The GGJ Achievement system could really just as well be called diversifiers. It is a system aimed at diversifying the games as well as providing motivation for experienced game jammers. In a sense, the achievements are a free-for-all voluntary list of secondary constraints, that the individual teams can choose to go for, or not, as they please. If they do go for one or more achievements, they get to tick off those achievements as fulfilled when uploading their game.

As stated above, the achievements are absolutely voluntary, and no points are given for achieving them. If you are a first time team of students, we recommend that you focus primarily on the overall constraint, and only add in extra achievements if you feel sure you will have something to hand in on sunday.

List and description of the achievements

Instant Online Gratification
Game requires no file downloads (browser objects are OK), and has been verified to work on IE8, FF3, Latest Safari and Latest Chrome

Singing the Body Electric
A game that uses only sound effects produced by the body, stomach gurgles, vocalizations, clapping, etc

The Hack
Integrating external gadgets not normally associated with games (e.g. radio, electronic weights, lamps, toasters, barbells, staplers, etc.) as part of the game. This achievement requires that you upload a video of your game to YouTube and link it to the upload (you still have to hand in your game), as well as describing the construction in detail

Take Five
Game can be played to completion in less than 5 minutes

Lo-text
Game has an interactive tutorial

Over Achiever
Implemented the main constraint with 3 or more different game mechanics

Community
Game behaviour is depended on how many people are playing it simultaneously at the same time

Alternate Control
Game runs on a pc (Win/Mac/Linux) and is controlled with (a) device(s) other than mouse, keyboard or console controller

Universal Language
Game has absolutely no text or numbers

EGA Lives
Game uses a maximum of 16 different colors in all, including light and shading

Rules

1. Voluntary. Participants do not have to go for any of the achievements if they wish not to
2. Maximum of 4 Achievements. Even if your game or team fulfills more than 4 achievements, you can only choose a maximum of 4 when uploading the game, so if any, choose the ones that make the most sense and mean the most to you.
3. No Score. There are no virtual or real score granted for fulfilling an achievements, neither is there any prize for it. The achievements only purpose are to separate your game from others on the website. You are not a better game jammer, just because you have taken it upon yourself to fullfill more achievements.
4. Self-Evident. We have tried to make the achievements as self-evident as possible, which means that they can be verified by anyone downloading the game. This is in order to create as little administration from the organizers as possible (ie teams simply just tick off themselves when they upload the game what achievements they have), and to make cheating as difficult as possible (ie anyone who downloads the game can check that they hold true).

Motivation:

The motivation for putting in the achievements are many:

1. There are more and more experienced game jammers joining, and we try to provide extra challenge for them. People are free to add extra challenges themselves, but the achievements are structured and uniform way to provide these challenges.
2. In 2009, there was approximately 370 games available on the GGJ website. With a just a standard game taxonomy of strategy, platform, puzzle and a platform (windows, mac, etc) it was very hard to get an overview of the games. With over 130 sites for GGJ 2010 we expect at least a 1000 different games, which only makes the problem even worse. Albeit arbitrary we hope the achievements can be a fun and creative way to help separate games and make them stand out.
3. The Achievement system is meant as a motivator and helper for getting particpants to try to think outside their normal scope and move away from their comfort zone.
4. At the Global Game Jam we find it important to practice what we preach, so since a game jam is all about innovation, collaboration and experimentation we find it equally important to try out new things.