How new badges are going to be decided

After what seemed like an eternal drought of good games with our API, it seems that we’ve been flooded lately with really great games that are ready to go with badges as soon as I can get around to making them. A lot of people have been speculating about which games will get badges, so I’m just going to come out in the open and explain my process.

When looking to make new badges, I typically sort by rating. I think that this is the fairest way to decide. If a game has been skipped over, it’s because there’s a problem. For example, there’s no API in Bowmaster Prelude, the API in Chaos Faction breaks the game (we have no idea why, but both we and the developer would love to see badges in that game), and Onslaught 2 previously did NOT report based on difficulty, meaning that I would have to balance even the hardest badges around the “easy” difficulty.

Other than a few exceptions, though (I’m not going to lie—sometimes our sponsored games can get a bit of priority), you can get an idea of what games I’m looking at for upcoming badges by just viewing our highest-rated games and seeing if they have our API.

The hardest part about making a badge is deciding what it should actually be, and testing to make sure it works. Therefore, games like Anika’s Odyssey might get a priority because they literally take about 10 minutes to create. On the flipside of that, though, I spent most of my day yesterday playing through Monsters’ Den trying to get an idea of what potential badges could be. If this game weren’t so incredibly popular, its position in the queue might have been bumped down a bit, like I’ve unfortunately done with Telepath RPG Chapter 2.

So please don’t spam games with a 3.5 rating as being “badgeworthy” in the comments. Yes, I know they’re badgeworthy, and I’ll try to get to them as soon as I can. But expect to see badges in games like Portal: The Flash Version and Momentum Missile Mayhem before Ragdoll Invaders, even if Ragdoll Invaders is incredibly deserving of a few badges.

Sounds great Greg. I think you’re doing a great job with the badges. And with as many as we have now (Over 140 I think), there’s no rush to get up 10 badges a week up anymore. Good games will get badges, it just may take time and most users are fine with that.

It is VERY comforting to see that the games are being played through before badges are issued. A recent discussion in chat had us wondering, and personally I felt there were one or two games which had issues and made them undeserving of badges (which, in a way, is an endorsement by Kongregate – and a ‘bad’ badge game likewise reflects on the site). However, thank you for taking the time to explain it through, and as a “hardcore badge collector”, its great to see that you guys would rather take time and make good choices, both in the game and the accomplishments needed to acquire it.

And thanks again for everything all of you do for this site, its become one of my favorite places to go on the internet!

CREED

@ Chi, There exactly 141.

@ Greg, im glad to see that your taking the time to pick the games that are acutally good and badgeworthy. Im still 8 badges short, so as long as the quality of the badge for the game is good. I’m sure i could wait for the new badges.

Keep Up The Good Work

-Nick

Endorsed by Kongregate games get priority, as we all found out with the double dome defender badge. Greg just couldn’t skip over a boobs joke with a mediocre game with some broken hitboxes and a bad weapons system.

But besides that one badge, good job greg. We need more badges though, but it is great to see you work so hard. AND NEVER MAKE A BADGE TEAM LIKE IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED! IT WOULD SCREW UP THE SYSTEM!

Great job on the badges! A badge for monsters den could be the beat the end (level 10) I really like that game.

pls, if u r going to make a monsters’ den badge, pls dont erase the files. ive worked very hard to get to lvl 150 :P

Greg just couldn’t skip over a boobs joke

Lol. Although I really don’t want a badge for Monster’s Den because of it’s boring battle system.

pls, if u r going to make a monsters’ den badge, pls dont erase the files. ive worked very hard to get to lvl 150 :P

We changed the way we store games on our server at one point. This didn’t erase saved files, but when developers uploaded new versions of the game (with or without the API), it was stored in a different place, and all the files were wiped. There was a brief period where a bug was causing saved files to be wiped more frequently, but that’s gone now.

In other words, it’s somewhat coincidental that people’s saved files were getting wiped right before challenges/badges. This was NOT our intention. Basically, the developer would upload a game, then we switched our system, then they implemented the API, uploaded it again (to the new place), a challenge was made, and everyone noticed that their save files were gone.

So just to make this clear, we did NOT intentionally wipe saved files just to force people to do stuff again to earn badges/cards. I can’t stress this enough. If I make a card and you’ve already completed the task a month ago, I legitimately wish that you’ll be able to simply load up the game and get your reward immediately.

Games that were uploaded AFTER the switch (such as Monsters’ Den) should be safe from wiped save files, even if he continues to upload new versions and we implement new badges.

I personally am fine with the amount of badges that come out each week. As long as I can see 1 or 2 new badges a week I am fine.

Keep up the great work though :D

This is great. I know that there are alot of badges right now. But id rather see good games geting badges then just a lot of badges. Quality is better than Quantity.

very good to know.. =D

I’m excited for the Monster’s Den badge although Momentum Missile mayhem could quite possible be my second biggest fascination on this site other than that game for now.. =P

lol aww man,i was hoping for the ragdoll invaders impossible badge :\

Great greg, so I’ve spent all this time preparing for the next challenge to be Portal: The Flash Version, and you’re telling me it isn’t. :(

And you just can’t be satisfied, too little API games, too many API games. :P [Note to self: Humor stops here.]

But seriously, you’re doing a good job. I may not agree with all the badges (hell, who does?), but hey, if they have an overall high rating, they definitely deserve a badge or two. :)

What about painfully poor games that have badges, like that max whatever RPG 2 crap? Are we seriously going to have to play through a seemingly broken and repetitive game that is literally and absolutely based on luck in order to get a badge?

Are we seriously going to have to play through….

I think the simple answer is “no”. Dont like it? Dont play it.

Great greg, so I’ve spent all this time preparing for the next challenge to be Portal: The Flash Version, and you’re telling me it isn’t. :(

Huh? I was actually planning for Portal to be the challenge tomorrow. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. You’ll need to redo it on the “Kongregate badge mode” within the game, though. The normal mode allows you to skip levels through the console, so the developer basically created a second mode where level-skipping is disabled in order to accommodate badges.

Actually it wouldn’t have been a big deal if it wasn’t, just me trying to be funny. I just got the impression that Monster’s Den would be the next challenge.

Well then, I’ve got work to do!

Portal next challenge? Starts playing

Portal next challenge? Starts playing

right behind ye

edit: w00t just completed it… again.

This seems to be happening with loads of the badges…. I’m completing a game that I’ve already completed, but the game has been updated since I completed it, or the save has been lost in some other way =(

awesome thx :)

Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges! :-)

Sorry, someone had to say it.

btw: big fan of the badges and card.

you are doing a great job with the badges greg, the only thing i have to say though is that i would like you to make the card challenges harder, because i complete them on my first try or within 5 minutes. Even for games that i have never played before.

the only thing i have to say though is that i would like you to make the card challenges harder, because i complete them on my first try or within 5 minutes. Even for games that i have never played before.

Challenges are actually meant to be slightly easier than typical “medium” badges. I want most people to be able to get the cards so they can enjoy our own card game when it comes out. I’ll toss out a harder-than-usual challenge every now and then, but for the most part, they’re somewhat easy intentionally.

For people looking for a bit more of a challenge (no pun intended), that’s where the harder badges come in.

Huh? I was actually planning for Portal to be the challenge tomorrow.

Excellent. I can’t wait to see what tasks can be implemented into the API.