A quick lesson I’ve learned from Espgaluda, Cave’s classic bullet hell game: always, always show the player’s final score in a high score game, regardless of whether the player is going to be on the leaderboard. Espgaluda doesn’t pause to tell you your score if you lose without making the high score list, and so one only gets a sense of progress when one reaches a tier on the leaderboard. That’s pretty rough–especially for new players, who most likely aren’t anywhere near a high score but who are learning and could benefit from some positive reinforcement to keep them engaged. Displaying the player’s score gives some valuable extra feedback each and every game.