That’s why there are only fourteen of them. To sum it up, our achievements do not force you do things you possibly wouldn’t want to do, they’re not artificial time extenders, they’re non-invasive and unlocked in neutral moments. How many people finish the game? If they stopped playing, when did that happen? Is there anything they liked in the game in particular? How popular are “secrets” in a game like ours? Adding achievements will provide us with useful data for the future. Sixth, it’s a bit late for that and I wish we had the time to analyze achievements deeply sooner and just had them at launch, but achievements are also a good way to track player behavior. We tested it, everything worked like a charm, and people keep asking for achievements – so we figured that there’s no harm, then, to add the achievements to the game.įifth, if you analyze the names of the achievements, you will probably realize something no one (we think?) has realized so far, and we figured it’s a nice way to integrate the achievements as a certain meta-element of the story and the message that the game is telling. So we figured that we might just as well launch the achievement unlock at exactly the same moment.
not in the middle of an emotional scene.įourth, yes, achievements are external entities, from beyond the world of the game. Also, some games just unlock them at the right moment, e.g. As I play more and more games on Steam, I can see how fairly non-invasive Steam achievements are: muted colors, no sound, lower right corner. My hesitance towards achievements was mostly due to the way they are implemented in other systems and games. Third, the other way that achievements can harm the immersion is basically by when and how they are displayed. It’s a much longer discussion for another time, though. Telling the player to be whatever they want to be, but then awarding them for being exactly as the developer imagined is just wrong. sneak past an enemy, knock them unconscious or kill them) is both behavior shaping and artificial time extender. For example, “Finish the game without killing anyone” in a game that offers the freedom of choice (e.g. Second, achievements are mostly harmful when they shape a behavior or artificially extend gameplay time. We may just as well let the world know what you managed to accomplish.
When, for example, you find a corpse and solve the mystery behind the murder, it’s literally an achievement. In Ethan, you play as an occult detective. And we did.įirst, the core idea of awarding the player for achieving something is not wrong. Well, I did say we would keep figuring it out.
But I have always been quite vocal about how harmful achievements are (e.g. We have just added 14 Steam achievements to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. 32 notes Achievements in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter