What's the 30 4 30 Challenge?

The "30 4 30" originated in 2019 in honor of sg4e's 30th birthday. During the 30 days of November leading up to his December 1st birthday, sg4e beat 30 different games.

The spirit of the original 30 4 30 continued on in a new form starting in 2020, with the creation of the first 30 4 30 Challenge: an endurance trial in which participants attempted to beat the 10 selected games before the end of November. The few who managed to complete the challenge have their names inscribed on this page in recognition of this achievement. And this year, the 30 4 30 Challenge begins once again, with an all-new gameslist. So... are you up for the challenge?

The 30 4 30 Challenge begins on November 1, 2022 at 12AM EDT (UTC-4) and ends on November 30, 2022 at 11:59PM EST (UTC-5) (Daylight Savings Time ends while the challenge is active). See rules below.

Revisions

Any revisions to this page after the start of the event will be listed here. Please check back periodically to become aware of any updates or clarifications of rules.

1. The Collab Week schedule has been removed now that it's been completed. Thank you to everyone who participated in fun co-op games together!
2. A link to the registration & submissions website has been added above the schedule to be featured more prominently.
3. In-game cheats have been banned. See details in the Rules section.
4. Mahjong Soul Adept rank must be reached in the 4-player mode.
5. The following sentence has been added to Rule #3: For games or categories that do not exist on speedrun.com, the completion objective shall be clearly defined in the "Notes" column of the respective game.
6. The following clause has been added to Rule #4: provided that they are permitted in speedrun category
7. Added the Marathon-stream exception to Rule #6.
8. Simplified the date after which eligible Mahjong Soul accounts must be created, now that the Collab Week exception is no longer relevant.
9. The Super Monkey Ball 2 objective wasn't specific enough. It's been further specified as Story Mode Any%.
10. There is a tier of trophy above gold in Mickey's Speedway USA: platinum. Platinum trophies count for completion of the objective.

Games and Objectives

Register to participate in the 30 4 30 Challenge here: challenge.maika.moe

Elite Games

Like Elite mobs in MMOs, these games are markedly more difficult than the rest of the games, either by virtue of their more grueling objectives, or the demanding nature of the game itself.

Completion of the 30 4 30 Challenge is defined as meeting the objectives of 10 of the selected games on this page. The format supposes that most players will choose 1 of the Elite Games alongside the other 9 normal games to achieve their completion of the challenge. However, choosing to complete 2 or all 3 Elite Games to forgo playing 1 or 2 of the normal games is expressly permitted.

There is no additional recognition or award for completing more than 10 games.

Register and Submit Your Completions!

This year's iteration of the 30 4 30 Challenge features a dedicated website for submitting games as you complete them and monitoring other participants' progress. A Twitch account is required to register, but you may submit your playthroughs from any video platform.

If streaming on Twitch, it's recommended to register with the account you plan on streaming most of the event games on, so that your stream may be featured when you go live.

Participants are encouraged to register even if you don't intend to complete every game of the Challenge. You will still receive recognition for the games you do complete on the participants' progress page.

Register now at challenge.maika.moe!

Announcement video

The 30 4 30 Visual Novel

This year's 30 4 30 Challenge featured a special pre-announcement with the release of a short visual novel about collecting clues to discover the list of games before it was made public. You can still play the 30 4 30 Challenge VN for fun.

Download for Windows
Download for Mac
Download for Linux

Challenge Champions

2021

• riocoys Twitch | Playlist
• tapioca Twitch | Playlist
• poptart_cat Twitch | Playlist
• Thatonenewtagerplayer Twitch | Playlist
• shoehorse Twitch | Playlist

2020

• poptart_cat Twitch | Playlist
• Halfbeasty Twitch | Playlist
• riocoys Twitch | Playlist

Past Challenge Event Pages

2021

2020

Rules

1. The start time of the event is November 1, 2022 at 12:00AM EDT (UTC-4). You may not load any save file created before this time.
2. Some games have more specific rules in the "Notes" column in the table above. Those rules override these more general rules.
3. Completion categories for each game are the same as those defined on speedrun.com. For games or categories that do not exist on speedrun.com, the completion objective shall be clearly defined in the "Notes" column of the respective game.
4. Cheats are NOT allowed. Cheats are hidden button-press combinations on the game's start menu, secret passwords, etc., intentionally coded into the game by its developers to give the player some type of powerful advantage when activated and are almost always labeled as "cheats". Conversely: glitches, out-of-bounds clips, integer overflow/underflow, arbitrary-code execution, and any and all speedtech are expressly allowed, provided that they are permitted in speedrun category.
5. Event games must be streamed, or local-recorded and uploaded to Youtube/Dropbox/anywhere they can be publicly accessed. These videos must remain accessible at least until December 7, 2022. For Twitch, make sure you have enabled VoD storage and highlight the VoDs because non-Prime/Turbo accounts only have 14 days' storage.
6. You must submit your proof of completion via the event's website as you complete games. No proof may be submitted after November 30, 2022 at 11:59PM EST (UTC-5).
• Marathon-stream exception: If you are streaming an event game at the moment the submission window closes, that game remains eligible for submission under the following conditions (all must be met):
  1. You are livestreaming a game from the 30 4 30 Challenge gameslist on a livestreaming service (e.g. Twitch) without viewer restrictions (e.g. a subscriber-only stream). Local recordings are ineligible and must be completely uploaded and submitted before the submission window closes.
  2. Only the game you are streaming at the moment the submission window closes may remain eligible. Any other unsubmitted games become ineligible.
  3. You may take breaks while you attempt to complete the game past the closure of the submission window. Breaks are defined as any period of 15 or more seconds during which the player does not issue input to the game. However, no single break may exceed 30 minutes, and cumulative break time may not exceed 120 minutes.
  4. Internet outages or computer problems that cause the stream to become momentarily unavailable do not render the completion attempt as invalid per se, as long as no substantial gameplay occurs while the player's stream is offline. However, time for which the stream is offline shall be counted as break time, with all conditions for breaks in effect.
  5. If the player completes the game past the closure of the submission window with all of the above conditions met, the player has 60 minutes from the moment the clear condition is met to submit the VoD on the submissions website, after which it is no longer eligible.
7. You may complete any of the event games in multiple sittings as long as all of the gameplay is submitted.
8. You may play any official release of the event games, including releases in languages besides English, as long as the release is on the same console as specified in the "Console" column. For example, playing the Japanese release of Donkey Kong Country for the Super Famicom is allowed, but playing the GBA release is NOT allowed.
9. You may play virtual re-releases of the event games, such as on Wii Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online. However, you may NOT use any savestate-like capabilities such as the Switch-specific save/load functions; you may use only the native save/load capabilities of the original game.
10. You may use an emulator to play any of the event games as long as the emulation behavior is close to console. However, you may NOT use any emulator capabilities that are not available in the original console release. This includes, for example, savestates and speedup.
11. Feel free to use or not use the official event logo anywhere in your 30 4 30 Challenge content: Download event logo. The event logo is original art commissioned by sg4e.