Game Maker''s Toolkit - How to Keep Players Engaged (without being evil)

[Tetsmega]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbzGO_Qonu0

[FlounderBox]

When I saw Stardew Valley in the thumbnail, I'm surprised he didn't talk about sleeping. The busiest time in Stardew is the morning. You harvest your crops, take care of your animals, and get most of the manual labor done.

However, the only way you can save is to go to bed. The game starts you up the next morning, and you feel compelled to do your chores. That was the feature that kept me sucked in. Every time I saved and woke up to see all my new crops, I would say "Just one more day."

[Mmrnmhrm]

I think that falls under the 'psychological tricks' that he didn't want to focus on.

[Stiffy360]

"Daily Rewards" Though in this case it was in-game.

I can agree 100% on his stance on pacing. I loved Half life 2 and titanfall 2 as shooters as they had a large mix of combat, exploration, and story. It wasn't just incredibly tedious combat sections over and over again.