Systems and methods provide haptic feedback at locations of a keyboard palm rest during operation of a software program, such as a video game. During game play, a haptic event, such as an explosion, is detected within the game. A magnitude of the event and a direction of the event from a reference location in the game, such as an avatar's location, are determined. Haptic feedback locations on the palm rest are selected based on the magnitude of the event and the direction of the event from the reference location. Mechanical and thermal haptic feedback are generated at the selected locations of the palm rest, where the strength and timing of the feedback at each location are selected based on the magnitude and direction information for the event. Embodiments thus provide multi-dimensional haptic feedback that relates positional awareness to a user of events occurring within a video game.