Lives

The number of chances players have before game instances are terminiated.

This pattern is a still a stub.

The loss of an individual Life is usually also associated with at least some negative effects in the game.

Examples

Counter-Strike is sometimes regarded as the first multiplayer first-person shooter that made explicit use of Lives. The player's Avatar that was killed did not respawn, and the player had to wait until the next level started, in principle, giving each player one Life.

Platform games such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda series make use of Lives but in such way that the only consequence of losing all Lives is that the player will have to restart from the latest saved location.

In Asteroids, the player initially has three Lives, and they are lost either when the Avatar is shot by the UFO or collides with an asteroid. When all Lives have been lost, it is the end of the game session.

Using the pattern

The prime characteristic of Lives is that they can be lost, so deciding how this can happen is the primary design consideration when using the pattern but what the consequences of losing Lives and how many Lives are available is also important. Lives are typically associated with Avatars and Characters, but games using Units or even Destructible Objects can use Lives through the use of Parallel Lives. They are typically not used together with Enemies but are sometimes used together with Boss Monsters. Games with Vehicles do quite often link the Lives of Avatars with the entered Vehicles; Lives are lost if the Vehicles are destroyed.

Losses of Lives are typically the effects of failing to Evade attacks by Enemies or other players, being the target of deadly Traps or Environmental Effects (possible after failing to Evade them), colliding with object due to failing with Maneuvering, or failing to replenish Resources within Time Limits. Typically, only one Life is at stake at a time , but games using Parallel Lives are an exception. The loss of Lives can be instantaneous when one is affected or can be the effect of cumulative Damage to a Health value.

The loss of Lives is a Penalty since losing all Lives ends game sessions, but this effect can be lessened by simply letting player start new game sessions. However, losing individual Lives can also carry Penalties. This is typically done through Ability Losses, Decreased Abilities, or reduced Scores. Ability Losses and Decreased Abilities can be given easy diegetic explanations in games using Equipment such as Armor, Tools, and Weapons by making players lose these when they lose Lives.

The number of Lives players have are Resources and can either only be lost as gameplay progresses or are Renewable Resources can be regained through various means. Examples of ways Lives are replenished include reaching certain Scores (found for example in Asteroids and Pac-Man), collecting Pick-Ups

be set to a static number to limit the time of the game session. Alternatively, the Lives can be replenished during gameplay, for example, by reaching a certain Score or collecting Pick-Ups. The possibility to replenish Lives gives the players clear short-term goals and makes Lives into .

Some game modes in the Battlefield series allow players to spawn again as long as their teams have "tickets" left, making the numbers of Lives a Shared Resource.

Once the player has suffered the consequences of losing one but not all Lives, gameplay continues as the Avatar respawns somewhere in the Game World. The location where the Avatar respawns can be the point of death, which provides continuation but may have Player Balance problems since the cause of death may still be present. The Avatar may also spawn in a random location in the Game World or a pre-determined Spawn Point. If the game design uses Spawn Points, the specific point may be determined randomly, according to an algorithm to provide Player Balance, or the player may be allowed to select from a set of Spawn Points.

Last Man Standing goals in Multiplayer Games are closely related to the use of Lives.

Can Be Modulated By

Spawning

Consequences

Lives are a form of Resources that allow players to have Extra Chances and be able to participate in games as long as players have at least one life left. While Penalties may be attached to losing Lives, the loss itself may be a Penalty since it reduces the number of chance left and the probable gameplay time players have left. The presence of Lives give players clear Continuous Goals: to Survive in environments that may include Enemies, Traps and other players trying to succeed with Player Killing or Player Elimination.

As Lives are typically linked to Avatars or Characters, they are a way to link players' successes and failures in the game to those of their Avatars or Characters. If players have developed any emotional links to them, the risk of losing Lives is thereby a way of increasing their Emotional Attachment to them. Regardless of this, the presence of Lives can increase Tension, as players have something easy to relate to that can be lost in the game.

As multiple Lives do not exist in reality, the use of them in games can break Thematic Consistency, not only by players having several lives but also through the process of Spawning. Diegetic Consistency can also suffer from the use of Lives since these are so important to gameplay that they are typically always displayed in players' interfaces.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Continuous Goals, Emotional Attachment, Extra Chances, Penalties, Player Elimination, Player Killing, Resources, Survive, Tension

with Multiplayer Games

Last Man Standing

Can Modulate

Avatars, Boss Monsters, Characters, Destructible Objects

Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

Ability Losses, Decreased Abilities, Environmental Effects, Health, Parallel Lives, Penalties, Pick-Ups, Renewable Resources, Scores, Shared Resources, Spawning, Traps, Vehicles

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Diegetic Consistency, Thematic Consistency

History

An updated version of the pattern Lives that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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