Claims System
Claims System Guidelines
- The right to work on a set is made by utilizing the site's Claim System. This is the only valid way to reserve a set. Posting plans in the forum, leaving code notes, telling everyone you want to work on it, or any other forms of declaration are not considered valid claims.
- Claims should be made as soon as you want to start working on a set, not as you are finishing your work.
- Do not claim sets that you are not actually interested in working on and especially do not do it just to block others from working on it.
- Only claim games when you are free of unaddressed tickets. If you are not, a prompt will appear when attempting to claim a set.
Making a Claim
To make a claim, go to the Developer panel of a game entry, which will contain one of the following links:
- Make Claim
- Make Claim and Forum Topic (Junior Developers require a forum topic to be made on their behalf)
- Make Revision Claim
- Make Collaboration Claim
- Make Collaboration Revision Claim
Dropping a Claim
Dropping a claim is as simple as selecting the "Drop Claim" link in the Developer panel.
Extending a Claim
- When a claim is within a week of expiring, an "Extend Claim" link will become available. Selecting it will extend the claim an additional three months.
- Progress Reporting: Prior to extending a claim, post your progress in a new forum post. Progress should comment on RAM digging/code notes, a roadmap of achievements and your progress towards them. As further extensions are made, reports are expected to become more detailed and development priority is expected to increase.
- At Developer Compliance discretion, additional requirements may be given if there is insufficient progress during a claim period, including claim drop. Game length, total claim duration, and other considerations will factor into any decision.
- Prior to the 4th extension (the one-year mark) and all subsequent extensions, a thorough progress report must be made and the progress report must also be sent to Developer Compliance for consideration in allowing the extension.
- Any claim with no progress during the standard claim duration (3 months since claim/extension) may be subject to a claim drop.
- Once a claim has expired, the set is available to be claimed by another developer.
- If a reservation reaches the point where it's more than a year old, a detailed progress report must be sent to
Developer Compliancefor subsequent renewals. The report should provide an overview of the development situation and include details such as:- List of planned achievements
- List of achievements already coded (local or unofficial)
- Memory digging status
- Progress of badges creation
- Rich Presence and Leaderboards Status (if applicable)
- If the renewal is denied or dropped due to no-progress, a cooldown of one month will be applied. After this period, the developer may reserve the set again, if available. Detailed progress reports will continue to be required for any further renewals.
- If a claim is dropped and resumed in within a month, the initial claim date before dropping the set will be maintained.
How to Complete a Claim
To mark a claim as complete, you can select the "Complete Claim" link in the Developer panel. Doing so will free the claim slot and notify users who have a set request for the game, via email, that new achievements have been added for that game.
When selecting "Complete Claim" within 24 hours of making the claim, a prompt will inform the developer that they should have approval before marking it as complete. Approval must be from someone on the Developer Compliance team. Revisions to your own sets can skip approval for early release.
Collaboration Claims
Collaboration claims are made when there is already a primary claim on a game and acts as a "child" of said primary claim. It will inherit the primary claim's expiration date. Extending or completing a collaboration claim can only be done by the developer with the primary claim.
- Let others know if you welcome collaborators.
- If you have claimed a set and someone expresses desire to work on it beyond suggesting ideas, consider ways in which you can collaborate with them.
- If someone claims a set that you were interested in, do not get frustrated. You are encouraged to contact the developer and request a collaboration. If denied, you have the option of presenting a revision plan after the set is published.
Viewing Claim Info
There are several ways to view claim information:
- Every game entry will show if it has a claim or not
- A developer's profile will show which claims they currently have active.
- The site navbar contains
New Sets & Revisions,Sets in Progress,My Claims, andExpiring Claims. - The set request list will show if a game has an active claim.
Claim Allotment
Each developer is allowed four primary claims. Junior developers are allowed one primary claim. However, the following claim types can be marked as free claims and therefore will not take up a slot:
- Claims made specifically for console rollouts. This is due to the unpredictable nature of rollouts as well as a way to reduce stress/pressure on developers.
- If a developer makes a revision or subset claim, the claim can be set to "Own Revision" depending on criteria I haven't copy-pasted into this section yet.
- Collaboration claims.
Important Notes
- It is recommended that you post a complete plan in the forum topic. When doing so, be open to suggestions; you can get excellent input and suggestions this way.