Permanent death

Video game concept

Upon the protagonist's death, all game progress is lost and the player must start the game all over instead of loading a save or restarting at some checkpoint such as level start.

557

games

platforms

Legend of Dungeon

WIN 2013-01

Dungeons of Xenon: Eamon Adventure #66

IIE 1984-05

Iter Vehemens ad Necem

DOS 2001-12

LIN ? *

WIN 2016-08-13

OS/2 1995

C64 1986

X360 2006-08-08

DOS 1985

WIN 2015-10-08

WIN 2012-11

WIN 2014-05-08

Contrast: permadeath, unlimited lives

Related:
* Quit save
* Single save
* No saves
* 1 life

Contrast:
* Deathless

Notes:
* Saves are deleted/invalidated if there were any.
* Player may have multiple lives/retries/etc. which need to be depleted before "actual" death occurs. This is the norm in arcade games.
* Likely uses suspend saves
* Does not affect player progression, as otherwise it's character progression rather than player.

Parent groups

Anti save scumming, Game saves, Hardcore elements

Games by year

The first Permanent death video game was released on July 1971.

NEUC, EAG and Klei Entertainment published most of these games.

Platforms

Apple II E		230
Linux		119
Windows		81
Mac OS X		35
MS-DOS		21
BeOS		6
OS/2		5
custom		4
Unix		4
Internet Only		3
Flash		3
Mac OS Classic		3
NeXT		3
Solaris		3
Android		2
Commander X16		2
PS Vita		2
GamePark 32		2
Xbox One		2
PS4		2
NES		2
GP2X		2
BSD		2
Tandy Coco		1
Xbox		1
Switch		1
Pandora		1
Atari 400/800		1
Atari ST		1
PS3		1

Most common companies