New this year from the Games Done Quick folks is an event called GDQ Express, or GDQx for short. The GDQx series is for smaller events that are shorter in length throughout the year. The first event will be held at TwitchCon 2018 in San Jose, CA on October 26th and 27th. I happen to liv within easy driving distance and similar to Calithon I plan to drive down for the day (or perhaps stay overnight if there's a good reason to but it's about an hour and a half drive on a weekend). To that end I'm making some game submissions as I've discussed on
http://Discord.TASBot.net and on my streams at
http://Twitch.tv/dwangoAC (with a smattering of chat in #tasbot on Freenode IRC).
There were two main pieces of feedback I received from SGDQ 2018 that influenced me for this first GDQx event - the first was from staff in that we went way over length (an accurate assessment) and the second was an odd mixture of primarily extremely positive and occasionally lukewarm responses to some of the content. What negative feedback we had wasn't even consistent about the same things and amounted to personal preference. Some folks from the infosec community were really interested in the GBA driving a Gamecube but said they got bored of Celeste quickly while other feedback on outlets like YouTube were upset because there was something other than plain TAS playback presented. I saw different negative feedback on different sites and taken together there weren't any really broad strokes - most people felt we executed well for a summer event (keep in mind we usually do the more crazy stuff at AGDQ's) and in general there were only vague themes around content quality.
The biggest factor I'm concerned about for GDQx isnt the content feedback from SGDQ 2018, it's actually the staff reaction to how far over time we ran. It was so bad that there was a hint that we probably wouldn't be able to even get a run in to GDQx because of the time estimate overrun. Based on that feedback I picked extremely safe content with very low techincal requirements, short length, and high entertainment value. I also made absolutely sure to include notes on setup time, if any. I present below the somewhat hastily colleted submissions we more or less agreed on:
TASBot plays Super Mario 64
The first SM64 TAS was created by spezzafer in 2005 with advancements coming fast since then. The 16-star category would show the 2005 era run for the express purpose of showing how far strategies have come and could be shown as a race against an RTA runner with the TAS set to a delayed start.
The 120 star run is likely to be improved before the event starts.
The 1 key run has never been seen at a GDQ, at least not on a real N64.
Please add 5 extra minutes to setup to account for pre/post times.
1-Key by several TAS authors - 00:04:21
SM64 as it existed in 2005 - 16-star by spezzafer - 00:16:26
120 stars by a massive number of talented authors - 01:20:41
N64
TASBot plays Item Abuse 3 by PangaeaPanga
The YouTube reactions to this run include "What is this insanity?!", "The lack of responsibility in Panga's life has reached dangerous levels.", and "I can't wait to see how GDQ chat reacts." The TASBot crew couldn't agree more - just watch this run and you'll see for yourself.
Unlike other TAS runs, this needs no additional setup time (seriously; not even any pre/post intro time). SMW is extremely reliable and there is time during the boo fight for final commentary. This is very GDQ safe.
TASBot% - 00:07:57
SNES
TASBot plays Pokemon Yellow
This is the first time we've been able to verify Pokemon Yellow and the method is a treat to watch. This No Save Corruption run contains everything from extreme luck manipulation to bizarre items, reaching the Hall of Fame in an insanely fast time.
Please add 5 minutes to setup for pre/post intro.
This is a true console verification using a hardware unmodified Gamecube and Game Boy Player, with full technical details at
http://tasvideos.org/6023S.html
No Save Corruption any% by TiKevin83 - 00:11:47
GC
Kaizo Mario World 3
This run was the highest voted run in a 2017 poll of runs TASBot can play. There are only a handful of humans who have ever beaten this game (unlike the humanly impossible Item Abuse 3 TAS which is also being submitted to GDQx).
This run shows off SMW physics in a way that other runs do not and concludes with a unique boss fight.
This is a very safe run which does not require any additional setup time, with all commentary fitting within the game's time itself.
any% by ISM & Mister - 00:17:11
SNES
TASBot plays Hyper Princess Pitch by Tseralith
Most of Daniel Remar's freeware games include an impossibly hard joke difficulty like "ReallyJoel's Mom". In Hyper Princess Pitch the mode substantially multiplies enemy spawn rates, removes all power-ups, dramatically increases the firing rate of enemies that shoot, and allows more of them to do so. It makes SmashTV look like a Barney game.
This run will require access to a stream PC and testing to ensure it functions correctly but otherwise should not require substantial pre-run setup time.
Reallyjoel's Mom difficulty, best ending - 00:15:40
PC
As you can see we've prioritized content that has been pitched in the past but was not accepted at the time and we've prioritized short runs with high value. There is no ACE here, unless you count Pokemon Yellow where said ACE is not part of the target game itself and is extremely safe. There's definitely no total control payload stuff going on. This is a small event and I'm treating it much like an HRDQ or a Calithon. My total time commitment if a run is accepted will be less than 8 hours the day of; in fact, simply deciding on and testing the submissions over the last week took far far more time than the marathon itself will take.
As with the past two events I realize the TASVideos community has become weary of financially supporting me based on the massive drop-off of financial support that happened during AGDQ 2017 so I'm again covering all of my own expenses. For testing I borrowed a GBP and Pokemon Yellow so if that run is accepted I'll have some equipment expenses. I'll have some amount of travel costs, especially if I opt to stay overnight. I just got through SGDQ where I had a couple thousand dollars worth of expenses so I'm trying to keep new costs down. If for some reason you do feel compelled to help me offset costs I've set up
https://donate.TASBot.net as a way to help offset those costs. Still, I'll gladly serve in my role as Site Ambassador on staff here even if it continues to cost me money out of my own pocket. This is a good site with an awesome community and it's worth supporting. Thanks everyone for the support!
