Quests
Learning paths through this topic
Let a repeatable job come back each day at a set hour
A notice board job should be doable once per day, but is a day midnight, 24 hours after finishing, or a morning hour? The choices feel different to players, and a wrong day count lets the job reappear at midnight or never. Here is the clean version.
Build a "don't touch the screen for ten minutes" quest that closing the app cannot cheat
A patience quest is trivial if closed time counts, and impossible if the quiet must be unbroken across a phone call. Here is a timer that counts only quiet time in which the game is open, keeps it over short interruptions and resets on any touch.
Make an escorted character wait for a fast player and still catch up
Escort quests go wrong in two ways: the companion stops and starts at every step so it jitters, or it falls so far behind that the player has to walk back, and the mission becomes a chore. Here is a calm way to wait, resume and, as a last resort, jump ahead.
Hand out every milestone reward when one big win jumps past several
A single great round lifts the event score past two or three reward steps at once, and the game pays only the next one or loses the rest. Here is how to find everything newly reached, claim it once, and draw a bar that never goes backwards.
Decide whether a level started before the event ended still counts
The timer on a limited event hits zero while the player is in the middle of the last level. Counting nothing feels like theft, counting everything lets people park a level open for hours. Here is a rule with a short grace and a separate window to collect rewards.
Track a quest item through pickup, death and extraction without losing it for good
The mission is to carry a case to the exit. The player dies on the way, the case falls on the floor, and then the player dies again or leaves it behind and it is gone. Or the exit and the death happen in the same moment. Here is how to keep every outcome clear.
Judge taps in a "find the hidden things" scene when objects overlap and players spam
Two hidden things sit almost on top of each other, a tap on an already found one counts as a mistake, and a player who taps everywhere wins by brute force. Here is how to decide which thing a tap means, what is not a mistake, and a short pause that stops wild tapping.
Decide how a "hold to hack the terminal" bar reacts to hits and letting go
Hacking takes a few seconds of holding a button. Getting shot, stepping away or letting go for an instant can wipe the bar, which feels cruel, or do nothing, which makes the task toothless. Here is a middle road that keeps tension and stays fair.
End a rescue mission at the moment too many hostages are lost to win it
Save at least three of five. The player loses the third one and plays on for ten minutes in a mission that is already lost, only to be told so at the end. Here is how to see the point of no return and end the mission when it happens, not before.
Work out the exact moment an idle quest was finished while the player was away
The player returns after a night and the quest says finished just now, although it was done an hour after they left, and a bonus that ended in between was counted for the whole time. Here is how to find the real finishing time across changing speeds.
Find the door where using a single-use key leaves the level unfinishable
Two locked doors, one key. One door leads on, the other leads to an empty closet. If the player picks the closet, the level cannot be finished and nothing tells them. Here is how to list every choice that traps a player, before they make it.
Count enemy kills for a quest only from the moment it was accepted
A player clears a room, then walks to the quest giver and finds the job already half done, or done twice because one enemy reported its death two times. Here is how to draw the starting line fairly and make each defeat count exactly once.