Achievement

Achievements are a type of metagame which awards the player with badges for completing particular in-game tasks.

Various gaming platforms (including Steam and many newer consoles, and some web gaming sites such as Kongregate) have their own platform-wide achievement systems. These systems track the player's achievements across all games on that platform, and may display them on the player's public profile.

The names of achievements often feature humor, references and in-jokes, and wordplay.

It's not always possible to earn all of a game's acheivements in a single playthrough. This may increase replay value.

There's even a series of small Flash games (Achievement Unlocked) based entirely on earning achievements.

Almost anything can earn an achievement, but common examples include:


 * Reaching a particular point in the narrative (e.g., completing Level 5)
 * Accumulating a certain amount of currency
 * Defeating a certain number of enemies
 * Completing an optional but difficult challenge
 * Discovering an Easter egg
 * Playing the game on a notable real-world date (e.g., Christmas, or the developer's birthday)
 * Playing for a certain amount of time (in a single session, or cumulatively over multiple sessions)
 * Arbitrary and often silly things (e.g., riding a pig off a cliff in Minecraft)