Every year, speedrunners converge on Games Done Quick to set new records for how quickly a game can be completed. It’s a brilliant, confusing and sometimes ridiculous display of gaming prowess that also earns a lot of money for charity — the first event earlier this year raised almost AUD $5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The second event of the year, Summer Games Done Quick, starts on June 27 and runs until July 3, and the action-packed schedule has now been announced. This year, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Elden Ring and Phasmophobia are featured, as well as a slew of older games like Super Mario Odyssey.
The full schedule for Summer Games Done Quick is pretty packed, so we’ve pulled out the highlights to help you skip straight to the good stuff. All times listed below are for Australian time zones using UTC+10. Because it’s an American event, some of the streams take place in the early hours of the morning for us. Find out how to catch up on demand here.
Tunic
When: Monday, June 27 at 4:21 AM
Tunic is a game you’re supposed to take your time with — there are puzzles to solve, secrets to find and bosses to master by trial and error. But speedrunner Sunnymuffin will attempt to finish it in just 35 minutes, and we can’t wait to watch how he does it.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
When: Monday, June 27 at 8:03 AM
Streamer Mr_Shasta will attempt to finish Kirby and the Forgotten Land in two hours. He’s already finished it in 1h 43m, so we know he can do it — the fun part will be watching if he uses Mouthful Mode to break any records.
Phasmophobia
When: Tuesday, June 28 at 9:51 AM
Four speedrunners will attempt to complete every small map in the investigative horror game in under 40 minutes.
Halo Infinite
When: Wednesday, June 29 at 8:15 AM
The first open world Halo game usually takes around 11 hours to complete, but speedrunner WaifuRuns will finish it in less than an hour and a half.
Super Mario Odyssey
When: Wednesday, June 29 at 10:50 AM
Speedrunner -ganon- will be attempting a Darker Side run of Super Mario Odyssey, which involves collecting 500 moons to access the the final hidden area in the game, the Darker Side Kingdom.
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl
When: Friday, July 1 at 11:42 PM
One of the only “glitchless” speedruns of Summer Games Done Quick, eddaket will play through the Switch remaster as fast as possible without relying on glitches that allow faster travel or story progression.
Elden Ring
When: Sunday, July 3 at 12:25 PM
One of two Elden Ring speedruns at Summer Games Done Quick, speedrunner catalystz is doing an “All Remembrances” run, which means they’ll need to defeat every story boss (and some optional bosses) in the game.
When: Sunday, July 3 at 2:35 PM
Straight after, HYP3RSOMNIAC will speed through the game from start to finish without worrying about beating every boss or collecting every item.
How to Watch Summer Games Done Quick in Australia
The speedruns will be streamed live on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel. Because it’s an American event, watching it live in Australia is pretty rough. Good news, then — you can catch up on the streams on the GDQ Twitch and YouTube.
