CHALLENGE, HIDDEN OR OUTSPOKEN?

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The question is fairly simple, In mine game Im planning to add challenge to areas, for instance main quest would be to complete a maze, but for extra challenge it could be completed under 2 minutes, its not necessary to complete it, but you can get award such as extra money or special skill. The main question is, would you people as players rather see the actual challenge or it should be hidden and upon completion it will pop up that it has been complete, you know even extra challenge. So classical challenge or hidden ones?
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Stuff like that should be alluded to in-game somewhere, especially if its something extremely vague or unlikely to happen on accident, like "Beat XXX Boss without using the 'Attack' command". Seperate achievements lists have proven their success in inspiring optional but fun challenges, either for tangible rewards or just because people are 100% completionists.

If someone's a completionist and is at 99% and there's no way in hell they can tell what they missed, well... that's kind of a big screw-you to the player and forces them to use a guide (which is lame).
A simple question has a simple answer:
Stuff like that should be alluded to in-game somewhere


With an emphasis on the "somewhere" part. For example, I was thinking about adding achievements in my game (still don't know if I will) but, it would at least have a sub-menu that lists *everything* possible. And possibly a location in the game where it can be found.
Just wanted opinion of people, personally I HATE when I dont know if I completed everything, so a list of secrets would be good...just wanted to know if people want it otherwise.
Hidden content is always cool when you unlock it, but honestly I don't worry too much about content like this. When there are specific conditions to achieve the greatest results in a game, it feels too linear and uncreative to me. I prefer less obvious achievements, like for example an arena where you can fight progressively harder enemies, but can do so any time in the game.

-CM
EDIT: Old post removed due to it not relating to the topic, as noted by Darken.

Okay, sorry, I had to reread that a couple times to figure out you weren't using examples of kinds of challenges, but if the player should be notified of the challenge requirements (right?)

Do they get to try the challenge repeatedly? If it's "one shot only" I definitely would want to know (you wouldn't know what to focus on otherwise.)

If they can try later, I'd say don't tell them the first time and only display the requirements after the first go-through so they focus more on the dungeon and gameplay than the challenge.

If they only get one shot you might want to considering having a way for them to "re-challenge" - I'd hate to pass up cool items/loot and often when I find I've missed out I'll replay a level to get it. If it gets too frustrating I'll stop playing the game because I WANT that stuff and it's frustrating to try and get it.
I don't think the OP was addressing 'challenge' directly. Just how to handle optional challenges.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
I've seen games with achievement lists where each thing is named ??? until you accomplish it, so you know how many achievements there are but not what to do for any of them. This works best for games where all the achievements are really obvious and will be obtained naturally if the player is good enough at the game.

I've seen games with achievement lists where each thing has a hint, but no details. So you know that this achievement involves the slime boss, but you don't specifically know that you have to kill it while inside it. This works best when your achievements are sort of randomly obtained, but are still pretty common - like maybe the player has a 1 in 3 chance of getting it by accident. Any lower, and it becomes too hard.

I've seen games with achievement lists where each thing is given in detail. This works best when your achievements are very complicated, involve the player intentionally using sub-optimal strategies, or are otherwise unlikely to be done by accident.

I've seen games with achievement lists which start out like the first type (everything named ??? until you achieve it) but by using some sort of in-game currency or completing some sort of task the player can unlock descriptions that explain how to do them. Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes to mind as an example, where the achievements start out hidden, but each time you complete one, it tells you how to complete the ones to the left and right of it on the list. I think this is my favorite method and it works well in pretty much any situation.
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Yea I was about to say, SSBB/Kirby's Air Ride did achievements and unlocks very well. You would always randomly acquire at least a few achievements when you started playing the game, and each achievement you completed would tell you about a few more achievements, and when you beat one of those you'd learn about a few more... etc.
LouisCyphre
can't make a bad game if you don't finish any games
4523
author=slashphoenix
Yea I was about to say, SSBB/Kirby's Air Ride did achievements and unlocks very well. You would always randomly acquire at least a few achievements when you started playing the game, and each achievement you completed would tell you about a few more achievements, and when you beat one of those you'd learn about a few more... etc.
oh my god I was about to type exactly this.

ftr that game is love
slash
APATHY IS FOR COWARDS
4158
Hahahahahahaha, nice.

Kirby's Air Ride did it first, but that game was completely overlooked by most people. The multiplayer is pretty damn fun though.
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