An original documentary focusing on the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise and the lawsuits associated with the franchise, that was brought upon Atari - the publisher, due to their mismanagement of the series.
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of tycoon management games developed independently by Chris Sawyer. This documentary focuses on the two lawsuits that surround the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, in 2005 Chris decided to submit a court case against Atari against withheld of payments within the early years of the franchise. Atari received another lawsuit in 2017 that was from Frontier Development, which developed RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and the series Planet Coaster.
The title "Atari’s Treatment of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Lawsuits" was chosen as the lawsuits were constantly delayed and impacted by the decisions that Atari did to have the cases dropped or abandoned by the court. This ended up not being the result, and thus a subtitle was chosen to complement the title, being; "How Atari fumbled and demolished the legacy of the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise" to further emphasise how Atari killed the franchise and not impacted of the developers, but corporate greed.
This document has been independently researched, scripted, voice-over, and edited by myself. It features custom animations for the chapter transitions and article UI (user interface) which are explored below. The total script is over 3,700 words, and the final documentary has a runtime of 24 minutes.
You can watch the documentary on YouTube at Atari’s Treatment of the RollerCoaster Tycoon Lawsuits
YouTube Thumbnail
The thumbnail for the YouTube video is found below, this features a UI element from the RollerCoaster Tycoon games, which I have edited by including the title's text, as well as another subtitle being "Atari versus the RollerCoaster Tycoon Franchise".
The background is a screenshot from the old games, hitting the nostalgia for the viewers, but edited to show the rollercoaster, as it's indicating that there is only way up, until it drops - which is as the series begins to become popular, until it drops due to the mismanagement from Atari.
Custom Chapter Animation
You'll find two videos below, one on the left is the custom chapter animation created, which is played between each individual chapters with the classic Merry-Go-Round music from the original RollerCoaster Tycoon game. The UI was recreated to fit a higher resolution, with the animations taken directly from the game.
The background features basic gameplay, showcasing the game's home or start menu which is similar to the original game's menu back when the games originally launched.
The animation on the right is when the documentary is over and the menu is closed by the user, as they've completed the game and have all the necessary information from the menu, being each individual chapter, and slowly fades into darkness as the journey ends and the campaign mission is complete.
News Article UI
Featured below are two unique UIs that were created to be features throughout the documentary, the text is white as it would appear upon a blurred background of gameplay footage. The text is copied directly from the appropriate source and any other information, such as the writer's face, if present. As the goal is showcase a clean article within the documentary without the unwanted ads or headers, and so on.
