Achievement Hunter

Achievement Hunter
Division
Industry Entertainment
Genre Comedy gaming, Let's Plays, game walkthroughs
Founded July 6, 2008 (2008-07-06)
Founders Geoff Ramsey
Jack Pattillo
Headquarters Austin, Texas, United States
Key people
 Lindsay Jones
Geoff Ramsey
Jack Pattillo
Gavin Free
Michael Jones
Ryan Haywood
Jeremy Dooley
Services Online video
Community website
Number of employees
 13
Parent Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC.
Subsidiaries Community Hunter
Website Official Website

Achievement Hunter is a video gaming website and a division of Rooster Teeth Productions. Founded by Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo on July 6, 2008, the website is largely based on the achievement mechanic found in seventh and eighth generation video game consoles. Since its founding, Achievement Hunter has grown to become a core component of Rooster Teeth, hosting a wide variety of videos related to video games. The most frequent videos are hosted by the six most prolific employees: Geoff Ramsey, Jack Pattillo, Gavin Free, Michael Jones, Ryan Haywood, and Jeremy Dooley.

Achievement Hunter has a large presence on YouTube – where it runs four different channels: Achievement Hunter, LetsPlay, GameFails and Achievement Hunter Community – garnering a combined total of 5.4 million subscribers and 1.4 billion video views.[1][2][3][4]

History and development

2008–10: Inception and growth

Shortly following his employment at Rooster Teeth, Jack Pattillo largely assisted Geoff Ramsey in the founding of Achievement Hunter.

In 2008, Geoff Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements resulted in the realization that no community-based website related to achievements existed. As a result, Ramsey approached Burnie Burns, then CEO of Rooster Teeth, about creating a website based on achievements; Burns agreed, and Ramsey created Achievement Hunter, which shares a similar design to the main Rooster Teeth website.[5] Alongside employee Jack Pattillo, Ramsey regularly released achievement guides and Easter egg videos, often receiving assistance from select volunteers from the Rooster Teeth community. David Dreger also assisted in the founding of the site.[6]

Geoff Ramsey's interest in gaming achievements led to the creation of Achievement Hunter.

2011–12: Employment growth

In 2011, Achievement Hunter hired Ryan Haywood as an editor and manager; Haywood later began being featured in videos as a host in March 2012, becoming one of the main crew members. Four new shows were introduced to Achievement Hunter in 2011 one of them, Rage Quit, led to the official hiring of Michael Jones as a full-time staff member in August 2011.[7]

In December 2011, Achievement Hunter also began creating Let's Play videos. The success of the videos resulted in a weekly sub-series in 2012, in which the main hosts play Minecraft. Weekly Let's Play videos focusing on Grand Theft Auto games are also released.[8][9]

Achievement Hunter hired Gavin Free in 2012, after he had assisted with the company for many years. In March 2012, Achievement Hunter debuted Game Night, in which Ramsey and Caleb Denecour play games with community members; the series switched to a live stream format in 2014. Community member Ray Narvaez, Jr. was hired in April 2012, having worked as a contract host for multiple years. Later, in September 2012, contract editor Franco Scarcello created Five Facts; generally hosted by Pattillo and Ramsey, the series focuses on little-known facts about various video games.

2013–present: Popularization

In early 2013, Achievement Hunter introduced a competition series titled VS, in which the employees challenge each other to compete in games. In April 2013, Achievement Hunter launched their own channel on YouTube, which hosts a variety of their videos.[1] Later in 2013, the company retired Achievement HORSE, replacing it with Achievement HUNT, in which a variety of employees challenge each other until the word "HUNT" has been spelled.

In October 2013, Pattillo hosted a 24-hour live stream benefiting Extra Life, a charity benefiting hospitalized children. With appearances from other Achievement Hunter members and various Rooster Teeth employees, the live stream managed to raise $340,000. This charity live stream has become an annual event, with 2014's Extra Life live stream raising over $442,000 for Children's Miracle Network.[10] At RTX in July 2014, community members Matt Bragg and Jeremy Dooley were hired as editors and secondary hosts at Achievement Hunter.[11]

In early 2015, Achievement Hunter hosted the first Let's Play Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. In April 2015, Narvaez departed from the company as a full-time employee to focus on Twitch livestreaming, although he continues to voice his character for the company's X-Ray and Vav animated series.[12] In mid-2015, Achievement Hunter launched a new YouTube channel, named after themselves, thereon they upload series of videos that were previously uploaded to the Rooster Teeth channel. Additionally, they moved out of Rooster Teeth's Stage 5, Austin Studios office into their own office nearby.[13]

Dooley was promoted to a main host in October 2015, during an episode of Let's Play Minecraft.[14] A weekly podcast titled Off Topic was announced in early October by Michael Jones. Four test episodes aired live and were only available to "Sponsors" on their website. The first official episode aired to the public after the initial tests. Jones serves as the main host of the show and makes the most frequent appearances alongside other Achievement Hunter employees and special guests.[15]

From 2015, Achievement Hunter would feature celebrities as guest collaborators in some of their Let's Play videos such as Rahul Kohli, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Dante Basco and Pop punk band Neck Deep.

Let's Play Live

Let’s Play Live was the first of its kind to create an event that their fans could go and see them in person playing video games instead of behind a screen. This was unheard of at the time because their YouTube channel is for making videos, not doing live events. This could be compared to going to see a music concert, or a play. This would be seen as very difficult because when they create content there is editing that is done to cut out some things, which they would not be able to do during a live event.

In June 17, 2016 they will be having their second Let's Play Live event at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.[16] In addition to the Achievement Hunters, there will be other YouTube creators like Funhaus, ScrewAttack, Kinda Funny, and The Creatures to join in at the event.[17]

List of shows

Date debuted Series Primary contributor(s) Date ended
2008 Forced Enjoyment Geoff Ramsey, Jack Patillo July 28, 2010
July 29, 2008 Achievement Guides/Achievement Unlocked Various Ongoing
July 14, 2009 Easter Eggs Various Ongoing
March 4, 2010 Achievement Hunter Weekly Update (AHWU) Various Ongoing
May 5, 2010 Behind the Scenes Various Ongoing
September 22, 2010 Fails of the Weak Geoff Ramsey, Jack Patillo Ongoing
December 6, 2010 Achievement HORSE/PIG Geoff Ramsey, Jack Patillo Ongoing
January 20, 2011 Rage Quit Michael Jones Ongoing
March 29, 2011 This Is... Various Unknown (last episode published August 14, 2015)
November 30, 2011 Things to Do In: Various Ongoing
December 7, 2011 Let's Play Various Ongoing
December 16, 2011 A Look Back At Brandon "Fragger" Light; Ray Narvaez, Jr. August 15, 2012
March 23, 2012 Game Night Geoff Ramsey, Caleb Denecour February 14, 2014
April 24, 2012 Trials Files Geoff Ramsey, Jack Patillo November 4, 2014
September 11, 2012 Five Facts Geoff Ramsey, Jack Patillo, Franco Scarcello Ongoing
March 8, 2013 Versus (VS) Various Ongoing
October 29, 2013 GO! Various Ongoing
October 30, 2013 Achievement HUNT Various Ongoing
February 6, 2014 How To: Joel Heyman, Adam Ellis, Jeremy Dooley, Matt Bragg Ongoing
May 8, 2014 Play Pals Michael Jones, Gavin Free, Geoff Ramsey, Ryan Haywood Ongoing
May 12, 2014 Countdown/Top Five Various Ongoing
August 13, 2014 Imaginary Achievements Jeremy Dooley April 8, 2015
August 18, 2014 MegaCraft Matt Bragg August 12, 2015
October 16, 2014 Achievement Hunter vs. The World Various Ongoing
August 1, 2015 Presented With Comment Jeremy Dooley (with various contenders) Ongoing
October 30, 2015 Off Topic Podcast Michael Jones (with various AH members) Ongoing
December 29, 2015 Great Levels in Gaming Max Bernard N/A
April 29, 2016 Theater Mode[18] Various Ongoing

Cast and crew

Cast
  • Geoff Ramsey (2008–present)
  • Jack Pattillo (2008–present)
  • Gavin Free (2012–present; contract host: 2008–2011)
  • Michael Jones (2011–present; contract host: 2011)[19]
  • Ryan Haywood (2011–present)
  • Jeremy Dooley (2015–present; editor, recurring host: 2014–2015)
Crew
  • Caleb Denecour (community manager; 2010–present)
  • Lindsay Jones (general manager: 2016–present; editor, recurring host: 2013–2016)[19]
  • Matt Bragg (editor, recurring host; 2014–present)
  • Steffie Hardy (production manager; 2014–present)
  • Trevor Collins (editor, manager; 2014–present)
  • Franco Scarcello (contract editor; 2012–present)
  • Max Bernard (contract host; 2015–present)
  • Larry Matovina (editor; 2015–present)
Former
  • Brandon Light (contract host; 2011–2013)[20]
  • Jose Jones Castillo (editor; 2013)[21]
  • Ray Narvaez, Jr. (contract host; 2010–2011; main host; 2012–2015)[12]
  • Kdin Jenzen (editor, guest host; 2013–2016)

References

  1. 1 2 "LetsPlay - YouTube". Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Achievement Hunter- YouTube". Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  3. ↑ "GameFails- YouTube". Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "AHCommunityVids- YouTube". Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Burg, Dustin (July 28, 2008). "RvB launches achievement website, achievables unlocked!". Joystiq. AOL. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  6. ↑ Sliwinski, Alexander (28 July 2008). "Rooster Teeth creates Achievement/Trophy database site". Engadget. AOL Inc. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "Rooster Teeth Podcast No. 228". Rooster Teeth Productions. July 23, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  8. ↑ Amini, Tina (May 4, 2012). "Launch Your Friends Off Helicopters in Grand Theft Auto IV". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  9. ↑ Vas, Gergo (February 27, 2014). "Almost nailed it! The Achievement Hunter crew is back on track with GTA V, and they're really pushing the limits of possible stunts this time.". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  10. ↑ Brouwer, Bree (October 27, 2014). "Rooster Teeth Raises $442, 389 For Extra Life, LeVar Burton Reads Adult Kid's Books". Tubefilter. Tubefilter, Inc. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  11. ↑ Ramsey, Geoff; Pattillo, Jack; Haywood, Ryan; Jones, Michael; Free, Gavin; Narvaez, Ray, Jr.; Jones, Lindsay; Jenzen, Kdin; Denecour, Caleb (July 6, 2014). Achievement Hunter Panel #2. RTX. Austin, Texas. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Brouwer, Bree (May 6, 2015). "Ray Narvaez, Jr. Leaves Rooster Teeth, Moves To Full-Time Twitch Streaming". Tubefilter. Tubefilter, Inc. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  13. ↑ Brouwer, Bree (July 2, 2015). "Rooster Teeth’s Achievement Hunter Gets Its Own Channel, Offices". Tubefilter. Tubefilter, Inc. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  14. ↑ Achievement Hunter (October 16, 2015). Let's Play Minecraft Episode 177 - Blocking List (Part 2). Rooster Teeth. Event occurs at 32:35. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2015.
  15. ↑ Jones, Michael (October 28, 2015). "Brand New Achievement Hunter Podcast, Off Topic!". Michael Jones - roosterteeth.com. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Rooster Teeth Mounting 'Let's Play Live' Tour with Mills Entertainment - VideoInk". VideoInk. 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  17. ↑ Achievement Hunter (2016-04-18), FIVE-WAY IN 4K – Let's Play Live Trailer!, retrieved 2016-04-28
  18. ↑ Achievement Hunter (2016-04-15), Theater Mode Trailer, retrieved 2016-04-28
  19. 1 2 Bugeja, Kane (16 June 2014). "Posted by Kane Bugeja on Jun 16, 2014 Michael and Lindsay Jones Panel at Supanova 2014". Capsule Computers. Capsule Computers. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  20. ↑ Light, Brandon. "Fragger". Rooster Teeth. Brandon Light. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
  21. ↑ Jones Castill, Jose. "JJ News". Rooster Teeth. Jose Jones Castill. Retrieved 25 February 2016.

External links

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