Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Not content with dominating sandbox gaming with only one title, Rockstar has released a second sandbox bully – Midnight Club: Los Angeles (MCLA). Unlike Grand Theft Auto IV, MCLA’s focus on racing and competition has taken online tournaments to a whole new level with its implementation of GameSpy’s ATLAS SDK and custom tournament tools.

Whether players are craving pedal-to-the-metal action or just want to blow some exhaust at their friends, Rockstar and GameSpy Technology want to make sure they don’t miss a beat in racing the many tournament courses available in game. ATLAS allows players to track their progress as they attempt to break the land-speed record – one shattered chain-link fence or diving civilian at a time.

Round and Round We Go

Midnight Club: Los Angeles is a ballsy, stomach-tightening racing experience. And where guts are required, there ought to be glory. That’s why a smart and simple leaderboards system powered by GameSpy Tech’s ATLAS SDK and accessible by racers within the game adds to the games already considerable draw. Leaderboards allow players to be ranked against other players according to their best time. And while players can view their spot on the global leaderboard and see how they rank against the tens of thousands of players currently ranked, they can also filter out everyone except for their friends to see just how they do against the people they know. So while tearing through that neighborhood at hazardous speeds to terrorize its residents once again is enough of a rush, developers can boost the adrenaline factor of their game by letting players track their progress as they shave that precious hundredth-of-a-second off their best time and climb up the leaderboard. After all, the only thing more fun than going fast, is going faster!

In addition to building and managing leaderboards, GameSpy Tech’s ATLAS SDK enables developers to track an unlimited amount of statistics and metrics from their title. This serves to enhance the player experience and power unlocks and achievements. It also provides the developer with crucial data on player experience to help them make that next idea they’re banking on even better.

Hands and Arms Inside the Vehicle – Or Not

The real prize at the end of the race is the first-ever implementation of GameSpy Tech’s brand-new custom tournaments solution. With an easy-to-use web-based interface, administrators on Rockstar’s “Social Club” web experience can create and manage tournaments on the fly from anywhere in the world. Advanced tools allow administrators to fine-tune a tournament to their specifications, giving them the ability to do things like setting the “open” and “close” dates for specific rounds, allowing for automation of round-by-round tournament progression. Supporting bracket and leaderboard events, Rockstar makes sure its players can smell the burning rubber even when they aren’t wearing those new tires bald in-game. Players on the “Social Club” can browse, join, and track tournaments while giving their console a moment to cool. This type of out-of-game interaction allows players to remain immersed in the game’s world wherever they are, maintaining a constant connection to the developer’s world.

Sharing the Road

Posting that top score on the leaderboard is merely where the experience begins. Using the SAKE SDK’s built-in ratings functionality, players can find out just how cool their wheels really are. SAKE, through a feature we call “Rate My Ride,” allows users to rate each other’s rides from the game or website, giving them an additional level of interaction with the game no matter where they are. The shiniest car is not always the fastest, and with GameSpy Tech’s rating technology, it doesn’t have to be.

MCLA is about more than just race tracks and pretty cars. A beautiful and fully-rendered world, MCLA offers stunning graphics and scores of side activities and challenges that deserve more than being locked up in-game. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, GameSpy Tech’s SAKE SDK puts the power of a camera at the player’s finger tips, allowing the user to snap and upload photos from anywhere in the game. With SAKE’s cloud storage capabilities, players can access their photos from the game or the Social Club website, where they can turn them into desktop wallpaper, forum signatures, or animated slide shows. With so much to do from the console or PC, players never have to put their favorite game down.

GameSpy Tech’s SDK products allow the developer to extend the in-game experience to the web portals of their choice, giving fans of their titles a home away from home. Developers can choose between in-game and web-services-based implementations to find that right balance of individual and community involvement. The more methods players have to interact with a title, the more likely the developer will have a rabid fan-base hanging on their every press release for the latest and greatest, PoweredByGameSpy projects.