8 steps

Progress that keeps players going

For: Games with levels, skills, unlocks or a reason to come back tomorrow.

Progress works when every step is visible, earned and chosen. Numbers first, then choices, then the long game. Rewards for showing up come last, because without the rest they are hollow.

The steps, in order

1. 1

   Blueprint

   Experience and Levels

   Levels give the player a clear sense of getting stronger and a next goal that is always close. Rising costs keep the early levels quick and the later ones a real achievement.

   Why here: The spine: points in, levels out. Get the bookkeeping right, with overflow and level skips, before anything hangs on it.

2. 2

   Code recipe

   Level-up curve

   Works out how much experience each level costs, so early levels come fast and later ones take more work. It handles the sums that are easy to get wrong: several levels at once, the bar between two levels, and the top level.

   Why here: How fast levels come is a design decision, not a formula you copy. This recipe lets you shape the curve and see the minutes per level.

3. 3

   Blueprint

   Skill Tree

   A skill tree lets players decide what their character becomes, and each choice opens up later ones. That gives them something to plan for.

   Why here: Choices need structure: what requires what, what excludes what. A tree with checked rules never leaves a player with points they cannot spend.

4. 4

   Blueprint

   Perk Choices

   Perk choices make every level-up a small decision instead of a gift. Because the hand is partly luck, no two runs build the same character, and the player has to work with what shows up.

   Why here: Three cards to pick from feels like agency even when the pool is small, if the draw avoids repeats and dead options.

5. 5

   Blueprint

   Mastery by Use

   Mastery by use makes a character grow in the way the player plays. Swing a sword often and you get better with the sword, and the game never asks the player to choose from a menu what they have already shown.

   Why here: An alternative to points: skills grow by doing. It fits some games better and needs its own guard against grinding.

6. 6

   Blueprint

   Meta-Progression

   Meta-progression turns a lost run into a step forward. The player always leaves with something, so failing feels like progress and each new run starts a little stronger.

   Why here: For games with runs that end: what carries over decides whether a loss feels like progress. Decide this before players lose for the first time.

7. 7

   Blueprint

   Achievements

   Achievements give the player extra goals beside the main one and a reason to try things the story never asks for. The pop-up makes a small win feel seen, and the list of goals shows what is still left to do.

   Why here: Achievements record what players already did; they do not create motivation on their own, which is why they come this late.

8. 8

   Blueprint

   Daily Rewards

   A small gift for coming back gives the player a reason to open the game every day, and a streak makes each new day worth protecting.

   Why here: Last, and only if the game is worth returning to: a daily reward on top of real progress is a nudge, on top of nothing it is a trap players notice.

At the end

Levels come at a pace you chose on purpose, builds differ between players, and a run that ends still leaves something behind.

What this rests on

Talks, articles and research from outside this wiki, so you are not taking our word for it.

• The Motivational Pull of Video Games: A Self-Determination Theory Approach (Richard M. Ryan, C. Scott Rigby, Andrew Przybylski, Motivation and Emotion 30(4), 2006)

  Shows in four studies that games pull people in when they make players feel in control, skilled and connected, which is why good progression should grow real mastery and meaningful choices rather than just numbers.

• Does gamification work? - A literature review of empirical studies on gamification (Juho Hamari, Jonna Koivisto, Harri Sarsa, HICSS 2014 (IEEE), 2014)

  Reviews 24 studies and finds that points, badges and similar rewards usually help, but how well they work depends on the context and on the players, so achievements need to fit your game.

• Daily Quests or Daily Pests? The Benefits and Pitfalls of Engagement Rewards in Games (Julian Frommel, Regan L. Mandryk, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI PLAY) vol. 6, 2022)

  A survey of 178 players shows daily rewards can motivate but also create fear of missing out and a feeling of chore, which is the core of the ethics question around daily rewards.

• From Motivating to Manipulative: The Use of Deceptive Design in a Game's Free-to-Play Transition (Hilda Hadan, Sabrina Alicia Sgandurra, Leah Zhang-Kennedy, Lennart E. Nacke, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI PLAY) vol. 8 (arXiv 2503.22901), 2024)

  Analyses how Overwatch added reward mechanics that players felt were manipulative, and shows that players want fair rewards and clear communication, a useful warning for designing progression and rewards.

• Against "Dark Game Design Patterns" (Christoph Sebastian Deterding, Jaakko Stenros, Markus Montola, DiGRA 2020 International Conference, 2020)

  A research paper that questions the simple label of dark patterns for habit-forming game mechanics such as daily play and grinding, helping you judge where a retention mechanic becomes unethical.

Say this to your AI

Follow the Spielerando learning path "Progress that keeps players going" (get_path progress-that-keeps-players) for my game, step by step, and tell me at each step why it comes now.

Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP