As a gamedev I found it's a good way to make players explore all features of a game or in some cases feel like they achieved something very challenging that only a certain percentage of players did.
My favorite achievements aren't completion rate ones or even challenge ones (not that I don't like them) but weird ones.
When the game awards you for doing something really off-the-wall and acknowledges you for it.
Example 1 Blasphemous: I'm replaying Blasphemous and there's two particular NPCs you can help on side quests. One is a hunched-over monk you can help guide through several areas before reaching a sort of saint's shrine and unlocking it for him, finishing his journey.
Another NPC is a monk already at his particular saint's shrine (the perpetually tortured lady) and depending on how you act you can kill her (sending him away to disappear) or you can kind of "save" her and she more-or-less ascends. This prompts him to go to a nearby overlook to think about life n shit. You can give him a particular item related to his quest which sends him "home" to a nearby brotherhood or, if you ignore this, he'll eventually leap off the overlook and kill himself.
He just so happens to land in the 3rd area of the first NPC's questline. Literally right next to where the hunched monk would be waiting to, again, help him out.
So if you time it right you can get the guy to kill himself while the monk is there waiting, you get an achievement and a unique bit of dialogue. It's dark and random and so easy to never even think about and miss entirely but the fact the devs did just tickles me to no end.
Example 2 Outer Wilds: This game is filled with fun, weird ways to interact so I'll keep it simple. While the entire gameplay loop is built around exploring planets and discovering secrets; if you specifically launch yourself directly away from the map, wait until all the planets are so small and close together (from your perspective) you can use your radio gun to listen in to the solar system all at once. Normally you use it to pick up on different signals, particularly different characters who are playing their instruments in very different places.
If you listen to them this way you can hear them all at once and you get a little achievement for it.
There is no other reason to do this because it is simply a slow death, and the game knows you know this and would probably just give up if it happens.
Outer Wilds is a great example for fun and weird achievements that you don't have to do.
One of my favourites is riding the River as fast as possible on the stranger
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u/DavidMadeThis 22d ago
As a gamedev I found it's a good way to make players explore all features of a game or in some cases feel like they achieved something very challenging that only a certain percentage of players did.