Games Done Quick has posted the schedule for their semi annual speed running marathon; Summer Games Done Quick, which kicks off next week, according to their website.

Games Done Quick is a charity gaming marathon held twice a year, and features over 150 hours of  live streams from expert players attempting to get through a number of titles as quickly as humanly possible.

Summer Games Done Quick 2014 will run from June 22nd through the 28th and they will be raising funds for Doctors Without Boarders; A humanitarian organization dedicated to providing relief in war-torn or disaster stricken areas.

I was able to chat via email tonight with Travis Nible (aka Klaige), who will be one of the speed-runners participating in next weeks event, about the art of speed-running and his experiences with the Games Done Quick organization.

NB: What attracted you to the speed running scene?

TN: I found my way to speedrunning through the fighting game scene actually.  A Guilty Gear player i knew started doing speedruns in the late 2000’s, and I’ve always been a big fan of Speed Demo’s Archive (SDA) for hosting a ton of quality speed runs since the early days of the internet.  When streaming really became a thing around 2010, i got to watch guys i knew working on their runs in real time and it was really fun and addictive to watch.  At that point I was not traveling a lot for fighting games, but still had that itch for competitive gaming.  I decided to start dabbling in it in 2011 and have been hooked ever since.

NB: What was the first game that you speed ran?

TN: First game i ran was chip n dale rescue rangers for the NES.  I loved the game as a kid and it was short and really fun, it was an ideal game to ease myself into learning how to do a good speedrun.   I held the world record in that game for about 7 months but it has since been vastly improved since my run in spring of 2011.

NB: What qualities do you look for in a game when you are deciding which title on which you want to focus?

TN: First and foremost it needs to be a game that is fun.  If you are doing a high quality speedrun it means you are going to spend many, many, MANY, hours with that game, so it better be one you find enjoyable in some way.  I personally have the most fun routing older platformer style games as they offer a unique blend of routing, execution, and fun challenges to overcome in a run while not being insanely long.  At some point i’d like to dabble in speedrunning some RPG’s but committing 3+ hours to a single attempt is daunting.

NB: What are some challenges to speed running?

TN: The biggest challenge is easily having patience.  When you are doing attempts to get a personal best (PB) or a world record (WR), you have to realize that 99.9% of the time that run ends in failure, especially if you are working on a highly optimized game or category.  As lazy and fat-american as it sounds, the focus required to get a good run can be really draining, and it’s important to know when you are still playing well enough to possibly get “The Run” and when you are just smacking your head against the brick wall out of frustration.

Aside from patience there’s just the natural pressure of getting deep into a run that has the potential for a great time.  I know when i’m in the final parts of a run that’s one PB or WR pace my pulse goes up a lot and the adrenaline really starts to pump.  It’s a rush, but it’s one you have to temper and keep level so you don’t get too anxious and make a run killing mistake.

NB: Do you feel that all the time that you have to spend practicing on one title makes you appreciate it more? Or by the time you are done are you like “screw this, I’m never playing this game again”

TN: Really good question here.  It’s actually a little of both.  When you really optimize a game heavily, especially games on older systems from the 8 and 16 bit era’s you learn so much about things you never considered as a younger player.  I know so many weird quirks about animation frames, hitboxes, RNG (Random number generators), global timers, and  other video game programming nonsense that it’s almost laughable now that i think about it.   When you get deep into the meat of how the game was made you appreciate both the good and the bad in it’s design.  Sometimes a design oversight allows you to have a huge breakthrough in terms of gaining time.  Sometimes it makes the run more random and infinitely more frustrating.

For the most part I really really enjoy the games i’ve learned to run and have a neat appreciation for them, but at the same time it’s more or less impossible for me to do casual playthrus of them, it’s pretty much the speedrun route or bust.

NB: How did you get involved with GDQ?

TN: When I started doing speedruns and streaming I signed up at Speed Demos Archive and became a member on their forums.  SDA is where the Games Done Quick marathons were born 5 years ago, starting out as tiny 10 man weekend marathons raising a few thousand dollars here and there for charity.  I was invited to participate in multiple GDQ’s after my first Castlevania Bloodlines run in 2012, but couldn’t quite make the finances work.  Finally last year i was able to set aside the time and money to actually attend AGDQ2014 and have gotten to know a ton of people from both SDA and SRL (Speedruns Live) who are the core groups that make the GDQ’s happen.

Klaige and UraniomAnchor will race each other through Shatterhand for the NES

In addition to doing a couple more runs live during  SGDQ2014 which runs from June 22nd to June 30th, I’m also part of the staff and will be at the mic hosting and reading donations for a couple shifts during the marathon.

NB: What is the GDQ community like?

NB: The speedrun community is one of the most likeable and fun groups of people you can meet in gaming.  Speedruns are competitive in nature with vying for the fastest times, but there’s a great deal of comradery and friendship amongst all the different runners.  I’ve met some amazing new friends and have had experiences i will never forget in the speedrun scene.  When you watch a few hundred folks get together for a week+ in the dead of winter and have them all work as a group to raise over 1 million dollars for cancer research, it brings a great deal of pride to know it’s a community you can call yourself a part of.

NB: What game will you be playing during the charity event?

TN:  I’ll be playing two games at SGDQ2014.  On 6/24 at around 2:20 central time I’ll be running Shatterhand.  A cult classic NES platformer that came out late in the consoles lifespan.  It’s got amazing graphics for an 8 bit game and is a very fast paced platformer with a lot of fun tech to show for a speedrun.  I’ll actually be racing that one against Uranium Anchor who also runs the game.

On 6/25 around 2:00 central time I’ll be taking part in a 4 player co-op run of a mystery arcade game.  It’s one of the donation incentives that people can put their donations towards during the marathon.  Donation games have always made it into the marathon so if this one follows suit it will be a really fun watch, I highly recommend tuning in for that one!

NB: If someone is interested in getting involved with GDQ, what do they do?

TN: If anyone wants to be a part of the GDQ’s we have constant threads and updates at the speed demos archive forums.  This link here: https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/board/marathon_discussion.html  will take you to the marathon discussion forum where all the information about the upcoming GDQ’s are posted.  The GDQ’s are open invitation so even if you don’t run a game we are happy to have people come and spectate for a registration fee.   You can also go to gamesdonequick.com for full information on SGDQ and AGDQ as they come about.

NB: How can folks watch your run?

TN: You can tune into the marathon either on the main site:  gamesdonequick.com  or you can go directly to the twitch channel at http://www.twitch.tv/speeddemosarchivesda   the official gamesdonequick site has the schedule as well as donation information and all sorts of other tidbits on the marathons.

Let me know if you’d like any more information.  I appreciate the questions and hope everyone will tune in to SGDQ June 22-30 as we try to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.  Last year SGDQ raise over 240k, and were hoping to go well beyond 500k this year!

– The winter Games Done Quick charity drive known as Awesome Games Done Quick, was able to raise over $1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

You can check out every minute of the event over on the twitch.tv streams or at www.gamesdonequick.com