Overhead Interaction Indicator

Bronya (on the left) wants to be near Mei, while Mei wants someplace to sit.

A frequently-occurring situation in video games is when the player(s) need to have some kind of interaction with another character, especially an NPC, whether it be a conversation, a particular action that needs to taken, etc. To signal this, an icon of some variety will appear over the character's head. This can be something as simple as an exclamation mark or question mark, or something more complex like a speech or thought bubble showing what action needs to be taken.

Compare Notice This, when something in a game that the player can interact with that's not necessarily a character will have some sort of indicator like a color change, icon, or sound.

Related to Alertness Blink, when someone/something has a visual and/or auditory reaction to your presence.

See also Expressive Health Bar.

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Examples:

Video games:

Action

• ANNO: Mutationem: NPCs have a large speech bubble overhead that will either give a side-mission or engage in an optional conversation.
• Diablo II: NPCs with a glowing speech bubble containing an exclamation point overhead will either give you a quest or an important piece of quest-related dialogue. This carries over into Diablo III, although it's now a glowing exclamation point.
• Honkai Impact 3rd:
  • Your Valkyrie that is on the homescreen will have a thought bubble floating by her head that takes three colors and does different things when tapped/clicked. If it's blue, she will say one of an assortment of canned statements with a speech bubble providing the translation. If it's a purplish tone, she will do the same, but it's to scold you for playing too long and/or tell you to shut down and get some sleep. If it's white, she will say something but instead of dialogue, an interface appears where you can see her current Affection Point level and also perform some other actions, such as swapping Valkyries or entering Portrait Mode. There's also a variant where the speech bubble is spiky and yellow with exclamation points. These give special dialogue pieces such as the Valkyries saying something about their birthdays or, in Bronya's case, asking the Captain to get her a HOMU Happy Meal.
  • In the dorms, a Valkyrie will occasionally have a blue speech bubble appear over her head with a chair, book, a scared or sad face, and other things. These indicate actions that the player can do with her to potentially increase her happiness meter and/or receive a reward. To trigger the action, the player has to either tap or click on the Valkyrie (once or a few times depending on the indicator), or drag her to a specific part of the room like near a bookcase or onto something she can sit on.
  • Some of the quests in the Sakura Samsara version of Open World are activated by tapping/clicking on a female villager with a yellow exclamation point over her head. In other quests in different parts of the game, the same yellow exclamation point will appear over the heads of NPCs you need to talk to.
• The Legend of Zelda: In multiple games, Link can interact with characters with a downward arrow overhead.
  • In both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, the arrow turns blue for NPCs and green for certain objects such as signs.
  • The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess has yellowish downwards arrows.
  • Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom has a white arrow that turns orange when locked on.
• Punishing: Gray Raven has a dorm system similar to Honkai Impact 3rd above. Dorm inhabitants will regularly have "dorm events", with an icon above their heads indicating whether they need to be moved to certain furniture items or petted. If a blue triangle is above their heads, they will instead converse with you, either resulting in a mood boost or a gift.
• Sunset Overdrive: A spinning blue circle with a exclamation mark where the dot has a spiky lighter shape around it. The "Re-Quests" Quest Saleswoman has one, and the player points it out the second time they talk to her and third times they talk to her:

Second time

Player: You sure you don't need something? I mean, there's a spinny icon above your head and it's really...compelling
Quest Saleswoman: What, that? Oh, just testing it out, making sure it's rotating properly. Go on, sweetie. I'm fine here.

Third time

Quest Saleswoman: FINE. But I really shouldn't be giving in to a quest junkie.
Here's the deal, sweet pea. I rent out these icons so people can help each other.
There's a bunch of overdue icons out in the city. Find them for me and bring them back.

First-Person Shooter

• The Borderlands series: Since the second game, indicators have multiple colors and symbols:
  • A yellow exclamation mark above someone or something indicates that a quest can be started by interacting with them.
  • A green question mark means that there's a quest to turn in. Absent in Borderlands 3, where the green "Turn In!" prompt is also gone.

Mons

• In Pokémon Ranger, citizens in need of a ranger's help will have a thought bubble containing an ellipsis, alerting the player to speak with them.
• Digimon World: A Pictorial Speech-Bubble appears above your Digimon expressing its various needs, such as food, sleep or going to a bathroom.

Platformer

• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: When in front of the entrance to Squid Baron's labyrinth, a circle with a ! inside it indicates that it can be interacted with, which wasn't clear because it wasn't like the other interactable areas of a clear person.

Role-Playing and MMORPG

• In Age of Conan, quest-givers have exclamation marks above their head (which according to Zero Punctuation, makes it look like they've just spotted Solid Snake).
• In Bug Fables, NPCs who give the player quests or are involved in the progression for some quests will feature a speech bubble with an exclamation mark above their heads.
• Divinity: Original Sin II: Player Characters and their companions get floating exclamation marks when they want to discuss a significant plot point that just occurred. However, other NPCs and scripted dialogue aren't similarly marked.
• Dragon Age series: NPCs with quests to give have exclamation marks, while NPCs associated with an ongoing quest have an arrow about their heads.
• Going Under: A character with a speech bubble overhead will have different interactions depending on what's in the bubble. If the bubble is white with scrolling bars, you can converse with them or receive a business card from them. If the bubble is blue with a checkmark inside, the character is giving a quest.
• Magicka: Parodied in Chapter 1, where a villager with an exclamation mark above her head requests the wizards to deal with rats in her cellar, but shortly after, a group of goblins appears to attack. When they are killed, the villager states that rats don't feel like a problem anymore. The exclamation mark still remains above her head, though, and when talked to again, the villager laments that she can't find a way to get rid of it.
• Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift has a player-centric variant. When Mylene is walking around outside, if she comes across something she can interact with, an exclamation mark will appears in a speech bubble over her head.
• Titan Quest:
  • Quest characters will have a yellow exclamation point over their heads, while NPCs that just give general information will have a yellow diamond.
  • Merchants come in sellers of equipment for physical fighters, equipment for magical fighters, and ones that sell both types of items, and have symbols of crossed swords, a book, and a sack overhead, respectively.
  • Item Storage caravan people have a chest as the symbol that's displayed above their heads.
• In World of Warcraft, quest givers have an exclamation mark above their heads, and NPCs where you finish a current quest have a question mark.

Simulation

• Cute Knight Kingdom: A speech bubble of a four-pointed yellow star-shape from a character means they have something special to say, or as the opening tutorial says:
  People with something new to Chat about display a star over their heads.

Space Management

• In Theme Park, speech bubbles with icons for food, drink, rides, or their mood appear over the park guests' heads.
• Theme Hospital uses these to show the mood of patients and staff, as well as to show when you receive a fax regarding someone in the clinic.

Time Management

• In Clean-o-Clock, which is a licensed game of The Loud House, all the kids except baby Lily occasionally get a thought bubble with a picture in it. If you click on them, and then on what they're thinking about, they will perform a particular action with the object (for instance, if you click on Lana and then a broken object, she'll fix it).
• Diner Dash: Diners have a heart meter over their heads that gradually reduces the longer they have to wait to be served, making customers with reduced hearts a priority to attend to.
• PlateUp!:
  • Customers will have a green bar overhead representing their patience for each stage of the process of their stay (waiting to get into the restaurant, have their order taken, and get their food respectively) that gradually decreases, and will turn red when it's critically low.
  • Any food prep task will have a similar timer bar over the player's head as they're working. In some cases, such as a stove or microwave, if you leave the food to sit for too long, an exclamation point will appear over the bar to show that it's about to burn.

Web

• Cold and Flu Invasion: The patients will have speech bubbles depicting the type of pill they need.
• Moshi Monsters: Characters who want to send you on a quest have speech bubbles with exclamation points over them.

Wide Open Sandbox

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Villagers will sometimes have a thought bubble above their heads, indicating a concern that provides an opportunity for the player. These concerns include giving the player a nickname, developing a new catchphrase, wanting to sell or gift something, or moving away from the island. Other times, they'll just share a random thought with the player.
• Genshin Impact: NPCs that give quests will have an exclamation point over their heads.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: NPCs associated with the active quest have an arrow above their heads.
• Starbound: NPCs that give the player quests are marked with yellow exclamation marks, quest-relevant entities feature blue arrows pointing at them, and when all conditions for finishing the quest are met, a blue question mark appears above the quest-giver.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2:
  • Characters with new sidequests for you have a question mark over their heads, while characters who you need to talk to as part of an in-progress quest have an exclamation point overhead.
  • Random NPCs who you either haven't spoken to before or who have changed their text since you last spoke to them have a small star overhead.

Unsorted

• In Terrible Triplets, the titular triplets get thought bubbles depicting what they want. For instance, if one of them is thinking about its bottle, it's time to feed them.
• In Vet Set Go, the animals request objects via speech bubbles.
• In My House, if your character needs to pee, they will have a thought bubble with a toilet. Everyone else can apparently read this thought bubble, since if you try to interact with anyone while having to pee, they'll tell you to go to the bathroom instead.
• In There Is No Game, if you try to feed the squirrel a nut without cracking it first, it will have a speech bubble with a picture of the nut being cracked.

Other media:

Literature

• The Dresden Files: When Waldo Butters becomes a Knight of the Cross, his angelic guidance takes the form of quest markers over the heads of those in need.

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