Awesome Games Done Quick

Back in 2012, through Twitter, I got word of an annual event that has ever since been a great buffer in terms of helping me look forward to  something in the short term when it comes to heading into a new year.

Going back into the regular 9-5 grind after a few extra days off after the holidays (knowing no further holidays are in sight for a while), with a side of worrying if the new year ahead will turn out to be a bad one can be a kicker.

Maybe it’s just my brain defaulting into a negative mindset?  Either way, it’s nice to have somethings to look forward too heading into a new year, and whilst video gamers will generally have numerous upcoming new games to be excited for in any given year.  We can be also be a very impatient bunch.  So it’s a gift from the gaming gods that we get treated to “Awesome Games Done Quick” very early into every January…

“Awesome Games Done Quick” is a charity event that has rapidly snowballed in growth since 2010.  Birthed by a then relatively small community of Speedrunners (in short; people who play video games really fast and aim for record completion times).

Some of the active Speed Demos Archive members got together to create a marathon week long schedule of back to back Speedruns across a broad variety of videos games (both beloved ones and niche) and broadcast them live across the internet for a charitable cause.

Parallel to the growth of the AGDQ events, came a steady rise in social media usage, as well as a popularity surge for streaming as a means of LIVE entertainment that many people now indulge in.  So by the time the event was 4 years old it hit the incredible milestone of raising over $1million dollars, and has remained above that for the past 2 years since then.

“Awesome Games Done Quick”, and it’s sibling event “Summer Games Done Quick” cast a very wide net when it comes to what games they’ll cover.  I’d say it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever be able to look at a Games Done Quick schedule and be able to count the things that interest you on one hand.

I can’t discount the amount of value the Games Done Quick events have as great background entertainment for the week they’re on too.  I’ve made a note of so many games over the past few years simply because I’ve opened up Twitch on the TV and put the stream on whilst I’ve been working on the PC, or even put it on the PC whilst I play on a console.  Regardless of where you are in the world, the fact that it’s a week long marathon means you can tune in any time of day.

It’s a sight to behold to see someone play a game you hold dear and see them blast through it as if it’s just an everyday household chore on rush mode.

Heck, plenty of games I knew little to nothing about have really stood out to me over the years simply because the person speedrunning or the supportive couch commentary for a game has had some good charisma and in the process educated me on a lot of neat tricks or insight about the game they’re playing, along with details on how much hard work has gone into perfecting what they do.

To spice things up it’s a recurring trait to have novelty segments too, such as a block of notably terrible games, or crazy things people have programmed into a TASbot (tool assisted speedrun) to accomplish ridiculous things that no human could be expected to perfect to such a degree.

As you may have realised from video drops within this post, all these speedrun attempts are posted online soon after the event is complete, meaning you can essentially catch up on anything you’ve missed due to schedule conflicts or your time zone being unkind to your tastes.

I remember reading stories in magazines as a kid as to what the known records were for beating Super Mario Bros as a kid, and later on reading magazine based leaderboards for certain games that would inform you of your completion time etc, giving you something to photograph the TV for as proof (sounds archaic, I know).  So it’s great to see places exist now in a much more connected world to track these feats and showcase the talent behind them.

I also recall being linked to Archive.org for some “long plays” of video games to burn bandwidth on (this was either pre-YouTube or at least in the early days when YouTube videos had to be split into many parts because they couldn’t exceed 11mins).

I know AGDQ isn’t without a little backstage politics, and noticeably as the presentation values have raised, the need for it to be more family friendly than it originally was has increased, but it’s still a great showcase of video game history, and it’s players (unless you follow the stream chat).  Regardless though, I have a ton of respect for the Games Done Quick scene for these events and encourage more to check it out.

If you happen to be coming to this article out of time of it airing, simply head over to YouTube and search AGDQ or SGDQ followed by any game that you can think of that you’d like to see played high level and get lost in new information.

Lastly I definitely encourage donating some change towards the anti-cancer cause.  I’ve donated every year since discovering the event and even picked up 2 of the charity t-shirts over the years too (hoping to pick up 2 of this years too).  Head over to TheYetee>GamesDoneQuick for those.

Embedded below is the stream, so click play or head on through to the http://twitch.tv/GamesDoneQuick page and enjoy it whilst it’s ongoing, through to this Sunday.