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24 hour early access - Are Lives Outdated Game Design? (Patreon)

Published:
2020-10-14 07:34:05
Imported:
2021-01

Content

Hello!

An interesting option at the start of Crash Bandicoot 4 inspired me to think about the whole concept of "lives" in games. Are they still relevant, or just an outdated relic of the arcade era?

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Are Lives Outdated Game Design?

Are lives an outdated relic of the arcade era, or are they still relevant to game design in 2020? Support Game Maker's Toolkit on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit Crash Bandicoot 4 game code provided by the publisher Sources [1] Super Meat Boy's McMillen Explains 'Why So Hard?' | Gamasutra https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/119093/Super_Meat_Boys_McMillen_Explains_Why_So_Hard.php [2] Sonic Mania’s Save System Sucks | USGamer https://www.usgamer.net/articles/sonic-manias-save-system-sucks Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance) Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (Toys for Bob, 2020) Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems, 2019) Battletoads (Dlala Studios, 2020) Pac-Man (Namco, 1980) Super Mario 3D World (Nintendo, 2013) Super Mario World (Nintendo, 1990) Sonic Mania (Sega, 2017) Kirby Star Allies (HAL Laboratory, 2018) Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 1981) Donkey Kong Country (Rare, 1994) Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Retro Studios, 2014) Rayman Legends (Ubisoft Montpellier, 2013) The End Is Nigh (Edmund McMillen & Tyler Glaiel, 2017) Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo, 2017) Super Meat Boy (Team Meat, 2010) Streets of Rage 4 (Dotemu / Lizardcube / Guard Crush Games, 2020) Mega Man 11 (Capcom, 2018) Disney's Aladdin (Capcom, 1993) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (Konami, 1993) Super Mario Bros. 3 (Nintendo, 1988) Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1988) Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, 1985) Celeste (Matt Makes Games, 2018) Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (Vicarious Visions, 2017) New Super Mario Bros. U (Nintendo, 2012) Furi (The Game Bakers, 2016) Kero Blaster (Pixel, 2014) Sonic Generations (Sonic Team, 2011) Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth, 2020) The Messenger (Sabotage Studios, 2018) Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games, 2014) Panzer Paladin (Tribute Games, 2020) Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios, 2015) DoDonPachi Resurrection (Cave, 2008) Sonic Forces (Sonic Team, 2017) Trials Evolution (RedLynx, 2012) Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Inti Creates, 2018) Music used in this episode Music provided by Music Vine - https://musicvine.com/

Comments

ZoidbergForPresident

Interesting stuff indeed! Lives are definitely a remnant of the arcade era (well more like continues, that includes a couple lives and that require you to insert a new coin when running out of them) but it's interesting to turn this design on its head to improve modern games. :)

Anonymous

I've never played Panzer Paladin but that save system sounds like a stroke of pure genius.

Anonymous

I really liked this video, it sure is an interesting topic.

Anonymous

I like that they provided the option in CB4, why not offer the challenge of Retro if you can?

OSW Review

Your thumbnails are always very good but this one is EXCELLENT. a difficult topic to find a striking picture but you've found a current game with bright and HQ graphics and seemlessly layered in text, in a very sumptuous way. Well done Mark! 👍

Will Kommor

Playing through SMB 64 right now and laughing at how unnecessary the lives system was in all Mario games since they let you save. Like, oh, game over, start from the same place again but we're gonna make you feel worse about it this time

Anonymous

The For Lives/ Against Lives Crash screen is brilliant.

Anonymous

Nice Video, i like the topic. I remember playing Wario Land 2 on GBC. It was impossible to die. Instead you loose coins if an enemy hits you. There are even enemies, that changed Warios shape/movement. So sometime you had to protect and carry certain enemies to specific points in the level. If you then get hit by them you were able to reach secret places in the level.

Chad Serrant

I'm gonna mention Sonic Unleashed (Wii/PS2 version) where you get a refresh of lives at the start of the stage, so you don't carry over chances. In that game, finding an extra life actually increases your starting number of lives, the max being 15. It rewards you for exploration, too.

Anonymous

did an email go out for this? I only noticed it in my YouTube subscriptions

cptnoremac

The advantage of lives is it adds stakes and makes your victories feel more sweet. Fear of consequences makes you appreciate not being punished. The problem is that the punishment is wasting your time, which is something no game should ever do. A clever game would think of another way to punish you that doesn't waste your time, which is a scarce resource for an adult.

OSW Review

Thank u mark! So enjoyable and thoroughly researched and thought-out, as always 🙂 I was re-watching your Top 5 Levels from 2017 video, it's really great and such a refreshing way to showcase innovation from over the year, from a variety of devs with budget difference (eg Uncharted 4 vs Edith Finch). Any chance of doing a follow-up style vid for 2020?

Anonymous

As someone who has played games since the 90s, I am all for a penalty upon death, but I have to say that the traditional lives system is very much outdated and adds little to no challenge whatsoever. All I've seen it do is frustrate the casuals and become useless for the skilled. It would be better for "lives" to be replaced with something like Shovel Knight (Losing money or other needed items) or Crash 4 (Rewards for not dying a lot).