-
Book Overview & Buying
-
Table Of Contents
Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design - Second Edition
By :

As an industry, we are really, really good about making players feel really, really bad. We kill player characters at the drop of a hat, force them into near impossible situations, and then mock them when they fail. We’ll steal from them in a heartbeat, and we’ll mess with their minds any chance we can get. What we’re not very good at doing is offering praise. And as an industry, we wonder why players complain about games. What we need to do is make players feel like the best people in the world instead. The best example I’ve seen of giving players praise is in Zak and Wiki: The Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure (Capcom, 2007). Whenever players do something correctly, the following happens:
Change the font size
Change margin width
Change background colour