Lives

The number of chances players has before game instances are terminated.

Many games include dangers that can "kill" the game elements controlled by players. Lives is a design feature in games where such a "death" does not automatically result in their game sessions ending and instead players are allowed to play until one has run out of these Lives.

Examples

The original arcade version of Pac-Man gave players a single extra life at 10,000 points but other implementations give this at numerous occasions. In Asteroids, the player initially has three Lives which are lost either when the player's ship is shot by a UFO or when the ship collides with an asteroid. When all Lives have been lost, the game session ends.

Counter-Strike can be regarded as a multiplayer First-Person Shooter that makes explicit use of Lives. Here, players' avatars do not respawn when killed, instead forcing players to observe the rest of a match as spectators. Battlefield series allow players to spawn again as long as their teams have "tickets" left, making teams share the amount of Lives available (although these amount also decreases if enemy teams have control over goal locations).

Platform games such as the Super Mario series and The Legend of Zelda series can be said to be weak examples of games making use of Lives. This since the only consequence of losing all Lives is that players have to restart from the latest saved location.

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. However, what the consequences of losing Lives are, 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, 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. A specific design issue related to loss of Lives exists when the Lives are linked to Avatars. This is that Spawning of the Avatars needs to be done to reintroduce them into the Game Worlds. The location where Avatars 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. Avatars may also spawn in random locations in the Game Worlds or by randomly choosing one point from a small set of Spawn Points. Even if Avatars are not respawned where they died, this location can still be interesting to return to if the Equipment lost when dying can be found there.

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

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

Interface Aspects

The amount of Lives available are typically presented continuously through Game State Indicators, e.g. HUD Interfaces, since they are typically a central aspect of how well gameplay in evolving in game sessions.

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 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.

The use of the pattern implies that players have at least more than one Life. This makes the pattern incompatible with Permadeath. 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, Game State Indicators, Health, HUD Interfaces, Non-Renewable Resources, 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, Permadeath, 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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