Add an FAQ area
Done (finalized)
There could be an FAQ area - e.g. a few folks are interested in understanding how scoring works - this maybe links to the philosophy of play (are people looking to 'maximize score' or 'discover most species')
2
shipped
Instead / as well as FAQ area, why not add a "how your score was calculated" inline. Or better still, animate and break down the scoring process as it happens.
Ideally design is so intuitive and inlined that ppl don't need to go to an FAQ.
Inline - yes, I think this would be ideal.
On timing - the particular way we score right now is something I think will be changed, and so I'm wary of putting too much work into things that feel like they'd be better when I know "this is definitively the way we score for the foreseeable future".
On animating and breaking down scoring as it happens - maybe. I see how this would make sense and could be motivating; on the other hand, I also think it could be distracting.
I think 'playing to maximise my points' is one way to play the game, but not the only way to play the game.
I have briefly even considered removing points altogether, because I have vague questions about whether it focuses attention on the wrong thing ("boo, I only got X points" - instead of "wow, it turns out that 'dance' has a definition I hadn't realised" or "how cool, I learned what it is to be 'xeric'"); sources of intrinsic motivation / curiosity that I'm very interested in encouraging.
I think 'breaking down points in-line' makes sense where, if I am going to have points come up at the end, I might as well have it be clearer -- I'm not yet sure about how I feel about points being present during the main game activity, though.
I've started work on this
Prioritising this since this is a reasonably low-hanging fruit way of making some things clearer