The Medal System is a Newgrounds feature that implements medals, which are earned from completing specific tasks on Flash Games on Newgrounds. The users must be logged in with their Newgrounds account so that medals are added to their user page.
History
The Medal System was created by PsychoGoldfish on March 4, 2009, to coincide with the release of Portal Defenders. This system has since been publicly released as you have the option to add them from the new API. They have to be approved by an Administrator before the points work or they appear underneath the flash submission.
System
Types of medals
Example of a normal medal with its description
Medals come in two main varieties. First, there are medals that explain the requirements for achieving them. Second, there are "secret" medals, that can
only be unlocked by chance.
Medal points
Medals provide medal points, this can be 5, 10, 25, 50 or 100 points. Usually, the number of points awarded are proportional to the difficulty of the medal. However sometimes the points awarded for said medal aren't proportionate with the difficulty of getting it, thus some medals that might require you to complete the game with no deaths might award you with a mere 5 points. If unapproved by an Administrator, medals are worth 0 points.
Ranking/Medals on the BBS
Example of a secret medal
At the time there wasn't't an official medal system ranking, but people logged in NGlogs compared their medal points with other users and in the Newgrounds BBS there was a Top 100 Medal Points list made to show the users with the most medal points. There is also a Hardest Medals thread with all sorts of people's opinions on hard medals. Top Medal Point Users
How to get medals in your game
To get medals, authors must send a message to Tom Fulp or PsychoGoldfish requesting the code needed in the flash for the medal system to work. If the game is proven good enough, Tom will send a message with help to create medals. Authors have to create a new API entry in the API tools section. Then the author can add the medals and wait for their approval by an admin. The scripts to add medals to the games are in the section "using medals".
Troubles with medals
Sometimes even if the achievement is completed the medal isn't awarded, this can be for various reasons.
To be able to get medals, the computer has to connect with the Newgrounds Gateway, if the connection is established an icon should appear. The most common causes for this not happening is that classic mode is not supported for games with medals so users have to switch classic mode off in their flash preferences. Another common cause is ad blockers, sometimes they need to be disabled for the game to connect.
Some medals are broken, this means the code for the medal has errors and doesn't work properly. This has to be fixed by the author.
If medals are not approved by an Administrator, there will be no points awarded.