By Design: The Death of the Game Over

You may have seen the recent headlines on certain gaming outlets or Twitter: There will be no GAME OVER screen to be seen in Super Mario Odyssey.  Instead, players will lose 10 coins from their collected total and continue from their last checkpoint.  Sound familiar to other open-world sandbox games?  Is this a change long over due?  What does the future hold for the iconic 1-up mushroom and classic extra-life sound effect?  Do Game Over's and extra life mechanics still hold any relevance in today's gaming medium?  With these questions in mind, join us in our first design discussion as we dive into the origins and evolution of the Game Over.

Game Over screen from Super Mario 3D World for Wii-U.

Before the days of home consoles, video games had their explosive start in arcades.  At a token / quarter a pop, developers put in certain gameplay mechanics to motivate players to keep playing their games, such as leader-boards or the infamous Game Over / Continue screen.  By making games brutally difficult and allowing the player to buy more lives at the cost of a few more quarters, developers were able to earn additional revenue on their games as players fine-tuned their skills and sought out to reach the coveted ending.  Many modern arcade games share the same conventions today as this mechanic is well suited for the challenging and short nature of these games.



Things changed of course though with the introduction of home consoles, most notably being the business model.  Players could now make a one-time investment into a game console and their desired game, and then have unlimited playtime with the game at no additional monetary cost.  So as these games came over to consoles, so did the Game Over mechanics carry over, if only due to familiarity.  With this, the challenge and difficulty remained, but now players could try again and again.  The only cost / penalty now was time, as they replayed grueling level after grueling level.  While home consoles were slowly allowing for longer, more complex and a greater variety of games, this Game Over mechanic still aided in allowing games to seem longer as players replayed levels, which helped justify the higher one-time costs for many players of the day.

The next great shift was the ability for players to save progress through re-writable disks starting with The Legend of Zelda.  Though some games had password systems and the like which allowed players to jump ahead in the game, the convenience of being able to save a game at will without needing to write down any convoluted codes could not be compared.  With this, you could begin to see a shift in more forgiving checkpoints and difficulty as games started to become longer and grow into more complex affairs.  In Zelda II: Adventure of Link, players would start at the beginning palace upon a Game Over, but they would retain their gained levels and tools, allowing for shortcuts to progress more quickly across the over-world.  In Super Mario World, each ghost house or castle would serve as a save point, so a Game Over would only require a player to replay a few levels rather than the entire game.  These adjustments were necessary less the game be seen as overly-frustrating due to the wealth of games that could otherwise be enjoyed now.

Now with the great mass of extensive RPG's and online multiplayer games with no real end-goals, time is a valuable resource and commodity to the player.  Although recent Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario 3D World games still contained the Game Over mechanics and 1-ups, their purpose was almost non-existent as it at most made a player lose their checkpoint in a level, often causing only a few minutes of progress lost.  As such, 1-ups became less of a necessity to collect and more a challenge if desired, for the sweet reward of that is the 1-up jingle.  You look at modern platformers like Rayman Legends or Super Meat Boy, and you can see the Game Over screen doesn't even exist any more.  Should the player die, they are brought back to the nearest checkpoint, keeping the action of the game brisk and fast.  With Super Mario Odyssey having what is a considerably larger sandbox and focus on exploration than past Mario games, it is likely for this same reason that the Game Over mechanic is being removed in favor of tighter pacing.

Does this mean the end of Game Over?  While it has largely lost its prior relevance, it still holds some value in the right game.  For starters, thanks to its long legacy, it holds some powerful nostalgia, which may be why the mechanics are kept in place for the recent Donkey Kong Country series for Wii and Wii-U, a reboot whose gameplay and musical aesthetics were built around a solid foundation of nostalgia.  Game Over screens and the like are also still very practical for games built around challenge and precision, such as rogue-likes or permadeath games.  The added pressure that comes from games built around careful precision and tough consequences completely changes the dynamics in how one plays a game, which is why these games still very much have a devoted following.  The Dark Souls series would not be the same without the infamous words of "You Died", taunting the players with the obvious and egging them on to try again.

A familiar sight to behold in the brutal game series that is the Dark Souls games.

One of the most interesting approaches to death and checkpoints in recent history would have to be with the modern retro classic that is Shovel Knight.  There are no Game Over's in this game, but each time the player dies, they lose some treasure and restart at the nearest checkpoint.  Should they be able to reach back to their last death without dying again, they may be able to reclaim their treasure.  Additionally, every checkpoint in the game can be destroyed for the reward of extra treasure, but at the risk of longer backtracking should fail moving forward.  These clever mechanics provide an interesting risk vs reward and also help to appeal to wide ranges of players, from those seeking a challenge to those who prefer less punishing gameplay mechanics.  This is the perfect example how a somewhat archaic system doesn't necessarily need to be abandoned, but can instead be adapted into something creative and fresh.  For a deeper look at design process for how these checkpoints were created, check out the developer's own notes on such here.

The Game Over may not have the same presence it once so strongly imposed, but it certainly has left a lasting impression still today.  Through careful and creative adaptations, Game Over and extra life mechanics can still hold a place in today's gaming medium.  But in respect for the player's time and a more fluid gaming experience, the new default for many games now looks to be doing away with the Game Over.

What are your thoughts on the "death" of the Game Over?  Is this a change for better or for worse?  Do you have any particular fond memories of games with Game Over's or glorious extra-life sound effects?  Feel free to comment and continue the discussion in the comments below.  And if you have any suggestions for future By Design discussions, be sure to let me know as well.  Until then, look forward to more discussions and happy gaming!