Do you like achievements?
Do you try to get all of them?
Do you prefer achievements for progressing in the story?
You have posted a topic
Or obscure ones?
You have written a post in 3 languages without a single mistake.
Anyway the point is I want to put achievements back into Unnatural. currently I have ones for story based ones (complete a case etc, go azure or shade) just wondering if I should add in harder more difficult to achieve ones?
I love hidden hard achievements I replay tons of time, many games to get them, mass effect or wizard life. I could suggest one I got 100 humanity due I donât care magic could I have an achievement? Also put an achievement to each romance, that make the replay value get higher.
I love achievements, I think they are a very important part of a game. However, I do think that most developers donât really know what achievements are supposed to be.
An achievement is, by definition of name, something hard or lengthy to accomplish. Most games have achievements as âFinish the Gameâ, which should never be placed as an achievement, because winning the game should be its own reward.
Instead, achievements should be used to point that you surpassed a very difficult situation, or you attained the maximum skill for said attribute (which should be, again, hard to accomplish), or maybe something truly amazing like the Life of a Wizard achievements, were one achievement actually does mean a lotâYou had to win and play well from the very beginning to get most.
I donât think there is anything wrong with the achievements for multiple endings, such as in Zombie Exodus, but I would still treat them as something separate. The ending itself should be the reward, and it should be called just that: Ending X (Insert number or title).
Now thatâs just my opinion, but I am kind of an achievement hunter myself, and I know when an achievement is good or not.
Most of all, an achievement should depend only on the player, nothing that is out of his reach. It is O.K. to have achievements that contradict each other, if it is about replay-ability, but you should never make an achievement that depends on a variable such as a random number. If the player must go through a random event, make it so that the achievement itself is independent from it, in a way that every result allows you to reach it.
In another note, there is no platform or gallery where we can see all the CoG achievements we have won, and most games donât have a section at the end for it. I think that is a flaw. Achievements âpop-upsâ were introduced way after ChoiceScript was made, and consequently most of the games, so it is reasonable to say that they havenât made a user system were these achievements can be storedâyet.
Given this, I think it is a smart for any developer to actually give room, a section, just for the achievements, whether it be in the stats screen or just at the end. Both has its uses, and it depends on you how you choose to make you achievements screen.
Achievement screens at the end often reveal most of the things you can do at the game (that have an achievement tag on it of course) and may consequently ruin the thrill of looking for every other option. But at the same time, it can also provide indications of where to go on your next playthrough.
Achievement screens mid-game will often only register what the player has managed to accomplish so far, preferentially not giving any indication of how to gain the others, in order not to influence the characterâs choices.
Perhaps, in the end, having both kinds would be best. It is up to how you choose to develop the feature, and what you want to be revealed or not and when.
Lastly, I think it is smart to note that most, if not all games, currently lose every progress of yours when you choose to begin a new adventure. Now, that is most fine, I tell you, but with the introduction of the achievements concept, it means that the player will have to track its accomplishments himself if he so desires.
I am sure it is possible to make something about this, and it shouldnât be too hard to figure a solution.
Perhaps never truly resetting the game would do itâOnly the main character and story variables would be put to default, and the player thrown to the beginning section, instead of using a Restart button. That would easily allow you to keep your achievements. Still, you have to think things through thoroughly (T^5) when taking this course of action, or you might just end up breaking the game after one or more playthroughs.
Keep in mind that this I thought based on the current model we have.
@GoldenXan Glad to find another achievement hunter, there is a game center in Apple to get stored your achievements in these games thatâs why pop ups are in games. Sadly, only works on apple, Android has the Google play games, but itâs not implemented yet Dan said itâs in the to-do list, with google play your achievements are in the cloud and you could compare with your friends achievements. Thatâs why I feel all games here need achievements.
@poison_mara Well that is good to know, but the Android and iOS are not the only systems. My primary system for these games is the Chrome Web Store, simply because I enjoy reading at home. And there are also Mac and Linux users, Iâm not sure which system they have, but I suspect they too would use the Chrome Web Store.
And then there is Kindle. I have no idea how it would work for them either.
I think the best thing for CoG to do would be to make a system that is universal, one that is attached to Choice of Games itself, which you can connect from any other system. But, meanwhile, developers can and should take other approaches, such as developing their own achievement in-game sections.
I would like to use achievements for humor in my game. I donât really think I ever feel like I achieved something getting one of those in a choose your own adventure game, but I do think they can be used as a fun reward for something.
I generally like the idea of achievements. I usually earmark a few which are almost impossible not to get on a single full playthrough, but the vast majority of the achievements I put in are for players who go out of their way to do something crazy, or counter-intuitive or off the beaten path, just to encourage them to explore the entire game, or to point out that something which may seem impossible actually can be done.
I also pack my achievement lists full of references. The tentative list Iâm putting together for Mecha Ace is made up mostly references to Mecha anime obviously, but there are some others in there as well.
I mostly just use achievements to see what different endings there are, and other aspects of the story I may have missed on playthroughs. I do enjoy the achievements for acoplishing difficult things or when I do something crazy and counter-intuitive. I have never been much of an achievement hunter, but I do think they make a good adtion to any game.
Iâm thinking about giving achievements out for really ridiculous things. For instance in the game if you grab something to eat Iâm thinking about giving you an achievement for it. I mean why not? I just made this all up by the way, but I think when I finish the game Iâm going to comb over every choice and consider whether or not it would be hilarious to see an achievement award pop up for it.
My aim is to have the achievements being named something relevant to what you need to do.
I.E Completing âBy Tooth and Clawâ would get you the âClipped your clawsâ achievement
Getting revenge gets you âa dish best served coldâ etc
@Nocturnal_Stillness but those arenât achievements, they are unlocking new scenes through complete others.
And Achievement is separated from the game and consist of a title and a sort of description normally associated with a point system using a numerical points or medal system. In many cases the achievement has an icon, could be pointed like secret until you beat it to qvoid spoilers
Iâve got achievements/trophies for completing levels/chapters before which is why I class them as achievements.
Personally I couldnât care less for achievements, beyond tracking progress in certain games (so I know what I have done, basically). But the Steam variant of achievements, nah, thatâs just so you can brag with how big your e-p⌠is⌠
Most of the time I donât see the point in them: I know I achieved something important because I just did it, why do I need the game to confirm it? Itâs worse on the X-box where something dramatic will happen and you hear the âpopâ and the notification comes up. Immersion = ruined.
But I donât mind them so much in CoG, they only come up rarely and I feel kinda chuffed that I did well in a game.
I think they can be used especially well in choice games, in that they can hint at things that might be different if the player went through again, which hopefully inspires them to do just that. For example, if I saw an achievement that said âYou followed the such and such path and beat the game!â I would immediately wonder, âWait! What are the other paths?â, right?
I also like fun achievements that are just ridiculous things or challenges for players whoâve already gone through several times. In my current WIP (which I actually am close to posting), the player can change into a whole slew of outfits, so Iâve made a achievement called âCleaning the Mean Streetsâ which requires them to wear a Janitor jumpsuit during all the major scenes. Stupid, yes. But still cute and fun I think.
1.) no not really
2.) no
3.) no
4.) its alright when their rare, or for different endings
sure why not add difficult ones in
I know almost nothing about achievements, and personally am not too excited by them in games I play. But I am looking around for information about how to use the *achieve-type commands in ChoiceScript and am not seeing it anywhere. Are there basic instructions and a working example somewhere?
@Cottage14, in your startup file, after you *create all your variables, list the possible achievements like this:
*achievement launch_ship visible 1 Rocket Launcher Launch your spaceship. You successfully launched a ship towards Kepler 62e!
Here, launch_ship is the achievement name.
1 is the number of points awarded.
Rocket Launcher is the name of the achievement.
Launch your ship is the task required to reach the achievement.
You successfully launched a ship towards Kepler 62e! is the message that appears when you achieve this.
Declare other achievements here in the same way.
Now, in game, where you want the achievement to be given, simply type:
*achieve launch_ship
The achievement will be granted.
Thank you! But I am not sure about the âLaunch your spaceship.â line.
You say âLaunch your ship is the task required to reach the achievementâ. What does that mean, or how does that play out, in ChoiceScript terms? Or is âLaunch your spaceshipâ just an explanatory note about the achievement. If so, where does it appear?
I mostly agree with @GoldenXanâs long post above, but I have to add somebits;
Most importantly, the way it the achievement system works in most choice script games is just awful.
In most games, I donât know if there are any achievements until I get one, and even then I donât know how many of them there are and I canât see anywhere which ones I have.
Some newer games, most of them still unreleased WIPs, are doing it better with an achievement overview window similar to the stats.
However, I think in-game rewards like the medals in Sabres of infinity or commendations in Marine Raiders are better then the pop-up achievements, although they are not duited to all possible situations.