One life....seriously one life....

dreamers75

This has to be a windup or the stupidest idea for a perma death game ever.

One Life recently joined the roster of hopefuls on Steam Greenlight, . Die once and you’re done. One Life, its developers told me, will lock out your Steam account as soon as you kick the bucket. The “play” button in your launcher will go gray, and you’ll only be able to stare somberly at the history of your character.

CruelCoin

I like the idea of perma death games, it gives some meaning to the gameplay.

That said, it only takes one gimped AI move, or bad mechanics to get you killed, so i expect this to be immaculately polished(not likely).

This is one of those games destined to see the refund system abused heavily .

Skerries

as in get killed once and you can never play this game again or that you have to start all over?

Ri_Nollaig

Skerries wrote: »

as in get killed once and you can never play this game again or that you have to start all over?

From the description it looks like it bans you from it so you account can never play it again. LOL
Trying something different in fairness but far too exploitable and I am sure people would be just delighted if some bug resulted in a death.
Will keep the refund system business anyway.

Perma-Death is a good mechanic to really add tension to a game and Dayz for example was unreal, at least at first.
Perhaps some kinda leveling system instead that goes back to 0 on death? Obviously need something "permanent" as, in Dayz for example, nothing stopped you just going back to your corpse on death and getting everything back again like nothing happen.

Spear

I wouldn't spend €10 even speculatively given the likelihood of spawning in only to get killed immediately by some spawncamper/camper.

What incentive is there to take any kind of risk such as exploring or trying a new weapon if it's to be punished like this?

This is fundamentally misjudged, and gimmicks work best when they encourage rather than discourage players. It sounds more like an attempt to hide an incomplete or unready game behind a hand waving mechanic.

Zillah

Spear wrote: »

What incentive is there to take any kind of risk such as exploring or trying a new weapon if it's to be punished like this?

You could ask the same thing about any real life scenario: if the reward is big enough, if you ran out of patience, if you decide you just don't care any more.

I wouldn't pay more than a couple of quid for it, but I actually really like the idea - though it seems like a massive amount of developer work for a game that can't last for long. I remember crawling towards a building in DayZ once, because I had been alive for a long time and had a bunch of really good gear and I really didn't want to die. I'd never have had that experience if it wasn't for the perma-death aspect.

I think it's a great experiment; they're not saying all games should be like that - can we try it just once? Can you imagine the tension? Can you imagine how cut-throat people would be? It's certainly an original idea, and it's certainly a novel answer to the question of how to make a player care about their avatar.

They definitely need to keep it simple and have it polished to all hell, because it would be utterly inexcusable for someone to die to a bug or crappy unintuitive mechanic.

Spear

But in DayZ you can start a new game and in theory, learn from your previous game. You can't do that if the game is now locked out from your account, unless you're willing to buy it on another account.

Zillah

Yes, it is not the same game as DayZ, it was just an example of tension caused by the threat of non-trivial character death.

I think the concept has value - but I'm not entirely inspired by the trailer. Pissing on prisoners, really? Classy.

I imagine that once the player population is almost entirely depleted they might do a reset, say, every six months or so?

degrassinoel

I wonder was this inspired by the game in Caprica

Cravez

If they want to emphasize or expand on the Permadeath mechanic, what they have currently is not a great idea. But If they changed it to say, if you die once then you cannot create a new character for 12 or 24 hours would be a lot more plausible.

Only the odd few would want to play such a Masochistic game with one life. For many people the idea of forking over a chunk of cash only to very possible lose that investment in a matter of mere moments is absurd.

At least if you a temporary block character creation for a set number of hours then at least you're not entirely losing your character, and would probably give a similar tension in the game knowing if you die, you cannot play for x amount of hours again.

Then again, I think locking characters even to x amount of hours is stupid, but it's still a better alternative to what these guys want to do.

Zillah

You have hundreds of games where you can do that though, are they honestly not allowed to even try this one experiment?

Tar.Aldarion

Cool idea, as long as it doesnt cost much.

Banjo

Sure they can try, but it doesn't seem like a sustainable idea, not for a chargeable game. They might be better off throwing this immediately into a humble bundle so that you get a massive instant player base and the game is effectively disposable, so you'll get less push back for the perma-lock-out.

Spear

If this was F2P, a lot of my objections would be gone. But taking away something that money has been paid for it just a step too far.

Zillah

A tenner is far too much, I'll agree, but I frequently pay 3 quid for a coffee, and people used to pour massive amounts of money into arcade machines for temporary access to a game.

Is a fiver for a life that could last weeks if you're careful such an immoral proposal?

I'm not hugely encouraged by the trailer, it looks like it might be kind of crappy and arcadey - I think a desolate, dust strewn city where the open streets are no-go kill-zones would be far more suitable, where everyone scrurries from door to door looking for supplies, and hides in underground tunnels to avoid detection - but I think the concept has merit.

And as I said a long term reset would be a good idea once the population has been whittled down. Can you imagine the chaos when it first launched, and then the silence and tension when there are only a few people left? They should do a bit of a hunger games on it, where they're forced to be near each other by deadly zoned-events.

The more I think about the concept the more I am A) Excited by it, and Convinced this game won't actually do it justice.

Skerries

guess what the dlc for this game will be

Tar.Aldarion

Spear wrote: »

If this was F2P, a lot of my objections would be gone. But taking away something that money has been paid for it just a step too far.

You mean paying money for temporary entertainment is not cool? This is why I take the reels from the cinema :P

Spear

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

You mean paying money for temporary entertainment is not cool? This is why I take the reels from the cinema :P

Just as well then that games are sold as licences.

Ri_Nollaig

Zillah wrote: »

I remember crawling towards a building in DayZ once, because I had been alive for a long time and had a bunch of really good gear and I really didn't want to die. I'd never have had that experience if it wasn't for the perma-death aspect.

Thats what I was thinking too.
DayZ really was the only game I ever played that had that level of tension. The absolute fear when you knew you were spotted and pinned down etc. Was unreal! have never played anything like it.

I think something else, i.e. not blocking your account 100% might work :P
24 hour limit on character creation might work, or some kinda RPG leveling system that resets, etc along with the expected losing all gear. Either way, something that seriously punishes you and puts you back to square one again.

Hyzepher

The trailer really doesn't hold true to the concept of one life - it's too arcade like and cod like for the one life concept to really play out like that.

Taylor365

And what's your reward for staying alive?

2Mad2BeMad

Taylor365 wrote: »

And what's your reward for staying alive?

you get to play the game

The_Valeyard

degrassinoel wrote: »

I wonder was this inspired by the game in Caprica

It reminded me of the very same thing.

TerrorFirmer

Interesting but I wouldn't buy it. Ten euro and quite possibly dead in minutes. There's definitely room for a system in which you are punished brutally for dying, but I don't think this is it.

DoctorEdgeWild

Really good idea/concept. Trailer looks like they haven't done the idea justice though.

A good team of writers and developers could take this idea and make it something really special, probably just a matter of time.

dutopia

I bet by the time I got used to the controls I'd die; what a waste of muscle memory.

Turtwig

This sounds intriguing. Especially if they're strict on banning reregs. What would be overall play style in game be? One sure fire way to heighten the tension even more would be add monetary rewards. Players pay into a pool of cash at the beginning and who survives at the end wins.

Then reset all lives at the end of each season and start over again.

Jet Black

I'm almost sure there was a game before that you could only play once on newgrounds. If I remember correctly the world is ending in seven days and you have to decide what with your last week. It was free and good little game. The player experienced everything in the game.

I have a feeling that the one life aspect is there just to get people talking about it. If it wasn't for that no one would care considering it looks nothing special. There is a ton of open survival games now all doing the same thing slightly different. I tried to purchase the game on their site yesterday and it was sold out. Unlikely. I can see this being changed to a temporary ban rather than permanent death when it's released. I cannot see a paid game with this mechanic released on steam.

Taylor365

Turtwig wrote: »

This sounds intriguing. Especially if they're strict on banning reregs. What would be overall play style in game be? One sure fire way to heighten the tension even more would be add monetary rewards. Players pay into a pool of cash at the beginning and who survives at the end wins.

Then reset all lives at the end of each season and start over again.

Aka Battle Royal

batfastard13

Read a bit about it there on PC gamer and the way they describe it sounds like you don't die instantly after being "defeated" (I assume this is similar to the bleeding out mechanic in COD franchise?).

It seems that the player who killed/defeated you gets to chose what happens and can chose to kill, humiliate (which I read as digitally p*ss on the player), take all their stuff or even take them prisoner.

Or just let them live (can't see that happening often :P).

Here's the part from the PC gamer article about it:

The inherent harshness of the concept is tempered somewhat by the "Domination" mechanic, which allows players to decide the fate of "defeated" enemies. The good news is that losing doesn't necessarily mean death. That is also, however, the bad news.

"Forgive, humiliate, finish off, take everything he has—it’s your choice. Saved [the] life of some loser? Take them captive and make them work [it] off. They will do everything to be free again. No other game will give you this feeling of power over other people," the One Life Greenlight page explains.

I can't post links but if you put www. before the following it should take you directly to the article if you want to read it:

pcgamer.com/one-life-is-a-multiplayer-fps-that-locks-you-out-forever-when-you-die/

It does sound like an interesting concept though!

Zillah

batfastard13 wrote: »

Read a bit about it there on PC gamer and the way they describe it sounds like you don't die instantly after being "defeated" (I assume this is similar to the bleeding out mechanic in COD franchise?).

It seems that the player who killed/defeated you gets to chose what happens and can chose to kill, humiliate (which I read as digitally p*ss on the player), take all their stuff or even take them prisoner.

Or just let them live (can't see that happening often :P).

Here's the part from the PC gamer article about it:
I can't post links but if you put www. before the following it should take you directly to the article if you want to read it:

pcgamer.com/one-life-is-a-multiplayer-fps-that-locks-you-out-forever-when-you-die/

It does sound like an interesting concept though!

Oh my God this is going to be the PC gaming equivalent of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

I don't think I've ever seen a creepier line than "No other game will give you this feeling of power over other people".

Julez

Zillah wrote: »

Oh my God this is going to be the PC gaming equivalent of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

I don't think I've ever seen a creepier line than "No other game will give you this feeling of power over other people".

I thought the exact same thing reading that.