Achievement Brainstorming

#1

When (rather likely) frogatto gets some social-gaming-network support like OpenFeint or GameCenter, we’ll need some sort of in-game achievements. I’d rather not do some half-hearted bullshit where all we have is achievements for doing the obvious. At least in my opinion, the point of achievements is humor. Preferably awful puns and nerd-culture references. ::slight_smile: I’d like your help brainstorming some clever ones.

Achievements seem to fall into a few categories.

Standard gameplay:

  • winning the game
  • speedrunning the game
  • reaching certain levels of points/kills/etc

Completing unusual contradictions of the game’s soft rules:

  • in many sections of frogatto, you don’t have to kill anything, but it’s much easier if you do.
  • in other games, there are escort missions, or missions of attrition which are supposed to be very hard to execute without losing anyone.
  • in many games, there are fancy toys (like a new gun) you’re given for an exact objective, which could be completed some alternate, much more difficult way.

Weird occurrences or feats in the game that are mostly being used for a great pun. Doesn’t necessarily have to do with winning the game. Is weakest when it’s just standard-fare of game interactions (like SC2’s achievements for unlocking certain normal dialogue strings… wtf?). Is best when it’s a bizarre and difficult trick that the game designers hadn’t really intended - preferably some kind of “emergent gameplay”. Not all games are equal, and some games aren’t very conducive to this at all. Is at its absolute best when it involves lethal joke characters, bizzare kinds of cherry-tapping, or the best kinds of overkill.

  • doing impossible jumps, tricking enemies into killing themselves, combining powers or game effects in hilarious ways. Just plain doing weird stuff.
  • Examples might include: using grenades to launch warthogs across the map in Halo. Throwing an opponent in Oni, and killing 5 guys with his flying body. Using mules offensively in SC2 to drain an opponent’s base of minerals. Building a line of adjacent cities across a peninsula in Civ 1 to allow you to send ships across. Destroying all of an opponent’s trees in WC3, or vis-a-vis, blowing up his gold mine in WC2. Winning a match of some strategy game using only your workers as attackers. In a game with said ability, charming your opponent’s entire army.

These categories are not clearly delineated, and bleed into each other.

#2

Some ideas - the text shown in quotes is displayed in game, the text not shown is just the internal logic driving. Some of them don’t explain themselves well, for humor value.

“Newton’s First Law of Manga - Treat airborne objects as stepping stones.” - jump back and forth between several of the black bugs that lose their wings after being hopped on. Probably activated after some very difficult chain, like 3-6 of them.

“Nuclear Lunch Detected - Kill lots of enemies with one thundermelon.” - no, those aren’t in game yet.

“Love Bug - Stack multiple bugs on top of each other.” - may or may not work due to changing engine mechanics.

“Nice Try - but that’s not a secret area.” - bust through a destructible bridge over a bottomless pit. I’m especially thinking of the one in crevice bridge.

“What. - Die 100 times on the same level.”

“Bad Taste - Please don’t do that in a family-oriented game.” To get this, you have to hit an NPC with your tongue, whilst the NPC is facing away from you. They turn quickly to always face the player. May only get used on a select few NPCs.

“Army of Darkness - Extinguish every candle in the game.”

#3

I’d lower “What” to 30 or so. Few people can legitimately get 100. You’re just going to be rewarding them for holding down the right button on some pit level.
There’s also this (look in the spoiler).

#4

“By the Skin of Your Teeth” – kill the airplane boss with only one bridge segment remaining, and that segment only requiring one more point of damage to be destroyed.
“Gold Hoarder” – have more than X (where X is a large number) coins – this would be quite difficult since it implies not getting any improvements from the shop

#5

How about an achievement for beating the entire game (boss battles and all) without ever taking any damage?

Along the same lines, you could include an achievement for beating the game without dying, even once.

I’m afraid I don’t have any witty online culture references to name these after.

#6

Getting through the airplane boss carrying a golden ant definitely has to be something.

#7

[quote=“Gambit, post:3, topic:100”]I’d lower “What” to 30 or so. Few people can legitimately get 100. You’re just going to be rewarding them for holding down the right button on some pit level.
There’s also this (look in the spoiler).[/quote]

This is a negative achievement; a mark of shame. I’m not rewarding players for this, I’m punishing them. 8)
Since achievements are linked to an online account typically used by a whole bunch of games, it’s not like players can trivially roll them back or saveload.

At least in this brainstorming stage, there’s definitely room for negative, snide achievements. Whether we actually act on it, later, is up for grabs.

#8

The airplane boss/golden ant thing is easy; I just did it a moment ago.

Only took one failed attempt before I succeeded.

#9

[quote=“Jetrel, post:7, topic:100”][quote author=Gambit link=topic=80.msg422#msg422 date=1284379848]
I’d lower “What” to 30 or so. Few people can legitimately get 100. You’re just going to be rewarding them for holding down the right button on some pit level.
There’s also this (look in the spoiler).
[/quote]

This is a negative achievement; a mark of shame. I’m not rewarding players for this, I’m punishing them. 8)[/quote]

Yeah, but that’s not how it works at all. You see there’s these people called trophy w****s (every gamer out there) who, when given an achievements list, will go out of their way to get every single one. It doesn’t matter how bad it is. They want to show that they have unlocked all those things. There were will be good FPS players, top of the leaderboard, who will die 20 times in a row (if that’s an achievement), or who will knife 15 teammates, to get that platinum, or that 100%, or to have all the icons lit up, or whatever it looks like when you unlock everything on whatever platform you’re on.

You can’t have shameful trophies. They’re not ashamed of it.

edit: To go even further; If you were to have individual stats on the website, you would see people competing to set the “most deaths by normal ant” record. We’re a ridiculous bunch of people.

#10


Something like, or based on “The Mail always goes through.” ?

#11

[quote=“C. Bob, post:8, topic:100”]The airplane boss/golden ant thing is easy; I just did it a moment ago.

Only took one failed attempt before I succeeded.[/quote]

It’s not very hard; I wouldn’t call it easy though. And even if it is, it’s good to have easy ones for people who just aren’t good enough at the game to get the harder ones.

[quote=“marcavis, post:10, topic:100”]http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF202-Post_Apocalyptic.jpg
Something like, or based on “The Mail always goes through.” ?[/quote]

I don’t know how much people would recognize that, but it’s funny!

#12

“Hide and Go LOOK EVERYWHERE” - Find all hidden areas, yeah ALL of them. Worth 1 Point.

#13

Mexican Frog Worker: Harvest all the gold berries in the game.
Indiana Wannabe: Explode a thunder melon (or other biggest in-game explosion) in front of a fridge.
Sadistic Child: Smoosh 100 or 1000 ants.
Walls Explorer: Find all the secret passages.
Saviour: Save the game 1000 times.
Don Quixote: Attack a Waterfall.
Bill Keller: Open the editor.

Gotta go walk the dog.

#14

Frogourmet: Try to eat all kinds of enemies, at least once.

#15

[table]
[tr][td]A&B Pest Control:[/td][td]Eliminate the ants from Nene’s basement… twice.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Pithed:[/td][td]Don’t move for an hour.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Hydrophobia:[/td][td]Exit the water faster than should be possible.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]PH Blindness: Snoozed Chem 10: Failed the Litimus Test:[/td][td]Die five times in the same pool of acid.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Porch Light Moth:[/td][td]Walk into a wall for 60 seconds solid.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Roman Repeat:[/td][td]Loose all your health over a period of 120 seconds without falling off the screen or doing any damage.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Elf:[/td][td]Don’t kill any plants in the forest.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]London Frog:[/td][td]Blow yourself up (dead) with a spat thundermelon.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sunstruck: Heatstroke: Water…:[/td][td]Die in the desert with a pool of water in view.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Headache:[/td][td]Hit your head on the roof 10 times in 60 seconds.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Artist: Obsessive:[/td][td]Spend three hours actively editing the same level in the editor.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Cat Hater:[/td][td]Kill *2[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Cat Lover:[/td][td]Kill less than half the cats in the game.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Annoyance: Pest:[/td][td]Repeat the same line of static dialogue five times, back to back.[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]Sir Robin:[/td][td]Return to the forest by foot from Milgram’s tower. (monty python & the quest for the holy grail ref.)[/td][/tr]
[/table]

#16

Hmm, let’s see… I thought about “Spunky Spelunker” as a name for that one, but it turns out it has been used elsewhere, in Dragon Quest IX:
http://www.woodus.com/den/games/dq9ds/accolades_list.php Oh well ::slight_smile:

#17

Nature Boy: Neat Freak: A Place for Everything: Put the first (variant: any) water beetle you encounter on land, and put it in the water.
Fumper Foe: Kill five fumpers on the same level.
Antagonist: Kill 100 ants.
Otta Gorf: Go backwards through all the worlds.

For Nene:
Robin: Grab a coin from Frogatto’s house. (Or other plausibly ‘owned’ coin.)
Crow: ‘Like’ Frogatto on (Facebook, Twitter, whatever).
Phoenix: Flamethrower-kill an enemy while ascending. (Rising from the ashes, as it were.)
Magpie: Ooo, shiney!: Grab 1k coins.
Early Bird: Kill a white worm. or:
Early Worm: Be killed by a white worm.
Thunk!: Fly into a wall. (or window)
Petrel: Die in the water, spawn in the water, and die again in the water.
Carrier Pigeon: Respawn at the same checkpoint 10 times in a row.

Pato:
Hot Potato: Stand on a stove.
French Fry: … and stay there for 25 min.
Gone to Sprout: Stay in the same spot without moving for half an hour.
Home Turf: Complete 5 underground levels without dying.
Punch Out: Defeat Milgram (on hard?)… with your fists.
Fists of Fire: Drop into slow-time combat mode, and stay there for 300 seconds.
One Potato, Two Potato: Find two other Potatoes.
Peeled: Fall into, and die from, an acid pool.
173g: Discover your weight.
Spud: A comic character from a certain brand of gum branded for potatoes.
Super Saturated Speedy Spunky Spelunker Spud - Speed run, without damage, 3 consecutive under water levels, with Pato.

#18

Let’s try some memes…
Frogs with Lasers: Kill five underwater units without losing the energy powerup.
Back to 2003/Squirrel, Squirrel, Squirrel/The Squirrel Song: Throw a squirrel at a mushroom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsLI
Also…
Geronimo: Throw/push an enemy off a cliff/edge over 1000px tall - (and not killing them?)

#19

Of course it doesn’t kill them - frogatto does not know what ‘inerta’ is. (Nor does it know what ‘weight’ is. Maybe someday. ::slight_smile: )

Would be fairly easy to add, though.

#20

Oh, what I meant by that is that the “Geronimo” achievement shouldn’t be given when you kill an enemy, either by tossing them into water or a bottomless pit; since e.g. in the movies, the skydivers that yelled “Geronimo!” would usually survive the fall.
As for actually implementing more realistic physics in the game, I’m not sure how much that adds to the gameplay.