Hi, this is Mark Brown with Game Maker's Toolkit, a series on video game design.
Playing Bloodborne this weekend has got me thinking about death. And trust me, I've had
a lot of time to think.
It made me realise just how many games treat player mortality in the exact
same way.
The screen goes black (if it's a retro game you lose a life, if it's a modern game you
get a quote from Einstein) and then time rewinds a few minutes and you try the section again.
This is how it's worked since the earliest games, and the only thing that's changed is
that games have become more lenient, to the point where Prince of Persia drops you back
on the last platform you stood on...
and the BioShock games don't even reset dead enemies and looted items when you respawn.
But otherwise, this is a mechanic that has largely stood still for the history of video
games. And it's starting to feel a bit rote.
Having to repeat sections of games can start to grate. Trivialising death to represent
a momentary set back can suck out all the tension from a heated action sequence. And
from a narrative perspective, these games basically do the Sands of Time thing of just going...
THE PRINCE: No no no, that didn't happen. May I start again?
So I want to explore some games that offer more innovative ways of dealing with death.
Let's start with games that change themselves when you die, to avoid playing the exact same
thing over and over again, or to get you out of a rut.
This is the cornerstone of the roguelike genre, where a new world is randomly generated when
you're killed. Not only does it make death more consequential, but it cuts out repetition
and removes the ability to commit the stages to memory.
In Spelunky, you have to master the underlying rules of the game because you can't simply
learn the level layouts. They change every time you lose.
Rogue Legacy adds a unique spin to the idea by changing your character's class and traits,
as well as the castle map. Each time you die you're given a handful of new heirs to pick
from, who might play very differently to the character who just got you killed.
And then there's Transistor. When you lose your life in this tactical action game,
you lose access to one of your four powers and are forced to remix your character's loadout.
It's a different type of punishment for failure, and it also encourages you to try new strategies.
Some games kill you like normal and set you back earlier in the level - but they don't
simply forget what happened before. Your death leaves an indelible mark on the game - and
I'm not talking about painting in blood like in Super Meat Boy.
I'm talking about games like Shadow of Mordor, where your death can have massive impacts
on the organisational chart of Sauron's army. Orks who successfully kill off Tallion - that's
you - become more powerful and may challenge other captains and rise up the ranks. Plus,
they'll remember you...
DHARG THE WICKED: I know you! You're the one I killed before.
DHARG THE WICKED: You ain't no bother at all!
creating a little dynamic narrative that can lead to a satisfying revenge kill.
Now, back to Bloodborne and its predecessors in the Souls series. These are games that
takes great pleasure in killing you, and wiping out lots of hard work by pushing you back
to the last bonfire. But they also borrow a mechanic from old MMOs called 'corpse running',
which saw you sprinting back to your dead body to collect your dropped loot.
In the Souls games, you spill all your souls and humanity - or Blood Echoes -
when you die and you must go back to where you fell to retrieve them from your corpse.
Death is given greater weight in these games, but that one chance to claim
back your stuff means they also feel somewhat fair.
And in ZombiU, you don't just go back to a corpse to get your lost loot back - you have
to find a zombified version of the last character you played as and defeat them to retrieve
your inventory. It's a clever twist, and it largely works from a narrative perspective
too.
And then there are games that are all about acknowledging death, like in Super Time Force
where your past selves fight alongside you. And iOS puzzler Sometimes You Die, where you
have to use your dead body as platform for your ancestors.
There are also games that continue marching on after your demise. Heavy Rain, for example,
had moments where one of the four main characters could be killed and this doesn't result in
a game over. Instead, the story zig zags to reflect that character's death.
A different take on this occurs in DS game Aliens: Infestation which has marines wiped
out permenantly when they're killed. You'll have to find replacement recruits hiding in
the ship.
Sure, it's a slight twist on a four life system. And you can probably screw yourself over by
expending the finite source of marines and then saving the game. But by taking influence
from games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown - where you build relationships with your soldiers,
only to see them permanently lost if killed in battle - Infestation gives player death an emotional
sting that most games lack.
And finally, there are games that give you a second chance. Like in Prey, where you're
shunted to the spirit world and can play Duck Hunt against mythical birds to recover health
before being sent back into battle.
You've also got the buddy system in Far Cry 2 where a mercenary pal can drag you to safety.
The defibrillator in RAGE that lets you play a mini-game to bounce back to life. And the
last stand in Mordor which gives you a second chance in battle.
All of the games in this video make your mortality feel more impactful. Or they cut out the endless
repetition that comes with death. Or they manage to reconcile the player's death with
the narrative in a smart way.
So let's not immediately settle for the exact same Game Over mechanic that we've been using
for past four decades. Take a moment to think whether there's a more interesting way to
handle mortality in your game, and implement it.
Thanks for watching. You can subscribe for more game design videos. Leave a comment if
you've played a game with a clever twist on player death. And please consider supporting
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