Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Achievements
Players like to spend time on games, and they also like to brag about their progress.
This is why leaderboards and achievement systems were invented; they help the
player to share in-game breakthroughs with some friends and make them public. The
leaderboard is a pretty simple system, it displays some score records, operating with
player's names and number of received points. A table of achievements in its turn is a
more festive thing. It marks all the players' efforts with special rewards: small pictures
that play a role of game's milestones. People value any recognition of their efforts so
much that each achievement they get in the game makes them happy. The favorite
onesareachievements receivedafter ahardgamingscene,forinstance, theachieve-
ment symbolizing the victory over a big enemy boss or the achievement for special
hidden bonuses being collected.
The following screenshot shows different achievements for the
Blueprint 3D
game,
developed by
Kostya Stankevych
and published by
FDG Entertainment
:
All the achievements should have a clear and plain description. The players' objective
must be easy to catch, something like:
• Play the tutorial level
• Solve 10 puzzles
• Collect 50 stars
• Unlock the Advanced mode
• Finish the game at the Medium level
There is an unspoken rule of graphic style these achievement icons are using: the il-
lustration needs to be simple, comprising only flat objects, few colors, high contrast,
and outlines and should not have soft shadows or any other raster effects. So, they
look almost like a newspaper's comic illustration. Of course you can choose a differ-
ent approach, but try to avoid a big number of tiny details and complex textures.
