Games Done Quick

[Moonface]

I've been aware AGDQ was live, but usually I only care to check in if someone else on Twitch that I'm subbed to isn't live. I had the stream up yesterday when the FF15 run started which looked incredibly boring for what little I cared to focus on and even the Twitch chat were saying it was a rather bad pick because apparently the run is rather bland.

I'd say more than any of the runs I'm curious to see if they're gonna continue to hold the event hostage for incentives to get met or if they might for once learn their lesson with those, but I won't be holding my breath.

[Mr EliteL]

Oh, were they holding back incentives again? I didn't notice during the MKWii run as there wasn't really one for it and PMTTYD run met their incentive before the runner got to the area where they could get Flavio. Did see some random interviews in the schedule which might take time for incentives to build up but if there is stalling again, that's bad.

[Moonface]

Oh, were they holding back incentives again? I didn't notice during the MKWii run as there wasn't really one for it and PMTTYD run met their incentive before the runner got to the area where they could get Flavio. Did see some random interviews in the schedule which might take time for incentives to build up but if there is stalling again, that's bad.

No no, by continue to hold hostage I meant continue from the last time a GDQ event was run, not this one. My bad on my wording being a little ambiguous.
If they do stall for time for incentives again for this event it probably won't happen until closer to the end of the event when the incentives have higher targets to hit. I know for AGDQ last year the longest stall was for one of the very last incentives of the event and it was almost an hour if I recall correctly.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah yeah that one happened towards the end of the event, it's worse for those in person but still no reason to delay a run if the incentive isn't met. Pokémon Diamond/Pearl is the next incentive and it's quite low currently at the moment but has 3-4 hours left until the run begins, there better not be an incentive on last few games/very last game or if so not have the same repeat this time, we'll see this Saturday/Sunday.

[Moonface]

For anyone curious, the official game/run list for SGDQ 2024 has dropped: https://gamesdonequick.com/games

Crash Nitro Kart has my attention because I'm curious what tech that game has and how much of it is similar to the stuff in CTR.

Enter The Dungeon being a race should be interesting assuming it will still be randomized, so it won't just end up being a race where once someone gets ahead the race aspect becomes irrelevant. 

I'm curious how the Stardew Valley run works. Does it start with everyone already at the entrance to Skull Cavern or does the run have to start at the beginning of a completely fresh save?

SMW race is always a highlight that will absolutely be a run I won't miss even if it's the only thing I watch from the entire event. 

Overall I'm not picking out too many runs to look forward to only because what I watch ultimately comes down to the schedule. Hopefully it isn't too long before that drops.

[ShiraNoMai]

I do believe the schedule is expected to drop next Wednesday, May 8th, as a draft because I believe the 2nd round of submissions to the games list is expected sometime during mid May? These are for games released after like, mid-February. I don't believe the schedule will deviate too far from the draft, but I expect a couple of times to shift around as a few more choice things get added.

Anyway I'm going again this year, only for half time as I think a week was more than enough last time x_x

[Moonface]

I'm not sure if I'll attend this years SGDQ or not, but if I do I hope it's better than last year where I spent the majority of the days there with horrible migraines. x.x

[Moonface]

I haven't caught a lot of the runs at GDQ this year but I just came out from watching the SMW Relay Race in person and dang, the things people can pull off with Lunar Magic for that game is insane!

I also saw a game before that called The Evil Zone which I've never heard of before but it looked really neat for a PSX fighting game.

[ShiraNoMai]

Of the runs I have seen, they were all pretty dang good and impressive.

This has to be my favorite though, hands down. It was absolutely everything I expected out of it, knowing A: the game and B: the couch and their history of being absolute shitposters when together.
Absolutely lost it at a particular moment from Maddy, she is so fucking unhinged it's unreal lol

[Moonface]

That was a run I had wanted to catch live but unfortunately fell asleep through most of it.

For runs I managed to catch, here are my thoughts on them:

• Evil Zone | Finals Tournament Bracket
  Already mentioned it in my previous post but now that I'm back home I can take time to give better thoughts on it. As I said, I never knew of this game before this and the only reason I caught it in the first place was because I wanted to get a good seat early for the SMW relay race that came on after this. I believe most of the players involved had barely any experience with the game and yet managed to all do really well, and in the final I really thought Caveman (the reigning champion) might actually lose). It's definitely one of the more unique fighting games I've seen, with a big emphasis on cinematic moves and a system that allows a player to attack from any range on the stage, so one can punish their opponent if they try to keep their distance. Even if you don't want to watch the whole video, I'd suggest at least watching a couple of rounds just to get an idea of how this game plays because I think it's cool enough to at least warrant giving it that much time.
  
  
• Super Mario World - Kaizo Relay Race | Groovy Goombas (juzcook, GlitchCat7, TheJavaBrew, YouFailMe) vs. Funky Fuzzies (Shoujo, shovda, MarkAlarm, Thebeast721)
  Mario relay races are a highlight of every GDQ event, and this one was no different. Some of the levels made for this run pushed what was possible for SMW ROM hack levels in ways I don't think anyone would have ever expected, and this run is a showcase of not only the talent of the runners but also the talent of the creators who put this relay together. I haven't checked yet whether I'm visible in the crowd or not yet, but there's a decent chance I am because I was centered to the stage and very close to the front.
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by dannyb
  I didn't catch this whole run, but I believe this one was actually using very recently discovered tech that was almost discovered seven years ago by accident, but at the time it was assumed to always lead to a game crash until someone else picked it back up earlier this year and found that there was actually something usable. I assume the run goes over all of this, but I know it because there was a segment covering the story of the tech discovery earlier in the day while the run was still yet to meet its incentive goal.
  
  
• WACCA Reverse by NB1RS
  Music games are always some of the craziest things showcased at GDQ's for me because of the sheer level of skill on display by whoever the runner is, so it wasn't hard for this one to be a highlight for me. I will never fathom how this guy manages to keep up with the last track in the showcase which can only be seen to understand how fucking mental it is.
  
  
• Grand Poo World 3 by MrMightyMouse
  The creator of this is my favourite Twitch streamer, and he was present as one of the couch commentators so I was very invested in seeing this run. A very fun couch and a superb SMW ROM hack with skips that the creator didn't even know about beforehand, so it was cool to see his live reaction to some of the stuff being pulled off in a game where you'd expect him to know everything about it.
  
  
• Penny's Big Breakaway by Mildew
  I knew this game had a lot of movement tech even back when it first came out, but I've never really seen a full run of the game nor the extent to which the tech can be taken. A pretty chill run to watch that's good to put on if you want something that you don't need to give constant attention to out of fear of missing something and getting lost with what's going on.
  
  
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Troll Level Race | CarlSagan42 vs. juzcook
  A race in name only rather than execution, but for me this was the most fun run of the event that I caught. The trolls were all really creative and designed to be fun not just for the audience but also the runners, so nothing ends up becoming frustrating, tedious, or predictable like troll levels would typically be.
  
  
• Elden Ring by blanxz
  Although last years Elden Ring run was cool, I wasn't a big fan of how most of the run involved just skipping to the end of the game through glitches, so I enjoyed this one a lot more since it was a glitchless run. Fighting bosses at a low level isn't anything new for any Souls game, but doing it where speed is key makes it very different I think. The cheese strat used against the Tree Sentinel outside of Leyndell is something I didn't know about before and I'm shocked it hasn't been patched for how easy it seems to be to pull off once you know how to do it.
  

Overall I had a fun time at SGDQ this year and I think they've finally solved the problems of having dead air or going wildly off schedule. Some incentive goals felt like they were pushing their luck just a little bit but everything did manage to get met without the need to stall for time or be obnoxious about donations; however, I hope that the organizers don't try to push the boat out a little farther at the next event and realize that they've found a comfortable spot with the incentive goal targets.

[Mr EliteL]

I noticed you both there in the Evil Zone Finals, best view is when Alymra walks on to the stage but also just left of the canvas when they have the camera on the commentators/callers. Can't see you in the Kaizo Relay Race though, too many heads and bodies. Were you in the same seats as you were in Evil Zone or did you move? But again, the view is so small I can't confidently tell even if I look where I think that previous spot was.

For the gameplay of Evil Zone it looked OK, just some grabs look like they take too long and would get annoying watching them repeatedly if a player gets caught. Ugh, frick those Kaizo levels. Yeah better to just watch.

[ShiraNoMai]

For a two-button fighter, it was surprisingly pretty deep.

I had a great time overall. I am starting to hear word of a few people caching COVID that I was near, but luckily Moony and I already had it earlier in the month so we should be safe

[Moonface]

I noticed you both there in the Evil Zone Finals, best view is when Alymra walks on to the stage but also just left of the canvas when they have the camera on the commentators/callers. Can't see you in the Kaizo Relay Race though, too many heads and bodies. Were you in the same seats as you were in Evil Zone or did you move? But again, the view is so small I can't confidently tell even if I look where I think that previous spot was.

For the gameplay of Evil Zone it looked OK, just some grabs look like they take too long and would get annoying watching them repeatedly if a player gets caught. Ugh, frick those Kaizo levels. Yeah better to just watch.

We never moved seats. Looking from the stage, the order we sat in was Shira, myself, and then a friend of ours who can be easy to pick out by the illuminated pink lanyard around their neck. I've been using that lanyard to try and locate us in photos from the event where we could be present. 

I don't know if grabs are spammable in Evil Zone or not but they can be countered with the difficulty of the counter depending on distance. Closer grabs are easier to counter than far ones, so you have to get your opponent off guard to pull it off otherwise they could counter you and punish you for it. I think it's present a few times in the gameplay where people get grabbed for leaving themselves open to attack. I wish the game had been in the arcade so I could try it out but maybe if I can be bothered I could emulate it I guess. 

Mentioning photos earlier, the official photos from SGDQ '24 got released today in full and can be viewed here: https://photos.gamesdonequick.com/SGDQ2024
We're not really visible in any of the crowd shots that were taken during Evil Zone and SMW Relay, but if you look very closely in some you can just barely spot Shira's face peeking out between bodies in front of her. The most visible shot of us is the one outside the stream room after the SMW Relay where a big group photo was taken. We're off to the far left side in the center vertically. 

I think the level in the SMW Relay that involved just avoiding being hit would be fun to play since you can't die, and would be a cool thing to have as a challenge to play in the arcade where I played a Grand Poo World 2 boss fight (which I detailed in Last Game Played).

If it exists I'd love to play a ROM hack that involves the basics of kaizo movement but without being super punishing with failure so I can learn the fundamentals easily before trying to apply them to typical kaizo stuff.