I'm working on an Arcade Game for PC. It's a Plateforme/Puzzle game, with a lot of short levels, but I'd like the game to be Score-oriented. I mean that scoring will be the main motivation of the player. My problem : - I'd like to have infinite lifes so that the player would not be frustated because he lost his last life in level 34 and have to play all the levels again. - If he's got infinite lifes, he can pick all bonus of a level, then die, then pick all the bonus again... increasing his score. The solution could be to restore the state of the player. - But with infinite lifes, it means that the game ended when the last level will be completed. I was thinking to fix that with a finite number of lifes, and an infinite number of "continues" that reset the score, like in old arcade games. Are there other way to keep the continuity of the game and the scoring motivation ?

a list of top scores/names so the player always has goals to beat.

If you can connect to the internet, make it possible to upload
scores and see the scores of other players.

nothing like beating the top score to give fresh motivation.

Have a score per level.

Then, your total score is the sum of all of your level scores.

You can go and replay a level, and if your score is less then the level score, then it isn't counted.

Like heigh scores per level.

From,
Nice coder

Just make sure that the game is fun and scoring is fun and challenging. Some kind of combo system will usually help. Infinite (or not) continues with 3-5 lives or so is a very good solution for arcade games and has worked very well in the past, allowing for one to either finish the game or go for the top scores -- or both if one is good enough (make the game really hard, at least to finish, easy games don't really last).

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Original post by yapposai a list of top scores/names so the player always has goals to beat. If you can connect to the internet, make it possible to upload scores and see the scores of other players. nothing like beating the top score to give fresh motivation.

Yes that's what i intend to do by saying Score-oriented (but just with offline scoring).
But i like to know if there're other possibilities as infinite continues + finite lifes for what i want to do.

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Original post by Leffe Just make sure that the game is fun and scoring is fun and challenging. Some kind of combo system will usually help. Infinite (or not) continues with 3-5 lives or so is a very good solution for arcade games and has worked very well in the past, allowing for one to either finish the game or go for the top scores -- or both if one is good enough (make the game really hard, at least to finish, easy games don't really last).

thanks Leffe,
So i think i may keep this idea. The hardest part will be to "balance" the difficulty of the game, i'd like it to be playable by children too, and to balance the value of bonus.

Why not just have infinite lives, but only update the player's score / bonuses / whatever at the end of a (successfully completed) level? That way they can only get credit for picking up each bonus once, but they don't have to go through the tedious 'yes I want to continue' screens.

Of course, you could have a finite-lives mode to add that extra challenge for the hardcore gamer, which as Leffe says is vital to make sure people will still be playing your game in 10 years' time. :)

_{Damn you, Tomator! I'll get you yet!!}

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Why not just have infinite lives, but only update the player's score / bonuses / whatever at the end of a (successfully completed) level? That way they can only get credit for picking up each bonus once, but they don't have to go through the tedious 'yes I want to continue' screens.

That was my initial idea, but in this case, when is the player going to enter is name ? The "continue" sequence makes a break, the player can enter his name, he can choose too if he want to go on or not, maybe it can give rythm at the game ? The objective would be to totalize a maximal amount before losing all the lives, but for those who just want to finish all levels, they can use the "continues" without replaying the levels they've just passed.

I agree with Leffe to certain extent.

Games like this should be easy to learn, but difficult to master.

There should be some gameplay mechaninc that make the game relatively easy to complete with a low score, but allows hardcore gamers to set there own challenges. For example, a lot of shoot-em-ups give you the ability 'graze' enemy fire for bonus points.

You could get bonuses for taking out enemies with peo-shooter weapon rather than your BFG. The trick being to reduce your enemies health sufficently with the BFG without killing them, then finish them off with the pea-shooter.

Its also a good idea record the stats of everthing in the game. Like time to complete, number enemies killed, shots fired, weapon upgrades used. That way you can give the hardcore player more ways to challenge themselves.

Well for my game,it will be a little different, it won't be a shoot'. Although it's an arcade game, it will be very puzzle-oriented, and you'll rather avoid the monster instead of fire on him, because the ammunitions will be VERY limited, just firing as a last resort.

Time to complete will be very important because he will be directly added to the score. This way, the player can choose between complete the stage quickly, or look for the hidden bonus (there are lots of them) through the level.