Games Done Quick: See You Next Mission

What is Awesome Games Done Quick?

Games Done Quick (GDQ) is an annual speedrunning marathon done by the Speed Demos Archive, a site dedicated to the hobby. It's basically a week-long, non-stop marathon of speedrunners playing video games as fast as possible to raise money for charity. GDQ has become increasingly popular over the years, raising over two million dollars for charities in 2015!

In fact, the marathon is so big that there are actually two marathons: Awesome Games Done Quick raises money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation in the winter, and Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières aka Doctors Without Borders in, well, the summer. AGDQ was the original marathon, and thus tends to be the bigger event of the two, but SGDQ is quickly catching up on its older sibling.

How do I watch?

Everything is shown via their Twitch Channel, and there tend to be alternate foreign-language streams that I'll link as they pop up. There is a French restream here, German is over here, and Spanish is here.

You can catch the previous marathons on their twitch, but recent rules on how long VODs can stick around may mean some of the older marathons are no longer available. There's now an official GDQ YouTube Channel which uploads marathons starting with AGDQ 2014, so don't worry about missing a run. There's also SDA's Channel, which have some older marathons archived. If all else fails, a lot of really old runs are collected on various channels. Just do a search!

If you are super impatient, there is the speedrun subreddit. The people there are fairly quick at linking to each of the runs and organizing all of the link in a clean format, so you don't have to waste a bunch of time jumping back and forth in the twitch archives trying to find a specific run. Note that the official YouTube channel is getting increasingly fast at uploading runs (SGDQ 2015 had everything uploaded the day after the marathon ended) so this shouldn't be necessary.

How can I contribute?

When marathons are live, you can donate just by hitting the big DONATE button on the site. You can leave comments with your donation to be read during the stream, but they've been really cutting back on this so the runners can actually focus and provide commentary. You're only going to get read on the stream if you have a really funny comment, are a family member/close friend of the runner, or have a particularly touching story relating to cancer. Oh, and if all else fails you can also donate shitton of money. They'll definitely read the comment of someone who drops a few hundred. But ultimately. the marathon has just gotten too popular for everyone's comments to be read, so don't hold your breath.

But there are other perks for donating! Certain blocks will have giveaways for people who donate within that period. They are usually related to the game block (Mario stuff during a string of Mario speed runs, etc.) and can range from homemade perlers to rare copies of the games being played. There's also a grand giveaway for EVERYONE who donated, which usually involved some hardware being given away with some games. So plenty incentive to donate right there.

Another fun thing for donators are the incentives and bid wars. Incentives are a goal that you can put your money towards in order to make a particular run more interesting. This can be playing as a particular character, higher difficulties, blindfolded runs, and so forth. Bid wars let everyone put their money towards making some decision for the runner. Bid wars commonly occur over things like what to name characters in RPGs. Check out the schedule to see incentives and bid wars and just mention what you'd like your money to go towards when you donate.

You can subscribe to GDQ's Twitch channel, and apparently the money from that is going to the PCF. I assume the perk of this is that you get to access chat during sub-only mode (which will happen a lot, given the number of people tuning in) and you can use annoying chat emotes. There's also the Yetee which releases unique DGQ shirts that are only available during the marathons. All profit made on the shirts will go towards the marathon total, so it's another way to donate. Finally, the Humble Bundle Store has some kind of arrangement with GDQ during the marathon. Sometimes it's a bundle and sometimes it's a sale on their storefront. Either way: a cut of the proceeds go towards the charity total.

What should I watch?

Here's a list of good runs from Summer Games Done Quick 2015. This aren't the only good runs, just the cream of the crop.

• Yoshi's Island: Trihex once again puts on an excellent run with some incredible play and very technical tricks.
• Sonic Boom: You will believe a hedgehog can fly.
• Donkey Kong Glitch%: Sprite-wrangling in the jungle.
• Donkey Kong Country 3: An all-around solid run.
• Maui Mallard: All of the Disney block is good, but Mallard has a great runner and set a WR!
• Ghosts & Goblins Block: Great runs on hard games with fantastic commentary. (Link is where block starts.)
• Gauntlet (PC): Great chemistry between the runners.
• Toejam & Earl: The Funkiest Run
• Ninja Baseball Batman: Not the Batman you're thinking of.
• Tetris Block: Thought last year was crazy? Now see what the world's best player can do.
• Rayman: Spikevegeta gives another entertaining run this year.
• Metroid Prime 2: Solid commentary throughout.
• Mega Man X2: A fun four-way race with bonus PATRIOTISM
• Mega Man X3: A low%, buster-only run keeps things interesting.
• Castlevania SotN: A incredibly close race.
• Ori and the Blind Forest: Developer commentary!
• Kirby Super Star: More of the pink puff than you can handle.
• Gunstar Heroes: A co-op run made excellent by the chemistry of the runners. (Link includes Freedom Planet Run)
• Freedom Planet: A fairly tight race with solid commentary. (Link includes Gunstar Heroes Run)
• Earthbound: Iwata kept praying.
• Prince of Persia: #HugsForHenneko_
• Hello Kitty Roller Racer: CUBE CAT
• Chester Cheetah: Warning, this run is Dangerously Cheesy.
• Roundabout: Dev commentary, including a special guest on the couch! Set a WR!
• Shovel Knight: Amazing run with dev commentary!
• Mega Man 4: Classic Mega Man race excitement!
• Mega Man & Bass: One death run in a game that really wants you dead.
• Halo 3: Even Master Chief isn't immune to marathon luck.
• Ocarina of Time: Deku nut troubles.
• Donkey Kong 64: Celebrate the life of this glitchy glitchy game.
• Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: The runs starts out okay enough, but then...
• Bionic Commando: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH[/b]
• I Wanna Be the Boshy: Watch a man's wallet die before your very eyes.
• Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels: Big Jon; 'nuff said.
• Luigi's Mansion: The best ending to a race.
• Pokemon Blue: Pokemon Teaches Coding. Stick around for the blindfolded race!
• Pokemon Puzzle League: Superhuman puzzle solving.
• Wind Waker: An excellent run, from what I hear.
• TASBot Block (Part One, Part Two, Part Three): Once again, the machines put humanity to shame.
• Link to the Past: A solid run of a marathon favorite.
• Super Mario 64 Any%: An amazing race that shows off precise skips and very technical platformer.
• Super Metroid: What will happen to the animals this year?
• Chrono Trigger: Another lengthy JRPG to wrap up the marathon.

Runs to Avoid
It saddens me to say this, but not every run is gold. I try to keep the list of bad runs to a minimum since this stuff is very subjective, but sometimes a run is plagued with technical issues, poor play, or a terrible runner that it's best left unviewed.

• Crash Bandicoot 2: A terrible runner who oscillated between unfunny offensive "jokes" and making weird noises. It was a so bad that the audience cheered when it was announced that he went over time.
• Kirby's Avalanche: Not as bad as the above, but I hear it gets pretty rough.

What is this "bonus stream" I keep hearing about?

So after the marathon there was a period where people who are sticking around would stream random games. These were not always speed runs, and popular activities include things like Smash Bros. money matches, Mario Party, and competitive Yoshi's Cookie. Yes, you heard the last one correctly. There's also a tendency for more obscure and weird games to be run during this post-marathon event.

In past years, the bonus stream actually lasted a decent amount of time. It was fairly long: like a whole week after the main marathon ended. However, as the event has grown, the bonus streams gets shorter and shorter as the event grows more complex and demands more tech support. These people do, in fact, have lives and once key tech people leave the good times have to end, and the bonus stream for AGDQ 2015 didn't even last a day. After AGDQ 2015, Romscout has stated
that the Bonus Streams are being discontinued. These events are just too big and the staff is too tired to keep going for a few more days after already putting in a straight week of work.

Can I attend the live runs? Could I one day run a game during an GDQ?

You can attend a marathon on-location in basically three ways: a spectator, a runner, or a volunteer. If you just want to show up and watch some runs, then this will cover the details. Keep in mind that this isn't like a convention: it runs 24/7 for a week solid, so you need to keep an eye on the schedule and prepare to stay up at weird hours if your favorite game is being run at 3am. Also, just to be clear, the marathon has gotten huge at this point, and the vast majority of spectators watch the runs via a projector. It's still probably a good time, but if you think it's just the runner and the people directly behind the couch...well...I got news for you.

Volunteers and runners are picked months in advance when a call goes out. They may still grab volunteers for menial labor here and there, but I think the bulk is picked ahead of time. Runners have to submit a video of their run (and the specific run you wish to do at the marathon), and the selection process is TIGHT. For SGDQ 2015, they have rejected over 1500 hours of gameplay. I think having an established Twitch or YouTube channel helps, as it shows how you are in public and is less risky than picking some anonymous person who could turn out to be a real jerk. I'll try to post when they've opened submissions for runners/volunteers, but it's normally in the early fall/spring depending on the marathon.

Runners are volunteers. Do not submit if you dream of getting paid to play a video game. You are going to travel what is likely a long distance just to play a game for a short duration and then you're done. This is charity, after all. HOWEVER, your twitch channel will get advertised during your run, so if you have dreams of being a ~*Twitch Superstar*~ then it is good exposure.

What does X means?

• any% - completing a run as fast as possible. The only thing that matters is speed, although some games have "warpless" or "glitchless" Any% runs to keep things interesting.
• 100% - completing a run while grabbing every item, collectible, etc. The definition of 100% varies from game-to-game.
• low% - the opposite of 100%: completing the game while grabbing on the bare minimum of items necessary to finish.
• X% - some games have special runs that have been found fun to run. This can involve grabbing all of a specific item that may not count towards 100%, playing as certain characters, or using specific glitches
• damage boosting - taking advantage of the brief invincibility that most games have after you take damage to bypass certain areas quickly. Sometimes the knockback from taking damage is also useful in accessing areas.
• safety strats - (aka "marathon strats") doing something that slows you down, but will save you a considerable amount of time if you mess up a particularly difficult upcoming section, such as grabbing extra health or taking time to hit a checkpoint
• marathon luck - normally invoked with some sarcasm, but basically odd flukes or bad or good luck that only seem to happen when you are streaming in front of an audience of tens of thousands. Usually followed by statements of "this didn't happen in practice"
• IL - Individual Level. These means a run of just a specific part of the game, which means when something goes wrong there's less to lose because restarting is less painful. As a result, runners tend to use riskier strategies and tricks since flubbing them means you just go back to the beginning of that stage instead of having to start the whole run over.
• TAS - Tool-Assisted Speedrun, in which the runner uses an emulator when running the game. Normally involves having the game play at very slow speeds, sometimes frame-by-frame so certain strategies can be pulled off that would be impossible or extremely difficult with normal human reflexes. Obviously very dull to watch live, but there is a short segment during the marathon to show some neat stuff off.
• RTA - Real-Time Attack. Basically the opposite of a TAS, where you do the run in real-time and have to rely on your own weak human reflexes.
• Race - Multiple players do independent runs at the same time to see who finishes first. The quality of these can run hot or cold, as sometimes one person takes a lead and dominates whereas others they get very neck and neck. Races can lead to exciting moments not see in normal runs, as a trailing player may be encouraged to do high-risk high-reward strats in order to catch up.
• zip - causing your character to fly through a stage or segment. Usually done by trying to squeeze your character into the stage itself (like a block or the ground) so they get stuck and the game forces them out by warping you at high speeds. Tech to be rather tricky to pull off.
• frames - refers to frames of animation. Tends to be a fancy way of saying "portions of a second" as games tend to animate at 30 or 60 frames per second. So in a 60 fps game, a "frame perfect" technique means you only have 1/60th of a second in which to pull it off. There's also terms like "I-frames" which refers to "invulnerability frames" during which your character cannot be hurt

Save the animals?