Games Done Quick, or GDQ for short, is a semi-annual video game event where gamers play games quickly (or speedrun) to raise money for charitable causes (the Prevent Cancer Foundation being this year’s beneficiary). Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) is held at the start of the year, and Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) is held at the beginning of summer.

The speedruns are streamed live online, and donors can donate with comments or requests for challenges in upcoming games in the stream. The first event for 2020 - AGDQ 2020 - was held between January 5 to 12, and raised a record-breaking $3.1M dollars.

Instructor Jackie spent all week watching the video game streams, and was intrigued by the event. More specifically, he was interested in analyzing the data behind the event and whether he could tease out interesting details using his Python skills.

Approach