Contents 1 Problem Summary 2 Use When 3 Solution 4 Recommendations 5 Rationale 6 Examples

Problem Summary

Players have to wait or go through the menus before the game can restart.

Use When

There are two cases this pattern is useful:

• The player realizes that he/she cannot reach the goal and wants to replay from the beginning of a level, a checkpoint or the last save
• The player fails the game or a level and wants to restart quickly

Usually the first case is encountered in action or sport games where a particular successful sequence of actions is required to fulfill or achieve a particular goal. For example, to set the fastest time on a particular race track the player should not crash into walls or other cars. When this does happen the player realizes that it will fail to achieve its goal and therefore decides to break off the current attempt to try again. Reloading the level usually takes some time or the player has to go through menus. In action games, the player might want to start from the last saved game when he/she dies or fails the mission for a retry.

Solution

Allow the player to instantly replay the current level with the same settings. To implement this pattern, the settings, and the initial start point of the level need to be cached to be loaded quickly. When the player cancels the current game and is shown a menu with options including "Replay", "Restart" or "Retry". When the player fails the game or the level, a similar menu pops up.

Recommendations

• Make it the option highlighted when the menu is opened
• Reload only the dynamic components, not the static components such as the environment and the textures.

Rationale

Offering the replay option increases performance time as the player does not have to wait. The solution improves efiiciency and satisfaction.

Examples

• Need For Speed games
• Trackmania
• Guitar Hero
• Rockband
• Max Payne
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Mario Kart games
• King's Quest 7
• Burnout Paradise