Fargoth
02-16-2008, 02:52 PM
February 15th, 2008
I want Turok and roll all night...
And give cool **** away
Propaganda has given us two very cool Turok packs, (pictured below). As a reward for reading through my article, which you haven’t done yet, but totally will, I’m offering you a chance to win them. Since the game takes place on a newly discovered planet of Dinosaurs, there have to be a few species we aren’t aware of yet. That’s where you come in. We want you to send in artwork of as of yet undiscovered dinos relating to Rooster Teeth. They could be anything, even the dreaded Guszilla, as long as they are RTcentric in some way. Send your Photoshop, drawing, diorama, macaroni sculpture or whatever to turok@roosterteeth.com. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM (CST) on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008, and winners will be announced/displayed here on Friday, February 22nd. The first place entry will get the pack pictured below on the left, while the runner up will have to suffer through the pack on the right. I think this might be the first time Rooster Teeth has ever given away a game (don’t fact check that, just trust me), so you totally want to be a part of it. Now, on to my latest article…
Earlier this week I was lucky enough to sit down with Paul Parsons, Game Designer at Propaganda Games, and talk about how the developer looks at the Achievement system. I think it was the first time anyone on the journalism side of things got a look behind the curtain on Achievements, both in general and specifically with Turok. Parsons sees the Achievement system as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they're a great tool to broadcast new ideas for gameplay, and some people play games specifically for them. On the other, some games don't naturally lend themselves to Achievements, and a developer has to kind of shoehorn them in. At this stage in the 360's life cycle however, it's pretty obvious that they've taken off and developers really have a handle on them, as early Achievement lists seemed to focus more on grinding, while more recent games have been more inventive.
To help illustrate how they came up with the Achievement list for Turok, Paul delved into the "Microsoft Achievement Whitepaper," which is very similar to Richard Bartle's piece on what kind of players suit MUDs. Basically, there are four types of gamers: Killers, Socializers, Explorers and Achievers. Most Achievement lists in Shooters tailor to the Killers and Socializers, but MS recommends trying to throw in Achievements directed towards the Achievers and Explorers as well. This helps entice players of all four styles to come back for more, which is why Achievements can be so deliciously addictive. Propaganda had an initial list, which over time was whittled down with testing and what was, quite frankly, possible to track in game. The reason Turok only has 43 rather than the far more common 50 Achievements, is because there were collectables found throughout the game tied to 7 Achievements that were eventually cut, as they threw off the pace of the gameplay in testing.
For multiplayer, the main point they tried to get across was to encourage players to try all the gametypes and co-op maps, as well as interaction with playing different styles. This is where the Whitepaper really comes into play, as there are standards like getting 500 kills in ranked multiplayer (the reason they put it in ranked was because that was the best controlled environment, where as some of the sillier ones are in private or public matches), which obviously is for the Killers. There are ones for the Explorers and Achievers, too, ranging from ones as simple as getting in a 6v6 public game, to playing a game without shooting or killing anyone, and getting at least two flags captured. The way the Achievements are divided across ranked, public and private matches plays into this too. They didn't want any of the Achievements in ranked matches to be counter-intuitive to winning, or requiring specific weapons, so those were moved to public matches where they can be acquired with friends. This of course brings us to Grab Bag, which was all Paul. He's a fan of the absurd, and thought it would make for a fun Achievement for public matches, and would most likely occur naturally. In testing he didn't see an increase in teamkilling amongst players, but when the community got word of it and reacted the way they did, he felt it was best to take the TKing out of the equation.
When you get down to the nitty gritty of how Achievements work on the back end, it's rather interesting. First and foremost, developers can make Achievements whatever they want them to be, so long as they work, and follow Microsoft's Technical Certification Requirements. Propaganda actually had a dedicated Achievement tester at Disney Interactive(owners of the Turok franchise), who would make sure they all worked on each build. To speed that up, Paul could change the parameters so that rather than 100 and 500 ranked kills, it was 10 and 15. This would confirm that the code actually worked, while saving the sanity of the poor guy testing them. The way the Achievement unlocks, at least with regard to Turok, is via code that tracks what you're doing in game, and specifically watches for you to meet the Achievements requirements. This is easy for stuff like headshots, or completing a mission, but the more creative the Achievement, the more work it is to track.
For instance, the “Base Jumper” Achievement in Crackdown requires you to jump from the top of a tower and land in water without dying. Like a checklist, code would have to track the location from where you jumped, your landing location, and whether or not you survived. If all the requirements are met, the game sends a message to the Microsoft servers, which log that you got an Achievement, they then send confirmation back to the game, and subsequently the player that it was unlocked. This is why when connected to Live, you get a date stamp for your Achievements, and don't if you unlock them whilst offline.
All in all it was a very cool and informative chat with Paul, and I can’t thank him and Propaganda enough for allowing me access to them twice now (which is more than any woman I’ve ever met). They really went above and beyond by giving us the giveaway swag. Now get out your construction paper and scissors, or dust off that copy of MS Paint, and get to work on your Roostersaurus.
just make your own dinosaur and send it to turok@roosterteeth.com
I sent mine
I want Turok and roll all night...
And give cool **** away
Propaganda has given us two very cool Turok packs, (pictured below). As a reward for reading through my article, which you haven’t done yet, but totally will, I’m offering you a chance to win them. Since the game takes place on a newly discovered planet of Dinosaurs, there have to be a few species we aren’t aware of yet. That’s where you come in. We want you to send in artwork of as of yet undiscovered dinos relating to Rooster Teeth. They could be anything, even the dreaded Guszilla, as long as they are RTcentric in some way. Send your Photoshop, drawing, diorama, macaroni sculpture or whatever to turok@roosterteeth.com. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM (CST) on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008, and winners will be announced/displayed here on Friday, February 22nd. The first place entry will get the pack pictured below on the left, while the runner up will have to suffer through the pack on the right. I think this might be the first time Rooster Teeth has ever given away a game (don’t fact check that, just trust me), so you totally want to be a part of it. Now, on to my latest article…
Earlier this week I was lucky enough to sit down with Paul Parsons, Game Designer at Propaganda Games, and talk about how the developer looks at the Achievement system. I think it was the first time anyone on the journalism side of things got a look behind the curtain on Achievements, both in general and specifically with Turok. Parsons sees the Achievement system as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they're a great tool to broadcast new ideas for gameplay, and some people play games specifically for them. On the other, some games don't naturally lend themselves to Achievements, and a developer has to kind of shoehorn them in. At this stage in the 360's life cycle however, it's pretty obvious that they've taken off and developers really have a handle on them, as early Achievement lists seemed to focus more on grinding, while more recent games have been more inventive.
To help illustrate how they came up with the Achievement list for Turok, Paul delved into the "Microsoft Achievement Whitepaper," which is very similar to Richard Bartle's piece on what kind of players suit MUDs. Basically, there are four types of gamers: Killers, Socializers, Explorers and Achievers. Most Achievement lists in Shooters tailor to the Killers and Socializers, but MS recommends trying to throw in Achievements directed towards the Achievers and Explorers as well. This helps entice players of all four styles to come back for more, which is why Achievements can be so deliciously addictive. Propaganda had an initial list, which over time was whittled down with testing and what was, quite frankly, possible to track in game. The reason Turok only has 43 rather than the far more common 50 Achievements, is because there were collectables found throughout the game tied to 7 Achievements that were eventually cut, as they threw off the pace of the gameplay in testing.
For multiplayer, the main point they tried to get across was to encourage players to try all the gametypes and co-op maps, as well as interaction with playing different styles. This is where the Whitepaper really comes into play, as there are standards like getting 500 kills in ranked multiplayer (the reason they put it in ranked was because that was the best controlled environment, where as some of the sillier ones are in private or public matches), which obviously is for the Killers. There are ones for the Explorers and Achievers, too, ranging from ones as simple as getting in a 6v6 public game, to playing a game without shooting or killing anyone, and getting at least two flags captured. The way the Achievements are divided across ranked, public and private matches plays into this too. They didn't want any of the Achievements in ranked matches to be counter-intuitive to winning, or requiring specific weapons, so those were moved to public matches where they can be acquired with friends. This of course brings us to Grab Bag, which was all Paul. He's a fan of the absurd, and thought it would make for a fun Achievement for public matches, and would most likely occur naturally. In testing he didn't see an increase in teamkilling amongst players, but when the community got word of it and reacted the way they did, he felt it was best to take the TKing out of the equation.
When you get down to the nitty gritty of how Achievements work on the back end, it's rather interesting. First and foremost, developers can make Achievements whatever they want them to be, so long as they work, and follow Microsoft's Technical Certification Requirements. Propaganda actually had a dedicated Achievement tester at Disney Interactive(owners of the Turok franchise), who would make sure they all worked on each build. To speed that up, Paul could change the parameters so that rather than 100 and 500 ranked kills, it was 10 and 15. This would confirm that the code actually worked, while saving the sanity of the poor guy testing them. The way the Achievement unlocks, at least with regard to Turok, is via code that tracks what you're doing in game, and specifically watches for you to meet the Achievements requirements. This is easy for stuff like headshots, or completing a mission, but the more creative the Achievement, the more work it is to track.
For instance, the “Base Jumper” Achievement in Crackdown requires you to jump from the top of a tower and land in water without dying. Like a checklist, code would have to track the location from where you jumped, your landing location, and whether or not you survived. If all the requirements are met, the game sends a message to the Microsoft servers, which log that you got an Achievement, they then send confirmation back to the game, and subsequently the player that it was unlocked. This is why when connected to Live, you get a date stamp for your Achievements, and don't if you unlock them whilst offline.
All in all it was a very cool and informative chat with Paul, and I can’t thank him and Propaganda enough for allowing me access to them twice now (which is more than any woman I’ve ever met). They really went above and beyond by giving us the giveaway swag. Now get out your construction paper and scissors, or dust off that copy of MS Paint, and get to work on your Roostersaurus.
just make your own dinosaur and send it to turok@roosterteeth.com
I sent mine