Now that the multicellular prototype is released, the game will likely be experiencing a large influx of players. To keep people playing for longer and keep players invested into the game, making achievements to work towards is an easy way to create something to do (the programming team might disagree but it’s certainly easier than other options).
There has been a lot of activity regarding achievements, for example:
There are some icons for achievements and some lists of ideas, but I think the quality of the icons is to be judged and potentially improved by the graphics team.
I’ll compile a list of achievements that are CURRENTLY viable to implement here:
(Please note that I’m not copying the suggested names of the achievements, only the requirements.)
Kill five microbes when the disco mode cheat is activated. Develop photosynthesis. Go extinct. Bring your species back from the brink of extinction. (Threshold maybe 100?) Engulf another microbe. Die while engulfing another microbe. Have 10 flagella on your microbe. Have 25 flagella on your microbe. Become multicellular. Enter and exit the editor without making any changes, then use up all 100 Mutation Points in your next editor session. Kill 500 microbes. Survive for over an hour without dying. Engulf one hundred microbes. Use toxins to kill a predator double your size. (Predator: Has pilus or toxin)
This thread is not necessarily made to collect achievement ideas yet again (even though you can still contribute ideas if you feel like they are important to add), it is rather a place to coordinate and actually get this done for one of the next patches / minor releases.
The names of these achievements are to be decided. Most suggested names were either inside jokes (not friendly to new players) or… “Sluuuuurp”/“Sluuuuur-oh”. Need I say more?
I think this is something we can actually get done. Let’s do it
Here is the github issue about implementing an achievements system:
which needs to be done before achievements can be added at all.
In the initial batch of achievements we should focus on ones that encourage differing playstyles. I won’t make any suggestions for now because that’ll be a complete waste unless some programmer picks up working on the achievements system in the near future.
One thing I’ll note though that achievements should have interesting (but not too jokey) names, most of the time. And achievements would optimally also have unique icons for each one.
I understand.
But some achievements (Like “Go extinct.”, “Become multicellular.” etc.) are certainly easier to implement (They have one trigger) and could be made for the steam version now (Reading the GitHub issue, I assume steam-only achievements wouldn’t be too hard?). This would also give slightly more incentive to buy this version of the game (as long as having a slightly different commercial than free version is still legal within the license).
It doesn’t matter how easy the achievement itself is to make. The base system of allowing triggers to hook into achievements, tracking which achievements have been unlocked already, having a GUI panel slide up showing when the achievement is granted, and probably some kind of view to see which achievements you have. There’s a bunch of general stuff to make before even the simplest achievement can be added.
Well I suppose that technically a Steam only achievements can be done where Steam does the achievement unlock tracking and showing when they are unlocked. If this is done without doing the base achievement framework it’ll be extra work in the future to rework the Steam achievements to go through the same system.
