Design

Achievements are an effective way for your designer to directly compliment a user for mastering the app. A portion of your users will pursue Achievements with extra determination.

The minimum recommended number of achievements for an app is 12
A common count of achievements for an app is 50
If your game has a demo, it is recommended to rig one achievement to be completed just before the end of the demo
If your game has both multiplayer and single-player modes, limit the amount of time investment the player must spend in the multiplayer environment to earn the multiplayer-only achievements.
Avoid creating achievements that require external luck to achieve. Favor designs which a determined player can achieve with skill or dedication.
Grant an achievement for completing the central experience.
Grant achievements for completing side activities that might otherwise be skipped or missed.
If you have achievements that require a count (eg. "Vanquish 100 orcs"), it's highly effective to show the count increment towards the achievement goal with a transient indicator during gameplay.

Implementation

Achievements can be triggered directly from the client via API calls or can be awarded automatically by the server by configuring Milestones and Level Up rewards.

Achievements used in the brainCloud Bombers Unity example.

To create an achievement, go to the Achievements page on the dashboard.

Creating an achievement

Click the [Add Item] button with the plus icon.
Enter an achievementId, title, and description.
Upload a picture for your achievement.
Choose if achievement is invisible until earned.
Add extra data that is needed by your app.
Select which platforms the achievement is enabled for. For each platform you are supporting, you need to add the matching achievementId you will find on the dashboard of those platforms.
[Save] your new achievement!

You can review the JSON return on the achievements by clicking on the [Raw JSON Data] button.

Achievements can be edited and deleted with the [Edit] and [Delete] buttons respectively to the right of each created achievement.

Writing the code

Now that you created achievements, you will want to reward them to your players.

In your client code

Add the brainCloud client to your app.
Pair the client with the dashboard.
Authenticate your user into brainCloud.
Request a list of achievements with the ReadAchievements call.
Award the not awarded achievements with the AwardAchievements call.
Review other achievement related calls for your app in the API Reference.

private BrainCloudWrapper _bc;
private string _wrapperName = "default";

void Start() {
    // Unity
    GameObject go = new GameObject();
    _bc = go.AddComponent<BrainCloudWrapper>();
    _bc.WrapperName = _wrapperName; // optionally set a wrapper-name
    _bc.Init(); // extra data, such as: _appId, _secret and _appVersion, is taken from the brainCloud Unity Plugin.
    DontDestroyOnLoad(go); // keep the brainCloud game object through scene changes

    _bc.ResetStoredAnonymousId();
    _bc.ResetStoredProfileId();
    _bc.AuthenticateAnonymous((response, cbObject) => { ReadAchievements(); });
}

List<string> unawardedAch = new List<string>();
void ReadAchievements() { 
    _bc.GamificationService.ReadAchievements(true,
        (response, cbObject) => {
            var jsonMessage =
                (Dictionary<string, object>) BrainCloud.JsonFx.Json.JsonReader.Deserialize(response);
            var jsonData = (Dictionary<string, object>) jsonMessage["data"];
            var achievementsData = (Dictionary<string, object>[]) jsonData["achievements"];

            foreach (var achievement in achievementsData)
            {
                if (achievement["status"].Equals("NOT_AWARDED"))
                {
                    unawardedAch.Add((string) achievement["id"]);
                }
            }

            AwardAchievements();
        });
}

void AwardAchievements() {
    _bc.GamificationService.AwardAchievements(unawardedAch,
        (response, cbObject) => {
            Debug.Log(response);
        });
}