i have always been interested in the topic of speedrunning. from watching summoning salt videos to thinking¨ i wonder how i would speedrun this game¨ now i think i might act upon that. is speedrunning just a bunch of glitches compiled together like a symphony of broken or is there somthing more?

The way I think of speedrunning as an orchestra of people who want to find the best and most optimal way to play their instrument. But sometimes someone finds a way to play it differently and not in the intended way. Some people use this to make the orchestra better. Some people call it cheating. Either way, it’s completing the same task.

Defining Speedrunning in terms of tech is nearly impossible as every game has its own unique methods and tech for going fast. Some games require complex glitches (glitches OOT categories), others require precise movement (SMB1), and some require expert routing (RPGs). Even games that are heavily glitched like OOT can still have glitchless categories that rely on expert movement and clever optimizations in routing.

That doesn’t even touch on the necessary soft skills like personal motivation you need to strive to better your own times. This is a hobby just about anyone can pick up and do, but it often takes a lot of practice and motivation to get really good at it.

Some games are nearly glitchless, Shovel Knight for example has one very minor glitch that is used one time. other than that its just going fast. Some games, like Donkey Kong 64, are a cluster of continuous glitches.

Speedrunning to me is literally just another way to complete a game.

You can play a game like Sonic and either try to survive to the end (or multiple endings) for the story. You can just play your favourite levels for fun. You can play with a second player for companionship. You can try to get the highest score. You can try to collect all emeralds. You can try to get as many lifes as you can. Or you can try and complete it as fast as possible.

That's it. Just another way to play a game.

Streets Of Rage 4 for instance is mostly glitch free, but requires a massive combination of lots of tiny little perfect executions, lots of unnatural feeling techniques, and lots of RNG. But very few glitches. And a huge fanbase that play it for either the story or a high score, not for speed.

speedrunning in general is A combination of skills, motivation, patience, game knowlege, and pratice. There is more addition to this list depending on the game you speedrun, my favorite game of all time super mario sunshine require Both precise and speedy movements optimizations, combined with insane glitches, or if it's glitchless then it become precise and agile movements along with clever optimizations, super mario 64 Any% with glitches is a combination of movements optimizations/strats and glitches. if you want to learn speedrunning, then chooe a game you'Re familiar with to begin with (You can speedrun as many games as you want but a familiar one is a good start) read guides and strats for that game, Pratice And pratice, oh and pratice too. (xD) pratice with and without a timer to put some pressure on yourself, because you need to be able to perform under pressure, pratice be patient, and most important of all: HAVE FUN. speedrunning doesn't mean you cant have fun while doing so, i speedrun sm64 and SMS even tho i quit speedrunning, because i find it fun. for more informations again watch the guides there a few ones on this as well, otherwise if you have problems finding guides PM Me and i'll find you a guide myself. i hope i helped.