Player Motivation: Penguin Isle
Taking a barren iceberg to a flourishing penguin society that fits in a pocket. This is exactly what the premise of the mobile game Penguin Isle is. At first glance, this may seem the perfect idea for an addicting and complex game but, Penguin Isle manages to achieve meaning and player motivation through simpler goals and rewards. It seems the idea of this fun and cute world is also the perfect opportunity to present players with an idle tapping game. Penguin Isle successfully provides players with many extrinsic motivations, micro and short-term goals, and rewards to motivate the player and succeeds to keep the player engaged especially at the beginning. However, even with the strong foundation and solid motivation as the player progresses it is evident the game does not keep up.
Before understanding what the game offers, the basic mechanics and target player type of the game must be identified. In this casual mobile game, the player oversees starting a penguin society by tapping on the various stations to produce currency. Once the player has amassed enough wealth, they can invest in their icy island by upgrading their buildings, hatching new penguin residents, buying other creatures for bonuses, and decorating the snowy world. Through these choices the player then begins to generate more currency at a faster rate to then buy even more upgrades and the cycle continues. As the player runs through this game loop, they will notice that their progress slows down. Upgrade costs increase substantially as the player starts to see massive changes to their island. The player is forced to put the game away to generate currency through idle means whereas they could tap away to reach goals before. This is the core concept of any idle tapper game and it is present here.
As a direct result of the genre Penguin Isle falls in, the game is seemingly directed mostly at the Wanderer player type. The idle game mechanics, simple tapping objectives, and interesting and unique world and aesthetics all target the Wanderers desire for quick and fun gaming sessions without much challenge. The fact that the game is a mobile game contributes to this fact as well. So then how does an idle tapping game motivate its players?
To start, I will focus on the strengths of Penguin Isle. This game has all the right ingredients to present the player with extrinsic motivations. The game constantly offers opportunities to generate currency by giving the player penguins to tap, milestones to take pictures of, and new stations to work and upgrade. Simply put, the player will always come back and stay for a while to collect more currency. This currency leads to yet another extrinsic motivation. The player is constantly rewarded for spending their currency and therefore motivates the player to keep playing to see their island flourish. The player has a plethora of options to upgrade their island with and to visibly see changes. These extrinsic motivations are presented to the player through the micro and short-term goals of the game.
In Penguin Isle, the player is given many concrete goals. The game offers many micro goals which include tapping a heart for currency, finding treasure chests, tapping new stations before they are automated, and buying small upgrades. This then transforms to short term goals such as automation, large upgrades, and new stations for the island. Through its abundance of these two types of achievable goals the game finds ways to reward the player for their decisions of what to upgrade and how to spend currency. These decisions affect the speed at which they can reach higher milestones in an integrated manner while the player can immediately discern a change in aesthetics.
However, this is perhaps where the game begins to fall just short of completely motivating the player. The Wanderer player type is given satisfaction through the simple mechanics and idle, aesthetically pleasing gameplay they are not given many intrinsic motivations. Most rewards and goals in the game are given in terms of currency and new unlocked upgrades and lack choice for the player to set extra goals for themselves other than some customization options to build themes that they find pleasing. Penguin Isle also lacks a distinct immediate Macro level goal. When the player begins, there is no end in sight, and it is not evident if the game can be finished. The goal is to simply grow the island and gain even more currency.
Although the game does lack some macro goals and intrinsic motivations, it has a strong foundation to grow and produce them. Currently Penguin Isle successfully pulls players in and rewards them early on with micro and short-term goals that are concrete, achievable, and rewarding to extrinsically motivate the player. With a few changes such as an introduction of a simple story about why the growth of the island is needed, and more impactful decisions and varied rewards, the game can achieve even greater meaningful and engaging play for their target audience. Until then, lets go and check on our penguin societies once again and see if that expensive mining station can be bought yet.
