What is speedrunning?
Speedrunning is a gameplay method that involves playing a videogame, either alone or with other people, against the clock. The player must complete a series of objectives, a story, or collect items in accordance with an individual games’ rules, all while timing themselves.
If you head to Speedrun.com, here you will find a large number of games that people have speedrun in the past. Their homepage lists recently uploaded games that a person has completed, as well as community news (like competitions or newsletters) and a short list of some newer, popular games that people are actively submitting speedruns to.
You can use the search bar to see other games, which will then display their categories, their respective leaderboards, and any resources or forum posts connected to the game. In the screenshot below, we can see that “PandaMK8” is the current World Record holder for 48 Tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with a time of 1 hour, 46 minutes and 47 seconds.
Many of these will have videos for proof, and a timer to show how long each mission, level or the entire game takes. Each game may have different requirements for what their video proof must look like. Below is a labelled diagram of a game I have speedrun in the past (Pikuniku). This layout is a standardised layout in speedrunning videos.
What is time-trialling?
Time-trialling is like speedrunning – and could be considered a form of speedrunning. Time-trialling involves one level, track, or mission, where the aim is to complete this one objective as quickly as possible. Sometimes, in speedrunning terminology, this is called an “individual mission” or “individual level” depending on the game.