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Wikipedia

Tooth and Tail

Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by indie development team Pocketwatch Games, the company behind Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine. Tooth and Tail was released in September 2017 for Windows, MacOS, Linux and PlayStation 4.

The game is set in a society of anthropomorphic animals during a time of severe food shortages, resulting in the uprising of political parties with differing ideologies regarding the acquisition of food. The gameplay consists of single-player and multiplayer modes and supports gamepads and keyboard and mouse arrangements. Players begin by choosing six units out of a pool of twenty to use during the match. Once each player has chosen, the goal is to destroy the enemy's resources through building structures and creating units. Each player controls a commander rather than having a top-down view.

Development of Tooth and Tail began towards the end of development for Monaco. Various real-time strategy (RTS) games were prototyped before the game, then titled Armada, was announced in March 2014. The premise was to create an RTS game without micromanagement or the necessity of high quantities of actions per minute. From the outset, the game was designed to work well on both gamepads and keyboard-and-mouse setups. In August 2014, the game's title was changed to Lead to Fire before being finally changed to Tooth and Tail, a reference to the tooth-to-tail ratio,[1] in August 2015. Before its official release, the game's developers proposed a launch on Steam's Early Access platform, though this did not occur.

The game was positively received and won two awards in 2016; "Best Character Design" at Intel Level Up and tied with Giant Cop for "Guest's Pick" at Media Indie Exchange. The single-player mode was not praised as highly as the multiplayer modes; reviewers said the difficulty spikes impaired enjoyment. Many comparisons with other games and media were made; mostly with the novel series Redwall and the novella Animal Farm.

Plot edit

Tooth and Tail is set during the 19th century[2] in a society where anthropomorphic animals are facing chronic food shortages. Many animals decided to resort to cannibalism to overcome the shortage.[3] The Civilized, led by Archimedes, created a lottery system that ultimately controlled who was eaten. This way of life sparked controversy throughout the nation; the Commonfolk liked neither the idea of being eaten nor the high cost of food. The son of the wealthy merchant Bellafide was selected to be eaten; he revolted, intending to reshape the food-selection system into one based on some version of a meritocracy. The Commonfolk—led by Hopper who wanted to impose a voting system to replace the lottery—also revolted. To overthrow the Civilized, Hopper and Bellafide joined forces despite their different ideals.

The Civilized engaged in the fight to maintain power and the status quo. Though the revolution had thrown the leadership into general chaos, certain military elements remained organized. Quartermaster, the shady and pragmatic head of the late Tsarina's K.S.R secret police, seized control of military elements and supported Archimedes and the Civilized for the time being.

Towards the end of the game, the pigs, who are dying out from the war, tell the four armies they had relayed false information to the three other armies, tricking them into gathering in one location. As the armies fight each other to the point of destruction, the pigs revolt, revealing they had a plan to overthrow the Tsarina and get revenge for the slavery and eating of their kind. A horde of pigs then ambushes the final standing army, destroying it and leaving the fate of the commanders and the rest of the meat-eating animals ambiguous.

Gameplay edit

Gameplay of Tooth and Tail
 
A screenshot of the game showing the HUD, along with various structures and units
 
A demonstration of the game's split screen capabilities

Tooth and Tail is a real-time strategy video game designed for use with gamepads and keyboard-and-mouse setups.[4][5] The game has single-player and multiplayer modes.[6] In the single-player mode, the player progresses through the story by completing levels of increasing difficulty. Each level features objectives with varying degrees of onerousness, depending on the player's advancement. To complete each level, the basic objectives must be met while "heroic" ones—usually more arduous—are optional.[6] Multiplayer mode can be accomplished through ranked or unranked online matchmaking[6] and local multiplayer split screen. Up to four players may play at once, either as teams of two or compete to be the last one standing.[5]

Before a match begins, players must choose a commander from four factions[4] and then draft six units from a pool of twenty to use during the match. Fifteen of these units are offensive and tiered depending on their strength and cost. The other five units are defensive. All choices are final; other units cannot be unlocked during the match. Once all players have chosen their units, they control a commander of an army and must build structures, such as farms, to gather required resources. Most structures can only be built near gristmills, preventing players from building near enemies while scouting or spying. At any time, players can burrow their commanders back to allow them to create structures.[4] Units are produced at structures called warrens, assuming the player has sufficient food to summon the desired units.[6] Depending on the tier, some units cost more than others.[5] Food is a limited resource, meaning players must strategize their attack in advance.[4] Structures called campfires act as a combination of gristmills and farms, allowing structures to be built near them while also producing food. To win, the player must destroy the enemy's gristmills and campfires.[7][4] The map is procedurally generated, implying each player will have different advantages and disadvantages each match.[5]

Development edit

Following the success of Pocketwatch Games' 2013 video game Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine, the development of Tooth and Tail was announced on March 11, 2014.[8] The game was loosely based on a design Andy Schatz, the founder of Pocketwatch Games, and roommate Tom Wexler had made during college, called Dino Drop.[9][10] As with the development of Monaco, many games with similar mechanics were prototyped. Schatz told Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun about Dino Drop, which he described as "a split-screen strategy game with autonomous units".[10] Schatz and co-designer Andy Nguyen heavily developed this version of real-time strategy towards the end of Monaco's development.[11] Originally developed under the working title Armada—stylized as [ARMADA]—the game was advertised as a real-time strategy (RTS) game without the necessary micromanagement and high quantity of actions per minute, an issue he attributed to the StarCraft series; Starcraft and Command & Conquer were credited as influences on Tooth and Tail.[10]

Armada was developed to appeal to people who did not usually play RTS games but also had the ability to "play [the] game at a deep level".[10] The game was designed to be controller and gamepad friendly;[5] Schatz implied there had been no "good" RTS games that used them.[12] Schatz compared Armada with Monaco, saying "I want to do the thing with RTS that we did with Monaco, with the stealth genre, and that's constrain the control set in order to make the actual, physical interaction easy to pick up without limiting the complexity of the game itself". He pitched this idea to around forty people at the Game Developers Conference to positive feedback.[13] At this point, there was no timeframe for development[14][15] and no definite specifics (such as the title, theme, and style).[13]

 
Screenshot of Tooth and Tail when it was titled LEADtoFIRE

The game's title was later changed to Lead to Fire—stylized as LEADtoFIRE—in August 2014.[1][16] Throughout these stages of development, Pocketwatch Games streamed their progress on the streaming platform Twitch. This was described as a "miniature PAX"; a way to show off the development and allow fans to play test the game.[17] It was around this time that the game drew inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment and Hearthstone, a card game in which players build decks and compete against others.[17] This comparison was drawn as Schatz expressed admiration for the ability of Blizzard Entertainment, the developers of Hearthstone, to simplify complicated game genre mechanics for a wider audience, using Hearthstone as an example for card games and Heroes of the Storm for multiplayer online battle arenas. Schatz believed Tooth and Tail could be a similar simplification of the StarCraft series.[11] At this stage, it was planned to have around thirty units and structures to interact and build, and while this was not yet definitive, it was estimated players would be able to choose six-to-eight of them per match. Around this time, Polygon reported a tentative release date of "sometime in 2015"[17]

In August 2015, the game received its official name: Tooth and Tail. The change was attributed to Lead to Fire not boding well with the developers,[18] and believing no one knew how to properly pronounce it.[19] The title is a reference to the tooth-to-tail ratio;[1] the art style was revealed at the same time as the official title. Schatz wrote that like SpyParty, "the game should look utterly shitty until it’s absolutely amazing".[18] The art style was described as a modernized version of 1990s pixel art.[18] Having released the official artwork, the development process became more public and the team believed the game would be released in late 2016, with the possibility of using Steam's Early Access platform.[18][20]

Composer Austin Wintory, who also worked on Monaco, was hired to create the game's soundtrack.[6] Sound design was done by PowerUp Audio, the team behind both Crypt of the Necrodancer and Darkest Dungeon. The game's characters speak a language based on Russian that was invented by PowerUp Audio's Kevin Regamey; Schatz told Louis Brierley of Heavy Mag the in-game language is translatable to English.[21] In July 2017, Tooth and Tail's official release date of September 12 was announced for PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.[22] Alongside this announcement was the game's trailer.[23] Since release, the development team plans to continue updating the game with new content.[21]

Reception edit

Pre-release edit

Prior to Tooth and Tail's release, the game received substantial media coverage because of the development process being made public[32] and the release of alpha play tests.[33] Many writers compared Tooth and Tail to the novels Animal Farm and Redwall.[34][33][35][36] Reviewers including Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer and Tom Marks of PC Gamer praised the game for redesigning the concept of the real-time strategy genre.[33][35][36] In March 2017, Marks described the single player campaign as being similar to "a bite-sized StarCraft campaign."[33] The art style was also praised prior to release.[33][34]

Post-release edit

Tooth and Tail was released to positive reviews from critics, garnering "generally favorable reviews" on both PC and PS4 according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[24][25]

Critics, such as Eric Van Allen of Kotaku,[37] praised the game's ability to be inviting to newcomers to the real-time strategy genre while also appealing to veterans. Because of this, IGN listed it as a "game you might have missed" in September 2017.[38] Davide Pessach of Eurogamer Italy recommended the game to everyone because of its many hours of fun.[28] Patrick Hancock of Destructoid listed Tooth and Tail on his personal Game of the Year (GOTY) list, saying he would recommend it to anyone, including those who dislike real-time strategy games.[39] Polygon writer Charlie Hall compared the game to StarCraft and wrote "the initial learning curve right now is simply too steep for most players".[40] Brendan Caldwell of Rock, Paper, Shotgun concurred, saying "a tough mission [can] come along and take a chunk out of your enjoyment".[41]

The gameplay mechanics of multiplayer matches, such as the length and controls, received mostly positive reception. Hall wrote that while the game's single-player mode may be poorly balanced, the multiplayer mode is where the game excels.[40] In Hancock's GOTY list, he noted the game would have appeared on it had it been a single-player game with the multiplayer mode as "a cherry on top".[39] Hall said that because matches last around ten minutes, he found himself saying "just one more [match]".[40] He said while the controls were good for newcomers, they have the potential to dissuade strategy veterans because of the inability to directly control certain units.[40]

Tooth and Tail's art style, soundtrack, and audio received positive reactions from critics.[42] Chloi Rad at IGN wrote that because of the combination of these elements, it was an "arcade-like strategy game experience like no other this year".[38] Kotaku's Alex Walker praised Pocketwatch Games for their ability to create "truly, truly beautiful" artwork without spending "millions of dollars teams of artists".[43] AusGamers's Kosta Andreadis considered the art, while not the most impressive of 2017, subtle and pleasing in its presentation. He praised the ability of the animation to change intensities depending on the setting. Andreadis also commented on the audio, believing it added to the experience.[29] Hancock commented on the similarities between the soundtracks of Monaco's and Tooth and Tail; both of which were composed by Austin Wintory. The main similarities he noted were the fast-paced tracks during battle sequences and the use of slower tracks during less intense moments to imply a "revolutionary feel". He concluded by commending the accomplishment of matching the soundtrack with the game's theme.[6]

Awards and accolades edit

Tooth and Tail won the award for "Best Character Design" at Intel Level Up 2016[30] and tied with Giant Cop for the 2016 Media Indie Exchange's Guest's Pick.[31] It was also nominated for "Gamer's Voice (Multiplayer)" at the 2017 SXSW Gamer's Voice Awards.[44] The game was nominated for "Best Strategy Game" three times; once at The Game Awards 2017,[45] once at PC Gamer's 2017 Game of the Year Awards,[46] and once at IGN's Best of 2017 Awards.[47] PC Gamer included Tooth and Tail on the list of the best game music of 2017.[48] The game was nominated for the "Excellence in Narrative" award at the 2018 Independent Games Festival,[49][50] and for "2017 ASCAP Video Game Score of the Year" at the ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards.[51][52]

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Gera, Emily (August 17, 2015). "Monaco Devs Reveal Arcade RTS Tooth And Tail". Rock Paper Shotgun. from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  2. ^ Hall, Charlie (July 18, 2017). "Tooth and Tail, an RTS from Monaco devs, out in September". Polygon. Vox Media. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  3. ^ "Andy Schatz on Tooth and Tail". Gamereactor. Gamez Publishing A/S. December 22, 2015. from the original on March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Starkey, Daniel (September 22, 2017). "Tooth And Tail Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e Machkovech, Sam (September 18, 2017). "Tooth and Tail review: Delightful, rodent-riddled StarCraft for the rest of us". Ars Technica. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Hancock, Patrick (September 12, 2017). "Review: Tooth and Tail". Destructoid. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  7. ^ "Patch 1.0.4 Butterbomb". Pocketwatch Games. October 13, 2017. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  8. ^ Schatz, Andy (March 11, 2014). "Wherefore [ARMADA]?". Pocketwatch Games. from the original on March 16, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  9. ^ Schatz, Andy (February 18, 2009). "Autonomous AI and the First Dinosauria". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. from the original on January 25, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
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  11. ^ a b Wawro, Alex (September 12, 2017). "Crafting Tooth & Tail, a gamepad RTS that aims 'to Hearthstone StarCraft'". Gamasutra. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  12. ^ Savage, Phil (March 13, 2014). "Monaco creators announce [ARMADA], a controller friendly RTS". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  13. ^ a b Conditt, Jessica (March 20, 2014). "The early (early) concept of Monaco dev's RTSMOBA in Valhalla". Engadget. AOL. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  14. ^ Sliwinski, Alexander (March 12, 2014). "'Armada' is Monaco dev's new game, an RTS". Engadget. AOL. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  15. ^ Sanchez, Miranda (March 13, 2014). "Monaco Developer Working On 'accessible' RTS Armada". IGN. Ziff Davis. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
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  17. ^ a b c Hall, Charlie (November 6, 2014). "Real time strategy with a single button? Lead to Fire could show us how". Polygon. Vox Media. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  18. ^ a b c d Chalk, Andy (August 13, 2015). "Armada becomes Tooth and Tail, first "real" screen released". PC Gamer. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
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  20. ^ "The MIX at GDC 2016!". GameSpot. YouTube. March 14, 2016. from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018. Interviewer: Thank you for showing me Tooth and Tail, that game looks amazing. And when can we expect to get that? Andy Schatz: So this game's gonna be out later this year. We don't have a specific date on it but the plan is for later this year.
  21. ^ a b Brierley, Louis (September 13, 2017). "Fighting Tooth and Tail with Pocketwatch CEO Andy Schatz". Heavy Mag. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  22. ^ Matulef, Jeffrey (July 17, 2017). "Monaco dev's minimalist RTS Tooth and Tail sets September release date". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  23. ^ Sykes, Tom (July 15, 2017). "Tooth and Tail will be out this September". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
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  25. ^ a b "Tooth and Tail for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. from the original on December 31, 2017. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  26. ^ "Tooth and Tail Reviews". OpenCritic.
  27. ^ Rutledge, Spencer (September 12, 2017). "Review: Tooth and Tail". Hardcore Gamer. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  28. ^ a b Pessach, Davide (September 15, 2017). "Tooth and Tail – recensione". Eurogamer (in Italian). Gamer Network. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  29. ^ a b Andreadis, Kosta (September 15, 2017). "Tooth and Tail Review". AusGamers. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  30. ^ a b "Level Up Game Demo Contest – Winner's Gallery (2016)". Intel. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
  31. ^ a b . Media Indie Exchange. Archived from the original on June 6, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  32. ^ Egger, Jay (August 3, 2017). "Tooth & Tail brings out the animals of historical warfare". Killscreen. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  33. ^ a b c d e "Tooth and Tail's singleplayer plays like a bite-sized StarCraft campaign". PC Gamer. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  34. ^ a b Prell, Saml (July 14, 2017). "Paratrooper owls? Flamethrower boars? How have I never heard of Tooth and Tail before now?!". Games Radar. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  35. ^ a b Smith, Adam (April 13, 2016). "Redwall Meets Revolution: Tooth And Tail". Rock Paper Shotgun. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  36. ^ a b LeClair, Kyle (April 7, 2017). "The Animals Are Revolting in Tooth and Tail". Hardcore Gamer. from the original on September 10, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  37. ^ Van Allen, Eric (September 14, 2017). "Tooth And Tail Makes Strategy Games Approachable". Kotaku. Gawker Media. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  38. ^ a b Rad, Chloi (September 29, 2017). "13 Awesome Games You Might Have Missed This Month – September 2017". IGN. Ziff Davis. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  39. ^ a b Hancock, Patrick (January 1, 2018). "A 2017 GOTY list that doesn't include PUBG". Destructoid. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  40. ^ a b c d Hall, Charlie (September 12, 2017). "Tooth and Tail is the perfect bite-sized alternative to StarCraft". Polygon. Vox Media. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  41. ^ Cladwell, Brendan (September 15, 2017). "Tooth and Tail looks cute but has got some nasty teeth". Rock Paper Shotgun. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  42. ^ Khaw, Cassandra (September 13, 2017). "Tooth and Tail review". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  43. ^ Walker, Alex (September 19, 2017). "Tooth And Tail's Art Is Gorgeous". Kotaku. Gawker Media. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  44. ^ Aviles, Estevan (January 31, 2017). "Gamer's Voice Nominees Revealed for SXSW Gaming 2017". SXSW. Retrieved February 20, 2018.
  45. ^ Makuch, Eddie (December 8, 2017). "The Game Awards 2017 Winners Headlined By Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Game Of The Year". GameSpot. from the original on December 9, 2017. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  46. ^ "Games of the Year 2017: The nominees". PC Gamer. December 8, 2017. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  47. ^ "Best of 2017 Awards: Best Strategy Game". IGN. Ziff Davis. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  48. ^ "Listen to the best PC game music of the year". PC Gamer. December 28, 2017. from the original on January 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2018.
  49. ^ Wood, Austin (January 3, 2018). "2018 Independent Games Festival award nominees announced". PC Gamer. from the original on January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  50. ^ Whitney, Kayla (March 22, 2018). "Complete list of 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards Winners". AXS. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  51. ^ "Vote in the 2018 ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards!". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  52. ^ ASCAP (May 24, 2018). "Prolific Film Composer John Powell Recognized With ASCAP Henry Mancini Award; Composer And Songwriter Germaine Franco Receives ASCAP Shirley Walker Award At 2018 ASCAP Screen Music Awards". PR Newswire. Retrieved May 24, 2018.

External links edit

  • Official website  
  • Tooth and Tail on Facebook  
  • Tooth and Tail on Twitter  

tooth, tail, real, time, strategy, video, game, developed, published, indie, development, team, pocketwatch, games, company, behind, monaco, what, yours, mine, released, september, 2017, windows, macos, linux, playstation, developer, pocketwatch, gamespublishe. Tooth and Tail is a real time strategy video game developed and published by indie development team Pocketwatch Games the company behind Monaco What s Yours Is Mine Tooth and Tail was released in September 2017 for Windows MacOS Linux and PlayStation 4 Tooth and TailDeveloper s Pocketwatch GamesPublisher s Pocketwatch GamesPlatform s Microsoft Windows MacOS Linux PlayStation 4ReleaseSeptember 12 2017Genre s Real time strategyMode s Single player multiplayer The game is set in a society of anthropomorphic animals during a time of severe food shortages resulting in the uprising of political parties with differing ideologies regarding the acquisition of food The gameplay consists of single player and multiplayer modes and supports gamepads and keyboard and mouse arrangements Players begin by choosing six units out of a pool of twenty to use during the match Once each player has chosen the goal is to destroy the enemy s resources through building structures and creating units Each player controls a commander rather than having a top down view Development of Tooth and Tail began towards the end of development for Monaco Various real time strategy RTS games were prototyped before the game then titled Armada was announced in March 2014 The premise was to create an RTS game without micromanagement or the necessity of high quantities of actions per minute From the outset the game was designed to work well on both gamepads and keyboard and mouse setups In August 2014 the game s title was changed to Lead to Fire before being finally changed to Tooth and Tail a reference to the tooth to tail ratio 1 in August 2015 Before its official release the game s developers proposed a launch on Steam s Early Access platform though this did not occur The game was positively received and won two awards in 2016 Best Character Design at Intel Level Up and tied with Giant Cop for Guest s Pick at Media Indie Exchange The single player mode was not praised as highly as the multiplayer modes reviewers said the difficulty spikes impaired enjoyment Many comparisons with other games and media were made mostly with the novel series Redwall and the novella Animal Farm Contents 1 Plot 2 Gameplay 3 Development 4 Reception 4 1 Pre release 4 2 Post release 4 2 1 Awards and accolades 5 References 6 External linksPlot editTooth and Tail is set during the 19th century 2 in a society where anthropomorphic animals are facing chronic food shortages Many animals decided to resort to cannibalism to overcome the shortage 3 The Civilized led by Archimedes created a lottery system that ultimately controlled who was eaten This way of life sparked controversy throughout the nation the Commonfolk liked neither the idea of being eaten nor the high cost of food The son of the wealthy merchant Bellafide was selected to be eaten he revolted intending to reshape the food selection system into one based on some version of a meritocracy The Commonfolk led by Hopper who wanted to impose a voting system to replace the lottery also revolted To overthrow the Civilized Hopper and Bellafide joined forces despite their different ideals The Civilized engaged in the fight to maintain power and the status quo Though the revolution had thrown the leadership into general chaos certain military elements remained organized Quartermaster the shady and pragmatic head of the late Tsarina s K S R secret police seized control of military elements and supported Archimedes and the Civilized for the time being Towards the end of the game the pigs who are dying out from the war tell the four armies they had relayed false information to the three other armies tricking them into gathering in one location As the armies fight each other to the point of destruction the pigs revolt revealing they had a plan to overthrow the Tsarina and get revenge for the slavery and eating of their kind A horde of pigs then ambushes the final standing army destroying it and leaving the fate of the commanders and the rest of the meat eating animals ambiguous Gameplay editGameplay of Tooth and Tail nbsp A screenshot of the game showing the HUD along with various structures and units nbsp A demonstration of the game s split screen capabilities Tooth and Tail is a real time strategy video game designed for use with gamepads and keyboard and mouse setups 4 5 The game has single player and multiplayer modes 6 In the single player mode the player progresses through the story by completing levels of increasing difficulty Each level features objectives with varying degrees of onerousness depending on the player s advancement To complete each level the basic objectives must be met while heroic ones usually more arduous are optional 6 Multiplayer mode can be accomplished through ranked or unranked online matchmaking 6 and local multiplayer split screen Up to four players may play at once either as teams of two or compete to be the last one standing 5 Before a match begins players must choose a commander from four factions 4 and then draft six units from a pool of twenty to use during the match Fifteen of these units are offensive and tiered depending on their strength and cost The other five units are defensive All choices are final other units cannot be unlocked during the match Once all players have chosen their units they control a commander of an army and must build structures such as farms to gather required resources Most structures can only be built near gristmills preventing players from building near enemies while scouting or spying At any time players can burrow their commanders back to allow them to create structures 4 Units are produced at structures called warrens assuming the player has sufficient food to summon the desired units 6 Depending on the tier some units cost more than others 5 Food is a limited resource meaning players must strategize their attack in advance 4 Structures called campfires act as a combination of gristmills and farms allowing structures to be built near them while also producing food To win the player must destroy the enemy s gristmills and campfires 7 4 The map is procedurally generated implying each player will have different advantages and disadvantages each match 5 Development editFollowing the success of Pocketwatch Games 2013 video game Monaco What s Yours Is Mine the development of Tooth and Tail was announced on March 11 2014 8 The game was loosely based on a design Andy Schatz the founder of Pocketwatch Games and roommate Tom Wexler had made during college called Dino Drop 9 10 As with the development of Monaco many games with similar mechanics were prototyped Schatz told Jim Rossignol of Rock Paper Shotgun about Dino Drop which he described as a split screen strategy game with autonomous units 10 Schatz and co designer Andy Nguyen heavily developed this version of real time strategy towards the end of Monaco s development 11 Originally developed under the working title Armada stylized as ARMADA the game was advertised as a real time strategy RTS game without the necessary micromanagement and high quantity of actions per minute an issue he attributed to the StarCraft series Starcraft and Command amp Conquer were credited as influences on Tooth and Tail 10 Armada was developed to appeal to people who did not usually play RTS games but also had the ability to play the game at a deep level 10 The game was designed to be controller and gamepad friendly 5 Schatz implied there had been no good RTS games that used them 12 Schatz compared Armada with Monaco saying I want to do the thing with RTS that we did with Monaco with the stealth genre and that s constrain the control set in order to make the actual physical interaction easy to pick up without limiting the complexity of the game itself He pitched this idea to around forty people at the Game Developers Conference to positive feedback 13 At this point there was no timeframe for development 14 15 and no definite specifics such as the title theme and style 13 nbsp Screenshot of Tooth and Tail when it was titled LEADtoFIRE The game s title was later changed to Lead to Fire stylized as LEADtoFIRE in August 2014 1 16 Throughout these stages of development Pocketwatch Games streamed their progress on the streaming platform Twitch This was described as a miniature PAX a way to show off the development and allow fans to play test the game 17 It was around this time that the game drew inspiration from Blizzard Entertainment and Hearthstone a card game in which players build decks and compete against others 17 This comparison was drawn as Schatz expressed admiration for the ability of Blizzard Entertainment the developers of Hearthstone to simplify complicated game genre mechanics for a wider audience using Hearthstone as an example for card games and Heroes of the Storm for multiplayer online battle arenas Schatz believed Tooth and Tail could be a similar simplification of the StarCraft series 11 At this stage it was planned to have around thirty units and structures to interact and build and while this was not yet definitive it was estimated players would be able to choose six to eight of them per match Around this time Polygon reported a tentative release date of sometime in 2015 17 In August 2015 the game received its official name Tooth and Tail The change was attributed to Lead to Fire not boding well with the developers 18 and believing no one knew how to properly pronounce it 19 The title is a reference to the tooth to tail ratio 1 the art style was revealed at the same time as the official title Schatz wrote that like SpyParty the game should look utterly shitty until it s absolutely amazing 18 The art style was described as a modernized version of 1990s pixel art 18 Having released the official artwork the development process became more public and the team believed the game would be released in late 2016 with the possibility of using Steam s Early Access platform 18 20 Composer Austin Wintory who also worked on Monaco was hired to create the game s soundtrack 6 Sound design was done by PowerUp Audio the team behind both Crypt of the Necrodancer and Darkest Dungeon The game s characters speak a language based on Russian that was invented by PowerUp Audio s Kevin Regamey Schatz told Louis Brierley of Heavy Mag the in game language is translatable to English 21 In July 2017 Tooth and Tail s official release date of September 12 was announced for PlayStation 4 Microsoft Windows macOS and Linux 22 Alongside this announcement was the game s trailer 23 Since release the development team plans to continue updating the game with new content 21 Reception editTooth and Tail reviewsAggregate scoresAggregatorScoreMetacriticPC 80 100 24 PS4 78 100 25 OpenCritic80 100 26 88 Critics RecommendReview scoresPublicationScoreDestructoid9 5 10 6 GameSpot8 10 4 Hardcore Gamer4 5 27 Eurogamer Italy9 10 28 AusGamers8 1 10 29 AwardsPublicationAwardIntel Level Up 2016Best Character Design 30 Media Indie ExchangeGuest s Pick tied 31 Pre release edit Prior to Tooth and Tail s release the game received substantial media coverage because of the development process being made public 32 and the release of alpha play tests 33 Many writers compared Tooth and Tail to the novels Animal Farm and Redwall 34 33 35 36 Reviewers including Adam Smith of Rock Paper Shotgun Kyle LeClair of Hardcore Gamer and Tom Marks of PC Gamer praised the game for redesigning the concept of the real time strategy genre 33 35 36 In March 2017 Marks described the single player campaign as being similar to a bite sized StarCraft campaign 33 The art style was also praised prior to release 33 34 Post release edit Tooth and Tail was released to positive reviews from critics garnering generally favorable reviews on both PC and PS4 according to review aggregator website Metacritic 24 25 Critics such as Eric Van Allen of Kotaku 37 praised the game s ability to be inviting to newcomers to the real time strategy genre while also appealing to veterans Because of this IGN listed it as a game you might have missed in September 2017 38 Davide Pessach of Eurogamer Italy recommended the game to everyone because of its many hours of fun 28 Patrick Hancock of Destructoid listed Tooth and Tail on his personal Game of the Year GOTY list saying he would recommend it to anyone including those who dislike real time strategy games 39 Polygon writer Charlie Hall compared the game to StarCraft and wrote the initial learning curve right now is simply too steep for most players 40 Brendan Caldwell of Rock Paper Shotgun concurred saying a tough mission can come along and take a chunk out of your enjoyment 41 The gameplay mechanics of multiplayer matches such as the length and controls received mostly positive reception Hall wrote that while the game s single player mode may be poorly balanced the multiplayer mode is where the game excels 40 In Hancock s GOTY list he noted the game would have appeared on it had it been a single player game with the multiplayer mode as a cherry on top 39 Hall said that because matches last around ten minutes he found himself saying just one more match 40 He said while the controls were good for newcomers they have the potential to dissuade strategy veterans because of the inability to directly control certain units 40 Tooth and Tail s art style soundtrack and audio received positive reactions from critics 42 Chloi Rad at IGN wrote that because of the combination of these elements it was an arcade like strategy game experience like no other this year 38 Kotaku s Alex Walker praised Pocketwatch Games for their ability to create truly truly beautiful artwork without spending millions of dollars teams of artists 43 AusGamers s Kosta Andreadis considered the art while not the most impressive of 2017 subtle and pleasing in its presentation He praised the ability of the animation to change intensities depending on the setting Andreadis also commented on the audio believing it added to the experience 29 Hancock commented on the similarities between the soundtracks of Monaco s and Tooth and Tail both of which were composed by Austin Wintory The main similarities he noted were the fast paced tracks during battle sequences and the use of slower tracks during less intense moments to imply a revolutionary feel He concluded by commending the accomplishment of matching the soundtrack with the game s theme 6 Awards and accolades edit Tooth and Tail won the award for Best Character Design at Intel Level Up 2016 30 and tied with Giant Cop for the 2016 Media Indie Exchange s Guest s Pick 31 It was also nominated for Gamer s Voice Multiplayer at the 2017 SXSW Gamer s Voice Awards 44 The game was nominated for Best Strategy Game three times once at The Game Awards 2017 45 once at PC Gamer s 2017 Game of the Year Awards 46 and once at IGN s Best of 2017 Awards 47 PC Gamer included Tooth and Tail on the list of the best game music of 2017 48 The game was nominated for the Excellence in Narrative award at the 2018 Independent Games Festival 49 50 and for 2017 ASCAP Video Game Score of the Year at the ASCAP Composers Choice Awards 51 52 References edit a b c Gera Emily August 17 2015 Monaco Devs Reveal Arcade RTS Tooth And Tail Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on January 1 2018 Retrieved January 1 2018 Hall Charlie July 18 2017 Tooth and Tail an RTS from Monaco devs out in September Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Andy Schatz on Tooth and Tail Gamereactor Gamez Publishing A S December 22 2015 Archived from the original on March 19 2018 Retrieved March 20 2018 a b c d e f Starkey Daniel September 22 2017 Tooth And Tail Review GameSpot CBS Interactive Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 a b c d e Machkovech Sam September 18 2017 Tooth and Tail review Delightful rodent riddled StarCraft for the rest of us Ars Technica Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 a b c d e f g Hancock Patrick September 12 2017 Review Tooth and Tail Destructoid Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Patch 1 0 4 Butterbomb Pocketwatch Games October 13 2017 Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Schatz Andy March 11 2014 Wherefore ARMADA Pocketwatch Games Archived from the original on March 16 2014 Retrieved December 1 2017 Schatz Andy February 18 2009 Autonomous AI and the First Dinosauria Gamasutra UBM TechWeb Archived from the original on January 25 2018 Retrieved January 25 2018 a b c d Rossignol Jim March 12 2014 Monaco Developer Announces First Great Gamepad RTS Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on January 1 2018 Retrieved January 1 2018 a b Wawro Alex September 12 2017 Crafting Tooth amp Tail a gamepad RTS that aims to Hearthstone StarCraft Gamasutra Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Savage Phil March 13 2014 Monaco creators announce ARMADA a controller friendly RTS PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 a b Conditt Jessica March 20 2014 The early early concept of Monaco dev s RTSMOBA in Valhalla Engadget AOL Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Sliwinski Alexander March 12 2014 Armada is Monaco dev s new game an RTS Engadget AOL Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Sanchez Miranda March 13 2014 Monaco Developer Working On accessible RTS Armada IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 LEADtoFIRE is Pocketwatch s next game previously called ARMADA Pocketwatch Games August 8 2014 Archived from the original on August 10 2014 Retrieved January 1 2017 a b c Hall Charlie November 6 2014 Real time strategy with a single button Lead to Fire could show us how Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 a b c d Chalk Andy August 13 2015 Armada becomes Tooth and Tail first real screen released PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Schatz Andy July 29 2015 Tooth and Tail Revolutionary Real Time Strategy Produkt Pocketwatch Games Archived from the original on August 16 2015 Retrieved December 1 2017 The MIX at GDC 2016 GameSpot YouTube March 14 2016 Archived from the original on January 10 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Interviewer Thank you for showing me Tooth and Tail that game looks amazing And when can we expect to get that Andy Schatz So this game s gonna be out later this year We don t have a specific date on it but the plan is for later this year a b Brierley Louis September 13 2017 Fighting Tooth and Tail with Pocketwatch CEO Andy Schatz Heavy Mag Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Matulef Jeffrey July 17 2017 Monaco dev s minimalist RTS Tooth and Tail sets September release date Eurogamer Gamer Network Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Sykes Tom July 15 2017 Tooth and Tail will be out this September PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 a b Tooth and Tail for PC Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on December 31 2017 Retrieved December 31 2017 a b Tooth and Tail for PlayStation 4 Reviews Metacritic CBS Interactive Archived from the original on December 31 2017 Retrieved December 31 2017 Tooth and Tail Reviews OpenCritic Rutledge Spencer September 12 2017 Review Tooth and Tail Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Pessach Davide September 15 2017 Tooth and Tail recensione Eurogamer in Italian Gamer Network Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Andreadis Kosta September 15 2017 Tooth and Tail Review AusGamers Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Level Up Game Demo Contest Winner s Gallery 2016 Intel Archived from the original on January 1 2018 Retrieved January 1 2018 a b Best of The Mix From 5th Anniversary Showcase Media Indie Exchange Archived from the original on June 6 2017 Retrieved January 5 2018 Egger Jay August 3 2017 Tooth amp Tail brings out the animals of historical warfare Killscreen Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b c d e Tooth and Tail s singleplayer plays like a bite sized StarCraft campaign PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved September 9 2017 a b Prell Saml July 14 2017 Paratrooper owls Flamethrower boars How have I never heard of Tooth and Tail before now Games Radar Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Smith Adam April 13 2016 Redwall Meets Revolution Tooth And Tail Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b LeClair Kyle April 7 2017 The Animals Are Revolting in Tooth and Tail Hardcore Gamer Archived from the original on September 10 2017 Retrieved September 9 2017 Van Allen Eric September 14 2017 Tooth And Tail Makes Strategy Games Approachable Kotaku Gawker Media Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Rad Chloi September 29 2017 13 Awesome Games You Might Have Missed This Month September 2017 IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b Hancock Patrick January 1 2018 A 2017 GOTY list that doesn t include PUBG Destructoid Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 a b c d Hall Charlie September 12 2017 Tooth and Tail is the perfect bite sized alternative to StarCraft Polygon Vox Media Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Cladwell Brendan September 15 2017 Tooth and Tail looks cute but has got some nasty teeth Rock Paper Shotgun Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Khaw Cassandra September 13 2017 Tooth and Tail review Eurogamer Gamer Network Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Walker Alex September 19 2017 Tooth And Tail s Art Is Gorgeous Kotaku Gawker Media Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Aviles Estevan January 31 2017 Gamer s Voice Nominees Revealed for SXSW Gaming 2017 SXSW Retrieved February 20 2018 Makuch Eddie December 8 2017 The Game Awards 2017 Winners Headlined By Zelda Breath Of The Wild s Game Of The Year GameSpot Archived from the original on December 9 2017 Retrieved January 6 2018 Games of the Year 2017 The nominees PC Gamer December 8 2017 Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Best of 2017 Awards Best Strategy Game IGN Ziff Davis Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Listen to the best PC game music of the year PC Gamer December 28 2017 Archived from the original on January 6 2018 Retrieved January 6 2018 Wood Austin January 3 2018 2018 Independent Games Festival award nominees announced PC Gamer Archived from the original on January 5 2018 Retrieved January 5 2018 Whitney Kayla March 22 2018 Complete list of 2018 Independent Games Festival Awards Winners AXS Retrieved March 22 2018 Vote in the 2018 ASCAP Composers Choice Awards American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers April 9 2018 Retrieved April 23 2018 ASCAP May 24 2018 Prolific Film Composer John Powell Recognized With ASCAP Henry Mancini Award Composer And Songwriter Germaine Franco Receives ASCAP Shirley Walker Award At 2018 ASCAP Screen Music Awards PR Newswire Retrieved May 24 2018 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tooth and Tail Official website nbsp Tooth and Tail on Facebook nbsp Tooth and Tail on Twitter nbsp Portal nbsp Video games Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tooth and Tail amp oldid 1219881184, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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