Gold Star For You, Friend!

REASONS TO REWARD THE PLAYER

Motivation

Rewards are often (too often) used to 'keep the player interested.' In other words, the mechanic of the game isn't interesting enough, so we need to throw something shiny in front of them to hold their attention. Fair enough.

Trial by Fire

Rewards can be used to push the player to attempt things in game that normally would be too difficult or dangerous or time consuming to do other ways. Use this sparingly or your game is going to be a labyrinth of difficult paths and easy paths and players may get confused.

Power

Giving the player power is an important concept; designers are often reluctant to do so, however. Giving the player double-damage on their next attack after killing an enemy is an effective way to keep them killing enemies. Unlocking a level editor after the player beats the game is a good way to get some players to finish the game and other players to come back after they've already beaten it. This is probably the hardest to design into a game and the hardest to balance within the context of the game.

Giving your player a bronze for finishing under 3 minutes and telling them to finish it under 2 to get a gold is a little like slapping them in the face and calling them slow

The Inside Scoop

I think this is the best reward system anyone has ever put in a game. I don't know which game was the first to do it, but they are champions in their own right. When the player performs well or finds something in the game, they are rewarded with more information about the game - concept art, production stills, 'making of' reels, etc. It breeds an intimacy and interest within the player about the development of the game, it puts a face on the authors, and it gets the player interested in the tip of the iceberg of game development.

A Gold Star

A pointless reward. This is a pat on the back for finishing a level or doing well. A gold medal for finishing under 2 minutes. This reward doesn't add anything to gameplay, but the player feels better about it. Sometimes, a tiered quality system is applied, to shoehorn some extra gameplay into the game, but really it's unnecessary. Giving your players a bronze medal for finishing under 3 minutes and telling them to finish it under 2 to get a gold is a little like slapping them in the face and calling them slow.

Punishment

Rewarding the player with something negative seems contradictory but it's so prolific I thought I'd speak to it. Giving the player damage or death for doing something is negative reinforcement, and is akin to slapping your dog with a newspaper. Players will be wary of doing that action. If 10 per cent of the chests in your level explode and deal damage to the player, they won't want to open any chests! If you still want to implement such a mechanic, make sure you're rewarding something beyond 'opening a treasure chest' - paint trapped chests red so that you're rewarding the player's perceptiveness, and not their actions.

HOW TO USE REWARDS

Frequency

This is a fine line to walk. Reward the player too much and your rewards lose their meaning. Having a billion points in a game doesn't feel any better than having 37 if you're older than six. Rewards are there to reward the journey the player takes to get them. If the journey isn't difficult, the reward is meaningless.

Difficulty

As I wrote above, the best rewards should be the most difficult to get. The value of the reward is proportional to the difficulty of obtaining it - in relative scale to the other rewards in the game. The best rewards are hard won, and difficult to replace, so that those rewards become reminders of what the player did.

The Journey

Players take a journey through your game. They start on the main menu and end at the end of the game (hopefully). They want to be rewarded during the course of your game, so take advantage of that fact. If you put a reward in a spot that's visible (but not easily accessible) it will lead them to it. Use this fact to accompany your level design and lead your player down the paths you want them to see in your game, or put the rewards down the more difficult paths - this makes the overall journey more difficult but more rewarding.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of every reward system ever made or ever to be made. I just want you to start thinking about the shiny things you put in your game and why they are there. Does your game need achievements? If you took out the points in the top-right-corner, would anyone still play it? Can you think of a good way to reward players with story (or a game that does this really well?).