[MUSIC PLAYING]
ERIC KOZIEL: It's
really a pleasure
to be here and talking
about something
that was one of my passions
in recent years and something
that I've really come to
enjoy the full process of.
And that's something
that I wanted to share.
I struggled a bit
in trying to come up
with exactly how I wanted
to frame this talk,
whether or not I
should go into kind
of the nitty-gritty
details or give a more
full-blown look at everything
that might go into this.
And I decided I'd go into
the inch-deep, mile-wide type
of approach and cover all
of the different things
that people might enjoy.
My goal at the end of
this is to show you
all the different complexities
that go into running a game,
as well as hopefully convince
a couple of you to possibly
try it out.
So with that, I
just want to cover
a little bit of my
background as far
as how it helps out in
discussing this talk.
Like many folks, I grew
up playing video games
all through my childhood.
It was something that was
a great activity for me.
I formed bonds with
all sorts of games
and really enjoyed just playing
and learning the lessons
that they had for me.
But beyond that,
it was an activity.
It was something that I enjoyed.
It was not something that
I had intended to turn
into a lifelong passion.
My first foray into more
competitive-focused gaming
occurred in my teenage years.
I became part of the
"Super Smash Bros.
Melee" competitive
community in the mid 2000s.
And that was
transformational for me.
It was something
where I was good.
I was not great.
But it was something that
let me travel to tournaments.
I could meet up with
all sorts of people,
get different
perspectives on that.
And really, some of my best
memories are part of that.
But back on the
real-life side of things,
I went through and
started my schooling.
I went through and got master's
degrees in computer engineering
and cyber operations.
As far as how that
applies to the talk,
it really is just
my note of, I have
a formal background
in engineering,
software development, as
well as reverse engineering
and, let's say, knowing how
to treat software creatively
to try and get certain
things out of it.
And I'm very fortunate
to be able to continue
that in my professional
work with MIT.
But really, what we're
here to talk about today
is the speedrunning
side of things.
And this is something
that I started up
because I missed out on all
of the competitive aspects
that I had to drop when I
started school of "Super Smash
Bros."
But I also had this deep
nostalgia for all these games
that I played as a kid.
And speedrunning was my way
to actually dive into that.
And over the course
of the last 10 years
or so, I've completed
speedruns of more than two
dozen different games,
most of which from scratch.
So I'm hoping to share
some of those lesson
today as we go through
more of the talk.
But that's the main thing.
What we're talking about today
is, of course, video games.
And we'll differentiate
that online
usually by just putting it
as one word instead of two
to differentiate it
from athletic running.
But what we're
talking about here
is completing a game quickly.
The duration of this
usually goes from the time
that you press Start until
the time the credits roll.
And what I'm going to
be talking about today
is all things performed by
hand, all things that are
done without tool assistance.
There are other
types of speed runs
that are performed
with tool assistance.
And they're really interesting.
They have a whole bunch of
other different things to them.
But for the lessons
that I'm going
to be talking about today,
we're going to be just focusing
on the human element to things.
Some other important lingo as we
go through this is "category."
And when a speedrunner
or anybody else
talks about a category,
they're really
talking about the rule sets,
the restrictions, and the goals
that they're trying to
perform this run under.
And this is really important
because it will differentiate
a speedrun done with no
restrictions versus one that's
done towards complete
item collection
or restricting different
techniques that you
might be able to use.
So that's what it is.
Why would you want to do it?
What a lot of people see
is the competitive aspect.
It's something that if
you get good enough,
you can claim that you are the
best in the world at something.
And that's certainly
worth of bragging rights.
There's a real sense
of accomplishment
that comes from that.
But I would say
that that's actually
kind of in the minority
of primary motivations
in why you'd want
to get involved.
What's a much
bigger piece of that
is actually diving into the
community side of speedruns.
So one of the things that
is really good for newcomers
is that as you come in,
there's all sorts of people
who will be supporting
you, who will
be commenting on you, enjoying
your own progress as you
go through and try to challenge
yourself, reach new goals,
and really test your own limits.
And that's the most
fulfilling part.
And a lot of people
are drawn to that.
They don't necessarily need
to be the best in the world.
But they really
want something that
will let them play the
games that they love
and enjoy it in a brand new way.
And that's what speedruns
help to accomplish.
But why would you choose speed
as a particular challenge?
Why not score or some other
difficult type of challenge
in the game?
Well, that's where things
get a little technical.
Speed is important
because it has a number
of different trade-offs.
They increase the difficulty of
performing at the human level.
And one of the examples that
I have for this on the chart
on the left--
this is just a
quick graph showing
the time taken to travel one
mile as you increment speeds.
And the thing to note here is
that as you're going forward,
you're actually encountering
diminishing returns.
So for each additional
unit of speed--
let's say that it took
the same amount of effort
to increase one unit
of speed as it goes--
you're actually getting less and
less benefit the further along
it goes.
And that's really important when
you're trying to, let's say,
save small fractions
of a second--
because that means that for
every new small amount of time
that you're shaving off,
that's a huge amount
more effort in order to
get to that next step.
The other side of
things-- if you treat
the game as just a black box.
And you're sending inputs
to it to try and achieve
some optimal goal, some state
within the game that is going
to tell you you've succeeded.
This is a classic state
explosion problem.
Even in a game
that only responds
to two different inputs,
just even for one
second of gameplay,
you're looking
at 120 bits of possible paths to
search through and try and get
that.
That's on par with some of the
cryptographic block ciphers
that we have today.
And that's just not happening.
But of course, you can cut
that down, use intuition to try
and limit the number of paths
that you need to search.
But at this point, it's not
even really playing the game.
This is trying to treat it
as an optimization problem.
And this is actually a
really important point
that I want to draw
some more attention to.
So we're going to
take a slight break
and go into something
a little different.
Let's talk about art.
So this is a particular image
from artist Tatsuo Horiuchi.
And I am just about
the last person
that you want talking anything
about art and characteristics.
But it seems
perfectly competent.
It's pretty.
It's some piece of art
in an East Asian style.
It seems fine.
I'd be happy to have
this up in my home.
The caveat on this
particular piece of art
is that it was created
in Microsoft Excel.
And this is just
about the last thing
that people would expect
from Microsoft Excel.
This is a program built up
entirely around data tabulation
and organization.
And Mr. Horiuchi
here is using it
to set up all sorts of things to
create this fantastic picture.
And this just goes to show that
just because Excel was created
to work with numbers
doesn't mean you
can't do other things with it.
And in fact, it has
all the functionality
that he needs there to
create something like that.
And he's not the only one.
There's hundreds
of other people who
will do art in Excel
just because it
has the tools available.
And it's something that they
can easily get to and work with.
It might not be as powerful
as Illustrator or something
else meant for that purpose.
But it is effective.
And it still lets people reach
their creative expression
and create the products
that they want.
So what about speedruns?
What a lot of casual
observers and other people
who are watching speedruns--
a lot of their first
impressions are,
that's not how I play the game.
That's not what the developer
intended for the game.
And in a lot of
ways, they're right.
That doesn't really
matter, though.
The goal here is to create
an optimized solution
through the game.
The game itself-- the narrative,
all of the different elements
that the developers put into it
to try and make an experience--
don't matter as much.
It's still the game.
But they're more concerned
with, this is the world.
These are the rules that I need
to work within to try and reach
my end destination.
And that's really
what's going on here.
But if the speedrunners
aren't bounded
by the rules set by the
developers, what are they
bounded by?
And this is where we go into
a lot of other topics dealing
with how speedruns
should be organized.
What constitutes
a valid speedrun?
How do you make
things comparable?
For example, even the
timing methodology
is something that varies
pretty significantly
by the different games.
Some of the major
timing methodologies
are listed on the
right side vaguely.
But the main thing is
that even though you're
getting a metric of time,
what you're measuring
is actually the skill
of your performance.
And it's always important
to keep that in mind
as you're trying to set up
these different qualifications
on what's happening.
And as you look through
some of these other topics,
really what we're doing is this
is all experimental design.
You want to create
something that
is comparable between
different people
performing under the same
set of goals and restrictions
so that you can determine,
is this run better?
Is that run better?
What is the skill that they
used to accomplish this?
And that's largely what happens
with speedrun organization.
But that's just the
highest-level look
at how speedruns are formed,
talking about everything
that a speed run is.
From here on, I
really want to talk
about how to do a speedrun.
And that's kind of
where the meat of things
is and really the most
interesting parts.
The general process that I
devised and really espouse
in this is going through
a three-phase approach.
You start out with
investigation,
where you're trying
to understand, what is
the game that I'm working with?
What are its limits?
What can I do?
You take that knowledge.
And you apply it once
you get to routing,
where you actually
make the decisions.
You want to come up
with, here's my path.
These are the set of
decisions that I'm
going to respond to and really
what I believe to actually make
an optimal solution
going through this game.
And then finally,
you get to execution,
because just having a
theory about what's fastest
isn't good enough.
You need to actually
put it through the end,
make your best
attempt to reproduce
that particular route,
and then go from there.
This is not a waterfall-style
approach, though.
There is all manner of
things that you might find.
And you're going to wind up
going back to earlier parts
just so that you can either
increase your understanding,
make some different decisions
when something doesn't work out
right.
And really still,
at the end, you're
always getting to this
point of doing the run.
And that's the important piece.
So what I'm going
to go through here
is just some of the major
topics in each of these
as we go through.
So a lot of people will
skip over investigation.
Or they won't give it the proper
credit due just because it's
not the most glamorous.
Really, what you're trying
to do is catalog data.
You're trying to build
up your own knowledge
pool as you're going through and
making sure that you actually
document it correctly,
putting it into notes,
making sure it's communicated
out so other people can follow
the same thing.
But this is basically
the entire phase where
you're understanding the game.
And that understanding
is really what
you're going to be
exploiting as you go
through each individual step.
But for understanding,
you really
have to first understand
what else is out there.
And the very first
thing that you should do
is just go out there
and find what is known.
This might be kind
of an obvious step.
But really, the depth
that you go through this
is kind of surprising
to a lot of people.
Obviously, you start with seeing
if there's other speedruns.
And I'm not just talking
about speedrun videos.
Find out if there's other
comments, other posts,
anything that's actually
indicative of the thought
process that a person went
through in planning a speedrun.
It's all very important
because you'll
be able to work with
that and go from there.
The second level
where you're still
going to find a lot
of useful information
is just the general guides
for a particular game--
so the player's guides, anything
online game-guide related.
Different fan
franchise sites will
have a lot of useful
information that other fans have
cataloged-- maybe not for
the purpose of a speedrun,
but it's data to you.
So you're going to take
it in all the same.
Where a lot of people miss out
is actually in these tier three
types of resources.
And the way that
I set up the tiers
is just the likelihood
that you're going
to find useful information.
But in the same
way, you might find
some of the most
interesting stuff when
you start to really
stretch the limits of what
you're looking at.
So finding any other
related gameplay videos--
there's actually a lot
of times that people
are doing a let's play.
And they'll do something weird.
And they're like, huh.
I didn't know that would happen.
And a speedrunner will
come along and like--
I can use that.
And it's really important
to go through that step.
But international sites is also
something that really doesn't
occur to a lot of people.
In some of my own
research, I was
working on a game
called "Front Mission--
Gun Hazard."
And it's a Japanese-only game.
So of course, most
of the resources
there are going
to be in Japanese
on the other side
of the internet
that I don't go to very
often because I can't read it
very well.
But in actually doing the due
effort and going over there,
I was able to find a lone page
on some fan site squirreled
away that described
a particular glitch.
And it had enough
details in there
that I was able to figure
it out and reproduce it.
And that actually ended up
getting used in a speedrun
to pretty good effect.
So that was my story about
really going the extra mile
and trying to investigate that.
But this is all about
everything that is known.
What do you do for the
things that aren't known?
And for that, we go back
to our good old friend
the scientific method.
One of the biggest
things that is
really exciting about this
part is the raw discovery
of what it is that
you're looking at.
So just imagine that
everything that we knew
about physics was wiped clean.
You could still tell that
when you throw a ball,
it's going to follow
some sort of arc.
But you don't know the
mechanics behind it.
You don't know, let's say,
what the concept of gravity is
or anything else like that.
That's something that you
do every time that you
step into a new video game.
And you're really
trying to figure out,
how do these things interact?
What are the rules that
govern how they actually work?
And for that, the
scientific method
is perfect for actually going
through and figuring out
the individual things.
And for many of us,
this is something
that we don't get the chance
to use in our daily lives.
It's something that they
taught to us in middle school.
And we knew it enough
to pass the test.
But getting an
actual opportunity
to exercise it is
something that--
for everybody I've talked to who
has tried to experience this,
it is really rewarding when
you actually come through
and you figure out, wow,
that particular formula
works this way.
Or, I didn't know I
could influence it
with trying to just
run up and kick
a wall, or something like that.
And really, you just
follow the same steps
of identifying what it is that
you actually want to know,
developing a hypotheses,
setting up an experiment,
and then ultimately
trying to analyze
the results of that experiment
and decide how it actually
impacts things.
And that's how you build up
all of the knowledge that
isn't already known and
written down elsewhere.
But this has helped
a little bit simply
because you're living in
a land of software, which
means that everything
in that world
is going to be bounded by
the restraints of software.
And really,
everything is governed
by some amount of math.
And that's really everything.
For a lot of casual
players, they
don't realize that, let's
say, the power-up state
of Mario in "Super
Mario World" is actually
governed by a single
address that is responding
to whatever that value is.
All right.
That's interesting to know.
But why would I care about
that as a speedrunner?
Well, it just so happens
that that particular value
goes into an index
into a big table
that you might be able to
do some funny things with.
And you get some fantastic
results just so long
as you know the math and
fundamentals behind that.
Beyond that, some
of the other things
that you take for
granted are still
governed by different
calculations-- for example,
a typical hitbox scenario.
And this is basically
when two objects deciding
whether they're colliding
or not is simply
whether two squares
are overlapping
on a Cartesian map,
something relatively
simple to do and implement.
But it's not
immediately apparent
simply because of all
of the artistic work
on top of the game
that's going on.
And then, of course, there's
also just the regular formulas.
The "Final Fantasy
V" sword damage
formula is illustrated
there at the bottom.
And the important
part is knowing
all of the different
pieces that go into it.
But as a speedrunner,
you will absolutely
need to know what all of
those different factors are
and how best you can
optimize it so that you wind
up with enough
damage to take out
that boss in a certain
number of turns.
And that's the kind
of thing that you're
going to try and look for.
The last thing in
investigation--
and this is probably the most
fun for a lot of people--
is discovery.
So once you start to know
what those limits are,
you can really start to push
them and find out other ways
to use and abuse the game beyond
what anybody really expected.
This covers
everything from using
basic aspects of the
game-- for example,
in "Mega Man 4," if you
take damage from an enemy,
you have a brief period of
vulnerability afterwards.
Well, you can abuse that
brief period of vulnerability
and interact with things that
would otherwise instantly
kill you for as long
as you're invulnerable.
So you can use that
to your advantage
and skip through some things
that would otherwise not
be very polite.
There's also
instances where if you
know the fundamentals of how
the game is actually operating--
in this case, the random number
generation sequence of a game--
you might be able
to actually exploit
that so you can make what
would be a lucky occurrence
into a consistent occurrence.
And that's something that we're
getting much more exposure
to recently as people really
dive into what makes the games
tick and seeing just
how much a human can
interact and influence it.
The last thing that I
want to discuss here
is actually illustrated by
that picture on the right side.
And I really love this picture.
This is from a glitch
exhibition for a game called
"Ocarina of Time."
And really, every time that
you look at this picture,
you will find something new
that is just out of place.
Even if you're not
familiar with the game,
you can probably tell there's
a whole bunch of things in here
that aren't going right--
21 hearts, 37 keys, sold out.
What the heck's going on here?
And what's wonderful
about this is
that this is all
stuff that is achieved
within the bounds of the game.
You have a player who is
going through and manipulating
a game in such a way to make
all of these crazy anomalies
that nobody would normally
encounter into a reality.
And it's the fact that
you can stretch a game
to those limits that is really
exciting to a lot of people.
Next up is routing.
And this is where you put
all of that information, all
of that extra work and
investigative knowledge,
to use.
And really what it
comes down to is
trying to solve the
puzzle of the game.
And this goes at the full
scope of start to finish,
as well as going down
to much smaller levels--
the individual rooms, the
individual patterns that
you're going to
need to go through--
in order to reach
the end solution.
And this is
particularly difficult,
especially as a game has a
lot of different variables,
has a lot of different
options that you need
to try and take into account.
There's a lot of different
planning methodologies
and strategies that really
make this successful.
One of the main ones that
I try to work with and tell
people to follow is actually
the engineering design process.
And this is one of
those standard ways
that an engineer will go
through looking at a product
that they want to
design and going
through an iterative process so
that they can improve upon it,
meet the needs, and
also still satisfy
a variety of conditions.
It's kind of weird to think
about a speedrun as a product.
But really, it works
really well here
because you're going through.
You're trying to
identify a solution set.
And then you're trying to
make that solution set work
within your own constraints.
This covers a similar process
to the scientific method.
The particular version of it
that I've set up here goes
through identifying and actually
making sure that you know what
it is that you're
trying to solve--
because that can get away
from you a lot of times--
enumerating what's
possible, comparing them,
and then ultimately
testing it and making sure
that it works within
the full scope of all
the other solutions that you've
come up with, and then finally,
using that and communicating
it either in text,
making a video of it,
or actually doing it
in a speedrun.
So that enumerates
the whole process.
And it's really important to
try and follow this and identify
what is going to make a
particular path fastest
and best to try and work with.
One of the other common
aspects is resource management.
And this is something
that a lot of people
treat as fairly obvious.
But it becomes a
really complex piece
of the puzzle when you start
to have to make trade-offs.
And in this case, you might have
an opportunity to, let's say,
spend health.
Health is an important resource.
It's something that
you can actually trade
in a lot of games for time.
You can try and save time
by using your health,
something that you're trying
to otherwise conserve and keep
up as high as possible
to reduce risk.
In the same way, you might have
other expendable resources,
illustrated in this by bombs.
But you have the
trade-offs of, well,
if I keep more bombs, how can
I use those to save time later?
How much is a bomb
worth in terms
of the time that it saves?
And this can be used to
offset risk, trying to make,
let's say, a boss fight easier
or a next stage a little more
consistent, things like that.
Time is also an
important resource.
And this is in the context
of, if I spend more time now,
will I save more time later?
It's all trying to make this
great weight measurement
about what's actually going
to get you through optimally.
And it's a lot to keep track of.
But when you come up with
something that feels good,
it's just that much
more satisfying.
When you identify something
that trades off all the risk,
gets you through
optimally, and you're still
looking at a good run,
resource management
is really what comes
out on top as far as how
you distribute your actions.
One of the least-recognized
pieces of actually planning out
a speedrun is actually
working with consistency.
And consistency in
this case is everything
that has to do with making sure
that you actually go through
and succeed at the very least
the worst case, but most
often the average case.
And this is just an
example for this.
Let's say that there's
a four-way stop.
You need to travel from home.
And you need to go do some
chores at the bank, the grocer,
and the post office.
You need to visit all
three and return home.
The distances to all of them
is approximately the same.
How would you actually
make sure that you proceed
optimally, assuming that
you don't know, let's say,
what the traffic
is on the roads?
You don't know the
actual light pattern.
You have no guarantee that
it's going to be green
when you're going to it.
So what kind of things can you
do to increase your consistency
in getting through faster?
And that's a large part of
what consistency planning is.
So you can, in this
particular example,
start to think about, well, if
I can do a right turn on red,
I'm going to basically skip
out on most of the times
that I would otherwise get
stopped by only a stoplight.
If I avoid left
turns so I don't have
to worry about oncoming
traffic, that will also
increase my consistency in
actually getting through
quickly.
And these are some of the
other things that you really
need to think about
making it successful.
There's an example in a
game called "Castlevania--
Symphony of the Night."
There is a strategy that,
if done successfully,
saves 10% to 20% off of
the current fastest time.
And this is a very
competitive game.
The caveat is that to
execute this successfully,
you at the very least
need a 1 in 4,100 chance.
Nobody has done this yet.
Nobody has even really tried.
And it's just one
of those things
that even if you know something
is faster, if it's not
going to ever work
out so that you're
going to keep your sanity while
trying to do these attempts,
then, yeah, you're probably not
going to try to incorporate it.
The last thing I want to
talk about is execution.
And this has everything to
do with how you're actually
able to perform in the game.
How are you able to
play at a high level,
do human-level
optimizations, and understand
how it is that
you're going to be
able to practice and reinforce
these things mentally?
When a lot of people
are getting started
or just watching speedruns
for the first time,
they see these people
doing incredible things
in these games.
And they're like, wow.
I'll never be able to do that.
They're superhuman.
They've got all these
gifts and abilities.
And they're able to
complete the game so fast.
It's not something
I'd be able to do.
Well, at the end of the day, no.
Nobody is really
superhuman here.
They've just
trained excessively.
They didn't get their abilities
by coming into contact
with a radioactive spider.
It's much more
along the lines of,
they've put in a
whole lot of work.
They've done the training.
They've done all of the practice
necessary to actually reinforce
these things that
they're doing and then
to really cut down on the
overhead of their own actions.
And for that purpose, it's much
more like trying to be a ninja.
You're trying to be an average
person who just happens
to be very trained
in a particular thing
and do it particularly well.
And there's a lot of
strategies to actually do this,
starting first and
foremost with practice.
And really, what we're talking
about when we mention practice
is you're trying to learn.
Practice is all about trying
to learn how your body works,
trying to learn how
you're going to respond
in certain situations,
making that
into an automatic
mechanism so that when
you come across something,
you don't think about it.
You just do it.
And there's a lot of
different pieces of psychology
that are important here-- trying
to set up appropriate chunking
strategies, trying to
work with scaffolding.
And there's many
different aspects
to trying to train effectively
so that that training isn't
lost, so that you
actually improve faster.
And it really is just about
understanding your own brain.
But even beyond that, once
you have the practice in,
once you've built up the muscle
memory, there's a lot of things
that you really need to do to
rely on the game to synchronize
up those actions.
And this is where
various cues come in.
So you're looking for
things in the game, things
that you generate yourself
or just get a feel for,
to actually set up your
actions so that they actually
work within the realm
of what you need to do.
There's a lot of good
examples for this
in "Super Metroid," where
just by complete chance
there are plants, foreground
objects, other things that you
can look for that you can
use to identify where I need
to execute a particular move,
where you need to jump off
a wall and get up to somewhere
that you're not supposed
to, all sorts of
things like this
that you can rely on to help
you sync up what you're doing.
There's another example with
"Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!"
where the developers actually
made a dynamic audience
in the background that otherwise
doesn't do a whole lot.
You're primarily
focused on the fighter.
But while the fighters
are doing certain things,
they included cues
in that audience
that help you to identify
when you're actually supposed
to start up a
counter attack, when
you're supposed to do a dodge.
Some of these examples--
they're pretty
hard to see in this
particular picture.
But there's a guy flashing a
camera at a particular point
that you're supposed
to counter attack.
There's another one
who drops his glasses.
And all these
little extra details
that the developers
actually included
really help out in
trying to identify
how you're going to
counter these otherwise
difficult threats.
But even beyond visual things,
audio is really important.
And this is important not
only from a reaction speed
standpoint.
You can actually
respond to audio
about 20 to 40
milliseconds faster
than you can visual cues.
But it's also just really
important in terms of knowing--
let's say I'm in a boss area.
That boss is going to
spawn at a particular time.
And the music just so happens
to be synced up with that.
And in this case, in a game
called "Hagane," which I run,
you're using a particular part
of that intro sound sequence
to know when to start to launch
your attack so that you can get
a very powerful attack in
right at the beginning when
he's first coming out.
One of the last things that
I really want to discuss
is that what you're
doing is a performance.
It's a complete
execution of your route.
And as part of that,
you also have instances
where you're getting into your
mind, where you are starting
to doubt yourself, where
you're trying to actually
keep up with a high level of
play as you're going through.
And what's actually
shown along the bottom
there is a heart rate graph of--
this is my heart going through
a speedrun of "Skyblazer,"
which is the first game
that I've speedrun.
And each of those instances--
as you're going through,
you can see that it
gradually increases.
And I'm just sitting down.
This gets up to the point
of moderate exercise
all while I'm in a
chair just because I'm
trying to rectify whatever
is going on with the screen
and keep up my
composure so that I can
continue to perform optimally.
And that's really
another thing that
comes in with conditioning--
trying to do these runs over
and over again.
You identify, here's
my best strategy
for trying to calm down.
Here's how I don't
start to mess up simply
because I've put too much
effort and thought into what's
going on on the screen.
And it's a significant part of
it when you're going through
and your heart's racing.
You've got the adrenaline
pumping and all that.
But it's another really
fun part of a speedrun.
If you're able to
get through the end,
you get a great release.
It just feels amazing.
Even if you drop a
run right at the end,
it can still feel
really rewarding
that you've done so
well and that you know,
I can get there again.
So that covers the
overall process.
Here is just a dump of a
whole bunch of other topics
that fit into these general
parts of the phases.
And what I just
wanted to show here
is that what I've
talked about today
is just scratching the surface.
There is so much
to optimization,
to planning, to proper
presentation of facts
and details about games that
there's something for everyone.
Even if you're not intent on
trying to go for a world record
or anything like that, you
can enjoy the running process,
coming up with a solution.
You can enjoy
breaking apart a game,
finding out what makes it
tick, and then exploiting
those boundaries and taking
it to something further.
And still, you can enjoy
the practice properties--
improving yourself, coming
up with a real product that
shows iterative improvement.
So just to wrap up everything
related to the speedrun
process, my main recommendation
is if you're getting started,
even if you're already
a conditioned runner,
you want to try every step.
Try every bit of the
phases even if it's
a game that's been
done to death just
so you know what you enjoy.
You can find all
sorts of things,
as well as improve
your own understanding
of what you're doing and
increase your enjoyment
on top of that.
And really, to get the most
satisfaction about this,
you want to be trying
to push yourself.
Don't necessarily just shoot
for a record because it's there.
You really have to make
it something that is worth
the effort that you put
into it and something
that you can be proud
of after the fact
beyond simply being the
top of the leaderboard.
And also, never forget that you
have a great opportunity here
to work with others.
There's a very supportive
community all around who's
willing to help, who's willing
to support and just watch
your runs.
And it feels great
to be a part of.
I want to end out with just
a quick discussion of where
speedrunning actually is today.
As a practice, it really is
something that's only blown up
within the last 10 years or so.
This particular chart is
showing the total amounts raised
and the average viewership
of what are known
as the Games Done Quick events.
And these are twice-annual
events that are entirely
speedrunning focused.
But they're benefiting
a particular charity
at each event.
And it's something that has
really exploded in popularity.
But it mimics the
growth and attention
that's been given to
speedruns it's going through.
If this graph included
this year's numbers,
we'd also see the
trend continuing.
And one of the things that's
the most rewarding to me
is that this is a
hobby with video games
that's actually making a
difference in the world.
We raise millions of dollars
simply because people
enjoy watching it
and are particularly
generous with appreciating
the skills going into it.
And that's something
that I honestly
find particularly wonderful and
is really rewarding beyond just
doing the speedruns itself.
And that wraps up everything.
Everything that I've
talked about today
is a subset of some of the
topics that I address in a book
that I've been working on for
quite a long time now called
"Speedrun Science."
And it tries to break down
every little bit of it.
In addition to discussing
the actual process,
it goes into the
philosophy, some
of the history of how it
actually evolved and became
more important.
And finally, it'll be
available in just a few weeks
for preorder, probably
arriving at people's doors
somewhere around February.
A special thanks
to Kari Fry, who's
my Illustrator for the book.
She provided many
of the illustrations
that you're seeing throughout
the slide deck as well.
And Tony Kuchar, who
is my layout editor,
also produced a number
of these graphics.
So special thanks to them
and the rest of the Fangamer
crew for working with me in
the production of this book.
And with that,
I'll close it out.
You can reach out to me at
any of those social media
or email addresses
at the bottom.
And with that, I'm happy
to take any questions.
AUDIENCE: So I
had some questions
from people who aren't
in the office right now.
First, save the Yoshis?
ERIC KOZIEL: No.
No.
AUDIENCE: And second,
a question from Iowa,
what's the weirdest way you've
seen someone discover a trick?
ERIC KOZIEL: The weirdest way?
Oh, man.
So there's a particular
game called "Dragon View"
on Super Nintendo.
And this game-- oh, my.
A friend of mine was working
on the speedrun for this game.
And at a particular
part, we discovered a bug
that had not prior been known.
And the only way that
you execute this bug
is simply that you
haven't turned off
the game after completing
a certain story element.
And then you reach
another story element.
You were expected to take a
break somewhere in the middle.
And you never would
have seen this happen.
But they left some
dirty memory somewhere.
And what actually ends
up happening is a huge--
oh, my.
It's a very scary bug.
Basically, it allows you to
overwrite the entire memory
contents.
It even tries to start
fiddling with ROM.
It does a lot of very
interesting things.
But this was discovered
completely by accident
simply because they were
trying to go through the game
all in one sitting.
And it actually
turns out that if you
get the exact magic conditions,
you can make this warp you
into the ending credits
so that you effectively
have a choice between-- if
you try to play it completely
like this, you either
completely crash the game
or you make it to the end.
And it was just a
really interesting find.
If you want details,
I can describe
that afterwards a little
bit more about what's
actually going on
under the hood.
AUDIENCE: I think I saw a
speedrun for "Half-Life 2"
that worked by saving and
reloading the game so that when
you reload the game, you're
in a different position.
And the video for
those runs were
edited so you can
only see the gameplay.
Is that something that's
a specific category,
as you mentioned the
categories before?
ERIC KOZIEL: That would be
a segmented run for the most
part, especially if they're
removing the in-between.
But it really is up to
how the community defines
what is challenging what
you're actually trying to show.
And in this case, let's
say that Half-Life 2--
simply by saving
and quitting is what
actually alters your position.
Then that's something that
you can use in what's called
a "single-segment run,"
done in one sitting.
But most often, for
those kinds of things,
it's going to be segmented
in that you do a block of it,
try to get it as
optimal as possible.
In that save, you're
going to bring it up
again and do another one.
Whether or not it's
allowed or expected
is really up to the game.
And it really depends
on how the game
interacts with those saves.
All right.
Thank you so much
for coming today.
It's my pleasure to talk.
[APPLAUSE]
