Achievement ideas

[Darren Grey]

I'm getting ready to release a new version of Toby the Trapper (my 2010 7DRL game) based on some suggestions from Michał Bieliński and a few tweaks I'd like to do myself.  Part of the upgrade is to include a high score system and an achievement system, with total achievements gained displayed on the title screen.  Problem is I'm a little starved on achievement ideas...

For those unfamiliar with Toby the Trapper it's a roguelike where you are twice as fast as most enemies, have only 1 HP, and the only way to attack is to lay down traps.  Achievements I'd like to implement are:

 * 1 for each ending (total 15)
 * 1 for each boss (total 6)
 * killing giant in 1 round
 * killing more than 9 enemies in one round
 * making a trap explosion chain of more than 10 traps, with enemies killed on each end
 * winning on hardcore mode
 * winning in under 5000 turns

Other than than I'm a bit starved of ideas.  Think that's enough?  Or have any rough suggestions for more?  I don't want to have any simple "kill x enemies in the game" achievements, and I want them all to be positive things based on real gameplay challenge.

[jim]

There's a cute flash game called Achievement Unlocked (I think) that should give you about 1,000 ideas.

Other ideas include getting down a staircase without killing anyone, making it through a whole level while using only one kind of trap, killing the final boss and self with the same trap... stuff like that... IIRC, the first two achievements are automatic given the limited supply of traps at the start of the game, so yes, tweaking.

[languard]

I'm personally against the idea of achievements for just playing the game, such as the 'one for each ending' suggestion.  Achievements should in my mind suggest challenges or questions to the user.  They also need to be considered game play features and iterated on like everything else.  Need to run off to teach now, but I'll try and come up with some suggestions later today.  Is there someplace I can play a current version to get a feel for the game?

[Darren Grey]

Going a certain distance without killing anyone would be a good achievement... and quite achievable too.  I don't like the idea of an achievement for dying in a certain way though.

languard:  You can get the current version here.  The 15 endings are based off gameplay challenges, so they're not for just playing the game.  One of them involves killing less than 20 enemies in the whole game for instance.