Posted: 1/24/2010 2:23 AM
Post subject: How you choose a game to TAS
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Chef_Stef
Editor, Active player (476)
Joined: 5/23/2006
Posts: 361
Location: Washington, United States
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The other day, I was thinking about TASes and what thought process goes into choosing the game. For me, the games I've chosen to TAS have fallen into the following criteria: 1. It should preferably be a game I've played extensively beforehand, as this gives me a lot of background on what's possible, what potential tricks are there to exploit, etc. I also have trouble getting interested in TASing games that I personally haven't played much before - if I haven't played the game yet, why should I be all that excited about doing a TAS of it? 2. It shouldn't be overly complicated to TAS, or else I'll just get bogged down in mechanics instead of making significant progress. 3D games especially make me think twice before wanting to TAS them. 3. No TAS of the game currently exists. I have found that I get a bit frustrated if I am constantly having to measure myself up to someone else's time (even worse, if I can't beat the other person's time while trying to improve their version of the run). Unfortunately, (1) and (3) really limit me because most of the games I've played are on newer, non-TAS capable platforms, and most of those that aren't have already been TASed. Though, I do make exceptions to (3) if I really like the game and/or see big improvements to be made over the previous TAS. For the rest of you, how do you pick your games? For those of you who complete a lot of TASes (e.g. adelikat), have you actually played through each of those games, or did you become interested in some of them because of something else?
Posted: 1/24/2010 3:23 AM
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Kuwaga
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1248
I was looking to make the TAS of my choice somehow stand out between others to provide more entertainment than just the average one. Also, it should be fun and challenging to actually make the TAS. Those guidelines may be rather bad though, as they caused me to never finish one. As my first game I chose Super Mario's Picross because I thought it would be cool to see all the pictures solved in strange patterns. However, the general viewer didn't seem to find that concept as entertaining as I myself did. As a second idea, I chose to run 4 Sonic games at once. I stopped because it was too big of a challenge for me, consuming way too much spare time. As my last idea, I picked a not so well known game with interesting glitches (Saint Sword). I indefinitely delayed that project though.
Posted: 1/24/2010 3:26 AM
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alden
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
As a footnote to 1, I would say it is possible to find a new game and play through it a couple of times and enjoy it and then make a run of it. You don't have to have previous experience with it, but it certainly does help.
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Posted: 1/24/2010 8:52 PM
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Mukki
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Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
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I mostly TAS games that I played extensively in my youth. While it does mean that I am familiar with the games it is more of a nostalgia thing. Since I never played these games from a speedrunning perspective anyway my knowledge of the game is not geared in that direction. I think that it is perfectly plausible to pick up a game that I had only discovered since registering here and running it. I find that I go through much of the same processes in finding tricks and routes with both familiar and unfamiliar games as even those I know are not in my immediate memory (I don't get much time to play through video games these days). As I've made more runs I find myself more confident in taking up these unfamiliar games. Trip World is the only run I have published of a game that I have never owned. Any gaming that I do do nowadays is by browsing through ROM sets for some hidden gems and if I find one I will probably TAS it. I will probably submit more work that arises in this way in the near future.
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Posted: 1/24/2010 9:21 PM
Post subject: Re: How you choose a game to TAS
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DarkKobold
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Arcade TASer of 2010 PCE TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 Lucky TAS of 2009 Lucky TAS of 2007
Chef Stef wrote:
2. It shouldn't be overly complicated to TAS, or else I'll just get bogged down in mechanics instead of making significant progress. 3D games especially make me think twice before wanting to TAS them.
I do this, except the exact opposite. Find the game with the most ridiculous mechanics, and try and figure them out. That, or someone bugs me "I can't figure this RNG out! Help me!"
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Posted: 1/25/2010 12:07 AM
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Tompa
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Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
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I usually pick games that I'm good at in real time. Or at least games that I have played a lot and have proper knowledge about. I don't find it as enjoyable if I play an unknown game and it's easier when you don't need to find tricks and glitches from scracth. So #1 basically. But as of now, I would never want to TAS a 3D game, no matter how good I am at it or how enjoyable it would be. TASing with Mupen is way too slow for what I'm used to while TASing, I need to be quick with my fingers all the time.
Posted: 1/25/2010 12:56 AM
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andymac
Experienced player (623)
Joined: 11/30/2008
Posts: 650
Location: a little city in the middle of nowhere
I generally pick games based on these categories: 1. It already has a run 2. It looks fun to TAS 3. It IS fun to TAS A lot of the time I have never played the games that I TAS. The first category basically guarantees that it will be accepted, and the other two are the most important. I only TAS because I like TASing. If it becomes boring or overly repetitive, I stop, or do something else.
Measure once. Cut twice.
Posted: 1/25/2010 1:23 AM
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Aqfaq
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Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
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Let's see... Gods and Wonderboy in Monster World were familiar from childhood. All other games that I've TASed were mostly unknown to me until I successfully hunted them for TASing. Generally, the games I ended up picking were quite short and simple, or had lots of usable items. Just having fun with various items in unexpected situations lead to interesting bugs, which motivated me to make a full TAS. Examples of this type of game choices are A Boy and His Blob, The Immortal, Alex Kidd in Enchanted Castle, The Rescue of Princess Blobette and Humans. This is why TASing something like Scribblenauts would seem really fun for me, but unfortunately it has too much items, which demotivates me. I easily end up quitting projects that require too much effort. Rolan's Curse is a funny case, because I was just playing it normally for the first time in my life, having no idea I would ever TAS it. Then at the first boss, the game ended and I knew it had to be a lucky bug. I realized how short the TAS would be and made the movie in no time. Only after I had completed the TAS, I played the rest of the levels to find out what I had skipped. Of course, there is also a plethora of hilariously bad games that I've TASed as experiments or just for the laughs. I'm secretly sad about most of them being rejected. But I'm even more secretly happy about the ones that got published.
Posted: 1/25/2010 1:35 AM
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mmbossman
Experienced player (828)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
GBx TAS of 2008
I've taken all sorts of tactics: games I've played (Vectorman 1/2, Turok, Sonic Spinball), games that had runs already (2 spider-man games, goof troop), games that only had WIPs (32x spider-man, wolverine, Spider-man 3), and games I knew nothing about before TASing them (Gex, silent scope). By far, the easiest to do, and those that produce the best results, are runs that are made with a published movie or high quality WIP to use as a template.
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Posted: 1/25/2010 5:56 AM
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arkiandruski
Reviewer, Active player (287)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
Sega TASer of 2018
When I was making TASes I seemed to gravitate toward games that weren't on the site, or variations on games that were which weren't represented (for example: Aria of Sorrow "all souls"). I think the goal was to expand the library of the site or forge new ground. As for qualities, I tended toward games with interesting graphics of music and relatively straightforward gameplay.
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Posted: 1/25/2010 7:42 AM
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Flygon
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
Of the three games I have worked with (Somari, Battle Squadron and Gourmet Paradise), I chose because I played them rather a bit in the past. Unfortunately, the problem is that two of them are 'bad TASing choices' and Gourmet Paradise has a rediculous RNG. (I am aware I didn't make the submitted Somari TAS directly, but I have worked with it's engine extensively enough for TASing purposes to rightfully claim that I have worked with it extensively)
Posted: 1/25/2010 2:31 PM
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Lord_Tom
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Joined: 5/25/2007
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Location: New England
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A few factors for me... 1. personal interest/familiarity with the game 2. some sort of technical richness -- i.e. non-trivial route planning, wacky physics or resource management that will make the game interesting to TAS 3. some sort of audio/visual richness -- i.e. something that will make a TAS fun to watch 4. at least a suspicion that an interesting improvement exists - i.e. something that will be noticeable, save time, and be entertaining 5. expressions of interest from the TASing community is always good - it gives some confidence that a run will be well received
Posted: 1/25/2010 10:43 PM
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Ferret_Warlord
Skilled player (1416)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
Many of the games I've done runs for I've had little experience with before running. In fact, many I tried out for the express purpose of seeing what sorts of tool-assisted potential they have. Basically, if I think it'll make an interesting run, I'll give it a shot if I'm willing.
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