Most games include “game over” states as a mix of negative reinforcement and tension-building. If you die when you touch spikes, fall into a pit, or are hit by an enemy, you’ll try to avoid those things in the future. In this sense, losing helps create the boundaries of play, and teaches how the game works. The tension typically comes from loss of progress, reversion to a prior save point or the beginning of the game. A sword to hang over the player’s head, threatening to fall at any moment. For that threat to be credible, you have to actually follow through – thus, game-over.

Coin-eating arcade machines and Dwarf Fortress aside, most games aren’t made for the player to lose. Failure and death are typically unaccounted for as a result; the story has no way forward if Nathan Drake falls off a cliff, or gets shot in the head. A story with a specific protagonist has no place ever moving beyond the knife’s edge of obliteration. But game-play has its demands.

Kenoma’s game-overs are somewhat of a black sheep in this regard. They aren’t used as a source of tension or negative reinforcement, because what you do moment-to-moment involves little mortal peril. Instead, they come from the well of point-and-click “bullshit deaths”. Providing humorous commentary and fun little setpieces as you watch your little character explode and die.

I find these kinds of game-overs to be inherently funny. Step into the wrong spot in the woods, get immediately killed by a sudden bear attack. That’s a sensible chuckle, at least. But it’s also bullshit. Especially if there was no warning, and no chance to defend yourself. That can really sour the punchline, especially if you aren’t a compulsive quick-saver. Because of this I decided to clearly telegraph each death, so you wouldn’t lose a ton of progress and get angry.

But this messes with the timing and feel of the joke. A player realizing something is definitely going to kill them, going and saving their game, then coming back to do it creates a real buildup. You can’t get away with a three frame animation of a bear attack anymore. So I had to amplify the physical harm. Ramp it up, to cartoonish levels: the player will never have an injury less extreme than being cut in half or having their eyes melted, and often will explode.

Fun in losing is the goal here. Making game-overs not something painful, to be avoided, but a set-piece to enjoy like anything else. In a linear, story-first game like Kenoma, you have to do this very carefully and with great purpose. But any game can take this approach. Making losing fun is just a matter of perspective.

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KENOMA on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2933260/Kenoma_Action_Without_Action/

KENOMA press-kit [for journalists]: https://www.brukholevin.com/kenoma_presskit.html