History Main / SingleAttemptGame

* ''VideoGame/YouOnlyLiveOnce'' is an UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game and parody of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' that, as the title implies, only gives you one life. No matter how you end it, lose ''or'' win, you can only watch cutscenes detailing what happens afterwards, unless you delete your flash history.

* "New Cap City" in ''Series/{{Caprica}}''. A {{Dieselpunk}} {{Cyberspace}} {{MMORPG}}. Dying once doesn't just permanently destroy your character but bans you from the game for life.

* An indie game on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, called ''RussianRoulette: One Life'', allowed the user to virtually play the titular game with the twist that, if you lose, you will never be able to play again. As in the game in real life, you get exactly one death and it's for keeps![[note]]There was a DownloadableContent option offered to pay $5 and attempt the game more than once-- as a ghost, with your score on a separate leaderboard from the main game.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/YouOnlyLiveOnce'' is an UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash game and parody of ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' that, as the title implies, only gives you one life. No matter how you end it, win or lose, you can only watch cutscenes detailing what happens afterwards, unless you delete your flash history.

* With the boom of live-action {{Room Escape Game}}s that began in the early 2010s, several companies, such as Kosmos, have created "home" versions of the rooms (Kosmos's, for example, are called ''Exit: The Game'') for players to solve at their leisure. Many of the puzzles in the games involve cutting, twisting, assembling, writing on, and generally manipulating pieces, meaning that once the challenge is completed once, it can't be done again.

However, it might be done in more conventional games by applying it to a {{Minigame}} or GameWithinAGame, to make an UnwinnableByDesign, or loss state for a game session, where another attempt is only possible in another timeline / restoring a save.

* One of the [[WhatCouldHaveBeen original concepts]] for ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' was that dying would not only kill Snake permanently, but make the game unplayable.

* The most-recognised story on Blog/InvisibleGames was a {{Creepypasta}} about ''Killswitch'', a surreal puzzle-platformer from 1989 with two characters - a size-changing human woman named Porto, and a powerful but invisible demon named Ghast. The game completely erased itself after one attempt, but after considerable effort, curious fans eventually managed to figure out the final MoonLogicPuzzle to complete Porto's storyline, only to find it had NoEnding; Ghast's story was ''never'' completed, because his invisibility made him [[AwesomeButImpractical impossible to play in a platforming game]], and Porto's relative accessibility and the limited number of copies published prevented the fanbase from ever figuring it out. The last known copy was supposedly purchased at auction in 2005 by a fan who promised to [[LetsPlay record his efforts with community input]], but the only video that ever surfaced only showed him, [[SadisticChoice sitting at the character select screen]] and [[BrokenTears crying]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1315 SCP-1315]], where only one attempt is possible because of some reason other than being lethal on loss. It's an NES cartridge that contains a "game" in which hazards manifest in real life, albeit only to the ones who are playing it. When you die in the "game", you vanish, and it is implied that you become minions for the "game".

* ''Stunt Flyer'' was a 1983 game for the Commodore 64 that was pretty much a clone of ''VideoGame/MicrosoftFlightSimulator'' with one gimmick: f you crashed your plane in Competition Mode, the game would erase from your disk. Ken Williams (then-president of Sierra) thought it would increase the risk of performing "[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sierra_flight_sim_interaction_mag_fall_1994_4.jpg death-defying maneuvers]]"; players were less thrilled about it.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': ''Roy: A Life Well-Lived'' is a game about living a normal human life. If Roy dies and can't be resuscitated, the game ends.
[[/folder]]

* ''Stunt Flyer'' was a 1983 game for the Commodore 64 that was pretty much a clone of ''VideoGame/MicrosoftFlightSimulator'' with one gimmick: If you crashed your plane in Competition Mode, the game would erase from your disk. Ken Williams (then-president of Sierra) thought it would increase the risk of performing "death-defying maneuvers".

* ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'': [[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/game-system/ "Game System"]], where YourMindMakesItReal, implying this because you can only die once, but it appears quitting the game without death is possible, since another player wants a turn, which presumably would not involve the death of the first player.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Many a LightNovel/SwordArtOnline fanfic follow the same premise as the original; if the player dies in the game, they die in real life. However, some fans play with the idea, as seen with the below examples:
** ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'': Subverted. Early on, Illya is able to briefly connect with the outside world, and discovers that people who have died in the game have ''not'' died in the real world (though the ones who had their [=NerveGear=] removed really did die). This is an important enough secret that Kayaba Akahiko himself immediately contacts Illya and makes a deal so that she will keep the secret; his experiment requires that the players truly believe they could die. [[spoiler:Yui, the Mental Health AI, is using at least some of them to test new game features]].
** ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' uses the same premise as its source material, with one key distinction: [[spoiler:the whole "players die when their avatars do" deal is actually a GameBreakingBug that came up with ''SAO''[='s=] designer was [[ChristmasRushed rushing to finish the game in time for the NerveGear's launch.]] By the time he found out about the glitch he'd [[ExhaustionInducedIdiocy lost his mind from sleep deprivation]], so Kayaba decided to [[IMeantToDoThat double-down]], lock everyone in the game, and present himself as a nefarious mastermind rather than a colossal fuck-up.]]
[[/folder]]

* In ''Film/{{Gamer}}'', the player avatars in ''Slayers'', the [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame fictional video game]] at the center of the film, are real [[CondemnedContestant death-row inmates]] who have offered to have computer chips installed in their heads so that they can be controlled by people in a violent FirstPersonShooter meets real-life DeadlyGame. When they survive thirty matches, they win their freedom. Needless to say, none have made it so far.
* ''Film/SpyKids3DGameOver'': The virtual reality game, ''Game Over'', has a play on this, where while VideoGameLives exists, if you lose all your lives, "You lose. No replays, no restarts." And judging by what happens when one person loses their lives, well...
* The game in ''Film/StayAlive2006'' summons the spirit of the Blood Countess in its intro sequence. If your character in the game dies, she hunts you down and kills you in the same way. Not only that, but if you turn the game off or pause for too long, it will take control of your avatar itself--it... isn't very good at playing itself, so you either win, or die eventually. The {{tagline}} is:
-->You die in the game-You die for real.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''LightNovel/MagicalGirlRaisingProject Restart'', 16 magical girls are trapped in a VR game designed to test their aptitude as magical girls. They spend three days within the game ([[YearInsideHourOutside which is essentially nothing in the real world]]), then 3 days in the real world so as to not forget what they have. While they could just hang around in the safe starting area indefinitely, in order to permanently escape they must defeat the Evil King, so they set out to defeat monsters and clear the areas to make their way to the final dungeon.[[YourMindMakesItReal Of course, death in the game means death in real life]], and they're not allowed to contact others for help. [[spoiler:The win condition is a bit more complicated than beating a final boss however, as one of the players is the Evil King, and their goal is to kill the other 15 players, which is unknown to anyone else. Ultimately the Evil King is exposed and kills herself, but not before all but 3 other players die.]]
* The novel ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'' is about the world's first Virtual Reality MMORPG in which the creator tries to increase its realism by taking out magic and also adding the fact that if you die in game, your headset will microwave your brain making death final. The story ends with about 4000 people dying. The protagonist survives due to having been a part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else.
[[/folder]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': This is the ultimate goal of Kuroto Dan. His game, ''Kamen Rider Chronicle'', is created to turn everyone in the world into a Kamen Rider and force them into an endless fight for survival where a GameOver means dying for real. While he dies before the game is completed, his former partner-in-crime Parado proceeds to take over and manages to complete the game. Parado, being a "Bugster" game character come to life, uses it as a means for his fellow Bugsters to ultimately wipe out humanity. Later reveals throw new wrinkles into this: ''Kamen Rider Chronicle'' actually [[spoiler:backs up users' data so that nobody really dies; Kuroto in his own twisted way even intended it as a medical tool to save the lives of people with otherwise incurable ailments. This doesn't actually make anything better, as whoever's in charge of ''Kamen Rider Chronicle'' has full control of who gets to respawn [[CameBackWrong and how]], and by this point in the series it's in the hands of Kuroto's father Masamune, who holds players' lives hostage to get more and more people playing.]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* With the boom of live-action {{Room Escape Game}}s that began in the early 2010s, several companies, such as Kosmos, have created "home" versions of the rooms (Kosmos's, for example, are called ''Exit: The Game'') for players to solve at their leisure. Many of the puzzles in the games involve cutting, twisting, assembling, writing on, and generally manipulating pieces, meaning that once the challenge is completed once, it can't be done again.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pandemic}} Legacy'' is a spin-off trilogy where each game is designed as a MedicalDrama-turned-ConspiracyThriller, to be played once each due to dramatic twists that aren't meant to be anticipated ahead of time. Players are expected to permanently change cards and the gameboard itself, by customising them with writing and stickers and scratching away layers to reveal additional information and even destroying them when instructed. In addition, there is an entire set of hidden cards that are only to be punched out of their panel to reveal new mechanics after specific rounds or when certain conditions are met, like an advent calendar of horrible death.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'', Monokuma creates a VR game [[spoiler:using the code from the LotusEaterMachine from [[VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair the previous killing game]]]] and it's explained that if you suffer fatal trauma in the game, your real body goes into shock and dies as a result. Obviously, someone exploits this to commit a murder in the game world.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/AmazingSuperPowers'': Parodied in [[http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/10/play-a-game/ "Play a Game"]]. The game in question? [[spoiler:Real life basketball]]. Which makes sense, because it's [[spoiler:real life]]:
-->'''Andy:''' If you die in this game... you die in real life.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The most-recognised story on Blog/InvisibleGames was a {{Creepypasta}} about ''Killswitch'', a surreal puzzle-platformer from 1989 with two characters - a size-changing human woman named Porto, and a powerful but invisible demon named Ghast. The game completely erased itself after one attempt, but after considerable effort, curious fans eventually managed to figure out the final MoonLogicPuzzle to complete Porto's storyline, only to find it had NoEnding; Ghast's story was ''never'' completed, because his invisibility made him [[AwesomeButImpractical impossible to play in a platforming game]], and Porto's relative accessibility and the limited number of copies published prevented the fanbase from ever figuring it out. The last known copy was supposedly purchased at auction in 2005 by a fan who promised to [[LetsPlay record his efforts with community input]], but the only video that ever surfaced only showed him, [[SadisticChoice sitting at the character select screen]] and [[BrokenTears crying]].
* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1315 SCP-1315]], where only one attempt is possible because of some reason other than being lethal on loss. It's an NES cartridge that contains a "game" in which hazards manifest in real life, albeit only to the ones who are playing it. When you die in the "game", you vanish, and it is implied that you become minions for the "game".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode [[Recap/TheFairlyOddParentsS1E2PowerMad "Power Mad"]], Timmy wishes for a VR game that he can't wish out of. Timmy, Chester and AJ then have to finish the game without losing all three of their lives; otherwise they'll be destroyed.
[[/folder]]

* ''Fanfic/FairyDanceOfDeath'' uses the same premise as its source material, that "players die when their avatars do", in ''Sword Art Online'', except now it's ''Alfheim Online''. The protagonist survives due to having been a part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else.
* ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'': Subverted. Early on, Illya is able to briefly connect with the outside world, and discovers that people who have died in the game have ''not'' died in the real world (though the ones who had their [=NerveGear=] removed really did die). This is an important enough secret that Kayaba Akahiko himself immediately contacts Illya and makes a deal so that she will keep the secret; his experiment requires that the players truly believe they could die. [[spoiler:Yui, the Mental Health AI, is using at least some of them to test new game features]].
* ''Fanfic/IWillNotBow'': uses the same premise as its source material, that "players die when their avatars do", in ''Sword Art Online'', except now it's ''Alfheim Online''. The protagonist survives due to having help from the source protagonist who was part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else.
* ''Fanfic/TheKiritaChronicles'' uses the same premise as its source material, that "players die when their avatars do" of ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''. The protagonist survives due to having help from the source protagonist who was part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else.
* ''Fanfic/LiveToSeeTheEndOfTheWorld'': It uses the same premise as its source material, that "players die when their avatars do", in ''Sword Art Online''.
* ''Fanfic/{{Nightblade}}'': It uses the same premise as its source material, that "players die when their avatars do", in ''Sword Art Online''.
* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'' uses the same premise as its source material, with one key distinction: [[spoiler:the whole "players die when their avatars do" deal is actually a GameBreakingBug that came up with ''SAO''[='s=] designer was [[ChristmasRushed rushing to finish the game in time for the NerveGear's launch.]] By the time he found out about the glitch he'd [[ExhaustionInducedIdiocy lost his mind from sleep deprivation]], so Kayaba decided to [[IMeantToDoThat double-down]], lock everyone in the game, and present himself as a nefarious mastermind rather than a colossal fuck-up.]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'': An adaptation of the LightNovel of the same name, is about the world's first Virtual Reality MMORPG in which the creator tries to increase its realism by taking out magic and also adding the fact that if you die in game, your headset will microwave your brain making death final. The story ends with about 4000 people dying. The protagonist survives due to having been a part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else. In the end, when the surviving players are freed, the entire game world is deleted, so no one may go back.
[[/folder]]

* ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'': An adaptation of the LightNovel of the same name, is about the world's first Virtual Reality MMORPG in which the creator tries to increase its realism by taking out magic and also adding the fact that if you die in game, your headset will microwave your brain making death final. The story ends with about 4000 people dying. The protagonist survives due to having been a part of the non-lethal beta tests and therefore has more experience than most everyone else.

* An indie game on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, called "RussianRoulette: One Life", allowed the user to virtually play the titular game with the twist that, if you lose, you will never be able to play again. As in the game in real life, you get exactly one death and it's for keeps![[note]]There was a DownloadableContent option offered to pay $5 and attempt the game more than once-- as a ghost, with your score on a separate leaderboard from the main game.[[/note]]

Giving only one try is rarely implemented because replayability is desired by both game makers and players: more time spent playing the game means more value for the player, thus greater word-of-mouth for future players. This trope is [[AudienceAlienatingPremise an especially bad idea]] for commercially sold games, as players have to pay up to full retail prices for a game they will inevitably be forced to stop playing. Therefore, this trope is typically reserved for free games, with some being {{Unwinnable Joke Game}}s, as players have less to lose in playing the game (the undermentioned ''Lose/Lose'' notwithstanding).

Although, giving only one try is rarely implemented because replayability is something most game makers want, and given this strong deviation from regular games, chances are, at least a few {{Unwinnable Joke Game}}s may be on here. Lastly, it might be done in more conventional games by applying it to a {{Minigame}} or GameWithinAGame, to make an UnwinnableByDesign, or loss state for a game session, where another attempt is only possible in another timeline / restoring a save.