Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements

Framework for designing and evaluatinggameachievements
Juho Hamari & Veikko Eranti
Helsinki Institute for InformationTechnology HIIT

YO DAWG! WE HEARD YOU LIKE ACHIEVEMENTS SO WE PUT AN ACHIEVEMENT IN THIS ACHIEVEMENT PRESENTATION SO YOU CAN GET ACHIEVEMENTS WHILE YOU DESIGN ACHIEVEMENTS

Note
Most of the slides have further descriptions, please view them by opening the “Speaker notes” -tab below.

Whatwedid
Analysed achievements from several systems, e.g. Xbox Live, Steam, Kongregate, Habbo, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,World of Warcraft and Foursquare
Focused particularly on achievements from 9 games in Steam platform – ~1000h played, 475/720 achievements unlocked at the time
The aim of the presentation is to provide a descriptive model that illustrates the structure of a game achievement
Helps to break down an achievement to analytical components
Helps in systematic design and evaluation of achievements

Achievements

What is a game achievement? Two perspectives
From perspective of the achievement system:
Achievement is a ‘quest’ in an achievement completion game,
consists of
a signifying element,
one or more completion logics
and rewards
and whose fulfilment conditions are defined through events in other systems (such as other games)
From perspective of a system that its tied to:
Achievement is a metagame pattern
whose
optional task
possible reward(s)
are independent of a single game session and are handed down from other system(s)

Achievement
Level (1-n)
Signifier
Name
Visual
Description
The model of a
game achievement
… in the next slides
we will look at
the components in more
detail
Completion logic
1-n
Conditions
Trigger(action/event)
0-n
Condition
Prerequirements
0-n
Pre-requirement
Multiplier (1-n)
1-n
Reward
In-game
Out-game
Achievement game

Signifier
1/3 element of an achievement- Name
- Visual
- Description

Signifier
The “user interface” to the achievement, i.e. what the user sees
Name
Visual
Description of the central parts of the unlocking logic, the consequences and rewards.
Name
Visual
Description

Signifier: name
The name of the achievement

Signifier: visual
The visual representation most commonly includes the two-state icon (locked/un-locked) related to the name and the description of the achievement. Other common implementations include for example more generalized badges and trophies.

Signifier: description
description of
the central parts of the unlocking logic
consequences and rewards
The description is often intentionally obscured to make the players figure out what they have to do themselves
Iron horse –achievement from Alan Wake

Signifier

Completion logic(s)
2/3 element of an achievement- Trigger (Action / event)
- Conditions
- Pre-requirements
- Multiplier

Completion logics
The element that contains the “under the hood” logic and requirements how the achievement can be completed
Completion logic
1-n
Condition
0-n
Condition
Pre-requirement
0-n
Pre-requirement
Multiplier (1-n)
Trigger, a player or system invoked event
Conditions in which the trigger must go off
Pre-requirements for the game session
Multiplier: how many times the three previous component have to be fulfilled at the same time

Completion logic: trigger
a player-invoked action or
a system-invoked event
…that is required to happen in order to complete an achievement.

Completion logic: trigger cont.
Actions?
Actions or
Run, shoot
Resultant action– a set of actions that forms a ‘larger’ action
Go, kill
Which abstraction level is more reasonable for designing achievements?

Completion logic: conditions
Condition-component includes the
requirements directed to
the gamestate (which the player or other players can manipulate during the session)
the historical events in the game session that have to exist when the trigger (action or event) goes off
…to be counted toward completion of the achievement.

Completion logic: conditions
“The Harder They Fall” -achievement in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with conditions of killing enemies while they are still mid-air, not conducting other kills in between (and with a pre-requirement of a game mode)
Conditions:
How
When
Where
In what timeframe
With whom
… etc

Completion logic: pre-requirements
Pre-requirements are requirements for the game session where the achievement is possible to be completed in either due to …
availability of a certain gamestate or
simply because the achievement requires it

Completion logic: pre-requirementsexamples
Difficulty setting
Map
Game mode
Character class
Season
… even the requirements of a correct game
Settings that have to exists before the game session begins

Pre-requirement examples
6 different game modes
Halloween season
The ”first blood” buff only in arena mode
Insane difficulty

Completion logic: multiplier
The amount of times the trigger has to go off in the pre-required game setting while required conditions are satisfied to unlock a given achievement.
Simply: How many times…

Completion logic(s)
There can be multiple completion logics in one achievement
Can have different trigger, pre-requirements or conditions
For example, different pre-requirement

Condition
Condition
Condition
Prerequirement
Prerequirement
Prerequirement
Multiplier (1-n)
Multiplier (1-n)
Multiplier (1-n)
Condition
Condition
Prerequirement
Prerequirement
Multiplier (1-n)
Multiplier (1-n)

Summary: Completion logic

Reward(s)
3/3 element of an achievement
- Achievement game
- In-game
- Out-game

Rewards
Element that defines the different rewards (if any) of the achievement
Rewards can have value in/for
In-game
Outside game
Achievement game
1-n
Reward
In-game
Out-game
Achievement game

Reward: achievement game
Points towards the scoring system of the achievement meta-game or other benefits in the meta-game

Reward: in-game
Rewards, such as new abilities, into the game where the completion of the achievement was carried out
Base: 34
Max Ramp Up: 150% (51 damage)
Max Fall Off: 52% (18 damage)
Point-Blank: 46-56
Medium Range: 31-37
Long Range: 15-19
Mini-Crit: 46
Critical hit (headshot only): 102
Ambassador(Team Fortress 2 – Spy milestone 1)

Reward: out-game
Rewards that are external to the achievement meta-game and the game itself.
Alien Swarm Parasite - hat(Unlocked in Alien Swarm, rewarded in Team Fortress 2)
Double Tall Latte (Foursquare)

Reward

Achievement
Level (1-n)
Signifier
Name
Visual
Description
Completion logic
1-n
Pre-requirements
Condition
Multiplier (1-n)
Reward
In-game
Out-game
Achievement game

Achievement
It is also important to think about these:
Level (1-n)
Signifier
Name
Visual
Description
Category (to what category does the achievement belong to)
Type (for example: guidance, realization, social)
Goal (to what activity does the achievement attempt to entice users to)
User segment: (to which segment of users is the achievement mainly targeted to)
Difficulty (to unlock)
Completion logic
1-n
Conditions
0-n
Condition
Prerequirements
0-n
Pre-requirement
Multiplier (1-n)
1-n
Reward
In-game
Out-game
Achievement game

References
Björk, S., & Holopainen, J. (2005). Patterns in Game Design. Boston, Massachusetts: Charles River Media.
Järvinen, A. (2008). Games Without Frontiers: Theories and Methods for Game Studies and Design. Doctoral Dissertation. Tampere: University of Tampere. Retrieved August 29, 2010 from http://acta.uta.fi/english/teos.php?id=11046
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004.) Rules of Play. Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press.
Schell, J. (2008). The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. Morgan Kaufmann.
Sicart, M. (2008). Defining Game Mechanics. Game Studies: The international Journal of Computer Game Research, 8(2). Retrieved 31 August, 2010 from http://gamestudies.org/0802/articles/sicart

Links:
Achievement generator: http://teamfortress2.fr/achievements.php?eng

Achievement unlocked
Thank you
Email: juho.hamari@hiit.fi
web: virtual-economy.org
tweet: @VirtualEconomy
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Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements

by Juho Hamari on Feb 10, 2011

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Framework for Designing and Evaluating Game Achievements — Presentation Transcript