9 Lessons All Video Game Developers Can Learn From Dark Souls

8. Meaningful Death Mechanics

Death is often trivialised in games. If you die, hey no worries. Try again. But that never used to be the case.

Back in the days of Mario, you had a strict amount of lives, and if you lost them it was 'Game Over', back to the last checkpoint. Death had a certain degree of meaning, and while the system was nowhere near perfect, at least it had weight.

Dark Souls takes that to a new level, making death a really punishing mechanic that is interwoven into the story and lore. Losing your life means you lose your souls and become hollow. Losing your souls is losing all your experience points which can be incredibly crushing for new players. Losing thousands of souls can be devastating and makes running through that game a challenge.

Each movement has depth and death can lurk anywhere. You make calculated decisions around whether or not the next combat encounter will be your end and gives death weight and levity. There is no instant re-spawn. There is a punishment. The game expects you to do well and punishes you for not doing well.

Im not saying that every game developer needs to make that drastic change, but implementing a system that doesn’t reward players for throwing themselves randomly at enemies is a good step forward. It might not work for all games, but it would make the idea of death a little less romantic.