How devs make GAME OVER screens that don't suck

[@andersonsmith8625]

Depends on the game. For slower paced games they're fine, but for something like Celeste where you can be dying 20 times a screen, the instant respawn Is vital for making it challenging but not a chore.

[@ajavisk]

Not only the instant respawn, but also the music. Since it keeps playing, it never feels like you are restarting anything (like in Mario)

[@eisgnom7383]

Or Super Meat Boy!

[@pleggli]

the instant restart feature is my favorite new feature in spelunky 2 in comparison to the first game.

[@adog3129]

yeah, that's really important for developers to think about, making the death screen represent how significant death actually is.

[@SPMyers92]

Or Hotline Miami!

[@quisslequassle404]

If a dark souls game told me "You tried" after I died, I think I'd either be genuinely offended or I'd genuinely cry

[@Nova-jw6ju]

Somehow “You Tried” stings more than “You Died.”

[@ACuriousTanuki]

Agreed. "You Died" just feels like a neutral, factual acknowledgement of the events of the game. "You Tried" feels either patronizing ("oh well, at least you tried") or like a passive-aggressive way of saying "You Failed". Arguably, death in many cases is just a setback, and is not indicative of a larger failure to progress through the game.

[@LordMoku]

But in the end, it doesn't even matter.

[@ChrisJohnsonELP]

I always appreciated Balance of Power's game over screen, just a black screen with text: "You have ignited a nuclear war. And no, there is no animated display of a mushroom cloud with parts of bodies flying through the air. We do not reward failure."

[@obsidian.heartz]

dying in minecraft usually represents a mad scramble to the place you died. sometimes this means a quick trip to the next valley, but often times it can mean several minutes of trying to relive your thought process as you explored a new area, or trying to remember the exact turns you made in a cave system. sometimes it means you have to prepare a second set of gear to brave the precarious area that caused your death. sometimes it means that you just lost hours of progress and you’re not getting any of what you lost back, and you have to take a moment to come to terms with that in worlds where a player traveled hundreds of chunks from spawn, only to be told that your bed was obstructed or has been destroyed, it may mean starting completely over this loss feels even more pronounced in hardcore worlds, where, say, five years of dedication can be wiped out by a baby zombie and a spider

[@kuiperchaos121]

Rip Philza

[@pedroscoponi4905]

Celeste doesn't have a proper game over screen or anything, but it's one of the first games where I genuinely _do_ see the death counter as a mark of pride, because _god dangit,_ I died 300 times in this level and I still beat it anyway!

[@Sharkstixx]

I like this way of thinking about it! :)

[@itmedana]

exactly what i was thinking

[@ajavisk]

Another amazing things: The music keeps playing after you die. And you can still keep your momentum after you die because death is so quick

[@ethan-loves]

Fantastic point. Celeste was the first game I played where the death counter felt like a badge of honor - a real taste of Madeline's determination.

[@exinex]

Jeez only 300? Gotta brag do you?😂

[@ItsCaramelToffee]

"...but everybody knows: Shakespeare was a casual."

[@pliable-head]

Death's Door's D E A T H really is so exquisite and I'm glad it led the way down this rabbit hole that allowed you to show me GAME OVER YEEAAHHHH which I was not familiar with, thank you Jenna and team

[@danielbailey2937]

I haven't played death's door but it reminds me of rdr1 where it would just say "DEAD". Honestly kinda badass

[@LordMoku]

Daytona USA not only graced our lives with GAME OVER YEEEEEAH, but also ROOOOLLING STAAAAART. Truly a masterwork. And I guess there's cars and stuff too, whatever.

[@lets_lvl_up]

I'm not a native English speaker and as such I'm always trying to improve my level. Polygon has become my go-to channel for shadowing, a technique in which you simply try to imitate the speaker in order to acquire more natural-sounding speech. So yeah, thanks to the hosts and whoever writes the wonderful scripts.

[@polygon]

This is really cool to know! -Simone

[@ashopal5811]

tiny nitpick but the only time you see those narrative screens in isometric fuckboi simulator is when you win a run, and only after winning so many runs that you ran out of story content to see. they're more like You Won screens, just death flavored. But even the normal you died screens are nice (seen around 7:15) , because you always get a little quip or quote while you watch the ragdoll animation. Not to mention, the first boss does that same animation when she dies, so seeing that for the first time after dying myself so many times was super rewarding :D edit: thinking about it more, I'ma add on to that last part and mention that all the bosses have death screens! And they are formatted just like your own death screen, with "X VANQUISHED" in place of the "YOU DIED" or "THERE IS NO ESCAPE" text. I think it's a great addition cus, like you mentioned, death is sort of the point of the game. Using that same screen that can be seen as a negative (you dying) and turning it into a reward (a powerful boss dying) emphasizes the player's victory imo. It's what you see when your run ends, but also what you see to keep your run going, and idk where I'm going with this but I think it's a really cool mechanic

[@miku224]

The death screen for the first boss is so similar that the first time I won, I didn’t even realize it wasn’t me going into the pool of blood. Imagine my surprise when instead of fading back to the house of hades, I’m still there with 3 health left

[@amyelevens]

the worst and most exhausting part about game over screens is the loading screen that may follow.

[@FabriSlv]

God bless SSDs

[@rachelladue1572]

which is their own interesting design and typically follows one of the paths jenna mentioned for the game over screens

[@robinmansions2884]

"GAME OVER, YEEEAAH!" is the energy I'm trying to bring to the coming apocalypse

[@Golgito]

Another example I love is Prince of Persia sands of time's death screens. They remind the player that the game is actually a story being told and that things didn't go how you played it. Kinda meta, kinda non definitive. Probably my favorite death screen

[@nvrndingsmmr]

"No no no. That's not how it happened."

[@IanMacMoore]

Same with Assassin's Creed, "Desynchronized"

[@Victorsandergamer]

@@IanMacMoore YES THIS

[@nvrndingsmmr]

As soon as the video started I thought to myself "I really hope they include Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's legendary 'Game over yeahhhhhhh!!!' From Sega Rally Championship and I was not disappointed. Then we got Jenna saying it herself at the very end as a bonus!!! Polygon *always* delivers.

[@faceofdoomness]

Gonna put in my will to have the 'Game Over, Yeah!' sting from Sega Rally Championship (1994) to be the first thing to play at my funeral.

[@ohno417]

The cool thing about Polygon is how y'all can take up any small part of a game and make me go "huh, yeah, that *is* super interesting". Kudos for that! Also, this video has one of the best thumbnails ever, holy cow

[@nyan2317]

The few "game over" screens that are really iconic for me is Monster Hunter series with its "Quest Failed" tribal stamp, and Bayonetta's "THE SHADOW REMAINS CAST". They all tie in with the game's theme and story, like in MonHun you're in an actual quest, which aren't worth losing your life over. And in Bayo, you're an umbral witch that arguably won't die unless you accept your death.

[@aSpectrumofDorky]

Man I really love Terraria’s death and the “game over” message becomes an in-game function if you die too much

[@bingoccolon]

yeah, especially with 1.4 adding graveyard biomes which basically punish you for not taking responsibility of your own mistakes in a way

[@weeb_dweeb]

@@bingoccolon or reward depending of the items you want

[@FishSnackems]

Yeah but the respawn timer is annoying

[@bingoccolon]

@@FishSnackems then just dont die :tf:

[@FishSnackems]

@@bingoccolon you have a point

[@emmythemac]

I respect that Jenna's desktop background is just simping for Lady D, and she's not afraid to show it

[@VaryaTheVillain]

kind of wish Prince of Persia Sands of Time game over got a shout-out, because it's technically meta within meta? it's Prince telling the story of his adventure that already happened, and when you die, he immediately interrupts you with "nonono, that's not how it happened!" and goes "shall I go on?" when you hover over "continue/load your last save" option. there were like 8 or more different remarks about the various deaths of Prince and his companion that I genuinely didn't feel that bad about my death in the game, just sad that I interrupted a story!

[@g.f.martianshipyards9328]

The game over screens of the Prime Trilogy were quite something. A cracked visor, a puddle of blood expanding on a white surface, Samus's failing heart, always accompanied by blaring alarms and a final scream. Never too graphic, but Retro made it abundantly clear that you died

[@takemetoyonk]

2:50 This was a great moment and transition x3 One of the most legendary Polygon presenters that I'd follow outside of Polygon in the future for speeches/essays/rants, comedy aside

[@hotscottrulz]

The death screens of fallout 1 and fallout 2 are some of the best ones in any video game, in my opinion. Just hearing Ron Perlman explaining how futile your life was is fantastic.

[@JacobCrossMusic]

Just wanted to add that I really like the game over screen at the end of Kingdom Hearts III, and how it blends the game over screen into the actual end sequence as you defeat the final boss

[@cactustactics]

"Mario's descent into hell" is one of those casual throwaway comments that I'm gonna remember every single time I see it (not even mad)

[@elik.850]

I loved the game over screen in Snake Eater. If you wait on it, the text changes from "game over" to "time paradox." And if you kill ocelot, you get a game over and scolded for breaking continuity

[@russellcammarata9819]

There's a theory that the "Mackerel" that the Jackass gives you is a reference to Justin McElroy having a terrible time with fishing in the previous game

[@Mallony]

Do you have a link to that? I’d love to see that lol

[@sadiecorning]

@@Mallony I'm pretty sure they talk about it on the Besties podcast but I can't remember the exact episode/s.

[@edwardnygma8533]

Following

[@dandeliondew]

i was not expecting a heartwarming ending for a video game essay on how often i die in game

[@thegenericguy8309]

I think the most interesting game over screen I've seen is in Hotline Miami, because it's not a game over. The music keeps playing, the enemies keep walking around after caving your face in, and there's just a little prompt in the corner telling you to hit reset when you're ready. Hitting reset doesn't even slightly break the flow of gameplay; the music keeps playing, and you're right back where you started and probably where you've spent most of the level so far. This seamlessness and deemphasis on the negative nature of death makes the process so automatic that it really does just become part of the gameplay. You'll oftentimes even find yourself automatically hitting reset just before you die because the process is so natural.

[@HayTatsuko]

Here is my rejoinder to that: "Game over." "Begin." from: Super Hexagon

[@bamaxdaws6459]

I enjoy game over screens that give you determination

[@FLY1NF1SH]

Nothing will be as iconic as Gran Turismo's challenge fail screen, complete with "Oh Yeah" by Yello

[@BagelBoi4000]

I like the outer wilds game over screen- sometimes it just tells you that you died/killed spacetime but normally it shows you what you did in that life. It's very usefull for consolidating knowledge in a puzzle game.

[@theveryloosegoose]

The REmakes' death screens are just... Top notch. Like hell yeah, of course I wanna see Nemesis kill me in 50 different ways, how else am I supposed to pass the time? By playing the game? Don't be absurd

[@MackenzieChandlerDunnavant]

I love Disco Elysium's game over screens with outrageous newspaper headlines. "DISGRACED COP SLEEPS IN TRASH" "COP GIVES UP THE DETECTIVE GENRE FOR SOCIAL REALISM" "COP SELF-IMMOLATES IN THE STREETS OF MARTINAISE"

[@saraellwood630]

I absolutely love that y'all included the game over screen from Goemons Great Adventure!!! It's forever engraved in my mind, as it was one of the few games I had growing up. I would dance in my seat every time I died!

[@volumeboyman]

I would love to see a game over screen that says "you tried." Also, no mention of Ape Out's fantastic game over screen?

[@FishSnackems]

I really like the death screens of undertale, one shot, and super hexagon Undertale's makes you feel a second wind, wanting to play more with more vigor. It's really inspiring almost, it makes you determined to beat whatever enemy killed you. Super hexagons is the complete opposite, it is barely a screen. It is a simple "Game over" and restart. Very fast, very easy One shots is very Meta, even when saving, the game closes. The character goes to bed to save, and you are their God watching them. When yhe game ends, it closes.

[@Michael_Lindell]

Y'know, Scorpion really likes them. He keeps yelling "Game Over here!".

[@Arcane_Archer]

I always mod Dark Souls games on PC so instead of YOU DIED it says YOU DONE GOOFED. Takes some of the sting out of it, lol.

[@Crisopeia]

7:42 That's the best analogy that I ever heard

[@kelthulhu]

Thinking of the game over screen in Hello Kitty Roller Rescue that straight-up shows beloved Kitty comatose in a stasis chamber while harrowing music plays.

[@Mimix2048]

For me just nothing beats dying in Outer Wilds. The game over screen is almost like a relief - the scary part is over, now I get a fresh loop

[@elskabee]

thinking about "YOU HAVE MADE A FATAL ERROR" from Nancy Drew games, iconic

[@maxithalo7796]

this is why I love rogue likes so much, dying is part of getting good, you aways get back more powerful

[@sesetallinn]

I'm impressed by how good Jenna's gotten at this

[@connerbdelgado]

Some of my favorite game overs are the loops in Start Again: A Prologue by insertdisk5 and the “the end” and “to be continued” in the zero escape games. When game over/ new game plus is part of the story it just ticks all the boxes for me.

[@dimethylhexane]

There was one of those old adventure games, I think it was Torin's Passage, where if you tried to kill the end boss in a particularly stupid way then you got a recording of the game developer marvelling at how you could possibly have thought that was a good idea

[@retrograderiding3486]

I have a specific fondness for the game over screen of Catherine. The whole "Love is Over" text over Vincent's fallen dead body is just ridiculously overdramatic.

[@origulator]

Skyrim has a top tier gameover screen. No menacing text or UI, just watch your player character flop around like they've been flung by a gravity gun. sometimes they do a jaunty spin.

[@m2pt5]

Unless you got killed by a giant, then you get to watch your corpse pinwheel through the sky.

[@Rachel-xf3op]

One of my favorite death screens is in Yuppie Psycho, telling you "You're Fired" with an image of Brian's corpse

[@Rachel-xf3op]

It reinforces the absurdity of the world, and the fact that Brian is just another office worker. His body will lay there, forgotten, just like all the others you've seen.

[@KJawesome5]

never though I'd hear the words "modern philosopher Jake The Dog"

[@sophiathekitty]

Recently downloaded a game that billed itself as relaxing and easy.... But was a randomly generated platforming map with clunky air dash controls... Which would be fine.... But not when the bottom of the map where it starts you is instant death water that takes you to some weird area for a few seconds before kicking you back to the main menu.... Like if it just returned me to the start with a new map that would be fine.... But a game over time out room that returns you to the title screen menu is way too harsh a punishment for not being instantly good at a "relaxing" game.... Like psych it's actually a rage game. Like this game is supposed to be relaxing but it's mechanics are saying I should stop playing if I'm not already good at it. And honestly I've found that rage games that replace game over screens with dialog triggers feel way more like "the first step to being good" sorta thing.... But really only if you're actually making progress... But missing a hard jump in rage chicken the first time I got that far felt better when I got a new voice line. That meant I was making progress.... But the loading screen in far cry 3 just meant I was stuck and probably getting frustrated.... Though super meat boy does that without a game over screens.

[@Pheonix0114]

A heartwarming video about digital death

[@mohammadnazriabdsamad8286]

Game devs know that unless you decide to stop playing for good after your first death, you would start a new save/load from earlier save with memories of your eariler playthrough, and this "pre-death knowledge" upon return can become part of the game mechanic & even lore. Hardspace:Shipbreaker states that your character is a clone of someone who died in an earlier job, with their memories transplanted in your head. Outer Wilds however, circumvented death altogether with time looping, where you return back to an eariler time upon death (mimicking an eariler save auto-reload). You know what will get you if you go to a certain place at a certain time.

[@drskelebone]

"Let us go out this evening for please; The night is still young."

[@THENAMEISQUICKMAN]

An underrated game over screen I've always loved is Missile Command's. It says "THE END" with a giant explosion instead of "game over" or "you are dead", because that's just how nuclear war would go. It would literally just be the end.

[@klaudiusz6233]

This feels like a motivative speech to keep us keeping on

[@austinluther5825]

I remember the first time I saw the Resident Evil "YOU DIED" screen. I was 10 and it was the mid 90s and I was legit freaked out. Before that all I had ever seen was "Game Over" and "Continue?" Truly an iconic death screen.

[@JuzefaWingedCat]

The death screens in Nancy Drew are my favorite. They present it like "Good news" and "Bad news" and they were hilarious! I think most players took it as a side quest to collect them all 😂🤣😂

[@polygon]

I love those games! - Simone

[@doctorboots1604]

Been playing a bunch of Sunset Overdrive recently. The death screen isn't so much of a thing in that game but the goofy respawn animations to a great job of selling the "Just have fun with it" vibe of the game.

[@Madderthanjoker]

My favorite game over in multiplayer games is when my lifeless corpse gets tea bagged by some 16 year old Korean pro gamer.

[@vasil3ubr33]

6:35 for anyone who would also like to look at the beautiful image on the desktop

[@morningstarred]

now i just want a sheet of gold star stickers that have YOU TRIED in the dark souls font on them

[@kgrlktty]

Save codes were huge in the early Gameboy games. I recently found a list of what looked like random numbers and letters in my parents house and immediately knew that it was a list of my codes for Barbie and the 12 princesses lol

[@TheDan337]

I suppose it didn’t fit your thesis, but I was surprised you didn’t mention _Total Distortion_ .

[@n0tb4by]

god I remember Barbie games for the DS had passwords instead of saves, but I used to play in the back of my parents car a lot so I was never able to write them down

[@RED-sl2le]

They make me want to pass the level even more out of sheer spite.

[@TheKeyblader133]

Maybe this is unfair but I don't think that example of hades counts. You only get those when you *win*, and that's only in the later portions. Granted, it does have a similar substitute in Hypnos commenting on all the ways you've died, and also the death animation is a pretty enjoyable one.

[@NaviciaAbbot]

My favorite "Game Overs" are the two from Monkey Island - the first in Part 1 if you decide to test Guybrush's claim to breathing underwater and the second in Part 2 that mocks Sierra.

[@Mpkw-er9bi]

I love Jenna. Such a philosophical genius of the 21st century

[@Leron...]

Reminds me of "(Such a) Loser" by Garfunkel and Oates. Losing means you tried which means more than the inaction of the people who never try at all.

[@guytorie]

If I got a game over and saw "You Tried" instead of "You Died," I would be infinitely more angry.

[@pinstripeowl]

I really love this video, thank you. Interesting topic, great jokes both in the script and visually (that desktop tho), and reminded me of all the many many times I've died in games because honestly, i'm not that "gud"

[@ShinjiSixteen]

Great video and wonderful discussion of the topic. Thank you for the work that went into this!

[@cogspace]

My favorite game over screen is the one from Missile Command which simply reads "The End".

[@rmdcade1717]

the Lady Dimetrescu wallpaper is true commitment beyond a mere bit. I salute you, Jenna

[@romxxii]

No mention of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time's Game Over screens? The general conceit of the narrative was that he was retelling your playthrough, so whenever you diied (and didn't rewind properly) he'd say "no wait, that's not what happened"

[@lauradaigh4502]

Yeah, Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game but I’ll probably never replay it all the way through bc of the unskippable game over cutscene on the escort mission to kakariko

[@Typhoid-K]

The original Fate Stay/Night game has a Tiger Dojo to help you find the reason why you died. It was hilarious I even went back and navigated all the unique game over scenarios to see all of the Dojo scenes

[@Panther-kid]

Shin Megami Tensei games have the best Game Over screens. They get all peaceful and share some haiku about the wind or leaves or something.

[@sigh824]

Persona Q’s was like that. It was pretty cool and kinda terrifying

[@adammiller8133]

Fits well with the theme of Persona 3, the poem about time and death. “Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey…”

[@thanksgoku]

This better have the SMT3 death screen man

[@Pencliff]

In Yu-Gi-Oh Legacy of the Duelist when you win you get a jazzy jingle. When you lose you get the same jazzy jingle. I think it was just a lazy choice but that bop really takes the sting out of being beaten at a child's card game.

[@williamdunbar2802]

I like the music of the original FF7 game over screen. However I prefer when a game just automatically loads a previous save when you die, like the 3d fallout games

[@MateusSFigueiredo]

I like Tony Hawk's approach. You went out of bound, maybe got killed, get a mean message, and immediately continue your run

[@_-KR-_]

Simpsons Roadrage had a great game over sequence. Its just the end of the run and they show you a comedic clip of the show's hack clown telling you how well you did.

[@skeevyguagacongas4973]

I wish you talked about Pathologic 2. When you die, you don't awaken at your last save, you meet the theatre director who tells you how the story can't progress without you, the player, continuing the play. Sometimes you meet a npc who is ready to become the next *you* in the story. And also the game gets harder the more times you die.

[@Ruuubick]

I love them, I actually don't think there are enough these days.

[@NicknotNak]

I also think it's cool that some games don't even have game over screens, instead just insta reloading the level. The only game I can think of off the top of by head is portal, which is a game where you aren't supposed to die so it just starts you back so you can try again.

[@solarprogeny6736]

I guess this doesn't count, but in Outer Wilds, you can inquire about hazards to your friend at the campfire where you respawn only AFTER you've died to those hazards.

[@YouOpaOpa]

And we have weirdness like Castlevania Symphony of the Night that talks about taking a stroll in the night with a CG cow skull in the background or something.

[@MorningDusk7734]

You forgot the kill screens in Among Us, which I would say is part of why the game got popular. Imagine if when someone killed you, you just saw the same thing as the killer, a quick splash of blood and now you're a ghost. Seems significantly less fun, right?

[@nvrndingsmmr]

A m o g u s

[@anonym3]

Last time I was so early snake did not yet yeeted us Out of heaven

[@aimelle3]

The most memorable death screen for me is the seizure-inducing one from Zelda 2.

[@emilydavis162]

1:40 oh god I’m getting middle school flashbacks sOMEONE HELP

[@daveyboi4344]

"Isometric fuckboi simulator" is the only way I will describe Hades now. Thank you, Jenna.

[@Yamaazaka]

Getting cut in half in RE4 and the You died screen appears had me like NO SH1T

[@arcanelore3791]

Now I have Miracle of Sound’s song “You Died” running through my head. Not complaining.

[@widgetlad5157]

Best one is banjo kazooie. Seeing Gruntilda accomplishing her goals

[@JemaKnight]

I am so, so happy that 'GAME OVER YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH' made the cut for the video.

[@ultralowspekken]

the blood red souls-like YOU TRIED is way more ominous than its real counterpart.