Game Ramblings : Game Overs...

Lately I've heard a lot of people say that they liked to die in games or that they miss the old Game Overs in their games because they felt today's games were too easy and they wanted to do levels all over again.

Well I'm a strong believer that Game Over screens are of the past. The game industry has evolved since the 80's and this should be the first step towards that evolution...getting rid of those screens and all that "put another coin in the arcade please" mentality. The Game Over "feature" was used in the arcade to provide arcade game developpers to make money out of kids, but now it's useless to do so.

I've played a game recently that had those Game Over screens : Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles; and I just wanted to put the controller down and never come back to it because this is really want it seems to me that the designers wanted to tell me ... I've bought this game so please don't give me the option to let your game down...

I believe the game developpers must use other strategies to keep players playing their games. Instead of a Game Over screen let the player know they failed,but let them go back to the mission they were doing by using story elements or a different set of animation that lets the player know that they'll come back stronger later ... As an example, in Naruto, I'm fighting against Sasuke and I get beaten because I didn't hit the health button soon enough...so I get a Game Over screen right away...in less than a second...that's not fair for the player since he can't even know what just happened there...let Sasuke talk to Naruto (laugh at him, taunt him, etc...) or use a cinematic where naruto gets taken back to the village and at the hospital until he can recuperate.

I think we have enough ressources to put that kind of elements in our games and find ingenious ways for the players to feel we care about them and we have put the effort into the game he bought. It's not by letting the players down that the game industry will bring in more players that have never played before.