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“We’re the ones who keep playing a game long after it’s actually been released,” says Lexa. Unlike most players streaming games online – who typically play through a string of recent releases – speed runners play the same game over and over again. For developers, it is a way to get games seen by a lot of people. And during the recent Games Done Quick event, the lead developer of Super Time Force Ultra actually undid a bug-fix so that speed runners could continue to use an out-of-bounds glitch they had found. Axiom Verge, released in 2015, has a special speed-run mode that eliminates a lot of the randomness in the game, making it easier to practice a set route. With the growing popularity of speed running, some developers are starting to explicitly support it. “You’re just doing what the game allows you to do, you’re not cheating.”
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“The glitches are still part of the game’s code and that code is the game’s law,” says Lexa. He is currently helping US developers Alpha Six Productions hone their new title The Joylancer, by pointing out problems and bugs.įor speed runners, glitches are just as much a part of a game as things that the developers deliberately included.

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“I know how to pick apart a game,” says Lexa. The mindset speed runners bring to a game can also make them valuable to developers. He uses his right hand simply to anchor the controller, to stop it flying across the room. “They move in so many different ways.” The fingers of his left hand deftly twist to cover the remaining buttons. Lexa gets round this by placing his whole left hand over the controller, moving the left stick with his palm and the right with his thumb. They have buttons and sticks specifically set up for two thumbs. Game controllers are designed to be used by both hands. “I generally play better one-handed,” he says. Lexa – who goes by the alias Halfcoordinated – was born with hemiparesis, a condition that reduces feeling, coordination and strength in the right side of his body. But his runs are all the more remarkable given that he plays with only one hand. Lexa also holds a world record for Vanquish, another Platinum game.

“You get a lot better at learning how games work,” says Lexa. Speed runners practice and explore a single game for thousands of hours, getting to know it inside out, shaving seconds off their time.
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Performing a complicated series of actions confuses the game and makes it load the wrong level – one that lets the player skip almost to the end. One of the best known “out-of-bounds” glitches is found in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released in 1998. In many games, precisely executed actions done in exactly the right place will let the player escape the usual bounds of the game – slipping through walls or dropping through floors, bypassing large sections. Timing is also crucial when exploiting glitches. “You have to play the game over and over, figuring out what makes you go faster and what different tricks you need to learn to be able to skip something,” says Clint Lexa, a US-based speed runner who holds the world record for Transformers: Devastation, a fast-paced action game made by Platinum Games in Osaka, Japan. A button press that is out by even a fraction of a second can make or break a run if it means you fail to dodge an enemy or land a jump.
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But as in professional esports, it mostly comes down to near-perfect timing. So how do players manage to speed up the game so much? Fallout: New Vegas runners play the game in Italian because this makes the characters speak more quickly. Some runs were watched online by hundreds of thousands of people and the event raised $1.2 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The most recent marathon, held from 3 January in Herndon, Virginia, saw dozens of runners show off their skills across many different games. There are also regular events, such as Games Done Quick – a week-long speed-running marathon that is held twice a year for charity. Many people watch speed runners practice live at video streaming sites like Twitch.

It was once a niche hobby, but now it is growing in popularity. The pursuit is the most widespread form of “challenge run” – where highly skilled players aim to complete challenges that are not usually required by the game, such as finishing it without replenishing health or without killing any enemies. Speed running involves playing through a game as quickly as possible.
