think I'll be able to beat that time. Second place is 56m 26s I do think I may be able to beat that. I'm thinking about giving it a try tonight. The slowest part for me is a puzzle in which you have to light the buttons up in an O-Ring configuration to open a door.



In all the years I've played the game I've never really figured out how to get past there any other way then by just randomly clicking. Later on you have to do the same puzzle but get the lights into two horizontal bars instead of an O-ring and it is much easier.

I'll probably give it a try, like I said before worst case is that I get third place!