ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the experience of the rewards themselves, particularly what makes them satisfying to obtain and how we can make players aware of them in the first place. It looks at how rewards contribute to the psychological journeys players take through the games. The chapter explores the types of rewards found in games, and how they facilitate movement through gamespaces. It also explores how rewards become goals that create the structure for entire game worlds. In a spatial sense, rewards are useful for making a player take risks or leave the game’s “main path” in favor of exploration. When designers make players aware of upcoming rewards and motivate the player to reach them—through either showing the reward, describing it through storytelling, or other means—the reward becomes a goal.
