Sunday, April 21, 2024

Achievement Crafting: A General Post

Laying here with some back pain, I figured i may as well put some thoughts down for anyone interested in how I craft achievements and my own personal desires are when both playing and crafting.

Let me get one quick oddly specific thing out of the way: I am 100% on board with retro games (RetroAchievements obviously falls within this camp) having tutorial achievements. I don't think modern games need them (generally), since the in-game tutorial accomplishes the goal of training a player. Older games, especially from generation 1 to 3 (and a bit of 4) relied heavily on their instruction manuals to explain game rules, and even those were typically lacking in some way. Having some achievements there to inform players is an effective way to teach newcomers that don't necessarily feel like tracking down a scan of a manual that may not even help.

To get even more oddly specific, I often include 0-point exposure-based achievements for causing a Tilt penalty in pinball games that I develop sets for. You may ask "Why? Doesn't that encourage bad gameplay?" My argument is no, it doesn't, and in fact it exposes a mechanic to new players that they otherwise may overlook. Many new players to pinball don't know about "nudging" as a mechanic. Video pinball doesn't always feature nudging, but more often than not it does. Sometimes, said nudging is just like real life pinball, where if you do it too much, you get a Tilt penalty and it forces your ball to drain. As a pinball aficionado, I of course know nudging is crucial to consistently achieving high scores and completing table events as effectively as possible. A newcomer wouldn't know this at all. By having an achievement that exposes the Tilt penalty, it in turn exposes the nudge feature, which acts as a more "meta" tutorial, as the player will have to infer from the penalty that nudging is actually a good thing; so good that the game will penalize you if you do it too much. I think it's helpful for pinball wizards too, because if I craft a set WITHOUT a Tilt achievement, it means there isn't a Tilt penalty. In these cases I often go out of my way to create custom nudge-based challenges to further expose the nudge feature, and help new players discover the joy of pinball (see: https://retroachievements.org/achievement/346131 among others).

Getting back to generalities, I also really enjoy the concept of "novel" achievements, though some may find the concept frivolous or even arbitrary. I've talked about it before, but the "Pacifism" achievement for Geometry Wars was the first time I ever had an achievement encourage me to play a game in a way that was actively counter intuitive to the main point of the game, and despite that, I had a ton of fun doing it! Similar challenges would be to beat a certain level in Sonic without collecting rings, or Mario without coins; a regular playthrough would more or less require you do so, but to actively avoid them forces the player to reevaluate the entire level almost from scratch. When you love a game like that, and have played it to death already, a novel achievement like that can inject new life into it and allow a player to have fun with it all over again.

Of course there's straight forward achievements for progression, Easter eggs, and challenges. These are both necessary and expected; players want to show off that they beat a game, and they'll feel discouraged or even uninterested if the achievements don't respect their time investment. This is something some developers butt heads over; some feel it best to minimize achievement spam for things like beating individual levels or collecting individual collectibles, and in some cases, that makes perfect sense. Beating 1-1 on Super Mario is hardly an "achievement." So in those kinds of games it becomes the norm to expect achievements per world instead of level. Seems fair enough. However, as I've gotten older and my time spare time has shrunk more and more, I better appreciate the idea of "popcorn" achievements; having a reward to mark my progress for the limited time I have encourages me to come back and keep trying. If I see a set that only rewards achievements for hour+ investments at a minimum, in games where levels are about 5 minutes a piece or so, I probably will look for something else; I don't necessarily have an hour to invest to hit that milestone. I don't think all games should do this, mind you, including Mario or Sonic, but for context, those games can be beaten in an hour. For multi-hour games, with save anytime features, I think popcorn achievements work best.

Expanding on that, I think popcorn achievements help developers be more creative with individual level challenges. If you evaluate every level individually, you are more likely to have a novel idea about that level, which can lead to lots of fun.

I'm starting to fade now, but I'll edit this and add more over the coming days. I'd like to talk about my own personal dislikes with achievement design, as well as some of the unavoidable issues with the entire concept.

Friday, September 29, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Tetris CD-i

Babbling Brook - Clear Level 0

Brash Brook - In Level 0, attain XXX amount of points (needs testing/balancing)

Wonderous Waterfall - Clear Level 1

Marvelous Mountain - Clear Level 2

Desert Dunes - Clear Level 3

Stunning Streams - Clear Level 4

Funky Forest Feel - Clear Level 5

Beachfront Beauty - Clear Level 6

Sublime Shrubland - Clear Level 7

Vibrant Valley - Clear Level 8

Superb Sunset - Reach over 120 lines cleared on Level 9

This version of Tetris does not care about such paltry things as getting a "Tetris," "T-Spin," or any other silly bonus. In fact, you score more based on how high your lines are when landing on the playing field. With that in mind, to encourage high score style playing with this mechanic, I would design a score challenge for reaching a certain metric within Level 0 before reaching Level 1. Outside of that and simply clearing levels, all I can really think of are more line challenges or score challenges, which aren't that exciting and the Leaderboards would track that anyway. Then again, nothing wrong with a simple set for a simple game; just enjoy the relaxing music and FMV backgrounds. In fact, it may be a fun thing to try and track when the music loops, and have challenges for not clearing lines and just surviving long enough per stage to hear the full track. Maybe designate it as a "Tetris and Chill" challenge. It would be easy enough early on but the speed of the game would make later levels much harder (perhaps even impossible; I haven't played enough to know).


Please don't take this post as evidence of imminent CD-i support. This is just something on my mind. I would like to see it supported though; it may seem like a meme, but I think the CD-i is still extremely charming.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

The State of Things Part Deux

A year and change later, I am a full fledged developer on RetroAchievements. I have 12 sets I've helped develop, 8 of which were entirely solo projects. This may have been obvious since...you know, my Achievement Crafting posts now specifically mention that I'm actively developing stuff. Anyways, it's a nice feeling to have done that in my spare time in the past year. I look forward to developing more. Keep an eye on both my blog and RetroAchievements.org for updates on my current projects. I will make an effort to post everything I do here under the Achievement Crafting section, but can't promise I'll always remember to. I started work on a YouTube video that is related to achievements, so look forward to that.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Gain Ground Arcade (System 24)


I claimed this one and have most of the memory needed to start coding it, but not quite. I may expand this or reach out to other devs and see if they would like to collaborate. As it is, I feel this list is adequate, and being the Arcade version does have replayability drawbacks when it comes to making specific level challenges. Deathless would be VERY hard in this one, so I've more or less decided it could be a subset. To round it out and reward players for at least having to put effort into saving fighters and then also playing well enough as them to get them to the exit, I've decided on this GG entry to be EXIT themed, more so than the others. Some will still be extremely challenging (simply saving the General is hard enough).

TitleDescriptionPoint Value
You Have Repressed This EpochYou beat the Primitive Age5
Now You Go To Next EpochYou beat the Primitive Age with only 1 Credit (must fully reset to try again on any 1C cheevos)10
Thou Hast Quelled This EraYou beat the Middle Ages10
Hasten Thee To The Next EraYou beat the Middle Ages with only 1 Credit25
你打败了这个时代You beat the Modern Age10
去下一个时代You beat the Modern Age with only 1 Credit50
1-12-5-1 3-C-5-1-12-5-4You beat the Future Age, beating the game. Good Job!25
14-12-19 1-7-1-9-EYou made it to the final boss, but were defeated. Don't give up!10
13-8-15-14-4-F-17-EYou beat the entire game with only 1 credit. Amazing!100
Sorry Fellow, Can't Be YellowPlay as player 2. Sorry, but achievements won't work as Player 2!0
Boycott Blues, You Cannot ChoosePlay as player 3. Sorry, but achievements won't work as Player 3!0
Go Ahead And Play As RedPlay as player 1. This enables further achievements.0
Athra's AnticsAs Athra, successfully reach an EXIT.1
When Johnny Strikes Up The WhenAs Johnny, successfully reach an EXIT.1
Betty Gettin' Ready, Rock SteadyAs Betty, successfully reach an EXIT.1
Outta Sight Glow KnightAs Glow Knight, successfully reach an EXIT.2
Verbal AltercationAs Verbal, successfully reach an EXIT.2
Ride of the ValkyrieAs Valkyrie, successfully reach an EXIT.2
Light A Fire Under Fire KnightAs Fire Knight, successfully reach an EXIT.5
Lost Puppy, Answers to "Mud"As Mud Puppy, successfully reach an EXIT.5
The Professy Will HelpAs Professor, successfully reach an EXIT.5
Lobby Has Exited The LobbyAs Lobby, successfully reach an EXIT.5
Zaemon Needs His ZsAs Zaemon, successfully reach an EXIT.5
Water Knight Doesn't Want To FightAs Water Knight, successfully reach an EXIT.10
No Mam, I Can't Deal With This!As Mam, successfully reach an EXIT.10
No One's Quick As GasconAs Gascon, successfully reach an EXIT.10
Mars Needs MomsAs Mars, successfully reach an EXIT.10
I Don't Feel Good In GeneralAs General, successfully reach an EXIT.10
Don't Have A Kou ManAs Kou, successfully reach an EXIT.10
Cyber Needs SpaceAs Cyber, successfully reach an EXIT.10
Leave Me Alone Kid, I'm BusyAs Kid, successfully reach an EXIT.10
Oh Honey, You Shouldn't Have!As Honey, successfully reach an EXIT.25
Good GainerYou broke through to the top 10 of the in-game leaderboard by getting over 1,000 points1
Great GainerYou beat the default High Score of 10,000 points.5
Grand GainerYou reached a score of 100,000 points.10
Conscientious ObjectorComplete 1-1 without killing anyone and without taking any damage.3

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Piyotama

 

TitleDescriptionPoint Value
Coop Mode:Timed Mode
Cockerellow score1
Henpeckedmid score5
Don't Get Cockyhigh score10
Cock of the Walkhighest score25
Free Range Mode:Endless Mode
PlaceholderVarious level threshold cheevos1
Placeholder5
Placeholder10
Placeholder25
Universal:
EggGet a Combo of 51
ChickGet a Combo of 103
BoilerGet a Combo of 155
PulletGet a Combo of 2010
HenGet a Combo of 3025
Easter EggerHatch a Kaleidoscope egg1
Plump DumpHatch a Plump egg1

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Tiny Chao Garden Subset Outline

Link Sonic Advance/PP, Sonic Advance 2, and Sonic Adventure DX multiboot

For each different version of TCG, there are 2 minigames, 1 of which is unique per game and the other shared across all games.

Memory Game (all versions):

Short Term Memory - Finish the Memory minigame with 1 or more misses.

Mind Like a Steel Trap - Finish the Memory minigame with 0 misses.

Chao's CC Shoot (Sonic Pinball Party):

An achivement per level for successful completion.

An achievement for getting over 100 rings.

Janken (Sonic Advance):

Ring thresholds up to the max 99. 25, 50, 75, 99 more than likely.

A no miss challenge for a certain threshold.

Chao Super High Jump (Sonic Advance 2):

Achievement per level.

Achievement for perfect ring collection (that is, no deaths).

Chao Friend Search (Sonic Adventure DX multiboot):

Achievement for clearing.

Achievement for perfect clearing.

Achievement for exceeding the max time.

TCG:

The additional achievements will be done in the main Tiny Chao Garden mode. For simplicity, this will be restricted to Sonic Advance 2. It and PP are the more "up to date" versions, with more Chao interactions for players to see.

Achievements for each type of fruit.

Achievements for every toy.

Achievements for buying an egg different than the free default one (they're random, so not going to require buying the crazy rare/expensive ones).

Achievement for sending a Chao away.

An achievement for getting specific stat thresholds (enough for flying and/or swimming).

An achievement for max mood and belly.

An achievement for petting the Chao.

An achievement for pulling a weed.

An achievement for renaming a Chao.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Sega Flipper

While not as robust as some of its peers, Sega Flipper still has solid, predictable physics that can lead to a relatively fun time despite the fairly simple presentation. The main neat thing is that the upper left portion of the screen is basically a smaller table within a table, which wasn't exactly a common feature of video pinball of the time.

It Takes Two - Get a X2 multiplier by lighting all of the upper right well lights

Third Times The Charm - Get a X3 multiplier

May The Fours Be With You - Get a X4 multiplier

Get Five, Feel Alive - Get the max X5 multiplier

Targets Dropped, Balls Topped - Drop all 7 Drop Targets to earn an Extra Ball. Nice!

Here's The Kicker - Hit the kicker hole on the right side of the table.

Trickier Kicker - Hit the kicker hole on the top left side of the table.

Unstable Bumper Thumper - Hit the unstable bumper in all 3 of its unique positions within 10 seconds.

Flipper Flop - Get 1,000 points

Flipper Fan - Get 10,000 points

Flipper Freak - Get 100,000 points

Big Bonus - Get a Bonus score worth of 10,000 points.

Flipper Fest - Hit every unique target in a single game session. That includes every bumper, every drain, every hole, and every spinner.

Friday, March 17, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Intellivision Pinball

I've identified most of the relevant memory aside from a handful of specific targets. Hopefully whoever does this set can find the memory required to cover this whole theoretical outline.

Lower Table:

Every Dog Has His Day - Activate both kickbacks on the lower table by hitting the "cartoon animal" holes.

Goooooooold - Explore the Goldmine by hitting all the Tombstone drop targets and then finally hitting the red lantern. This gold ball multiplies all points earned from targets by 2!

Drop 'em & Bump 'em- Hit all 4 drop targets on the bottom table (not to be confused with the Tombstone targets); this makes the bumpers worth more points.

This Table is Mid - Activate both lights by hitting the upper drains to reveal a hole leading to the middle table!

Middle Table:

Stuck In The Middle With You - Make it to the middle table.

Reader Rabbit's Favorite Bonus - Spell PINBALL on the middle table.

World's Least Interesting Crane Game - Get a bonus by hitting the claw target 3 times in a single ball on the middle table (this also increases the value of the bumpers).

Prepare Uranus - Hit all 4 upper left drop targets on the middle table. This activates the moving target challenge. Good luck!

Uranus Destroyed - Hit the moving target on the middle table!

High Aspirations - Hit the 2 drop targets on the right side of the mid table to reveal the hole to the top table. Have fun up there!

Upper Table:

Tommy's Enlightenment - Climbed to the upper table. Great job!

I'm Seeing Red But I'm Feeling Free - Earn an extra ball on the upper table.

I'm Cashing Out - Hit the extra ball hole a second time to cash in your score bonus.

Going Nuclear - Hit the Uranium target on the top table.

Squirtle is the Best Starter - Reveal the Turtle by hitting the 4 middle red drop targets.

Slow and Steady - Get the turtle to its second position.

Not Teenage, Not Mutant, But a Turtle all the Same - Get the turtle to its third position.

Home Stretch - Get the turtle to its fourth position. Almost there!

Turtley Enough For the Turtle Club - Got the turtle all the way to the right, revealing the extra ball hole. Good job!

Feeling All Right - On the upper table, hit all the drop targets on the right.

Out Of Left Field - On the upper table, hit all the drop targets on the left.

Tippy Top - On the upper table, hit all the drop targets on the top.

Pretty in Pink - Hit all four pink targets on the top table.

Golden Child - With a max multiplier and a max bonus, cash out on the top table with a golden ball.

Universal Challenges:

Pinball Peasant - Earn 1000 points.

Pinball Apprentice - Earn 10,000 points

Pinball Wizard - Earn 100,000 points

Pinball Sorcerer Supreme - Earn 500,000 points

Max Multiplier - Get your multiplier to 5 (or 6, more research needed)

12 - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12...12! You got your bonus up to 12. Sesame Street would be proud!

Max Bonus - Get your bonus to 30. Can you cash it in early on the top table?

We're Not Gonna Take It - Cause a TILT by bumping too much. Tommy would be ashamed!

Monday, March 13, 2023

Achievement Crafting: Cool Spot Gen/MD Revision

This will strongly resemble the SNES set after its done. This revision will not change any existing cheevos; it will just flesh it out with more standard progression cheevos. My revision plan is to:

A single achievement per bonus stage for 100% completion.

Achievement for collecting all continues (spelling UNCOLA).

Achievement for simple beating of levels on Normal or Difficult (as in it rewards for either, not that there's 2 separate cheevos per level [it simply excludes Easy]).

Achievement for beating the game on Normal and Difficult (would in fact be 2 separate cheevos, but beating on Difficult would stack with Normal).

Ultimate achievement for beating the game on Difficult without Continues and collecting all UNCOLA letters.

Collecting a collectible during the yawn animation (assuming I can find animation memory). This was just a novel idea that came to me by chance. I was letting the timer go down in a bonus stage, trying to locate the memory, when Spot yawned, and he collected a spot above him. Turns out they actually stretch his hit box during idle animations. I just thought it was funny, and since Spot's idle animations are so nice, I figured it's kind of a nice "highlight" achievement concept so people can appreciate the surprising amount of work that went into a licenced soda game.

Collecting enough spots in a row to get the big bonus (the one that goes "YEAH" at the end, which if you play in a particular rhythm is the same melody as McRock, the opening stage music in Virgin's Global Gladiators).

Using the level select code (0 pointer that will warn players that it locks progress of full completion cheevos).

I will protect against level select for the full completion cheevos, but otherwise allow it. It would be very tedious to get all the full completion bonus level cheevos without it.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Achievement Crafting: Crush Roller NGPC

A game from my childhood, I really enjoy it. I've actually already made leaderboards for it.

An achievement per stage for custom par times earned via the Trial mode. Note: you can only play a level in Trial mode if you've beaten it in the main mode. Should have leaderboards per stage for both score and time. More research needed for what an appropriate time challenge would be. Would likely have custom titles per stage to try and reference the layout, tricks, or just jokes or frustrations. Simply naming them "1-1" etc. is fine, but not as exciting. 1 point a piece, but can be adjusted depending on difficulty of the stage/par time. Alternatively, and perhaps much more simply, they could just for beating the stages in Trial mode: Trial mode forces single life completion, so it's a built-in no death challenge, albeit divvied out one at a time per stage. Some stages are real pains to beat deathless, so this may be just fine.

An achievement per stage (kind of) for collecting their respective Trickster. I would likely just name each achievement after the respective Trickster, and mention which level it can be caught in the cheevo description. The badge could be easy (just use their album art) or hard/fancy (use their album art with a "painted" border with their paw prints in the border, and their in-game sprites from every angle [up, down, left, and right] somewhere on the respective edge of the border). 1 point a piece, but consider 2 pointers for the handful of Tricksters that are 2 separate sprites.

A Relaxing Stroll - beat the game. 10

A Crushing Weight Lifted From My Shoulders - beat the game without continuing. 25

This Clock...Smells Like Cheese! - Beat the game within a certain in-game par time, which allows deaths and can be cheesed; just kind of a way to point it out but also still make it challenging. I'm thinking 5 minutes. More specifically, the game only tracks your best times and combines them in a run, and does not care about if you used a continue. So you could grind for a great time, move onto the next level, mess up somehow, kill yourself enough to continue, and the game still has your good time from the 1st level and resets the timer to 0 for the 2nd level. Continue that way until you beat the game with a low time. 10

This Clock...Smells Like Burnt Rubber! - Basically take the same challenge from above, but restrict the use of continues. 25

I Wanna Be The Very Best - Collect all Trickster entries and fill out the Trickster album. 10

What's Crushma? - Crush the maximum of 4 enemies at once (can only be done on final stage). 5