A game is a racetrack to us hey? But what kind of games do you think just don't work as a speedrunning game. and what factors?
Any game can have a speedrun. Sometimes it's just not that interesting because it's trivial to reproduce.
Very long games and games that use a lot of rng that could mess you up if you get bad rng
Games with an excessive amount of autoscrolling, or, autoscrolling only.
Visual novels are typically terrible for speedrunning.
Games that have a lot of RNG but are short, making it so that getting the "fastest" time means just resetting a thousand times per hour (see minesweeper and other such things).
Rhythm games probably lack the ability to be played quick as well.
Can't think of anything else atm.
Games with unskippable cutscenes. I sat on my ass every Saturday night speedrunning for 3 hours. (Though, it is daytime for Americans)
Games that tend to crash, especially if it's on console, which is considered more stable than pc.
A lot of the time, this can actually be reduced down to a simple formula regardless of the game's genre; time spent making inputs vs time spent waiting.
If your game has lots of dead time between sets of inputs, and those inputs don't last very long, chances are your game is not particularly interesting as a speedrun. By contrast, if you're always forced to be making inputs and there are few opportunities in the run to just not do anything, odds are good that your speedrun is pretty technical and demanding.
This effectively transcends genres, as it's very possible to have platformers with extended autoscroller section, and then have RPG runs where you just never stop inputting. The first game that comes to mind of that ilk is Megaman Battle Network, in which you select New Game and then basically perform constant inputs for 80 minutes, whilst never having more than a second or two at most to just not do anything.
People run score attack games all the time, with the goal being to reach a certain number of points as fast as possible.
@Liv For games where Score is the fundamental objective such as Guitar Hero I agree, but for legit speedgames where score attacking is possible, it serves a very useful purpose; it forces you to play the game in a way not normally required in the regular speedroute, which is great for expanding your skillset in the game. Executing the route quickly doesn't necessarily mean you're good at 'the game', but getting high scores everywhere quite often requires a very comprehensive understanding of the game and how to get the most out of everything.
For me personally plaformers although I would still run them just for me not as enjoyable. But I am hopefully running sm64online with my friends soon so that should be fun for me because they make things fun. Although I like watching them played its more fun that way for me.
Well yeah i will throw my two cents here too :P But yeah games with RNG that actually make it so that completing the run faster needs the RNG and that the RNG in itself is the "biggest" factor affecting your time in regards to completing the game without any proven methods to influence that RNG. Games with no actually gameplay "per se". From those the easiest examples are the visual novels which basicly are static in time the time it takes to go through the game but you just keep clicking the text to go forward or the choice you make.
Games where almost the entire differentiation at the highest level is just RNG. So most RPGs that don't involve a lot of menuing or have quick out of battle movement. RPGs can be pretty fun to route though.
Every game premised on a game show or board game is pretty terrible. Pure RNG grinds for the most part. Still run them though 'cause all games need loving.
Only things I've found really are ones with long unskipable cut-scenes without glitches to get around them.
Honestly other then some of the aforementioned types of games, The worst kinds of games to speed run are games you will not enjoy or like. Play the game a few times try it out as a speed game get in touch with the existing community(ies) if there are any and just try and have fun and learn about the game and in the end if your not happy with playing the game or that interested in getting better at it then try something else.