This is the first #GamesDoneQuick event I've attended aside from [AS]GDQ, the production quality is great though. They even have a support stage for the prize segments. I'm so proud of GDQ bootstrapping all that.

Here's the #GamesDoneQuick #EldenRing saxophone showcase on YouTube. It's a bit hilarious, because you can hear some of the atmospheric in-game effects and soundtrack, the commentators explaining speed strats, and in between doots and toots by the saxophone thingy. The commentators themselves break out laughing during the thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaCvZd7iOkM

2:42 am, AGDQ 2025 is done.

brb gonna cry for like 20 minutes i loved it #GamesDoneQuick

Final¹ total: $2,556,305 raised for the Prevent Cancer Foundation

¹ not actually final

Meanwhile, the Super Metroid race has ended, the chat is spamming Deer Force emotes

A downright nostalgic end to #AGDQ2025

Time for the finale speech, announcement of SGDQ date/location, and the Feels™

Oh boy, a convolutional neural network built with PyTorch is indeed involved in the implementation of this randomizer.

https://github.com/blkerby/MapRandomizer/blob/db6430eb1da45ccdf46dc1e230b35aea98a3bcd8/python/maze_builder/model.py

Eddie said something in the pre-race discussion about machine learning being used in the randomizer? I'm curious to know what sort of ML they might be using.

I'm going to have to start keeping track of how many GitHub repositories I check out during each GDQ event

The credits roll modded with time spent in each area and splits for each pickup is pretty cool

It's wild what modders are doing to speedgames. They've even brought Super Metroid back to the main stage long after the vanilla game has lost its appeal to most people except the hypercompetitive types.

Top 2 runners finish less than 1 second apart from each other. Both had dramatic Escapes, multiple fumbles for each runner

I never get really into SM runs/races on their own merits (I find the game hard to follow), but that was a fun ending!

The bid war for Save/Kill the animals has raised $173K alone. It could easily break $200K before the runners enter "go mode"

Seems like "Save" is going to win this year, because it requires the runners to find the particular room¹ that contains the animals before doing the Escape sequence.

¹ they're always in Bomb Torizo's room apparently

just shy of $2.5 M about halfway through the race, so no $3M unless the vendors are holding onto *very* large donations (I imagine at most $100K for both combined but that's probably way over what they have left to donate)

(Edit: oh there's also the Humble Bundle total to donate, too)

But this marathon will probably beat the total for #AGDQ 2024. And more than $2M towards cancer prevention is nothing to sniff at. An amazing charity drive, as always.

The meme sprite replacements for the Super Metroid race are pretty good

Currently a race between:

Swole Eggplant
Swole Pug
Swole Kirby
Link (LttP) holding Link (Lttp) on his head

Super Metroid is the most jock-coded speedgame and it's not close

#AGDQ2025 introducing me to more amazing music right up to the very end, with this amazing FamilyJules cover of "Grandma" from NieR Replicant. It's an emotional track even before you stick in the "last day of GDQ vibes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ptCiaW8yk