Discussion: Well-designed achievement lists

Oraclea · Feb 12, 2020

I recently stumbled across an
Xbox Wire article about HyperDot, a new action-arcade game with challenging but addictive gameplay, a robust level editor, and a particularly well-designed achievement list inspired by feedback from gamers who are especially involved in the ID@Xbox community.
While some opinions about achievement lists differ a lot between people, such as overall ease, there were a few prevailing thoughts that guided the design of the achievements, including the following:

-Pace achievements to unlock gradually over the course of the game

-Avoid achievements that would require far more grinding than would be expected within the scope of a typical playthrough

-For achievements counting how many times you do something in the game, include a functional achievement tracker

-Avoid achievements with GS ending in a number other than 0 or 5

-Don't use secret achievements except for spoiler-related or unmissable content

-Use the achievement description to clearly describe how to unlock the achievement

-Design achievements to gently nudge players to try play styles, game modes, and/or features they might not otherwise, such as a custom level editor

For this discussion, feel free to answer one or both of the following:

1. For the guidelines listed above and/or in the article, is there one that stands out as being particularly important to you personally, and why?

2. Do you personally find that a well-designed achievement list (or a well-designed individual achievement or two) might affect how you play a game or how much time you spend with a game? If so, is there a specific example or two that comes to mind?

:)

Pandy Yato

I do not really consider achievements but I do believe that sometimes having ones you must grind for can be rewarding, especially if it gives you an in game item like a minion, armour, title or a weapon, it kind of shows off your hard work and dedication
to that achievement.

Largely however, I dont really consider achievements that important or crucial to my enjoyment of a game.

ImpaledGremlin

I dont like the grind out somethings just cos we want you to types. They are annoying.

Also secret ones annoy me as they have no hint as to what play style or area etc you need to do. I often find a way to play that suits me and that might mean I'm never getting an achievement as it doesnt match the criteria. That's ok if they tell me as
I can mix it up if i want it but if secret????

ScottTHEscammeR

I like when a small amount of the achievements are grindy to be honest. The kill 50000 zombies achievement from dead rising was fun

NatedawgKY

Yes i love well designed acheviment lists

webdevkit

Thanks for sharing this article. I think game development is very interesting and its always cool to read about how other developers go about perfecting their craft. You usually don’t see this attention to detail in major studio releases.

Discussion: Well-designed achievement lists