Fake Achievements

Fake Achievements was one of the first YouTubeshows created by RZ2321. Because it was created all the way back in 2011, Zach has set the series of videos to private on his old channel. However, he is willing to show the series to anyone would like to see his experience and the time he put into his work from a young age.

About the Show
RZ2321 came up with the idea from watching Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunter guides on YouTube. These guides showed its viewers how to earn achievements on the Xbox gaming console in order to improve one's Gamerscore. After realizing how much he enjoyed the guides, Zach decided he would make his own custom achievements, essentially creating a challenge for the viewers to accomplish. Because Zach created the achievements himself, the viewers wouldn't actually earn any gamerscore for also doing it, which is why he titled the series "Fake Achievements." The idea was to create challenges which viewers could also accomplish on their own after watching the show.

Picking a Game
The production of the show would start with Zach picking the game he wanted to showcase in that episode. The games that were chosen for the show largely came from the Xbox 360 game console. Zach didn't restrict the game choice to just new games, electing to use games as old as 2005 for his videos. He did this to add as much variety to the show as possible.

Creating the Fake Achievement
After picking the game, Zach and anyone else who was on the show that episode (usually his brother) would come up with a moderately difficult challenge. The challenges didn't have any special requirements such as specific DLC or custom made maps. In other words, as long as you own the same game showcased in the video, you could try the achievement out for yourself. The idea was to make a achievement that was a challenge while also being unique and enjoyable enough for the viewers to attempt it on their own.

Capturing Gameplay
The next step was recording the guide for how to get the achievement. At the time the show was in production, a video capture device known as the Dazzle was used to record gameplay to a computer. Using the Dazzle, the producers would play the game of choice and record themselves completing the created task.

Recording Commentary
The gameplay guide for the achievement was better explained through the commentary recorded for each episode. Zach would record his audio alongside anyone else involved in the episode in order to better explain the achievement to the audience. The commentary was recorded in real time with the prerecorded gameplay video rolling in the background.

Editing & Postproduction
Zach then would use the Achievement Generator website to create his own achievement animation for each episode. The site allows you to add your own custom text to an xbox achievement animation as well as the ability to edit the Gamerscore it rewards the user. Using the generator, Zach would have the fake achievement pop-up over the gameplay as the task is being achieved, complete with sound effects and animation. He would edit the video using Pinnacle Studio, which at the time was in version 14.