Steam starts beta for grouped achievements with progress bars

Steam achievements are about to look a lot tidier. Valve has started a beta for Achievement Sets, a new way to organise the digital badges players earn for finishing tasks in games.

The test is live now with only a small number of games, according to Video Games Chronicle. Valve outlined the system in its Steam News post titled 'Steam Achievement Sets Now in Beta'.

Instead of one long list, developers can split achievements into their own groups. Each set gets its own progress bar. Finish every achievement inside a set and you earn a 'set complete' trophy on your profile.

That structure gives developers more room to play. They can build a customised set around a theme, such as mastering a specific character class, or around a section of the game.

It also fixes a familiar frustration. Right now, a new expansion can add achievements and wipe out a player's 100% completion. Under the new system, developers can put those extras in a fresh set. The original completion stays intact.

Then there is archiving. Developers can archive a single achievement or a whole set once it can no longer be unlocked. Steam advises that anytime an achievement becomes unavailable, it should be archived.

Archived sets do not show up on the profile pages of players who missed them. They also do not block progress toward finishing a set or a game.

Steam says that makes temporary challenges practical. A developer can run season-based or time-limited holiday achievements, then archive the set when the event ends, as reported by The Verge.

For players, this means clearer goals and less clutter. Hunt the sets you care about. Ignore the ones you missed. Your profile reflects what you actually finished.