Die-r Consequences: Player Experience and the Design of Failure through Respawning Mechanics

In games, failure that leads to death is a trope that players are all too familiar with. We were motivated by this to explore how altering the consequences of death on player progress affected aspects of the player experience. Specifically, our research investigated the relationship of death and respawning mechanics - precisely the location of respawn points - to player experience (PX) constructs, such as mastery, challenge, autonomy, curiosity, and immersion. We developed a simple 2D platformer game that only differed in respawn point locations: the start of the game (permadeath), the start of a level, the last reached checkpoint, and the last manually saved point. We report findings from a study with 72 participants that indicated modifying a respawn mechanic can lead to varying effects on PX and that different mechanics may be more effective for specific types of players (challenge- and goal-oriented). We then discuss the implications for targeted game design and opportunities for further research into death and respawning mechanics.