Grind Quest: Skills, Goals and Feedback

In games, game designers implement feedback systems that indicates important information to the player which can be anything from completing a mission to achieving a requirement to collecting or activating a special move or item, etc. Now the following 3 games give excellent feedback to players.

GAME 1: MINION RUSH

 In the IOS game Minion Rush players are constantly shown different methods of feedback to demonstrate who well they are doing in the game:

• Despicable Meter
• Trophies
• Score
• Bananas 

All of these different displays help to indicate how far the players have progressed in the level and how well they are doing. A higher despicable meter means that players are doing their required despicable deeds in the game, now while you do not need to commit despicable deeds the higher the meter is the more you can unlock. In addition, to these displays the game also use numerous light effects, flares and flashes to indicate when you complete a despicable action or have activated a power up.

GAME 2: GUACAMELEE

In the PS Vita game Guacamelee, the game designers created a good feedback system for players to know how effective their attacks are and how good they are at linking attacks to create a strong chain of attacks:

•  Timer 
• Chain 
• Finisher Move

So in Guacamelee (which everyone should go out and play it's amazing!!) players can always see how well they are completing and landing their attacks by the display that shows their current chain length. In addition,  the game tells players what attacks were landing correctly and how many points were awarded for them. In addition, when enough hits are landed in the chain the game displays a button icon over the enemy indicating to players that they achieved a finisher move for completing a larger enough chain. Furthermore, the game indicates items and power up locations by utilizing flashes and flares.

GAME 3: RED JUMPING HOOD

Red Jumping Hood, another IOS game, displays the game's feedback in a similar to Minion Rush:

• Score
• Chain (continuous, unbroken actions)
• Double Score Bar
• World Bar

In this game, players are required to cut flowers in a continuous manner without missing flowers while they have to avoid obstacles and enemies. The game tracks how many flowers have been cut in a row and indicates how large the chain is, constantly updating it until the chain is broken. In addition, the game shows how well the player is doing with collecting flowers and creating large chains with the double score bar. As long as players are constantly creating long chains the bar constantly fills up until players a rewarded with double score until the break the chain. Like in Minion Rush, special double score flowers shine as do your in game item when you are in the middle of a chain. In addition, enemy bees sparkle when they start to form in order to alert the player to stop them.

Personally I think that in order to constantly continue your chain (which is pretty hard to do even for an experienced player) requires serious concentration and coordination.