Grind Quest: Skills, Goals, and Feedback

Three games and their feedback:

Borderlands:

The goal in this game is to reach the vault and reach unimaginable riches. Side goals would be to reach max level, and slay all the bosses.

A feedback loop in this game is the growth of player level from slaying monsters and completing quests, increasing level of quests and monsters. This builds up to allow you to use shinier weapons and mods, eventually bringing you high enough level to beat the final boss.

One of the skills required in this game are proper hand-eye coordination for shooting baddies in the face/chest/genitals. Another skill required is the ability to understand talent trees and their benefits for you as a player. A final skill worth mentioning is proper timing and when to use certain guns/gun types at certain points.

Terraria:

The goal of this game would be to beat all the bosses and acquire all the loot.  Side goals would be to build a very pretty house!

A feedback loop in this game is the ability to only mine certain ores with certain quality pickaxes. This enforces you to acquire the previous tier of ore to move onto the next. Eventually this brings you to max ore tier and introducing you into slaying bosses for gear.

One of the skills required in this game would be the ability to understand yourself on a 2D plane, as this entire game is you on a 2D surface. A follow up one would be building aesthetics, as this game does have a heavy building component to it.  A final skill worth mentioning would be basic understanding of how to structure a strategic character. As to beat some of the end-game bosses you need to know how to equip balanced accessories, armour, and weapons.

Tetris:

The goal of this game is to last as long as you can, defined by the game mode you’re playing. Example to this would be complete 150 lines, last 2 min, get 40 lines as fast as you can. Side goal would be to beat previous records.

A very basic feedback loop here is the constant of giving the player pieces, and the player placing those pieces. This progresses the game forward as long as the player places them correctly.

One of the skills required would be placement forethought. Looking at what piece you currently have and what’s coming down the line. Another skill worth mentioning is remaining calm during the heat. Pieces will eventually start coming down very quickly and you need to not panic.

Other skills:

Other skills that are interesting to the player I haven’t already mentioned would be: reaction to certain enemy types and knowing how to deal with them. An example of that would be in Dark Souls, and learning how to dodge certain moves, or where to attack certain enemies.

Until next time,

Jordon