Post subject: A Game About The Life Of A Speedrunner
Devalis
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Joined: 8/5/2019
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What would the community think about a game that represented speedrunning? I am baking an idea to develop one and would like feedback form the community about possible things to include. The idea is to basically be a speedrunner simulator, similar to games like GameDev Tycoon. Any feedback is welcome!
"it's been such a long time, I think I should be going. But time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'"
Dimon12321
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I like time-based missions in gaming, regardless of genre and objectives (for example, breaking through to defuse a bomb or escape before the explosion). Some games even gave it a more global impact (when the saved time let's you spend more time during your next goal). When your time is low, you realize that you must do everything quickly. It gives you a surge of adrenaline, some new feelings. Unfortunately, modern games doesn't provide much of it. A good AAA project that provides this kind of challenge would be a best seller, I expect. The more people like the Time Attack concept, the more of them get curious about speedrunning. Our speedruns doesn't get enough attention and we don't have much people who is filled with enthusiasm to make speedruns, and even less - to make TASes. The audiance likes to watch TASes and RTAs, but they don't wonna make this kind of content themselves. Some of them are not even curious to read what is TAS. Some even dare to call us cheaters and they don't try to guess about the way we did that. I have major doubts about a speedrunner simulator. It depends on the possibilities that a player would have. If you will be able to build a level and order a ninja to complete it by your prescribed route - that won't produce a wish to do speedruns. In my opinion, player should do the same that a speedrunner does, because, when he/she moves from your game to any other game - he/she has to do speedrunner's routine for real. It's not difficult to drop this new hobby due to difficulty, big time consumption, low views/votes/likes, critique, pathetic skills and so on.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Devalis
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Joined: 8/5/2019
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It would be more of a life simulator where you build skills, level up those skills in order to get a better time in said game. Games would be added by packs or by the community and use a mathematical equations to determine times. I thought about adding a money system so you can earn money from a job or from Twitch (or similar to avoid copyright) and buy systems and games from within the game. I thought about adding a community system to where players could contribute to finding bugs or exploits in games to make running them even faster. I want to make something to boost the speedrunning community, not hurt it. This is why I want to run it by the community first before even attempting such. It would allow us non runners to get a taste of just how much time and effort is put in to these games to play them in these ways.
"it's been such a long time, I think I should be going. But time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'"
Dimon12321
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One thing is playing with numbers that may implicitly concern speedrunning and the other thing is executing real operations in order to plan, test and make a speedrun. Besides, speedrunning is a rare and obscure hobby. What is speedrunning? Is it some kind of physical activity where you have to cover a distance on your feet quickly? No-no, I'd rather watch The Game of Thrones. This kind of simulator will suite any hobby or occupation. At best, you will discover what does a speedrunner (postman, director, marketer), but I don't think much people will even try to speedrun something. It is the same as comparing a concept to it's implementation. The first one can be much easier than the last one.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Devalis
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Joined: 8/5/2019
Posts: 3
Doing the numbers game is definitely easier than trying to emulate an actual speed run of a game, and thus, making it easier to produce and support and hopefully, entice a larger demographic to play it. It will mandate research of any real game I may wish to include (i.e. Super Mario Bros.), but that will be a necessary evil I will just have to deal with. Of course, I will want to try and include a way of speedrunning my game as well.
"it's been such a long time, I think I should be going. But time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rollin'"
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Seems like a bad idea, i know you wanna hear otherwise, but the catch is: it's just sooooo niche. Basically, it's the niche of the niche! Speedrunning is very obscure and this would be even obscur-ier
TAS i'm interested: megaman series: mmbn1 all chips, mmx3 any% psx glitched fighting games with speed goals in general
MESHUGGAH
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^ - The idea itself is probably not bad at all considering it's simplicity. It's fine if you don't find this idea being materialized in a video game format, though we don't know anything still. - The real question is what is your goal. I understand you are in the feedback collecting phase, but anything you have in your mind would be better to be presented already for constructivity. So far we know that you want to make a "Life of a youtuber" and other kind of simulator, where the player only clicks on "buy Nintendo", "buy video game", "start speedrunning" and then.... it all depends what you really mean under the life of a speedrunner. Some side notes: - On this forum there were always some project to incorporate speedrunning elements to a video game. Tried to search for it but I get 22913 matches... - But let me list some of the most known games with speedrunning elements being a heavily used feature (note: no AAA titles because they suck): - Braid: rewind time - Toribash: turn based fighting (not exactly frame by frame IIRC) - Hack'n'Slash: memory manipulation (there are other hacking features but most of them don't really qualify as a speedrunning element)
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
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I was actually thinking about a speedrun anime I was going to make where I made fun of other speedrunners and included lots of little gags like: - being a sellout, collecting many bits on twitch from (clueless) fans - tripping over a cable to lose progress on a speedrun (TAS) - drifting off to sleep listening to a streamer's soothing voice only so they would host another streamer whose voice was way loud and annoying - when on a good speedrun, a spider crawls on the reset button. etc. - Lots of shoutouts to famous speedrunners like Cosmo, Siglemic, zfg, etc. The setting was that all the famous speedrunners had kids and they went to speedrunner school to learn about history of speedrunners and the "how to"s on being a good runner. That school I imagined as a very wild place. Also Captain Falcon was a teacher. The plot I would share too, but I might consider using it so I don't want to spoil too much. It was going to be about a competition, a speedrunner's race in a big arena. Second season was going to be about an attack on a server where all speedruns were hosted and the gang tries to prevent that attack. The overall morale would have been that you need to pursue things outside of speedrunning. Giving it up, for your loved ones. I didn't follow on that anime idea much because it's too difficult to create something like that. I hope I could inspire you. :) There was also that book on speedrunning (from a more scientific viewpoint) which sheds light on many aspects of the hobby. That may be useful to find some things to use for your project. If you don't know about the book and are interested I will find out what it's called.
MESHUGGAH
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^ - I think you are referring to Speedrun Science: A Long Guide to Short Playthroughs by Eric Koziel (Omnigamer). Other books (should start updating these lists again): Wiki: MassMedia/Books On more off topic, I would fucking love to watch that anime or whatever materializes from it. How I Speedran Your Mother.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
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@MESHUGGAH: Yes that is the book. --- I remember there was one thing I would implement in the anime for sure. And that is the concept that "speedrunning" is somehow tied to a boost, a power-up or a transformation. And I imagined that to be with helmets. Put helmet on. Click on a remote on "start". Timer starts. And you are now in a speedrun. Moving lightning fast. Competing with others. Something like that...