picking up games is easy and people have mostly no problem to get to relevant information or help
I watch AGDQ '16 and decide to pick up speedrunning. I want to learn Yoshi's Island. What are the resources available to help me get started?
As it happens, Yoshi's Island is one of the few games with written guides. Only a few levels have write-ups and those that do are incredibly lacking.
"Ideally, you can make the flutter up to the top area with only two flutters."
How? Which enemy do I jump on? What's this about perfect fluttering? Why am I going up there? Just for the coins, or do I collect stars, or...?
"Trihex does a backwards egg shot and proceeds to the right out of the cave. This almost always causes lag, and unless 2 stars are collected from the backwards egg shot, is slightly slower than turning around after shooting the final 3 red coins"
Hold up, when do I enter the cave? Backwards eggshot? What's that? How do I execute it? Why does it cause lag? How am I collecting stars from backwards eggshots? What's going on?
This resource is unhelpful to beginners. Videos of speedruns are similarly unhelpful, as even those with commentary lack the specific information required to ease new players in.
So now I'm discouraged. I could try to piece information together from various sources, I could reach out to strangers I don't know for help, or I could give up. Seems like a lot of work. I'll stick to watching speedruns, thanks.
This is the problem trihex is aiming to correct. SRB is a project that will require a tremendous time investment, but if he follows through it will prove invaluable at growing his game's scene. It synthesizes critical information and presents it in an accessible way.
Speedrunning is not a simple process. It is incredibly complex and daunting. Many people would like to give speedrunning a try but feel overwhelmed.