Design Achievement Systems that are "fun"

[Biddum]

Achievement systems come in all shapes and sizes, but what makes an achievement system "fun"? I plan on developing a game with an internal achievement system (not linked to Steam, iOS, etc...) and designing the various tasks have become a bit more difficult than I imagined. I think a well designed achievement system should:

• Show the player what achievements can be done (not everything should be a mystery, but some "hidden" achievement are also beneficial if used sparingly)
• Show the player the status of the achievement (Kill 100 enemies (12/100 destroyed) )
• Some achievements should be "naturally" unlocked as a player progresses through the game. (beat XX boss) while others are more, well, an achievement to complete.
• Promote replayability, perhaps a certain level or task.
• Strives the player to perfection (beat world 1 in under 30 minutes)
• Have a range a difficulty to complete (easy, medium, hard, very hard)

While "boring" achievements are easier to program (kill 10 enemies, kill 100 enemies, kill 1,000 enemies, etc...) I am wondering if it is "worth" adding it to my game? Do people find the grindy achievements fun? are some grindy tasks okay while others are just boring? Overall I find an achievement system something that prolongs the life of a game.

 

[Meowanator]

Achievement systems come in all shapes and sizes, but what makes an achievement system "fun"? I plan on developing a game with an internal achievement system (not linked to Steam, iOS, etc...) and designing the various tasks have become a bit more difficult than I imagined. I think a well designed achievement system should:

• Show the player what achievements can be done (not everything should be a mystery, but some "hidden" achievement are also beneficial if used sparingly)
• Show the player the status of the achievement (Kill 100 enemies (12/100 destroyed) )
• Some achievements should be "naturally" unlocked as a player progresses through the game. (beat XX boss) while others are more, well, an achievement to complete.
• Promote replayability, perhaps a certain level or task.
• Strives the player to perfection (beat world 1 in under 30 minutes)
• Have a range a difficulty to complete (easy, medium, hard, very hard)

While "boring" achievements are easier to program (kill 10 enemies, kill 100 enemies, kill 1,000 enemies, etc...) I am wondering if it is "worth" adding it to my game? Do people find the grindy achievements fun? are some grindy tasks okay while others are just boring? Overall I find an achievement system something that prolongs the life of a game.

It depends on your type of game and the mechanics of it. If Killing enemies is rewarding outside of the achievement and is fun, then a couple of grindy achievements could work well. Likewise, if killing enemies is already boring, then the achievement won't be effective in prolonging the game. Also, the perfection achievements should not be extremely strict and should offer some leeway to avoid it from becoming a chore to complete.

 

[ChimaereJade]

Well, achievements are something some thoughts about cannot hurt.
I for myself think, that those grindy ones aren't that important, but in small portions should be part of a good mixture.
I prefer stuff like "found all hidden areas" or "killed boss X with his own weapon" a lot more then the regular "killed 10/100 chicken" (poor link). Mostly I like achievementsystems in which you get rewarded with some items/extra skill points/whatever too, if you are sucessfull with the harder ones.

 

[elsi11]

I have strong opinions about achievements.
The shortest rule of thumb I can think of is : Single player, achievable, ethical.
Single player means:
- no 200 man raids where your achievement depends on whether you are in a good guild or not
- yes- alternative ways to get achievements (Single player farming of pvp items in Dark Souls franchise)
- NO CO-OP. I don't have any friends, so I don't deserve to get all the achievements? At least let me simulate a second player and solo the game ;(
- every achievement should be possible to get solo and without internet
Achievable means:
- NO extremely hard achievements
- NO tedious achievements (kill the boss one billion times) (10 is enough)
- NO impossible achievements for non-korean speedrunners - NO SPEEDRUN ACHIEVEMENTS AT ALL >:| I'm srs about this
- NO impossible luck-based achievements (frag 5 people with 1 grenade) (win the battle royale) (find that one super rare mob in diablo 3 and kill it in hardcore mode) -pls no
Ethical achievements:
- "hey, we made a new DLC expansion. Wouldn't you like your achievements to get reverted from 100% to 70%? No pressure. You don't HAVE to buy our new dlc which takes your achievements hostsge"

So yea, follow the ACHIEVABLE formula, and you will be well on your way towards nice and fun achievements.

 

[Yal]

Most achievements are one of:

• Do plot-relevant thing. (This lets the devs see a rough estimate of player's game retention / ragequit / borequit rate). A lot of games has a chevo for starting/finishing the tutorial; this gives an estimate on how many people that bought the game actually plays it.
• Reach alternate ending X. This promotes actually playing through the game multiple times for all the endings instead of just looking them up on Youtube.
  
• Collect a subset of the optional collectibles. This encourages players to go for all the optional content.
  
• Reach a milestone of some repeatable task (e.g. "kill 100 enemies" or "fill up the beastiary completely"). These pad out the number of achievements.
• Do something novel (e.g. "beat an enemy using the fire-breathing mask"). This can draw the player's attention to random stuff you threw in for fun but is easy to miss.
• Do something under time pressure (or some other resource pressure). This promotes getting good at the game, and fighting for bragging rights.
• Do something bad (e.g. die 1000 times). This can smoothen the blow for something the player doesn't like, and also gives a metric for how much time the player's put into the game.