South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play

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  • October 16, 2009

    Navigating the Legal Minefield

    "South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!" was a challenging project for some of my Microsoft colleagues. South Park is controversial, that's part of what makes it so wonderful. We knew the game had to be controversial to be true to South Park. But questions came from my Microsoft colleagues, like... do we really have to have the "Red Rocket" video? Yes, I would reply, because if we cut that, where do we stop? Do we cut the video of the Christmas Critters saying "Hail Satan!"? Or where the boys rail on poor Pip with a variety of offensive ethnic terms?In the end, we did make some cuts, specifically for the Japanese team, who needed modifications for us to be able to ship in Japan at all. South Park Digital Studios was great about both understanding this necessity and helping us replace some content for Japan.My only regret, in terms of controversial content, are the titles we didn't ship with, specifically "Snowballin'", which I thought was hilarious for our snowball-fighting game. Not familiar with the term? Look it up... but not when anyone else is watching!"Snowballin'!?"

    Posted Fri, October 16, 2009 7:33 by Ellen Beeman, Producer at Microsoft Game Studios

  • October 12, 2009

    Coding South Park LGTDP!

    South Park LGTDP! is a complex game with a lot of content and many game features, all of which required many months of intense coding work to complete. We realized very early on that multiplayer was a strong point of the game, and as a result, a lot of work went into making sure the 4-player Xbox LIVE play would deliver a fun and solid experience. One of the cool features that was added fairly late is the ability to complete the entire campaign over LIVE, unlocking all the content as you would when playing through the game in single-player.Audio is another area of the game that received a lot of attention. We wanted the audio to reflect what players where seeing on screen while also capturing the South Park humor we all enjoy. Our first and simple approach was sampling audio from existing show episodes, and we and South Park agreed that was not sufficient. As a result, South Park LGTDP! has lots of original audio that really makes the game come to life.We spent a lot of time on the towers, finalizing their functionality. The Laser Tower went through several iterations before it was complete. In its first incarnation, it fired in all directions (like it does in the final version), but it was pointed out, that that made it look wonky, as the laser often fired out in strange angles. We then tried making it fire in only 12 directions (one for each rotated position), but this made the tower useless. It was far too hard to hit anything. Most of the time, the laser just managed to clip a single enemy, and when used against the little Christmas Critters, it would often miss completely. It was time for some serious rationalization! We settled on: "It's South Park, wonky guns fit their animation style", and went back to the starting version.The Plasma Ball tower was perhaps the most complex to code, because of the way each enemy can chain the lightning to its neighbors. We discovered serious issues with it where the game framerate dropped dramatically when a screen full of mobs got fried. Too many particles! We had to tone this down, reducing the number of particles generated based on the number of mobs already electrified. This is just one of the tradeoffs that you sometimes need to make, between visual effect and game performance.There was a moment during development when the lead designer briefly chose to cull some of our favorite towers from the game. Out went most of the fancy towers... the horror, the horror! Eventually, they were reprieved, the death sentence on those towers was lifted and they were returned to the roster. Phew!!

    Posted Mon, October 12, 2009 10:16 by Lukasz Ziolkowski and Kingsley Pratt, Doublesix Studios

  • October 8, 2009

    Quit Bugging Me!

    My right thumbs are sore, my retinas are burning, the bodies of Ginger Kids, Old People and Hippies litter the pee-soaked snow, the town is smoking but still standing, and I am victorious! And that's all in a day's work for a South Park tester.A highlight for me on this project was the multiplayer. The team was always adamant to have it in the game, but as QA, it fires off warning sirens. Multiplayer is a temperamental beast, and problems can be fixed or broken daily. The issues that occur eclipse the single-player gameplay. With four consoles and a multitude of controllers, I was proving that men can truly multitask. (I'm thinking of changing my name to Octoboy!)Fortunately, we had great help from the QA team at Microsoft, in both US and UK, and the code team was able to construct a superb multiplayer experience that is a joy to play.South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! has changed me. (I don't see dead people, I see Crab People.)In all my time in QA, I have worked on many games, but nothing quite like this. South Park will have you rolling on the floor laughing, or turning to your friend with eyes wide and jaw falling to the floor to ask, "Did Cartman just say what I think he said?!!"

    Posted Thu, October 8, 2009 10:39 by Peter Ranson and James Chew

  • October 6, 2009

    To Throw or Not to Throw?

    When we started this project, we had the idea of taking the Tower Defense genre and evolving it towards an action game. Instead of building towers and then sitting back, helpless, to watch the enemies march across the screen, players take control of Stan, Cartman, Kyle, and Kenny and jump into the fight. They build towers but they also throw snowballs, charge up their shots to make powerful yellow snowballs (hmm . . .), collect the coins the enemies drop, revive fallen friends, and use their special abilities to wreak havoc. So instead of a passive strategy game, we set out to make an active action game with a backbone of strategy.That sounds pretty straightforward until you have to do it! We faced a lot of problems that typical Tower Defense games dont face. For example, we wanted the four characters to play differently. Cartman should feel like Cartman, Stan should feel like Stan, and so on. We started out by defining some roles that players could understand from other games, roles such as Sniper, Brick, Medic, and Support. Talking with the guys at South Park Digital Studios, they decided that Kenny should be the sniper, Cartman the Brick, Kyle the Medic, and Stan the Support. Kenny got the best range, Kyle is the fastest (so he can reach fallen friends and avoid enemies), Cartman does the most damage, and Stan can heal the town. Of course, it didnt stop there. Besides the four main characters we had to work this out for all the unlockable characters too, like Wendy, Jimmy, Pip, Tweek, and so on.Picking up coins was another tricky idea. Most Tower Defense games just award you cash for every enemy you defeat, which you then spend on more towers and tower upgrades. We wanted to push the action element, though, and dodging enemies turned out to be a fun part of gameplay. So we had the enemies drop coins instead of giving them to you automatically, and since the coins disappear after a few seconds all the players are pretty constantly in motion shooting, running, dodging, grabbing coins, and building and upgrading towers. Coin collecting also turned out to be a great example of what we call asymmetrical gameplay. An experienced gamer could focus on the tower strategy while a novice gamer playing with him or her could just grab coins and throw snowballs. Giving players the ability to divide up their roles was an important part of the multiplayer experience.In the end, we took our inspiration not just from Tower Defense games but also from classic action-arcade games like Robotron, Pac-Man, and Crystal Castles. Early games like that have defined many of our gaming ideas and vocabulary at a fundamental level run, shoot, grab things and I turn to games like that the way a scientist does the Periodic Table of Elements.The result is South Park: Lets Go Tower Defense Play! We love playing our game and we bet you will too. Let's go!

    Posted Tue, October 18, 2009 15:18 by John Scott Tynes

  • October 2, 2009

    How Usability Prevented Lose-Ability

    One of the greatest assets we have at Microsoft Game Studios is our User Research (UR) department. This talented team of individuals is responsible for putting titles in development in front of the public, so we can see immediately where we may be going wrong. On South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! this took the place of several different studies performed at various stages across almost a year.Getting fresh eyes on a game is invaluable; when everyone on the team knows the game inside out, you can become completely blind to even the most obvious flaws. Several important design decisions were made as a result of input from our User Research team.

    • The flaming animation that appears around the South Park kids when their special abilities are fully charged was added when Usability noticed that players were often not aware their attacks were recharged and available. We would see players complete match after match without ever using their characters' specials, which made the game harder than intended and meant players missed out on some hilarious sounds and animations.The flame effect that appears around charged-up kids was added to make sure players knew instantly when their special ability was available.
    • The pacing of the early stages of the game was also changed after Usability determined that expecting players to learn how to swap characters, activate specials, build towers, walls and throw pee balls might just be a little too much for the first minute of the game! This feedback also led to some fine-tuning of the content in the Trial Version and the Loading Screen tips.
    • Additional voice for the game was recorded after we noticed players were confused as to why they couldn't build if there was no snow available, or if they had run out of coins. By adding a number of subtle (and not so subtle!) audio cues, we were able to avoid many situations that had been frustrating our players.
    These are just a few examples of the small but critical changes that were made to South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! as a result of Usability Research analysis.Usability Research - we salute you!

    Posted Fri, October 2, 2009 10:54 by Nick Ferguson, Producer at Xbox LIVE Arcade

  • September 29, 2009

    The Tower in "Tower Defense"

    The greatest challenge in creating the art for South Park: Let's go Tower Defense Play! - was that everything was not as simple as it first appeared with subtle nuances in style and movement that only the team at South Park Digital were able to point out to us here at Doublesix.Everything from simple walk animations to explosions were reviewed constantly until the right level of impact was apparent. The sheer amount of space on-screen dedicated to background elements meant environment concepts were sent back and forth countless times between ourselves and the team in the US, making sure we retained the show's spirit whilst simultaneously fulfilling the game-play needs. The variety in the enemies alone meant that whilst they appear simplistic, the overall quantity of content in the game is pretty huge!A key difference between the show and the game was how we handled the view point - the energy and dynamism in the TV episodes come from tightly pulled in cameras and quick cuts around the characters. Due to the nature of the game however, we had to keep the camera pulled out focusing on the entire scene to allow for the game-play and strategic choices. Development of the Towers began with more conventional looking gun towers this really didn't fit the South Park aesthetic and were quickly scrapped for towers that "had to look like the kids had made them from any old crap lying around" - hence why they're made of items you could find anywhere and stuck together with tape. Designing these was a collaborative effort as was thinking up fun, wacky ideas our favorite has to be the heavy tower for its simplicity but the cherry bomb tower is great too! A grenade launcher made out of an old office chair, a toilet strapped to it and a drainpipe sticking out the bowl nice.The team at South Park Digital was with us every step of the way. All assets created were reviewed by their experienced eyes. If there's one thing we've learned from working with them it's that there's a lot more to these kids than meets the eye. For example, one thing we never quite realized when we started was that the boys, although often surrounded by chaos and violent acts, rarely (if ever) actually perform physical harm to others. This tends to be perpetrated by others which is why, in the game, you'll notice that enemies KO'd by the kids only fall over and never explode into pieces it's the TOWERS that deal that real explosive damage; subtle but all important to the South Park world.

    Posted Tue, September 29, 2009 18:23 by Peter Ranson and Nader, Doublesix Studios

  • September 25, 2009

    Where is it Kyle?

    While Double Six and Microsoft were working out all the game mechanics for South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!, our crew here at South Park Digital Studios was busy trying to gather up all the cool stuff to put into the game. We had to provide artwork, game specifics, as well as the cut scenes to tie it all together.Over 13 seasons, South Park has amassed a massive amount of art. Gathering assets for SPLGTDP was a very challenging job indeed. Besides the hundreds of new lines that were recorded and processed, we had to find tons of other stuff from the archives. It's easy for hours to slip away while you try to find a particular line of dialogue for Ginger Kids or the original animation files for Jakovasaurs. You can be sure we had lots of laughs finding them. "Let's look for treasure, Phillip!"Some of the most exciting visual elements in South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! are in the interstitial videos. We began by having some of our favorite in-house South Park artists do test sketches of characters in various styles and poses. After a style was chosen, everyone got to work hand drawing images and cutting them together. We added new dialogue from the Matt and Trey, new music from South Park's super sweet composer, and a few other surprises too. "Who's causing all this?"

    Posted Fri, September 25, 2009 8:21 by Todd Benson

  • September 21, 2009

    We Will Have No 3D Characters!

    When we started working on SPLGTDP, I think our biggest hurdle to overcome was the bad taste the early South Park video games left in our collective mouths. They didn't look or feel like South Park with those big headed 3D characters and backgrounds. We wanted to make sure that our return to the world of videos was true to the spirit and style of the TV show.A lot of time and effort goes into making South Park look crude and sloppy. And after almost a year of production, I honestly think my counterparts at DoubleSix and Microsoft would grudgingly agree. It's a hell of a lot harder than you think to make something look like South Park.Lucky for us, we already have a ton of content for the game, thanks to 13 seasons on TV. Of course we knew that Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny were going to be the main characters; but there are so many fans out there who love all the secondary characters too. I know, it's tough to admit that Butters, Jimmy, Timmy and Craig are secondary characters, but it's true. We really wanted to find a way to bring all those characters into the world of the game and make it as rich as possible. I'm very happy that there are a total of 15 un-lockable characters in SPLGTDP, including all the ones I mentioned above. The game also features 11 different locations like Stan's house, the elementary school playground and the Great Wall of South Park.One element of the game that did not exist were the staple of tower defense games. The towers had to designed from scratch. Check out the progression of designs from the very early stages.These first towers were too hi-tech and have a 3D look that is distinctly not South Park.We really wanted the towers to look like they were designed and built by the kids using cardboard, tape and whatever was lying around. The storyboard department South Park did some very cool sketches and helped DoubleSix and Microsoft understand the style of the towers. This design inspired the upgraded laser tower in the game.This design, also by the storyboard department, for a marble or gumball launcher didn't make it into the game, but demonstrates how we wanted the towers to look as if the boys used anything they could find and their imagination.Many of these towers are in the game, and are a big improvement from the first designs. They also have the "homemade" feel that we were looking to create. You can also see from these sketches that tower upgrades are bigger-and-badder than the standard size to make them easily distinguishable during hectic game play.We really hope fans enjoy the game, but more than anything else we hope you feel like you are getting to run around inside the world of South Park. And many thanks to the talented artists who swallowed their pride and trusted us when we asked them to "stop making it look too pretty."

    Posted Mon, September 21, 2009 1:25 by Chris Brion

  • September 18, 2009

    Do you have what it takes to save South Park?

    Pretty much everyone in the South Park offices is a gamer. So why is it that if you want to play a South Park game you have to break out some obsolete, dusty gaming system from the back of the closet? And lets be honest, the previous games were disappointing and looked nothing like South Park; obviously the reason for the long drought of new games.In late 2007, we brought together a very small team and formed South Park Digital Studios. The idea was to create a group of folks who would focus on everything 'South Park' but the television series. We expanded into the offices next door, which lets us not only have direct input from the show's creators Matt and Trey, but we also \"borrowed\" a few long-time South Park employees to run the new company. The digital studio has been working hard to complete a wide range of projects, including the new South Park website (SouthParkStudios.com ), cool new products, and games. Yes, games! We want this to be the first of many new video games based on series.South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! is the first South Park game in over 8 years. Unlike some past games, SPLGTDP actually looks and sounds like South Park. Making this game equal parts fun and challenging was a high priority, and we wanted to give it the unique look and feel fans expect from South Park. Tower defense is a solid and popular genre in gaming, and we felt would be a great platform to bring South Park back to life in the gaming world. We definitely want both fans and gamers to experience something different than traditional tower defense games. This game is a hybrid between tower defense and action. Not only do you build towers like a traditional game, but you also run around and throw snowballs as the South Park kids, acting like a moveable tower. Even better, you can play at home or online with friends. In South Park the boys always enjoy playing video games with friends, so multiplayer support was a must. But we didn't forget the single player, four characters can be controlled by one player at the same time. Whether you are a single player, playing with friends on the same console, or with other friends or fans from around the world, you will have the same great South Park experience.

    Posted Fri, September 18, 2009 10:15 by Todd Benson