RPG Maker Achievement System part 2.

[PK8]

Meh, I decided to close the other thread. Achievements ARE possible. c:

So I want to seriously discuss all things related to having an achievements system in RPG Maker.

I'm working on an achievements system for both RPG Maker VX and XP, known as "Game Challenges". The developer gets to set up each challenge in his/her game that the user has to complete. No rewards such as gamerscores and trophies have been implemented. Bragging rights, I guess?

Here's how it would work. Upon starting some RPG Maker game, it would check if a file is present. If not, then it'll create one. The file being checked for and created is for that game's "Game Challenge" data.

The developer can set up his own set of challenges. These challenges can either be switch based or variable based.
How it would be set up:
Switch Based: Title, Description, Hidden, Switch ID
Variable Based: Title, Description, Hidden, Variable ID, Variable Value, Expression (Optional, == by default)

• Title: Title of the challenge.
  
• Description: Description of the challenge.
  
• Hidden: By setting this to true, the challenge title and description will not be revealed to the player. The player would have to figure out how to beat this hidden challenge. When the challenge is complete, only then would it be revealed.
  
• Switch / Variable ID: Specify the ID. For switch based challenges, if a switch ID is turned on, the player would complete a challenge.
  
• Variable Value: The challenge becomes a variable-based challenge once you set this in. A variable has to equal/not equal/be greater than or equal to/be less than or equal to the value set here to complete the challenge.
  
• Expression (I couldn't think of anything better to call it): Optional, but it'll be == by default.
  • 0: Equal to
  • 1: Not equal to
  • 2: Less than or equal to
  • 3: Greater than or equal to

I started developing this two days ago, but I still have so much more to do. Check out these screenshots!

Do not mind the tooltip at the top right corner.

Ah yes, now to go ask some questions, just for the sake of getting a discussion going.

• Do you have a take on the Game Challenges/Achievements idea? Feel free to provide input on this.
  
• Are you interested in this? If so, how would you make use of it?
  
• Should we add such a system to our RPG Maker XP/VX games?
  
• How do you feel about it?

My thoughts on it.

1. *Skips bullet point one*

2. I'm very interested in this, heck it's why I'm working on it in the first place! I want to bring this to life. I would use it in all of my games (that's if I ever finish them). I also want to somehow implement this system into my game launcher project.

2b. The projects I'm developing (besides the launcher) aren't "epic" or so "full of story" by any means. They're very "pick up and play". So I'll most likely make challenges that are reminiscent to that of those Tony Hawk's Pro Skater games such as "Get a high score of xxxxx!"

3. Depends on the developer, but it would be totally awesome if everyone can add it to their XP/VX projects.

4. Like I said before, I like it, I'm really interested in seeing how others would use it, if they were to make use of it. I think the inclusion of "challenges" into a game would make it more fun to play, encourage replayability and make the player "go the extra mile". Plus, you could brag amongst friends (well, I guess that depends on what game you're playing?). On the flip side, I'm very unsure if users would take achievements/challenges/goals on an RPG Maker game seriously. I mean, don't tell me you haven't heard someone say something along the lines of "lolrpgmaker" before. Am I right?

What's your thoughts?

[EJlol]

I love the idea of a Game Challenges thingy. But I came to the conclusion that it's to easy to cheat. Because it's easy to cheat its not a good idea to have the scores/whatever online. And I think having the scores online is the most fun part of such a script. Having the scores offline is way less fun, and I'll see the Game Challenges as a small extra thingy, instead of something fun and important. (though it will still add something to the game)

[DerVVulfman]

That's why I talked to him about adding 'encryption' into the system. The project encrypts the recorded achievements. And using the same encryption key, the file is read back to reveal the player's record. Even a simple random number generating algorythm can work wonders, and I've used and old XOR based one since my old QBASIC days.

[Yin]

Love the idea, I'd definitely use it for the optional challenges in my game. Encryption would be ideal though, but how would you go about doing that? And how would people put their scores up online? Would it encrypt the save file?? If so, I think that Blizzard has a save file encryption thing called DREAM. I THINK. Maybe if you do encrypt the save file, you can take some tips from it.... But... It's for XP. I don't know how different it is.

[Regimos]

This is an interesting feature. It'd be cool for the type of game with lots of replay value. If you're looking into making this recorded online as scores, you could use the Kongregate system as an example: each achievement is given a certain difficulty (easy, medium, hard, impossible) and you're awarded points depending on which difficulty you complete.

[PK8]

I so wish I could take the scores online. That would be pretty cool if someone could help me develop that. I really want to see it happen, myself.
Encryption? I so need help with it. ;-;
Kongregate System?

New screenshot:

[Zeriab]

People can just decrypt the game and use your encryption mechanism to do the job for them, so I would suggest only looking at a simple encryption.
Actually I would suggest you compress the data. You can encrypt the compressed data if you want.
If you use save_data and load_data to put the object into a file you can use this instead:

Save

Code:

data = Zlib::Deflate.deflate(Marshal.dump(object))
save_data(object, filename)

Load

Code:

data = load_data(filename)
object = Marshal.load(Zlib::Inflate.inflate(data))

You can also consider adding a checknum which is derived from the data. That way you can immediately notice if the data has been tampered with assuming they haven't changed the checknum accordingly. If you want to see a use look at my Collect Letters project.

*hugs*
- Zeriab

[SP27]

Challenges in a game can be a whole lot of fun.
Even simple ones like, finish "bla bla" quest or get to level "something" Pretty much like Fallout 3.
But also stuff like, finishing the game in x amount of time or under a certain level.
Or finding all hidden weapons like the Excalibur in FF9.

My imagination is just bursting with ideas for a system like this. :D

[XP Kobold]

I do agree challenges can be fun except for some extreme difficulty ones that give you a crappy reward. Like many of today's rpg super bosses. I better get something that's is really worth the trouble of fighting that boss.

Though it also be quite fun in a challenge in beating a foe with a party under a certain level using everything you got on it.