Crystal Towers 2 - Badges

[davidn]

Oh, why am I working on Crystal Towers 2 again. I thought that once I had finished it I would just release it, wait for the reaction and never open it again, like my previous games - but with something this large, it's difficult to just drop it from my life, especially with the facility to watch people's progress in it online.


I haven't been reworking the main game or anything, though - today, I ended up writing a new feature for the site that awards people badges on their account, largely due to kjorteo warning me not to start thinking about what he said too much because it would end with me writing a new feature for the site that awards people badges on their account. The badges are equivalent to achievements, a concept that I had thought up at the very start of writing the game and that I now find myself copying from everybody else instead - though I'm trying my best to try to keep them to actually notable things instead of the supremely patronizing levels to which they can be overdone.

The awarding of all of these badges is just calculated from data that's already there, but they give people a bit of recognition for doing special things like not dying too much, or getting past some accidentally notorious missions that I put in. The shield with a "B" icon is awarded for every level in which you've completed the whole thing - all items, treasure and everything - and haven't died once, and I've actually been quite impressed by its presence at all when browsing around the existing accounts.

I've actually used a few testers' user icons in some of the achievements, for when the random instrument name generator comes up with "the Wolf", "the Rabbit", "the Coyote" or "the Raven" - if you're any of these, you'll know who you are, so if you don't want to be featured for any reason, tell me and I'll remove those. And lupineangel, I used your artwork for the final bonus boss icon without asking - thank you!

No doubt I'll add more as I think of them...

Comments

[kjorteo]

Clearly, this is your chance to make a Tony Kakko badge those fortunate enough to have an instrument of the Wolf and one of the Raven at the same time. You can call it "[Entreaty:] SOLO!" or something.

Anyway, I very much approve of being the example profile here, especially since I had that self-imposed "I must get through at least one level with no deaths" goal I had in mind anyway, and it's nice to have a reward now that I've pulled it off. ;) And of my icon being used, too--thank you! My only regret is that my instrument selection results are somewhat dull, aside from the ZZT one.

Edit: Oh God, you actually made good on your threat for a Beam Stack in < 10 deaths badge. Aaaagh.

[davidn]

You know, the thought had occurred to me, as I put those two names together on the list...! It would be... almost impossibly rare (it's a 5/100 chance to get an instrument with an associated icon as it is) and the chances of anyone getting the reference after getting it would be lower still, but I so want to do that for that name, now!