People play games because they are fun, and there’s nothing more fun than getting rewarded in some way for your efforts. In games, it’s necessary to reward players frequently and in different ways. This chapter will cover the main types of rewards:
One parameter of rewards is whether they are known or unknown. For instance, in many games, you may recognize that an object is a pick-up or power-up, but you won’t know what the item it contains is until you actually acquire it. In other cases, each specific item you see in the environment is clearly identifiable, such that a health potion, for instance, always looks like a health potion.
In another example, the completion of certain quests or major events in a game can often result in significant rewards. In some games, these significant rewards are exactly known. For instance, you kill the Black Knight and receive his magical sword. This will be consistent from one game to another and may even have been told to you before the quest began. This is an example of a known reward. If the reward is of great value, then the motivation to complete the tasks leading to it will be high.
In contrast, some major quests and events result in randomized rewards, as do some containers, such as chests in games. In this case, the possibility always exists to receive something of exceptional value, even from unexceptional containers or battles. In major events, the expectation is that something of great value will be acquired, but it is not known what it is. This adds to the anticipation of the reward, but it can also result in disappointment and/or frustration if the expected reward is not particularly useful or valuable to the specific player.
Randomization has its upside and its downside. Of course, in games with save/load states, players can replay a situation in order to get the best reward, but this is a sort of way to get around the randomization system or use it outside of the original game design intention. It’s good to anticipate this sort of approach, however, because many players will use it in order to gain something they really want.
In some games, a reward will consist of points or other accumulated credit toward something else. For instance, in some Role-Playing Games, players can receive skill points. These points are a reward in themselves, but specifically in their later application toward improving the player’s skills. In this way money rewards and experience rewards are indirect, because their actual value is for something that will be redeemed or experienced later.
In contrast, many items are usable directly in the game, with rewards such as leveling up (with accompanying increases in abilities and stats) or achieving a high score–giving move in a score-based game such as Tetris (removing several rows at once) or Bejeweled (getting a series of high-scoring cascades). Both of the two previous examples also extend gameplay time, a direct reward in addition to the increased score.
In multiplayer games and even in some single-player RPGs, the rewards of various activities are shared among members of the group engaged in the activity that produces the reward. This is particularly true in the case of battle rewards, such as items, money, and experience, and rewards given at the completion of various quests or tasks. The nature of the rewards is still the same, but the disposition of the rewards may vary, depending on the system used by the game or chosen by the players themselves. Rewards can be equal, based on contribution to the event, based on the players’ relative levels, or distributed on a “most needed” basis...or even on a group-decision basis, such as rolling dice to determine who gets specific reward items.
There is also the possibility of involuntary sharing—in other words, enemies may be able to steal items or money, and even allies may be able to betray the player.
Incremental rewards are generally small in nature, but frequent. There may also be a random chance of something really good appearing, which increases the anticipation of finding the incremental items. In multiplayer games or games in which you have NPC sidekicks, these rewards can sometimes be traded or given to other players and NPCs. Here are some examples of incremental rewards:
Power-Ups. Among the most frequent and useful incremental rewards are items that you can pick up in the environment, either randomly or after ordinary events, such as defeating a normal, non-boss enemy or opening a container. Power-ups can be:
Health potions/med packs (anything that increases or regains health/stamina, etc.)
Ammunition to reload your weapon
Mana potions for spell-casters
New weapons or armor
Money (gold or whatever is valuable and tradable)
Appearance of or accessibility to containers with items inside, such as chests, secret rooms, desk drawers, and so forth
Special items needed for special rewards (or just to complete a level), such as power dots that can increase your score on a level in an arcade game or bags of gold that must all be obtained
Items that temporarily (or sometimes permanently) increase your stats (such as a strength/stamina/intelligence/dexterity enhancer or a force shield)
Items that give you new skills or abilities
Sanctuaries. Safe locations, including save points, can often seem like a reward in a particularly challenging game and can be placed strategically to seem like a reward (or at least a relief) to the players.
Random Items. These are usually items that aren’t directly usable by your character or party, but that can be used to trade for goods or money.
Scavenger-Hunt Scenarios. You might have to find x number of something to turn it in for a reward, or you might have to find various parts of a single item. Finding such items can constitute an incremental reward, especially when the items turn up occasionally while you are out doing other tasks or when the hunting itself is fun.
Mystery Items. As a corollary to the random item, there are mystery objects that can intrigue a player and may turn out to have value or use later in the game, but when they are first located they simply exist as a puzzle to be solved. This includes items that are unidentified, meaning that you don’t know what they are until someone identifies them. These are common in Role-Playing Games.
Side-Quest Items or Actions. Sometimes items are part of an unknown quest, and, like mystery items, their purpose is unknown. The difference is that when a player obtains one of these items, he is informed of its value as a quest item. For instance, in a scavenger-hunt scenario, the player may pick up a blue gelatin cube and be informed by the game “1 of 10 blue gelatin cubes collected.” This tells the player that blue gelatin cubes have some value and that, in order to fulfill the parameters of the unknown quest, he will have to obtain 10 of them. This differs from a straight scavenger-hunt scenario in that the quest is not given specifically and is only known by the reinforcement message the player receives when obtaining one of the quest objects.
Instead of a scavenger hunt, the side quest may involve specific actions. For instance, it might involve rescuing trapped miners (when the more specific quest is to get to the bottom of the mine and obtain some special object, kill some boss, etc.). But for every miner the player rescues, he gets a message such as, “3 of 20 miners saved.” This kind of side quest has two rewards. The first is simply finding something that gives you credit toward a larger goal, even an unknown one. The second is achieving the goal itself and obtaining the rewards—which might be experience points, money, a special weapon, the opening of a new area or opportunity, a new skill, and so on. Rewards from quests and tasks are often shared among team/group members in multiplayer games.
Battles. In many games, every opportunity for a battle is also an opportunity to score experience and possibly gain items, money, or status—not to mention the fun of the fight itself. In this way, even a battle can be seen as an incremental reward, and tuning the frequency and severity of battles is a big part of perfecting a game’s pace and intensity. Rewards such as experience, money, and items are often shared among members of a team or group in multiplayer games.
Leveling. Especially in Role-Playing Games, the ability to increase your character’s stats periodically by reaching a level is an example of an incremental reward, even though it is also a milestone achievement. However, it happens so frequently in Role-Playing Games that I consider it to be an incremental reward more than a milestone reward. This kind of incremental leveling can also apply to weapons or other items that can grow in power as they are used or as you obtain special items to empower them. In contrast, the achievement of a new skill, spell, or ability could be considered a milestone achievement. (See the following section, “Milestone Rewards.”)
Fog of War. In many games, the map of the territory you are exploring becomes revealed as you move through it. In a way, the ability to see more of your world is an incremental reward of exploration.
Running Scores. In some games, you can see a tally of your score/experience/kills/acquisitions, and so on. As you play, the counter or meter keeps going up. This is another incremental reward that is increased every time you are successful in an ordinary task.
Scenes, Sounds, and Views. One way to reward a player is to provide spectacular graphics or special sounds from time to time. This can be in the form of a dramatic cut-scene movie or in-game event, or it can simply be reaching a location with a spectacular view of a mountain, valley, lava pit, or other dramatic imagery. It could also be an encouraging statement or a special sound or graphic associated with successful completion of tasks.
Whereas incremental rewards are obtained during ordinary gameplay, milestone rewards are obtained when you complete something relatively significant. These rewards are often in the form of experience or money, as well as items of value, status enhancers (medals, badges, and so on), and even level or character status enhancements. In addition, milestone rewards are often shared among members of a group in multiplayer games, and items gained as a result of milestone rewards can often be traded, sold, or given away. Some milestone rewards are:
The completion of a quest, chapter, or mission.
The achievement of a level or promotion.
The achievement of a new level of technology or research (particularly in Turn-Based or Real-Time Strategy games).
The defeat of a boss character other than the final boss.
The discovery of a character who is significant to the story (and who may be able to grant you some special item/ability/power, and so on).
The discovery of (or access to) a new area/land/terrain/world.
The achievement of sufficient skills or levels to enter new, more dangerous places. This is a very common method of controlling a game’s flow and a player’s progress, but it is also a reward in Massive Multiplayer Games.
Increased character stats
New abilities/powers/spells/weapons/vehicles, etc.
Special unique, useful items
Increased rank or titles
Social status or reputation within a community
Awards and decorations
Important new information
Opening of new areas or opportunities within the game, including new quests, new characters, and new terrains
New characters for your party
Cool cut scenes
New clothes
Collectibles (items that serve as trophies to commemorate accomplishments)
Buildings or parts of buildings (such as the palace that was improved incrementally in Civilization games)
The end of a game is a very specific milestone. Generally, the reward is found in the amount of challenge the endgame represents, the satisfaction of meeting that challenge, and the cool stuff or celebration you get for completing the game. In some games, the end-of-game reward is actually to unlock a whole new opportunity to play the game again—perhaps as a different character or with increased challenges and cool new stuff. In other cases, the ending is meant to give you a sense of great accomplishment. In relatively rare cases, completing a game allows you to save a character who will be able to start a sequel to the game (when it comes out) and transfer your saved character to that game. There are several ways, then, to create an end-of-game reward:
Big Boss Battle. One of the standard ways to end a game is to lead the player throughout the game to a confrontation with something so dangerous, big, evil, and powerful that it seems inconceivable that a mere mortal could ever defeat it. Of course, by the time you reach this formidable enemy, you have gained powers, abilities, and perhaps the knowledge of its weakness and how to exploit it. To be truly satisfying, however, the battle should be epic and full of physical and/or mental challenges. (See also “Boss Battles” in Chapter 14, “Enemies.”)
Alternate Endings. Some games offer multiple endings, which vary with the accomplishments of the player. In most such cases, there are endings that are more desirable than others, and those endings require a higher level of performance or the accomplishment of specific tasks. In other cases, the endings are of equal value, but just depend on which path or decision branch a player took at certain points in the game.
Unlocking More. Another way to end a game is to give successful players more gameplay. This is done either by unlocking new characters or new levels or by altering the game in some way and allowing players to re-experience it from a new perspective. This has been done in many games, among the best being the original NES Legend of Zelda, which let you play the entire game through a second time, but with everything somewhat different. If a game is really good, then you don’t want it to end. This kind of ending allows players to get the satisfaction of completion and the added satisfaction of continuing the play.
The Celebration/After-Effect. Usually, when you complete a game, you have accomplished some heroic task. You have saved the day for someone—possibly the whole world. At the end of the game, you may get a chance for some catharsis by meeting grateful NPCs who tell you how wonderful you are. The world, which was dark and gray under the evil force, is now bright and full of colorful flowers. The music swells with grand drama. You get to marry the princess...or something like that. This is the equivalent to the scene in The Lord of the Rings in which Frodo and the other Hobbits are honored for their heroism by all the men, elves, and dwarves, or the end of Star Wars, when Luke, Han, and Leia are honored.
The Personal Reward. In some cases, the hero of an epic game is on a personal quest, with which the player comes to identify. This might be finding his home, solving the mystery of his past, or being freed from some lifelong curse. Such endings are less public, but, having been sought for the entire game, they are no less satisfying when they come.
Something that is often considered an optional component of games is also something that can distinguish a great game from a good game. This is the element of bonus goals and rewards. What distinguishes a bonus goal or reward from any other type of reward offered within a game is the fact that it isn’t at all necessary to the successful completion of the game. It is purely a sidetrack, an extra. Often, however, gaining a bonus goal or reward benefits the player and makes completing the game easier or more rewarding. So, in most cases, it is not without value. Still, it is not something you have to do, and it can often entail considerable challenge and the investment of time and effort beyond the completion of the main track of the game. And occasionally a bonus goal or reward is completely without utility in the game, and its sole value is the entertainment it provides. Some examples include:
Side Quests. Often a game can offer a task or quest that has nothing to do with the main story, but which may offer some special reward, such as a useful item or ability. Or it may be that doing a good deed for one person will open some story element later in the game. Side quests are common in RPGs, adventure games, and story-based RTS games and, in a different form, may appear in FPS games as well.
Hard-to-Get Items. One of the bonus goals often dangled before players is some desirable item or power-up that is in plain sight but not obviously reachable. It is certainly not necessary to get the item, and it will involve considerable effort—mentally and physically—to find your way to it, but diehard players can’t resist the challenge. This type of reward is also mentioned in the section “The Obscure Object of Desire” puzzle example in Chapter 27, “Puzzles.”
The Hidden. Great games often have secret stashes, found behind false walls or hidden doors, up in high places out of sight, behind locked doors with no obvious key, under floors, inside ordinary items, and so on. Finding these hidden items is often not necessary to complete a level or pass through an area, but it is part of the fun to find everything. These are true Easter Eggs in that they serve the same purpose as Easter Eggs do for kids on Easter morning. Even if it isn’t anything really valuable, the act of searching and finding is a reward in itself. And sometimes these hidden rewards are of truly great value....
The Obscure. Some bonus goals and rewards are based on really obscure events, such as completing a level within a certain time period, killing a certain number of enemies, or achieving a specific score on a level. Some of them are very obscure, such as your score at the end of a level matching the last two digits of a randomly generated number, or exploiting some oddball behavior in the game that seems like a random glitch but ends up yielding a reward if you are persistent. Some rewards are even planned to occur at a very low percentage of times. In one very large game, I remember one single room where you could kill a certain creature. There was a 1-in-255 chance of a particular creature spawning and a 1-in-255 chance that when you killed it, it would drop a specific and obscure item that could be used in the making of a super weapon. Such obscurities are meant to capture the imaginations of very dedicated players, but they also make good conversation pieces, which is like free publicity for your game.
The Mini-Game. Some games have smaller activities built into them. These activities may or may not have an application to the overall game. A good example is a gambling game that’s a fun diversion but may also be a good way for a clever player to gain some extra cash to spend on good weapons and armor, and so on. Or there may be a game of breeding creatures that can be used in other parts of the game, but the breeding game itself is fun. There may be little arcade games placed somewhere within a larger adventure or Role-Playing (or even FPS) game. In some cases, the mini-game offers no real reward other than a small diversion. In other cases, the mini-game could lead directly or indirectly to a significant reward if the player can master it.
Unlocking Abilities/Characters/Levels/Areas/Endings. Sometimes you can create a higher level of challenge for a player. If the player can complete that challenge, he gets extra rewards above and beyond the normal completion of the task, quest, or game itself. This can involve extra abilities, new characters, special levels, special or secret areas, and even alternate endings to the game.
Emergent Behavior and World Interaction. In some games, there is considerable reward in just messing with the game’s world. In games such as SimCity, The Sims, or Grand Theft Auto III (and its sequels), the worlds are so complex and offer such varied opportunities that players can simply experiment with different actions and outcomes, sometimes revealing special emergent behaviors that cause totally unplanned and unexpected results. This kind of free access to a complex world can lead to a host of new experiences, which in themselves are rewards. Sometimes they can lead to opportunities within the game that can directly benefit the character. Whether this takes the form of alternate tactics and strategies or of exploits (taking advantages of glitches in the game to essentially cheat) depends on the circumstances.
Design Challenge
Take some of your favorite games, preferably from different genres, and list all the types of incremental and milestone rewards they offer. Also note how they handle the end-of-game rewards.
List at least five ways to offer players incremental rewards. Can you come up with 10 ways?
Think of at least five types of bonus rewards.
Think of some nonstandard ways to offer incremental rewards. For instance, how could you offer arcade-style rewards in a First-Person Shooter or a Real-Time Strategy game?
Think of five strange items that could be used to represent a reward—for instance, a cash register for money or different-colored balloons for different types of rewards, such as health, money, powers, and so on.
Generally speaking, for rewards to be meaningful, they have to exist in a context that also includes some element of risk. The risk involves some undesirable consequences that result from the player’s actions or choices or from outside events. If the result of success is the attainment of a reward, failure leads to penalties.
There are different types of penalties involved in the risk/reward structures of games, such as:
Loss of life
Dying while attempting to defeat an enemy.
Dying as a result of a failed jump.
Dying by drowning when your breath gives out.
For more ideas, see Chapter 32, “Ways to Die.”
Loss of health
Any action that causes the player to take unacceptable damage as a result of an attempt to reach a goal or claim a reward. Unacceptable is relative.
You take significant damage from a trapped chest or door.
You fight the boss’s underlings but end up near death after the battle, severely reducing your chances to prevail against the boss. This can also occur from other situations, such as having to take a treacherous path to the boss, at the end of which you are depleted.
You have to cross a lava field or wade through a pit of acid (or equally inhospitable region) to attain a goal. This can be done, but it would be much easier with proper protection.
Loss of skills
Sometimes the risk involved can lead to loss of experience, levels, or skill values. The situations that can cause this are very specific and, generally, rare in games.
On the other hand, every time you use specific skill points to upgrade a particular skill, you also pay an opportunity cost related to the ability to upgrade other skills with those same points.
Loss of items and/or resources
You die and items are lost, even after you are resurrected.
Attaining a goal is difficult, and you have to use items to replenish lost stats.
Another player or character successfully steals items from you.
You fail in an attempt to combine items while crafting, and you lose the items you tried to combine.
You succeed in a crafting attempt, but the resources are used up.
In order to attain a reward, you must use up a specific item, such as a key, a stick of dynamite, or a magic scroll, which disappears after use.
Loss of position (relative or physical)
You try a shortcut or otherwise attempt to gain an advantage in a race, but you hit a wall or otherwise fail, resulting in losing standing in the race.
You attempt to negotiate a tricky area, but you fall or otherwise slip off the path, which puts you in a position worse than you were before.
You attempt to teleport directly to a goal, but the spell goes awry, and you end up at the beginning of the maze you where you began.
Loss of time
In a timed race, you try to take a shortcut, but you fail to negotiate it successfully and you lose time.
You try to get power-ups, but you go off course.
In a timed trial, you miss when attempting a spectacular feat or otherwise mess up, costing you precious time.
You try to get to a power item that will disappear after a short time, but you mistakenly run into an enemy that forces you to fight. Similarly, you fail to negotiate the distance from a switch you have activated and the door it opens.
You take the wrong route while escaping the lab, which is set to self-destruct in 30 seconds.