How to Become an Achievement Developer

This document describes all the steps that any aspiring achievement developer must follow before getting Developer status. These requirement are also a checklist for Code Reviewers (developers who inspect the code of new developers).

Anyone can become a RetroAchievements developer if they put in the effort.

Optional but strongly recommended: join our Discord server and ask a mod to give you the jr-dev role. Use #help-me and #devs channels any time you have questions.

Required Knowledge

Every developer must know at least the basic concepts and techniques shown in these two docs:

1. Getting Started as an Achievement Developer
2. Achievement Logic Features

Any aspiring dev must demonstrate understanding of the following concepts:

• Basic RAM digging (be familiar with the Memory Inspector)
• Hexadecimal notation
• Delta values
• Hit counts
• Pause If
• Reset If
• Alt Groups
• Memory sizes: 8-bit and single bit
• Achievement logic comparisons besides =, such as >, <, !=
• Adding badges to an achievment
• Creating accurate descriptions for achievements
• Add appropriate protections
• Make a stable achievement set

Note: You do not need mastery of all these concepts to have a set published, but you do need them to have the full Developer role.

Advanced Concepts

Here is a list of some advanced concepts/techniques. They are not required to become a Developer, but are listed here to let the jr-dev know the possibilities of the Achievement's logic.

• Hit count as timer (like in this example and this one)
• ResetIf Checkpoints
• ResetIf with Hitcount
• PauseIf with Hitcount
• AddSource and SubSource Flags
• AddHits Flag
• Mem > Del Counter
• Delta Hit Counter, pause technique
• Little endianness
• Memory size: Lower4, Upper4, and 16-bit, 32-bit
• Dynamic Rich Presence
• Leaderboards
• Pausable Resets
• SubSource increment counter

The Real Examples and Achievement Templates pages are useful resources to see how those techniques work.

Practicing

In order to become familiar to those techniques you must practice. You can use any game to practice, even those that already have achievements. Just be aware about these rules:

• Do NOT delete/overwrite any existing Code Note.

• On this practicing phase, keep your work in local and do NOT upload any achievement. You'll do it later when you find a game to actually work on.

Finding a Game to Work on

Follow the guidelines on the Developer's Code of Conduct to find a game to work on achievements for it. The basics are that you must declare you plans to work on the game on in the forum, and then as you work on the game, add your plans for the game in the forum.

Tip: for your first achievement set it's recommended to choose a game that doesn't yet have achievements and is not very popular.

Planning your Achievement Set

Once you find a game to work on you need to plan your Achievement Set.

Be sure you know enough about the game to make a good set. Check the GameFAQs or something, try to learn more about the game, its secrets and details. Here is a good guide to help you with this: Set Development Roadmap.

Post your plans on the official game's forum topic, so the community can leave suggestions and provide feedback. This is required behavior for all devs and jr-dev.

IMPORTANT!: be open to receive feedback and suggestions.

See also: Achievement Design, it's an extensive guide on how to design good and interesting achievements. It's not about the technical side but the conceptual.

Post your achievements to Unofficial for reviewing

After creating some achievements, promote them to Unofficial and then contact a @mod or @code-reviewer on our Discord server (if you don't use Discord, send a message to RAdmin) and ask them to find someone to review your work.

Again, it's extremely important that you are open to receive constructive criticism and helpful advice from the community at any time.

Am I ready to get the Developer status?

Once the Code Reviewers have inspected your achievement's code and concepts, they and the admin will use the "Required Knowledge" checklist above to determine if you're ready. If you're not fully qualified to be a developer but but your set is complete and stable the set will get published. You can then ask which concepts you still need to demonstrate proficiency in to be given developer status.

The merit of a jr-dev receiving developer status depends on:

• their ability to publish work that meets the standards of the Developer's Code of Conduct;
• demonstration of required knowledge and advanced concepts;
• the quality and complexity of their work;
• the time and thought they put into planning and working on achievements;
• showing the will to use the Developer status with care and responsibility;
• the extent to which the points above reflect their capabilities as a developer.

Developer's Code of Conduct

Once you get your Developer status, you MUST adhere to the Developer's Code of Conduct. That is extremely important to create a fair environment between the Achievement Developers.