Corona Relief Done Quick raised $400,000 with speedrunning this weekend
Good games, good runs, and a good cause
Over the weekend, dozens of speedrunners whizzed through 50-odd video games in a bonus Games Done Quick to raise money for charity. In total, the Corona Relief Done Quick event raised $400,774.60 (£320k) for an American charity providing personal protective equipment and medical support in these trying times. That's pretty great! And it produced a whole lot of solid speedruns you can still watch in the archived streams, barrelling through a wide variety of games from Cuphead and Crypt Of The Necrodancer to Dark Souls and Deus Ex.
I've sometimes thought of Games Done Quick events as built on platformers and sure this had plenty of good'uns (including Celeste, Shovel Knight: King Of Cards, Sonic Mania, and Super Meat Boy) but they really do play all sorts. Other games which caught my eye on the schedule include Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, Max Payne 2, Alien: Isolation, Doom Eternal, Resident Evil 7, Baldur's Gate, Mirror's Edge, Halo: Combat Evolved, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. I didn't even know people speedran THPS. Splendid.
You can watch the complete streams on Twitch, and I see the organisers have now started cutting out individual runs to upload to the YouTube channel. That's probably easier than skipping through day-long videos, consulting the schedule to find where you are by looking for games you recognise. Here's the Donkey Kong Country run which started it all:
And yup, that's 400 grand going to Direct Relief. They say their Covid-19 relief efforts including getting millions of masks, gloves, gowns, and other medical gear to healthcare workers.
Games Done Quick announced this latest event after postponing Summer Games Done Quick from June to August. Rather than fill a hotel hall with runners, spectators, and commentators, this was sensibly done online.
