Basic Trope: A speech bubble, thought bubble, or symbol above a video game character's head that indicates a necessary action from the player.
- Straight: When Alice, the Player Character, is hungry, she gets a thought bubble with a knife and fork.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- Justified:
- Inverted: Alice always has a thought bubble, unless she needs something.
- Subverted: The thought bubble with the knife and fork is actually just meaningless.
- Double Subverted: But when she gets a thought bubble with a red cross, that means she needs healing.
- Parodied: Other characters can see the thought bubble and tell she's hungry.
- Zigzagged: Alice sometimes gets a thought bubble if she's hungry or needs healing, but sometimes just for no reason at all, and sometimes she'll have low stats but the thought bubbles don't appear.
- Averted: The player needs to rely on a health bar or character behaviour to determine if Alice is hungry.
- Enforced: "Players have short attention spans. Better grab their attention quick when the hunger level is running low."
- Lampshaded: "Can't you read my thought bubble? Feed me!"
- Invoked: Alice is aware that the player can read her thoughts and deliberately thinks of a knife and fork to communicate that she's hungry.
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Discussed:
- Conversed: "Huh? Why's the player character got a knife and fork over her head? Is she hungry or something?"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Alice gets a skull over her head if she's dying.
- Played for Horror: Alice gets a picture of a demon over her head to signify Demonic Possession.
Back to Overhead Interaction Indicator.
