"Star Awarding" Help

Hello guys. I need some help with my star awarding system. The scenario is this:

Throughout the level, depending of preset value of certain scores, the player gains a star. I have a total of three stars to be given. Let's say the first one is gained at 5000 points, the second one on 10 000, the third one on 15 000. Pretty basic setup.




After the game has ended a popup box appears with some basic stats info. The stars on the popup box are the players current which duplicate with the ones in the HUD.



And after the player presses the OK button the game get's him to the home screen where I have this banner:



which shows the best results made from the player.

So this is my current scenario, which It does not feel very elegant in it's current state. I asked my self a couple of questions, but somehow I cannot overwhelm the complexity of this simple star awarding thing.

These are the questions that i asked myself:

• Should I award the gained stars(the ones in the HUD) to the player if he does not successfully completes the level?
• If I award the player with the gained stars even if he does not complete the level which ones are the best to appear on the popup box - the current ones made, or his best made?
• Should I hide the top stars in the HUD when the popup box appears so they don't duplicate in front of the players eyes?
• Or maybe I should make the stars in the HUD bigger and more appealing and remove the ones from the popup box?

Also a problem arises when the player has completed the level and gained all three stars. I though the most elegant way when he replays the level is to show all the three stars collected in the HUD. But then the popup appears with those stars again which totally conflicts with the HUD star display..

Can somebody experienced with star awarding system help me out with some hints?

 

I've played a lot of games that reward stars. I think the best implementation is when I can use the stars later to unlock more puzzles or upgrades. are they able to use your points for anything? If not then you maybe giving too much feedback for something that isn't a motivator for the player.

 

Hm..so in my specific scenario the player maybe can use them to unlock other difficulties(levels). Or rather to unlock the hardcore mode of the current level. That's a great idea

 

I also still wonder about the star duplication in the play area -> Over the HUD and over the Popup. Somebody with some idea?

 

Maybe i should just remove the stars in the HUD area and in the beginning of the level to display how many scores the player needs. That way the stars in the popup area can stay.

 

Without paying it's hard to say. But i would say that if the player doesn't coplete the level he probably shouldn't get any reward. This will prevent player's from farming stars by only playing just enogh to earn the first star(which i imagine is simple) then loose intentionally, so they can start over and get the easy star again.

To support this i would change the way the stars look in the HUD. maybe make them look ghostly,or grey to indicate they are potential stars. This way you are still providing feedback as they progress through the level but they are still motivated to finish the level.

Check out the game "Brain it On!" They have a decent star system.

I think the end level pop up is pretty good.

 

Here is my take

• On menu scenes show only the best stars ever achieved on a level.
• On the stats screen only show the best starts made
• Don't award any stars for failing a level
• On any 'in game' scenes only show the stars earned on this play through

 

Took some thoughts about it and implemented the unlocking idea:



So the blue star button is actually a challenging level which is unlocked when all the three golden stars are made. When the player completes the challenging level he gains the blue star on the banner
.Also removed the stars from the HUD and left only those on the end screen pop up.

And when hit the play button before starting a level an info popup shows how many scores the player needs in order to collect a star.



It feels pretty decent now.

Yes..after all why give a star for not completing something? If the difficulty is tuned correctly , there should be no problem to implement exactly that. Thank you for your time guys. I really appreciate that you came here to help me out