Achievement Unlocked is an Adobe Flashvideo game written by John Cooney and published by Armor Games in 2008.[2] In the game, the player controls a blue elephant who moves and jumps around a level with the goal of completing all 100 achievements. These achievements include finding hidden numbers, dying, or even doing nothing for a period of time.
The game has been recognized as commentary on "meaningless rewards" in video games and was featured in multiple books about must-play indie games. Two sequels, name Achievement Unlocked 2 and Achievement Unlocked 3, were released in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
Gameplay
While essentially a platform game, it has been referred to as a metagame as well as an "antigame".[3][4][5] The game is a send-up of in-game achievements, still a relatively new concept at the release of the game. While a video game achievement is usually a meta-goal defined outside a game's parameters, they are the only goal of the game in Achievement Unlocked.[6]
Achievement Unlocked takes place on a single screen, with various objects such as spikes and . These elements (among others) have to be interacted with in order to get all the achievements. For example, dying to the spikes, touching the hidden numbers in a specific order, and even doing nothing for a certain amount of time are all achievements in game.
Development
Achievement Unlocked was developed by Cooney in four days.[2][7] It was published by Armor Games and placed onto various flash game websites over time.
Reception
It's been described as a "commentary on the proliferation of nearly meaningless rewards in games"[8] and was featured in the books 250 Indie Games You Must Play by Mike Rose and The Game Designer's Playlist: Innovative Games Every Game Designer Needs to Play by Zack Hiwiller.[9][10]Escapist writer John Funk questioned whether it was ironic to enjoy collecting achievements in a game meant to lambaste that mindset.[11]
↑Anthropy, Anna; Clark, Naomi (2014). A game design vocabulary: exploring the foundational principles behind good game design. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley. p.192. ISBN9780321886927.
↑Rose, Mike (2019). 250 Indie Games You Must Play. [S.l.]: CRC PRESS. p.182. ISBN9781138427853.
↑Hiwiller, Zach (2019). The game designer's playlist: innovative games every game designer needs to play. Boston. ISBN9780134873268.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
