Very glad to see a regularly looked at thread for badges now. I don’t have really have any specific suggestions quite yet, but… 2013 had what, 2 impossible badges? It would be nice to have some more impossible badges around sometime this year. The feeling I get every time I’ve earned an impossible badge is greater than I could ever get earning 10 hard badges XD. On a side note: Curse you, mental coin flips for those really difficult hard badges instead of easy impossible badges!

@CalmWaters > *Originally posted by **[greg](/forums/1/topics/295910?page=56#posts-7683741):*** > > Impossible badges are REALLY hard to design properly. Honestly I regret making about half of them. rawismojo was more active with making impossible badges than I was, which is why the number dropped after he moved on to mobile stuff. > > The hardest thing about creating impossible badges is finding a really, really hard task that’s actually fun to do. The harder the task becomes, the more likely it is that people will get frustrated and stop having fun before it’s completed. In my opinion, the best impossible badge on the site is in Dolphin Olympics 2, since that game is still fun as you’re working toward it. > > Also keep in mind that while I consider myself pretty good at video games, I’m not really **great** at them. Usually even just the hard badges are a little above what I can personally accomplish, so trying to gauge balance even further beyond that point is really difficult.

Valthirian Arc 2 badges are up now. I’m going to see if I can finish Space Flash Arena before heading home. Probably just an easy and a medium, since the game balance gets a little out of whack when I try to define a task that’s actually difficult.

> *Originally posted by **[greg](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766165):*** > > Valthirian Arc 2 badges are up now. I’m going to see if I can finish Space Flash Arena before heading home. Probably just an easy and a medium, since the game balance gets a little out of whack when I try to define a task that’s actually difficult. Thanks! It feels like the Golden Age of badges.

Okay, Space Flash Arena badges are up now. The medium is a little messy, but I think it works well enough. > *Originally posted by **[PetalmaneBaku](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766226):*** > > *Originally posted by **[greg](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766165):*** > > > > Valthirian Arc 2 badges are up now. I’m going to see if I can finish Space Flash Arena before heading home. Probably just an easy and a medium, since the game balance gets a little out of whack when I try to define a task that’s actually difficult. > > Thanks! It feels like the Golden Age of badges. I’ve recently made a conscious decision to spend significantly less time on Flash sponsorships and significantly more time on badges. It’s not exactly a golden age for Flash sponsorships right now, but I can still give you all a golden shower of badges! Er, wait…

> *Originally posted by **[greg](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766311):*** > > Okay, Space Flash Arena badges are up now. The medium is a little messy, but I think it works well enough. > > > *Originally posted by **[PetalmaneBaku](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766226):*** > > > *Originally posted by **[greg](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766165):*** > > > > > > Valthirian Arc 2 badges are up now. I’m going to see if I can finish Space Flash Arena before heading home. Probably just an easy and a medium, since the game balance gets a little out of whack when I try to define a task that’s actually difficult. > > > > Thanks! It feels like the Golden Age of badges. > > I’ve recently made a conscious decision to spend significantly less time on Flash sponsorships and significantly more time on badges. It’s not exactly a golden age for Flash sponsorships right now, but I can still give you all a golden shower of badges! Er, wait… Hooray! As Kent Brockman said, we are all taking golden showers! Quick edit: The easy badge unlocks at defeating Minotaur (not Mars as the badge description says).

space arena battle: i only got 40 kills on challenging mode, still gave me the medium badge.

> Quick edit: The easy badge unlocks at defeating Minotaur (not Mars as the badge description says). Thanks for pointing this out; I must have missed that during testing. I’ve just confirmed the bug and emailed the developer. It’ll be fixed on Monday. Until then, enjoy the extra-easy easy badge! (just by one battle, though) > space arena battle: i only got 40 kills on challenging mode, still gave me the medium badge. I actually did catch this bug during testing and I contacted the developer about it before creating the badge. He says it’s very difficult to reproduce, and, indeed, I was only seeing it occasionally. I decided it was an acceptable bug because it’s very inconsistent and it only acts in the player’s favor. Even if you get lucky and it glitches twice in a row, you would still need to get at least 30 kills legitimately, and they would still have to be in winning games in at least the “challenging” difficulty.

Holy crap, three badges in a single day. What is goin’ on.

> *Originally posted by **[CowFriend](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7766888):*** > > Holy crap, three badges in a single day. What is goin’ on. \*3 games, 7 badges :)

ffuu how did I mess that up

I will try again: This game, imo, deserved spot in best of 2013 games, by being MMO CCG without microtransactions and energy crap. 4+ rating, have API. [HD Xyth](http://www.kongregate.com/games/nulllvoid/hd-xyth) Good milestones would be: **10 single player wins** (this will let you choose favourite race) **35 in-game achievements** (opt) **70 in-game achievements** “All achievements” would be too much even for impossible. * * * I have problems with Valthirian arc hard badge – game doesn’t load story arc hunting quests for me at all. And this isn’t only mine problem, see comments for “infinite loading screen bug”.

> *Originally posted by **[Gremlion](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7768231):*** > > I will try again: > This game, imo, deserved spot in best of 2013 games “Published Nov. 24, 2012” Also, I didn’t have any problems loading Valthirian Arc 2 or the quests.

hope to see glean 2 badges =)

> *Originally posted by **[aspyderwebb](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7769255):*** > > hope to see glean 2 badges =) ^ This. But why is this not on frontpage “hot new games”? The devs decided that the game is still in open beta?

There was actually a “preview” version of Glean 2 out recently, so the actual game should be (at minimum) a more fully realized version. In any case, given that the first Glean was badged, I’d expect the developer would be amenable to adding any statistics needed for badges. With a 4.07 rating as of this post, it certainly seems like a good candidate. I’m still working my way through the game, but I’d say its length might be in keeping with the E-M-H-H endurance scheme. If not, E-M-H or E-M-M-H would also make sense. I’m going to go ahead and suggest badges, since with a 4+ rating and previous badge history, I’d guess that greg will be adding to the list soon. Assuming the API ultimately fits these suggestions, I think reasonable criteria for [**Glean 2**](http://www.kongregate.com/games/okaybmd/glean-2) might be: * * * **Five Easy Pieces** Badge (easy ~ 5 points) Research 5 simple components. [] 5 simple components researched (best so far: ) . **These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking Four** Badge (medium ~ 15 points) Upgrade a subsystem to MK-4. [] Highest Subsystem Upgraded – MK 4 (best so far: ) . Hard Badge . Hard Badge * * * The suggested easy certainly fits an easy scheme within the timeline of the game; it requires some resources and several artifacts, but should be accomplished pretty early on in the process. The research and manufacturing portions of the game aren’t necessarily intuitive, but they’re not significant barriers to gameplay. Moreover, such research is essential to making any actual progress in the game—it’s a meaningful and defined step, yet occurs early on, which fits the goal of an easy badge well. The medium is harder to gauge, because there’s not a uniform path through the game. For this reason, I’d recommend against tying one to any specific material or upgrade. Based on the variety and accessibility of different materials required to build to MK-4 anything, a medium seems accurate time- and effort-wise. It fits well compared both to other games, and to the gameplay timeline of Glean 2 (it roughly coincides with being able to progress further into the game, making it a useful point of delineation).

> *Originally posted by **[Tulrog](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7770339):*** > > So could we get something like a _“Greg’s guide to badging”_ for future reference? Something that will give us a framework for suggesting badges. Greg in fact wrote up [just such a thing](http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GregMcClanahan/20091202/3709/Achievement_Design_101.php) a little while back. The short answer is that _forcing_ players into a certain playstyle is something that should be avoided, but encouraging them to explore things they might not have otherwise can be a desirable goal.

Please add a Grain of Truth! I’m not sure it has an API or not but it has a 4.0 rating and it’s been up for more than a year without badges… :(

> *Originally posted by **[Wishie](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=3#posts-7770676):*** > > Please add a Grain of Truth! I’m not sure it has an API or not but it has a 4.0 rating and it’s been up for more than a year without badges… :( It’s an HTML5 game so it may be hard to add kong api.

So, not to distract from the super-duper awesome work going on over in the [Broken Badges](http://www.kongregate.com/forums/1/topics/241010) thread, but… since new badges are in a bit of limbo, can another look be taken at Enigmata: Stellar War?

That actually brings up an interesting topic. Greg, what are your feelings on badging previously badged games (assuming they don’t already have four badges)? Obviously, unbadged games should be the priority, but I wanted to bring this topic up in conjunction with the issue of impossible badges. Obviously, most games are inherently unsuitable for an impossible badge, but I find that a lot of the most promising candidates are games which were previously badged, but passed over for an imp. Anyway, having finished [**Glean 2**](http://www.kongregate.com/games/okaybmd/glean-2), I guess I’d request the following. . **Five Easy Pieces** Badge (easy ~ 5 points) Research 5 simple components. [] 5 simple components researched (best so far: ) **These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking Four** Badge (medium ~ 15 points) Upgrade a subsystem to MK-4. [] Highest subsystem upgraded – MK 4 (best so far: ) **Paranoia Agents** Badge (hard ~ 30 points) Unlock all 24 Personal Logs. [] 24 Personal Logs unlocked (best so far: ) **Journey to the Center of the Earth** Badge (hard ~ 30 points) Reach the very bottom (or top) of a planet, and live to tell the tale. [] Maximum depth reached (best so far: ) OR [] Maximum altitude reached (best so far: ) – either will suffice! . I still feel pretty good about the easy and medium suggestions. The first hard coincides with storyline completion, so it’s a pretty obvious candidate. I think a second hard is warranted because the game is very long; two hard badges represent more of a reward for the time investment. I recommend the second hard badge because it represents a challenge distinct from the first; the chests needed to unlock the Personal Logs can be accessed well before 250 depth/altitude, so the “ultimate challenge” of reaching the limits of a map could otherwise be easily bypassed. If depth/altitude would be problematic for the dev to add as a statistic, two other possible second hard badges would be completing all story objectives (eschewing daily/weekly/monthly objectives), or fully upgrading all subsystems. Those feel a little more generic, though. For now at least, I don’t think tying a badge to faction stuff would be a good idea.

[Flappy Bird Flash](http://www.kongregate.com/games/maxblive/flappy-bird-flash)

> *Originally posted by **[PetalmaneBaku](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=4#posts-7777851):*** > > [Flappy Bird Flash](http://www.kongregate.com/games/maxblive/flappy-bird-flash) hahaha there it goes the impossible badge everybody was waiting for.

GREG IS PLAYING SUPER KAROSHI. Please tell me it’s getting a badge! :D

> *Originally posted by **[SamsterSamster](/forums/1/topics/380539?page=4#posts-7778997):*** > > GREG IS PLAYING SUPER KAROSHI. Please tell me it’s getting a badge! :D I really hope so, but the API doesn’t submit anything until after you finish the main game. So I’m doing that now.