FORGE: A Framework for Organizing Rewards in Gamified Environments

Abstract

Rewards are prevalent game design elements in gamified environments. Rewards are helpful tools to keep players engaged and encouraged to perform tasks. However, implementing a reward system from scratch in every gamified environment, such as citizen science games or educational applications, can be time-consuming. This article presents FORGE, a Framework for Organizing Rewards in Gamified Environments. FORGE is a free and open-source framework built to be easy to install, easy to integrate, flexible and customizable. It was designed to be used in a variety of different environments and scenarios, such as games, training software and interactive websites. The FORGE framework comes with two sample applications, a simple game concept and an educational web application, to demonstrate its capabilities and serve as an entry point for new adopters.