Announced in May at the 505 Games Spring Showcase, Miasma Chronicles comes from The Bearded Ladies, the developer responsible for the beloved Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden, and now, thanks to an interview with TrueAchievements, we’ve learned a little more about the upcoming title, one that has so far been largely shrouded in mystery. Speaking to The Bearded Ladies’ Studio Head, Mark Parker, TrueAchievements scored some new details about the game’s implementation of trophy and achievement systems.
Parker was pressed about the Achievements in-game, and what players should expect. To this he said,
We aim to make achievements that enrich the player’s experience, rather than mindlessly grinding for the sake of it. Achievements should help the player learn more about the game. They should also feel natural to unlock, although we do like to make people try different ways of playing through. We’ll also add in a few ‘Easter egg’ achievements as we love to see the community work together to figure those ones out.
He also discussed what makes an ideal achievement or trophy list, saying,
That’s a tough one, but I think an ideal list is a mixture of the standard progression related unlocks and some which cater for those who like to explore every nook and cranny of the game world. Lastly, there should be a bit of intrigue and mystery with some of them, to make the players and the community think a bit.
There are numerous schools of thought when it comes to trophy and achievement integration in games. Discussions often involve achievements locked behind difficulty levels, multiplayer exclusive achievements, and more. It is always fascinating to hear from those working on the games themselves so that we can learn how they perceive the meta-games place within the overall product, and how they themselves implement these systems to complement the game they’re already making.
Recently we learned of how PlayStation was cracking down on developers who were putting out weekly shovelware titles that were breaking the systems trophy economy and cluttering the PlayStation Network with worthless games. With platform holders like PlayStation creating more layers of accountability for developers exploiting their systems, and comments such as Parker’s, players should feel confident in the meta-game being given proper consideration and love from developers going forward.
Miasma Chronicles is slated to arrive on an unspecified 2023 release date for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
