Long time no see. Lately I was thinking a lot about micro-rewards.
I started using the soft The Hit List. A quite polished GTD enabled Todo application. The soft has lots of nice touches but my favorite is just the sound when you complete a task. Usually sounds in application are there to get your attention but here the sound is used to get an extra layer of satisfaction. You completed a task and The Hit List is rewarding you with a short sound.
So a micro reward is most of the time a sound or an animation. It will bring nothing new in the game but it will reinforce the player’s sense of accomplishment.
The perfect example is Peggle. From the incremental sound of the ball hitting pegs to the craziness of the last peg, the game transforms small achievement into big deal. And the result is clear, you keep playing in the same way I keep trying to complete task in The Hit List.
So this was my message today, micro rewards are important.
Nic Magnier. Previously game developer on several unreleased video games. Ironically I work now at Nintendo of Europe to help developers releasing their own titles.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Yes, exactly. A sense of accomplishment upon action completion (though it sounds strange) is a big thing that makes the user interface of a programme attractive.