Since I began getting more into speedrunning
a few months ago, and watching more runs,
one game, Celeste, stood out to me and quickly
become one of my favorite runs to watch.
2D platformers tend to be popular speedrun
games, and as such there are an overwhelming
amount which are run.
However celeste stood out due to it's artistry
combined with the ridiculous movement and
skips that runners have discovered and utilize
with seeming ease.
As such, this video will not only be discussing
7 reasons you should run celeste, but exploring
why it’s such a great game for speedrunning
in general.
With that, let’s get right into number 1.
It's easy to run poorly.
This might seem like a bad thing, but in reality
it’s exactly what you want for a speedrun
game.
For new runners it’s frustrating when you
have to put in hundreds of hours before you
can even start running, and so most people
prefer games where you can start right away
and all that’s needed is more practice.
Celeste is a hard game, for sure, so runners
with very little experience will die often,
and consistently; And that’s a good thing.
Since the game is so simple it's easy to tell
where you make mistakes.
If a runner isn't doing a technique correctly,
they’ll die.
Simple as that.
But, the reason WHY they die is obvious as
well.
If you fall in a pit it means you jumped too
early or did a movement option incorrectly.
If you die to a hazard it means you might
have mistimed, or pathed incorrectly.
This sort of cause and effect punishment allows
runners to make a mistake, quickly analyze
why that mistake happened, and then work to
fix it.
It’s incredibly rewarding to constantly
fail a difficult platformer segment, until
you begin understanding what needs to be done,
and finally nail it perfectly.
This ties in to number 2; Celeste is forgiving.
It's pretty easy to die, and all it takes
is to mistime a jump by less than a quarter
of a second.
Even the world record runs aren't perfect
in this regard, and most have several deaths
throughout.
This really lends to the idea that Celeste
is incredibly difficult to master, but forgiving
of mistakes.
Dying will lose you only a few seconds for
the majority of the game, which is helpful
since, as we’ve discussed, you’ll be dying
very often.
While a game which is forgiving of deaths
is beneficial for new players, as it encourages
them to practice continuously, without the
fear of having to watch a 30 second long death
cutscene, reload the level and then try again;
It is also very helpful for veteran players.
Most Veteran runners have run sections of
this game well over a thousand times, which
translates to tens of thousands of deaths.
If there was even a 5 second death cutscene
that would translate to hours of time wasted
watching a poor pixel girl die, over and over.
Things that simply waste time in a speedrun,
such as cutscenes, lengthy animations, and
unskippable dialogue all slow down a speedrun,
and cause a run to become bloated and drawn
out.
In all aspects Celeste successfully trims
the fat, as all 3 of the aforementioned time
wasters are fully skippable when they occur.
Three: Pixel art allows for precision
Since Celeste is a pixel art game, The hitboxes
of hazards, and the hurtboxes on Madeline
are quite precise.
While they’re not perfect, and her hair
and the very bottoms of her feet lack hurtboxes;
for the most part, a hazard has to actually
touch you for you to die.
Not just be near you.
Here; Watch this for an example (TAS footage
1:02 ) THis footage is a TAS run, and as such
isn’t a human runner in real time, but it
gives a good example of how precise the collision
is in Celeste.
Look how closely her feet skim the tops of
the spikes, just barely touching.
Now you might be wondering why this matters
for speedrunning, but it’s actually quite
important.
Most games work on a series of boxes and bubbles
that make up the character, with a model slapped
on top that might not exactly line up.
That's why if you’re playing something like
fallout or CS:GO It might seem like you're
caught on the edge of something that’s behind
you.
While playing normally this might be an annoyance,
but in a speedrun unclear hitboxes can end
an hour long run.
2d platformers tend to be a lot more accurate,
but celeste is particularly good, mostly due
to the game’s artstyle.
The clear and clean pixel graphics allow runners
to very clearly see hazards, and exactly how
much space they take, as well as their own
character’s hurtboxes.
This makes the game feel fair, and reduces
frustration.
This combined with the previous 2 points really
lends to a game which is rewarding, and aims
to cut down a lot of the common frustrations
that runners might face, and maybe this is
because….:
Celeste was quite literally designed for speedrunning.
At least originally.
The prototype of the game was created in a
game jam by developers Matt Thorson and Noel
Berry in Pico 8; And was specifically designed
for speedrunning.
They focused on the control and movement of
the game, and included an in game timer, a
post game timer and a death count.
Their clear focus on a game which was fun,
but that encouraged beating it as quickly
as possible carried over into the full game,
from the pico-8 version, which would later
be called “Celeste classic”.
Having a game which developers specifically
considered for speedruns is refreshing, as
many mechanics which make speedrunning frustrating
are largely absent from Celeste, namely unskippable
cutscenes and heavy RNG.
As an aside, if you are interested in Celeste
Classic it is playable for free by the developers
online which I’ll link below.
It’s short but pretty darn fun, and has
a lot of mechanics which would later be fleshed
out further in the full release.
It also has a speedrun if you're interested,
so I’ll link the leaderboards below as well.
Each level has their own ‘gimmick’ Having
a unique mechanic attributed to each level,
which is explored thoroughly, expanded upon,
and then unused in the other levels until
all 7 unique mechanics cumulate in the final
chapter keep the game interesting throughout
the run.
This might seem like more of an argument to
play the game, rather than to specifically
speedrun it, and that’s actually not wrong.
While having a variety of unique mechanics
to learn about as you run keeps things fresh,
and providing a variety of unique challenges
is important, nothing is more important than
enjoying the game that you run.
If you don’t love a game, or have deep interest
in it, it’s unlikely you’ll stick with
it for long, and be able to put in the practice
to get a competitive time.
Having a game which is fun and rewarding at
its very core is truly integral to have a
rewarding speedrun.
The previous point is particularly important
when you consider the next one; Celeste has
a massive variety of movement mechanics, all
with their own upsides, and all executed differently.
Dash cancels, hyperdashes, and wavedashing
are all ‘basic’ movement tech that aren’t
difficult to learn but really open the game
up to a massive amount of movement optimization.
This also opens up a lot of pathing possibilities.
Is it faster to use a dash cancel to circumvent
several platforms entirely, or to more quickly
jump platform to platform using a hyper dash?
Questions like these lend a large amount of
depth to the ru . Since simply running in
a straight line to the finish isn't entertaining
or fun, Pathing depth is one of the most important
things for a speedrun to have.
As a side note, Odd Bod’s movement guide
is really well done, and would be a great
watch if you’d like to know more about Celeste
speedrunning, or to try it out the speedrun
for yourself.
And finally number 7; Celeste is simply a
fun game.
I guess this is a matter of opinion, as some
people dislike platformers entirely; however
if you do enjoy platformers, then odds are
you’ll enjoy Celeste.
Almost all of the reasons that make it a good
speedrun game make it a fun g ame as well.
Unless you're a masochist, you probably wouldn't
enjoy running a game that is frustrating,
overlong and boring.
However the inverse is also true.
If you're gonna be playing sections of a game
a thousand times, it’ll be a lot more enjoyable
if you enjoy at least the first few hundred
attempts.
Having a basic enjoyment of the game is important
for speedrunning, and celeste is easy to enjoy.
If you’ve watched this far, then it’s
likely that you’re somewhat interested in
celeste or speedrunning in general, so perhaps
this point is somewhat moot.
Speaking of which, thank you for watching!
I’ve heavily enjoyed researching, recording
and editing, so thank you for supporting me
by watching.
If you'd like to support the channel further,
and watch more in the future, please consider
subscribing and sharing your thoughts, as
it’s the best way for me to understand what
content you prefer.
I have a really exciting announcement about
the channel coming in the next week or two,
so keep an eye out for that as well.
Again, thank you for watching, and supporting
the channel.
And as always, I'll see you in the next one.
What makes a speedrun?
“I've seen many people argue that there
is no such thing as a speedrun community,
and that since most runners do not venture
out of a specific series, or few games, that
there's not enough interaction between runners
to be considered a community
