One of the things that I find intriguing about modern games, coming from a 80s/90s gaming past, is that there’s a few new concepts that can elevate the experience you have with a game, giving you a few more benefits for the money you put in.
A concept I quite liked playing Return to Monkey Island is the concept of “Achievements”. The concept isn’t new, I’ve seen it first it playing Xbox games more than 10 years ago. By progressing in a game, you’d get an “achievement” unlocked, that outlined to yourself, others in your friend circle or the greater game community, that you reached a milestone in the game.
This could be as trivial as completing a set of levels, finishing an end boss, or completing something faster than a specific time threshold or doing it with lesser resources/ammo than the average user . The achievement would be visible in your profile – and you could notify your friends about it.
For game designers, achievements are a fantastic way of driving engagement with the player, by keeping them in the game and rewarding them visibly for progress, but also delivering a value-add to the game. While you may have beat the game once, there may be a few achievements you didn’t quite unlock – knowing which achievements there are (either upfront, or after you beat the game once), this could be an incentive for gamer to spend more time with the game, beating it a second time, looking to collect all achievements.
That could work out in a number of ways as a motivation for players, and make them stay longer with the game, beyond just the time it takes to play the game through once, but possibly twice. The time players spend with the game is usually also indicated on platforms such as Steam, and for some players, that’s a decision driver for whether or not they want to spend the money on a game. Platforms such as Steam also make sure it’s as easy as possible to incorporate achievements in to the game – so it can be seen/displayed and integrated into the platform. I can also remember the discussions that existed for Nintendo Switch’s “The Legend of Zelda – Breath of a wild” where, in theory, you could be done with the game in 25-35 hours, but if you wanted to complete everything, you may spend well of 150 or 200 hours in it. That game didn’t have an achievement system – I suppose that’s not Nintendo’s thing.
Some thoughts about why achievements make sense for game designers – at least how I imagine it:
- Collect all achievements – which triggers the hunters and gatherers among us, that want to get that 100% in, when they play and enjoy a game. Finishing is not enough, but you want to beat the game completely.
- Compete with others – if there’s 27 achievements to be gained, and I have gotten 7, my friends are have found more than I – wouldn’t I want to try to complete the achievements, too? This is also supported through showing the achievements within the gaming community and players who have also played the game – either individually, or through messages like: “32% of players have unlocked this achievement” – but you haven’t.
- Achieve something rare others have not: the achievements may be designed such that not all players may want to unlock them – separating very dedicated players from more casual players, that complete the game to a certain extent, but won’t go to great lengths of finding all/the hardest achievements. This could go as far as grooming a small community of enthusiasts, amongst the player community.
- Encourage players to try out freely and creatively: especially in new games, this could encourage players to try out different things. If there’s “hidden” achievements, meaning they’re not announced or described upfront, this could encourage players to try sections of a game a number of times, with different tactics. It could be used to also reward thinking outside of the box, when what you try in the game is a valid alternate approach, but not the solution what was need.
Likely, there’s more. Clearly there’s also the fun factor that many achievements transport. Especially for Monkey Island, some of the achievements are just fun to get done or discover, because they reward absurd things to be done in order to get unlock them.
The achievements could be of different nature. The most natural achievement would unlock as the player makes progress in the game, and finishes different sections in the game, until they beat the game. There could be more, though:
- Reward the player for exploring thoroughly: when players visit uncommon areas of the game or are especially attentive and find secret locations, a well-hidden (optional) item, visit all places in an area at least once, or find that hidden treasure chest that is meant to be very well hidden. This rewards the player for exploring, not just rushing through the game.
- Reward pushing characters and dialog: this may reward players to explore all dialog options, diving into the story and interacting with non-playable characters in the game. This would be to drive the story and to immerse the player into the story more. This may also include completing a side quest or activity that’s strictly not required to progress in the game. Reward that a player spends time on “helping” an NPC while it does not progress the main story for them (much).
- Think outside the box: there may be multiple solutions to a problem. While only one solution may progress the game and the story correctly, rewarding alternate solutions or approaches for that, may be a way of encouraging players. Especially in puzzle-based games, when players edge between frustration and euphoria, a “wrong” answer to a puzzle that’s still rewarded through an achievement may save the player’s mood.
- Reward date and time of playing: if it’s relevant to the story or drives emotion or atmosphere of the game, you may reward time of day or the actual day the game was played on – for example on New Year’s eve or Halloween, that could show how dedicated people are – or that they play on the most weird days when really, they should be spending time elsewhere.
- Alternate Endings: while they should be an incentive for motivated players on their own, achievements may be a way of promoting alternate endings to players. Depending on what triggers the differentiation between endings, the achievement could show dedication that some players went through portions of the game multiple times, to unlock multiple endings.
…and possibly more.
I think well designed achievements help the player immerse themselves deeper into the game and show them additional facets of the game, and motivate them to interact with the game beyond what they would usually do – possibly also spend more time with the game than they would without them, creating this feeling that “I have had a good experience with this game [for the money is spent]” or “I have played this game a few times now, with slightly different experiences each time.”
For the developers, if it’s hidden achievements, the game may stay relevant longer, as there may be new things players uncover and tweet, blog and talk about it – and the game becomes for more replayable. This could also be a very good reality check on how far players progressed in the game and what areas players have explored how much – if only 20% or the playing audience reached a certain level in the game, you know people didn’t progress far. Similarly, you could learn more about your audience – if many players unlocked achievements that have to do with side-quests and NPCs, that could indicate they value the story and atmosphere – over progressing to fast.
Valid data points that could help make decisions on DLCs, additional content, a successor to the game or – even more achievements that are deployed/added through the game update mechanism – that build the bridge to a successor of the game.
FRICKELSOFT 