I was pretty adamant that there would be no achievements in Ritual of the Moon. I hate achievements in all videogames. I think they, at best, annoying and meaningless, and, at worst, a representation of the way most videogames create a loop of work and false reward in order to make the players feel productive, a mandatory feeling under neoliberalism. Ritual of the Moon is about self-reflection, and daily habits, not work and reward. There are no celebratory flashing lights or music cues that make you want to play again and again. It is modelled after ritual and meditation, where the only reward is being more emotionally in-tune (which sometimes is not an award!). 

But last week I was like, well what if instead of thinking about them as "achievements" which does not make sense for this game, I think about them as markers of the narrative progress. There is nothing in the game that pops up and says "you made this choice! so this is what will happen!" so the Steam achievements do that work. Other than the first one which is an achievement for playing for 7 days, each achievement marks a change in narrative path you are on. I think the moment they pop up will be distracting, but I actually like the signalling of different paths and options. 

Of course, only the Steam version will have achievements. If you are like me and dislike achievements but are interesting in the splitting of different story paths, I've attached the achievement doc here so if you play on mobile or itch, you can refer to it. 

5 days until release.