Lately, I’ve been investigating the origins of Achievements — from some of the toughest (”Call of Duty 4” and “Gears of War“) to the absolute easiest (”Avatar: The Last Airbender — The Burning Earth“).

But the one game that got me thinking about how Achievements are chosen in the first place was “Double Dragon.” Earlier this year, the classic, quarter-eating brawler made its way onto Xbox 360 consoles. While many a gamer has no doubt conquered the title countless times, could they get all 12 Achievements in the XBLA version?

I’m guessing — no. There was one in particular that got my attention: “Untouched: Complete mission 1 in a single player game without being hit.” It’s worth 20 points. And some of the other ones are nothing to sneeze at either. “Hero” requires you to play the entire game without using a continue.

So I decided to ask Razorworks, the U.K.-based developer who ported the game, about how they picked the Achievements.

Last week, two programmers from the company answered my questions via e-mail (and declined to be named for unspecified reasons).

They did tell me that only 8% of people who’ve bought “Double Dragon” have gotten the “Untouched” Achievement.

Read on for the rest.

Multiplayer: When porting a game over like Double Dragon, how did you go about choosing Achievements?

Programmer #1: In games like these that weren’t originally designed with Achievements in mind, the risk of being repetitive is high: Achievements like “score X points” or “finish level X without continues” are common spread. It’s fine having a couple of those, but one should not overdo it, otherwise they becomes boring and unappealing. It’s better to try and be creative, thinking of ways to provide the player with new challenges.

A game like “Double Dragon,” born as a “quarter eater”, can lose some of its appeal when played with unlimited continues. Achievements can add some spice, forcing the players to go beyond what they’d have to do to simply finish the game. Even a simple Achievement like “No Swimming” (which requires to jump over a broken bridge without falling in the water, or being thrown there by enemies) can take novices a few tries before getting it right, and when they do, their ability with the game will be improved.

Multiplayer: What’s your process for choosing Achievements in general? What makes a good Achievement?

Programmer #1: The most important quality of good Achievements is variety, especially in a Xbox Live Arcade game that has only 12 of them. There should be different tasks, of different difficulty, evenly spread out throughout the course of the game, and covering both single player and multiplayer games. Achievements should motivate that player to improve their skills and play the game in different ways, or more focused on a specific task. For example, “Bare Hands” requires finishing the game without using any of the available weapons, while at the opposite end of the spectrum “All Tools” requires to pick up every kind of weapon during a single game.

Multiplayer: Why did you put the “Untouched” Achievement in the game?

Programmer #2: It’s a challenging Achievement that encourages players to experiment with different ways of attacking enemies to find out the best method. If you can obtain this achievement, then you should have no problems getting “Invade the Base,” “No Mercy” or “Hero.”

Multiplayer: Have you gotten the “Untouched” Achievement yourself? If so, how?

Programmer #1: I got the Achievement by using the elbow smash. It’s reasonably simple that way, but it took a few tries. It can be done without using the elbow smash, but it’s tricky — it requires precise timing because even being grabbed once (without being hit) will cause your energy to drop and you’ll fail to earn the Achievement. That’s one of the reasons why we put it in Mission 1, so players could try it a few times without getting too frustrated.

Programmer #2: Yes. The elbow move (face away from your opponent and press Jump + Punch). It’s the most powerful move in the game and is the key to completing “Double Dragon.” It also helps if you set the game difficulty to Easy.

Multiplayer: Have you gotten all the achievements in “Double Dragon”?

Programmer #1: Personally I haven’t, but our valuable testers did (multiple times). Yeah they’re good.

Programmer #2: No, not yet.

Multiplayer: What do you think is the hardest achievement in your game? The easiest?

Programmer #1: The hardest Achievement is probably “Hero”, which requires to complete a single player game without continues. One good thing is that in “Double Dragon,” Achievements are not tied to a specific difficulty level, so a novice can play on the easiest setting and have a more relaxed experience, while a hardcore fan that routinely beat the game in the arcades can play at the hardest settings and still get a challenge. Try “Sneaky” (avoid the wall traps in mission 4) on the hardest difficulty! I don’t know if anyone has managed to do that — it’s insanely difficult.

One piece of trivia about that Achievement. The original arcade game had a bug, which makes it handle the difficulty backwards in that part of the game. When the game was set to easy difficulty, the wall traps would actually be at their hardest difficulty, while when the game was set to the hardest setting, wall traps would not appear at all! We fixed that bug, so players of the XBLA version of the game can play it as the authors originally intended.

The easiest Achievement is certainly “Good Score”, which requires scoring 20,000 points. It can be earned playing the game casually. Just don’t lose all your lives too soon and you’ll get it. This is the only Achievement in “Double Dragon” that can be earned that way. All the others require some degree of dedication, from the simple “All Tools” to the devilish “Third Base” (finish mission 3 holding a baseball bat) which doesn’t seem to be possible at first sight, requiring [players] to think “outside the box” and exploit the game mechanics.

Multiplayer: Some people say Achievements are a cheap way to make a game replayable. Do you agree or disagree?

Programmer #1: I don’t agree. They can be “cheap” if done unimaginatively, but if done with creativity they can add real value to the game. Looking at the description of an Achievement can make you think something like “Hey I can do that? I hadn’t thought about it!” or “That looks like a good challenge, let me try!” In the end, good Achievements simply make the game more enjoyable.

Programmer #2: Almost all good games have always had a form of Achievements, although they’ve usually been things like unlockable content or secret areas, etc. With the 360, you are given a little extra reward in the form of gamer points and the Achievement so that your friends can see how good you are at that game. Also, although Achievements are a way of adding replayability to a game, a good set of Achievements will also teach you different ways to play the game, and encourage you to get the maximum amount of gameplay.

Multiplayer: How do you feel about Achievements personally?

Programmer #1: I think Achievements are a brilliant idea. They add new dimensions to the games, add replayability and give new challenges to the players. Gamers can compete over them if they like; or just earn them for personal satisfaction. In the end, it all goes to make the games a more worthwhile experience.

Programmer #2: If the Achievements are well thought-out and balanced, then they give extra life to a game and can make it more fun. Previously, I’d complete a game and it would then just go back on the shelf and rarely get played again, but now I have Achievements I go back and play games more thoroughly and in different ways.

Got an Achievement on your mind that you’d like to know more about? Let us know!