Development & Accomplishment in Games
Almost all games show you some type of progress towards the Win-States. A Win-State is often a scenario where the user has overcome some sort of challenge - that’s the “win” in the Win-State. Games break down user challenges into stages to help the user feel like there is always progress.
Our brains have a natural desire to achieve goals and to experience growth in order to feel that real progress in life is being made. We need Win-States. Games can sustain long forty-hour or even four-thousand-hour player journeys because they use distinctive stages and boss-fights to recognize user accomplishment along the way.
To display that sense of accomplishment, some games show you points, others use levels, badges, stages, progress bars, better looking gear, victory animations… the list goes on. However, just because you see your progress through these elements does not necessarily mean you feel accomplished.
The key to...