Designing achievements has always been amazing to me. I put achievements everywhere. Almost each game I’ve worked on had achievements. It’s like the icing on the cake, one of the last, awesome steps of a game creation. I even made achievements for tabletop RPGs, through apps or paper.
But achievements are not that easy to create. Well, actually, it’s easy to create an achievement, but to make a great one, it’s another story. Even if I’ve been creating achievements for years, I’ve found advices from Greg McClanahan in this article enlightening. So I decided to apply some of the notions I learned from that article to Draw Your Game Steam achievements! So here are some of the references we’ve included in the game. Can you guess each of them?
Brave New Paperworld
Have you guessed this, or were you lost in time? Right, it’s from Iron Maiden song Brave New World. Two other achievements are referencing this legendary band. Could you find them?
You Drawn Raptors
If I tell you movie with raptors. Does that ring a bell? Do you have a specific movie in mind? You should! It’s of course from the famous Jurassic Park, when professor Grant discovers that the park scientists have created (dangerous) raptors.
372844 pancakes in the morning
That one is pretty hard, as it’s from a Deadpool comic book, where the famous hero is making a huuuge amount of pancakes for breakfast.
When you’re 17
Except if you know some French poetry, there’s little chance you might know this one. It’s inspired by a poem written by Arthur Rimbaud, a famous 19th century French writer. It’s all about the passion and foolishness of young people.
Guess who’s back in town?
Another song, about our boy character: Franck. You might have recognized the inspiration from The boys are back in town by Thin Lizzy. A classic from 1976!
It’s only the beginning
There are many achievements that are not references to movies, books or songs, but rather smart word games or inside jokes. Yes, game creators are sometimes a bit crazy.
