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[Need Many Opinions] Your Favorite Way to Say "Game Over" In Your Game?

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by stephen_george98, Jun 16, 2016.

  1. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Hello all,

    (I hope this is the right place to ask this question, since it is opinion-based and not very specific)

    In my game, you die whenever you fail to dodge one of the four obstacles that comes down the map.

    Which of these ways for me to say "GameOver" in my game do you prefer and would be most likely to use?

    • Have a "GameOver" scene all by itself that loads whenever the character collides with one of the obstacles? (Just type in GameOver Collider on Google and YouTube to see lots of examples of what I mean)

    • Have a UI Text that comes upon the screen and is no longer transparent whenever there is a collision? (I got this idea from the Survival Shooter game made by the Unity Team)

    • Or the GameOver screen that comes up whenever you die in Temple Run? How is this done? Is it a new scene or what? I am clueless on that but I would love to know.
    So is any 1 of these ideas than the other two? Correct me if I am wrong, but I think using the first option (GameOver scene that is loaded via Application.LoadLevel) would be choppy and not smooth? Right?

    If you have any prior experience with this or have another idea, post it! This is just a question for opinions on what y'all think and could me and other people who view this with. Thank you! :)
     
  2. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Really depends on what all your Game Over involves and, which way you prefer to do it and memory constraints involved on your target device.

    If it is just a "screen" or text "GAME OVER" that could be a simple sprite that is disabled until needed. Your GameManager would just handle the GameOver appearing (instantly, fading in, sliding on, whatever) and handle the GameOver state and cycling back to Title Screen.

    Target device can play a part in your choice as well. Assuming there are no memory leaks moving from scene to scene this would be lighter because you could have a Title Scene, GamePlay Scene and GameOver scene and only the things needed for each of those are loaded into memory at any one time.

    You could have 3 parent GameObjects in a single scene named: Title, GamePlay and GameOver. Everything needed for each of those is included below it as a child (and likely inside other GameObject "folders"). When Title Screen is active that Title gameobject is enabled, GamePlay & GameOver are disabled. When GamePlay is active GamePlay GO is enabled and Title and GameOver are disabled. When GameOver is active GameOver GO is enabled and the other two are disabled.

    I've messed with it both ways. And for me just comes down to whatever I am in the mood to do at the moment I am doing it.

    EDIT: And after reading the other answers and wondering "WTH?" I just realized this was posted in Game Design forum.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2016
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  3. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Split your design from your implementation. How do you want your game over scene to look? What is the player going to get from it? What is the goal of game over?

    Here are some design examples to get you thinking.
    • Crossy Road - The game ends with a screen shot of the players death and a share button. There is a very obvious play again button. The goal is to get the player back in as quickly as possible. And the screen shot makes dying fun.
    • Civ - The game ends with a victory or defeat cut scene. Then a complicated set of stats the player can pour over. The player is given plenty of time to reflect on what went right or wrong. This game is a stats heavy one, and the game over scene is no different.
    • Return Fire - The game ends with a black screen and the skeletal face of death with his booming laugh. This lets the other player who now has an unopposed path to victory harass the looser.
    So think through the purpose of game over. Are you trying to get the player back in quickly, give them time to reflect, or something else?

    Once you have decided the purpose of having a game over, the actual implementation will be trivial.

    Edit: The return fire game over scene. Because it was awesome.

     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2016
  4. Gekigengar

    Gekigengar

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    Probably if you have a good story, you can use your Game Over to flesh out even more of your game's setting/characters. Make them seems like a part of the story.

    In persona 3, the main character's death is seen from a third person, on where his guest (The main character) dies in his quest, and tells you lines of his demised fate.

    In Fate/Extra, death will trigger another cut-scene, especially in boss battles, to show you what happened and how the main character feels when they die before he/she could learn the search for meaning of his/her journey. It also kinda tells on what happened and what will the boss do next, revealing more of the boss's character and their intentions, and how the main character's death will affect them.

    Sometimes I killed myself in Fate/Extra just to see what the dev had there.

    In Fate/Stay Night, death will send you to a tutorial, on where some character gives you tips and advice on what you should've done, sometimes explaining on why you dies in a humorous manner.

    I literally took every death just to see what they have ready, and heck, they give us more rewards for seeing all the death scripts they have written!

    Well, JRPGs are more story driven anyways, wouldn't always apply to any game.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2016
  5. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    Question - why does the game have to be "over"?

    I like the sort of Final Fantasy IV model where some sad music briefly plays possibly with a "You Died!" message...then the game just reloads your last save, putting you right back in the action.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2016
  6. DroidifyDevs

    DroidifyDevs

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    You could just show a text in the same game scene saying "you were crushed" and then a replay button that would reload the scene. That would be easy and not requiring a new scene.
     
  7. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Okay thank you for your input! I am thinking about doing the UI method that is shown in the Survival Shooter tutorial provided by the Unity team. If that way does not do well for me, then I will tryout your method. Thank you!! :) @GarBenjamin
     
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  8. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Wow! You just opened the floodgates for me! Thank you for much for all of your questions I should be asking myself. The purpose of my gameover scene is to state the score that the player got and to be visually appealing with a vibrant "try again" button so that they play again! So the actual implementation of my gameover scene is to get the player to play my game again. Thank you for helping me sort that out! @BoredMormon
     
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  9. DroidifyDevs

    DroidifyDevs

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    Oh I forgot to add: Try to make the UI appear as seamless as possible as your game art. It REALLY helps the experience.

    For example, you do NOT want something like this (Fallout 4)
     
  10. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    @DroidifyDevs Thank you so much for your wisdom and for helping me out on what NOT to do. My game is nothing at all like a big FPS such as Fallout. Mine is just a simple mobile game. But nonetheless the minimal UI I have should still be seamless with my game design (as you said) and should not be too distracting from the player's experience. One question though (If you can answer this). I just did some research on Google on "Reloading a Scene in Unity" and I read that Application.LoadLevel is now obsolete and that I should use the SceneManager class? Is that correct? Because I am actually using the Application.LoadLevel class so maneuver between my game scenes.
     
  11. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    @Asvarduil My game has to be over because that way I can generate ad revenue after they die hahaha. But in all seriousness though, my game could be inserted into the "endless runner" genre and when you get hit by one of the obstacles coming down the map, you die, your score is posted, and I think I will also put it to where your highest score shows too.
     
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  12. DroidifyDevs

    DroidifyDevs

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    I didn't expect your project to be as big as Fallout 4 :)
    I just showed an example of the ugliest UI possible lol

    Personally, I use Application.LoadLevel. While it is obsolete, it still works just fine. To use the new Scene manager, you need to use this:
    Code (CSharp):
    1. using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
    2.  
    3. void LoadStart()
    4. {
    5. SceneManager.LoadScene("Start");
    6. }
    Here is the doc on the new SceneManagement: http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/SceneManagement.SceneManager.html

    Sometimes, the Unity developers just have to re-invent the wheel :(
     
  13. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Lol It would take my whole life to program a game as large as FallOut 4 by myself! But anyways thank you so much! I guess I will stick to Application.LoadLevel for version 1.0 of my game for now. I just hope that Unity does not cut support for games that still use the Application.LoadLevel class instead of SceneManagement, considering LoadLevel is obsolete now. @DroidifyDevs
     
  14. DroidifyDevs

    DroidifyDevs

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    Unity usually doesn't cut support for old scripts. For example, GetComponent was changed a while back. You can still write the obsolete version of GetComponent, but the API updater will automatically fix it to GetComponent<>. It would be stupid of Unity to stop supporting old versions as some old scripts might take a long time to re-write manually. Also, the Console will always show you if something is obsolete :)
     
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  15. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Yeah you are completely right. I first started using Unity and following the tutorials whenever version 5 was released and you had to start using GetComponent in the Start() function. @DroidifyDevs Thank you for helping me out and for also being kind to a relatively new Unity user like me!
     
  16. DroidifyDevs

    DroidifyDevs

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    No problem :)
     
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  17. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    Dang. That's EA-levels of evil. Why not go one step further and charge them to start the game?*

    *: EA, that was not a suggestion. Please don't do this, the age of coin-op ended long ago.

    Probably a good idea. I haven't played any infinite runners (they don't interest me), so I'm not too familiar with how they work. I wonder if it'd be possible to take a page out of the First Person Shooters' playbook and include checkpoints in infinite runner levels at all? Probably just a crazy idea, though.

    (Also: 3700th post. Holy shishkabob.)
     
  18. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    It can be done in a very non evil way. Check out Crossy Road for an example of humane monetisation of an infinite runner.
     
  19. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Maybe I could incorporate something like that in a later update, but for the first version of my game, that would not work well at all to have checkpoints. Good idea though! Who knows, maybe I'll use it later or someone else reading this forum could use that idea! @Asvarduil
     
  20. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    If its something like hotline miami or supermeat boy you want the game to restart right away (because its a 1 hit kill) with the music keep looping in the background.
     
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  21. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Okay thank you I will check out what the developers that made Crossy Road did and take the good out of that. No reason to try to change what worked in the past :) @BoredMormon
     
  22. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    My game is nothing like HotLine Miami or Supermeat Boy except for the fact that you could say it is "one hit kill". The same is said with Temple Run and Subway Surfers (except for the tree root in Temple Run). @Aiursrage2k But I did have a laugh watching some Hotline Miami gameplay on YouTube lol.
     
  23. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    I'm a big fan watching the main character get held down as a giant skill saw is moved into their chest:
     
  24. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    Hahahahahahaha!! That is one awesome game over sequence, but unfortunately that is a big no-no for my simple, cartoon, and kid friendly mobile game lol.
     
  25. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Damn kids these days are wusses.

    When I was a kid I was watching movies like Akira.
     
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  26. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    Oh I forgot the scenes from arkham games.
     
  27. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    "Snake SNAKE SNAAAAAKE"
     
  28. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Careful now you're stepping into the new "hate crime" territory.
     
  29. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    @Aiursrage2k I am not going to lie, watching those scenes was one of my favorite parts of playing the Arkham series!!
     
  30. stephen_george98

    stephen_george98

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    @GarBenjamin @AcidArrow @Aiursrage2k @Not_Sure @BoredMormon @Asvarduil @DroidifyDevs Hey guys check out these two links for the two questions I posted on Unity Answers and GameDev.StackExchange

    http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/1206733/temple-run-and-subway-surfers-game-over-implementa.html

    http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/qu...-over-screen-like-temple-run-or-subway-surfer

    Do you guys agree with any of the answers I received? Today I am going to start making my "Game Over", now that I got all the steps before it completed yesterday.
     
  31. deathbydragon

    deathbydragon

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    Forgive me if I am repeating what someone else has already said, I didn't read every post.

    I don't really know much about your game, but in my opinion it is generally best to avoid Game Over screens. This is especially true if the only options for your loading screen are "continue" or "quit". If you simply restart the level, it may be a better idea. Faster iterations mean the player can fail more times without getting frustrated and quitting. A commonly cited example is Super Meat Boy, which gets away with way more failure than most games would get. The reason Temple Run gets away with the Game Over screen is the fact that it gives you an option to go to the store immediately, which you may want to do at the end of a game.
     
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  32. theANMATOR2b

    theANMATOR2b

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    I'm posting a bit late but I thought I could add a slightly different perspective/opinion - others including OP may find useful or interesting.

    imo - the majority of modern day games, mostly in the mobile and pixel art realm, seem to miss the opportunity to entertain the player just before and at the 'game over' 'you died' end state of the game/level.
    I believe this is mostly due to ad revenue / iap force feeding to the player, which is understandable and also unfortunate in today's mobile environment.
    The missed opportunity is with nice quality and emotional death sequences and the environments after the player has failed, showing a little extra to the player for entertainment purposes only. Too many (mostly mobile) games have a quick - unemotional - death - or even just cut straight to the menu as soon as the last heart is lost - missing out on giving the player a bit of extra entertainment, and also allowing them to take a reset breath - to get ready to try again.

    Original SMB, Legend of Zelda and a lot of other games of that era are very excellent examples for how to give just a little bit more to the player, even though the gameplay has ended.
    Mario popping up and dropping down below the screen while the end audio plays, and Link spinning and blinking out with sound fx are iconic and well done solely to give the player a bit more entertainment.
    One modern mobile game that did it right is Angry Birds. The player can tell if s/he has failed to pass the level 5-10 seconds before the menu pops up. And a lot of times it's fun to see the physics kinda playing the game itself.
    Angry Birds also has a basic - tap to get to the menu - so the player can continue to play the game, but it's actually entertaining to see subtle things happen - even after the gameplay is done and the eventuality is level restart menu.

    I think this is a small important 'thing' that shows players, developers are interested in delivering entertaining experiences in addition to having the game run properly and possibly receiving revenue - however a person chooses to do that.
    Just a suggestion about entertaining the player - 2-5 seconds isn't going to make the player put the game down and uninstall the game solely because the game didn't jump to the menu quick enough. And though some facebook and mobile devs would probable disagree and have graphs and analytics to back up there logic, I don't see mobile developers loosing ANY ad/iap revenue from giving a little extra effort to entertain the players for a couple seconds before throwing up the menu or ad onto the screen.
     
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