a developer diary in one act

by

Rhidden

ACT I, Scene I, the Developer’s diary.

Enter Rhidden the DEVELOPER of Festival Plays.

Rhidden

Welcome ladies and gentle-Hobbits, to a very special developer’s diary. What follows this brief introduction is a summation and description of my latest creation, the Festival Theatre. Within these pages one will discover what can be expected by those talented enough to take to the stage this Yule Festival.

What is the Festival Theatre? This brand new event allows players to take on the role of a stage-actor in a Hobbit-production of The Curious Disappearance of Mad Baggins. But why Hobbits? How does the event work? Enough of these other stupid questions, what rewards will I be getting?

But first, before all of that, we’ll begin our journey by taking a look at the origin of the Festival Theatre. The event began as two sentences in a pitch document for festival content.

“…the part the player fills is acted out through emotes. The player will have ‘choose your own adventure’ responses based on the chosen emote.”

So, how did we get from a two sentence pitch to one of the more complex events in LOTRO? Long hours, support from designers across the company, and a heaping helping of crazy.

ACT I, Scene II, on the subject of Hobbits…

The decision to make the Festival Theatre Hobbit-based was an easy one. Of all the races in Middle-earth, Hobbits have such an exaggerated outlook that creating an over-the-top production from their perspective was more about bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s accounts of Hobbits to life than anything else. Being generally mistrustful of outsiders, they were quick to blame Gandalf for having played some part in Bilbo’s disappearance.

ACT I, Scene III, the inner workings.

Enough with all the Hobbit talk. Let’s get down to business. The Festival Theatre was built outside of the quest system in order to get past some of the limitations that would have restricted the event. While overall it was the right decision, it was most definitely a double-edged sword. The upside of going rogue was the freedom of choice and varied responses that make this event so unique. If you have been to previous festivals, the dance competitions are a good analogue of what this event would look like if it were created with quests… more "simon says" and less "choose your own adventure". The downside being that all of the feedback the quest system provides would have to be recreated.

To that end, players entering the Theatre will find helpful announcers and ushers willing to explain how the event operates, as well as concession vendors filled with everything a theatre-goer could want. These vendors carry the latest in fashionable Yule barter items as well as a full stock of Frostbluff Rotten Fruit and Frostbluff Flower Petals -- two very important items for an audience member to keep on their person at all times.

An announcer on stage will alert players as to how much time is left before the next show and will also inform you if there aren’t enough players present for the show to begin. For the first iteration of the Festival Theatre, a minimum of three active (non-afk) players are required for the event to start. While we may allow NPCs to fill in player roles in the future, the complexity of this feature was too much to make it into this year’s Yule Festival.

When the event begins, three audience members are randomly selected from the crowd and brought backstage. If you wish to remain in the audience, simply set your /afk flag and you will not be selected. After a short introduction from the Theatre’s director (and some comments from prominent Hobbit theatre critics) the show will begin!

The event is (mostly) controlled by a single, all-powerful NPC: "The Audience." The Audience is an invisible object that sits on the front of the stage and picks actors for the event, teleports the actors, records what emotes have been chosen, alerts the NPC actors what lines to perform, and hands out rewards. Actors on stage are prompted to select The Audience at the beginning of the show as they must have it selected in order for their emotes to influence the course of the play.

Needless to say, The Audience has quite a busy job. Behind the scenes, all of his logic is controlled through the Turbine Script system. Because of its complex logic (and the fact that some of the features had never been attempted in LOTRO before) designers from across the company volunteered bits and pieces of their time to help review, debug, and offer suggestions on its implementation.

But ‘The Audience’ isn’t the only one in the Theatre with a big job to do. The actual audience also plays a very important, time honored role -- that of the angry mob. Players in the real audience can throw rotten fruit at bad actors and praise good acting with rose petals purchasable from the aforementioned vendors. The content is designed to be highly repeatable and highly interactive; a player should never see the same event twice!

ACT I, Scene IV, Rewards, Rewards, Rewards.

What would a Festival event be without rewards? The theatre has various rewards for actors and audience members alike. Those lucky enough to be selected as actors will receive a title for their role and potentially another title if their acting skills are up to (or below) snuff. Audience members will be able to increment deeds for throwing the aforementioned rotten fruit and flower petals, earning themselves titles and non-theatre versions of the same items. Those visiting the concession vendors will find a variety of Yule barter items as well as a unique title and festival stage for those wishing to practice the thespian arts in the comfort of their own Hobbit-hole.

An important fact to note is that all of the titles earned via acting can also be purchased at the concession barter vendor. This is to prevent the unfortunate situation where an unlucky player is never chosen as an actor and is unable to earn one of these highly desirable titles.

Epilogue

As mentioned previously, this event wouldn’t have been possible without a great deal of assistance. I wanted to give special thanks to the following people for all their hard work:

Todd DeMelle, LOTRO’s art director, for being able to squeeze blood from a stone and get amazing artwork for the Theatre. Scenario, for designing a great space in record time. Keth, for thinking that I’m crazy yet still putting in hours and hours of time to help me. Donkey Slayer, Torc, Eladrin, and jwbarry for their magical, ninja-like scripting abilities. Mara ‘Aubergine’ Patton for discovering countless bugs and providing invaluable feedback. Budgeford, for all her hard work and dedication to Winter-home and the Yule Festival.

Exit, the DEVELOPER.

Comments? Questions? Join the Discussion!