{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/point-and-click--family-42","type":"mechanic","id":"point-and-click--family-42","lang":"en","title":"Errors, retries and variation","summary":"The player learns from failure and retries with retained knowledge or changed conditions.","updatedAt":"2026-10-22","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/point-and-click--family-42/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/point-and-click--family-42.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/point-and-click--family-42.md","aliases":["Failure and retries"],"tags":["Point-and-click adventures","Puzzle and progression architecture"],"sourceIds":["source-aba2be33e4d64649"],"sources":[{"id":"source-aba2be33e4d64649","title":"Braid","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"The player learns from failure and retries with retained knowledge or changed conditions."},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Variants\n\n<a id=\"family-42-branch-1\"></a>\n\n- Safe errors: obtain feedback without losing progress. <a id=\"family-42-variant-1\"></a>\n- Reversibility: restore a world or object state and try another approach. <a id=\"family-42-variant-2\"></a>\n- Failed attempts: retry dialogue, minigames, sections or scenes. <a id=\"family-42-variant-3\"></a>\n- Death and restart: return to checkpoints, episode starts or saves. <a id=\"family-42-variant-4\"></a>\n- Permanent loss: lose items, witnesses, branches or solutions. <a id=\"family-42-variant-5\"></a>\n- Dead ends: lose every way to complete a task, potentially without a clear warning. <a id=\"family-42-variant-6\"></a>\n- Continuing after failure: progress with changed conditions and consequences. <a id=\"family-42-variant-7\"></a>\n- Reconfiguration: change codes, layouts, rules or datasets on retry. <a id=\"family-42-variant-8\"></a>\n- Procedural or reactive tasks: generate conditions from algorithms, action history and world state. <a id=\"family-42-variant-9\"></a>"},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"A working classification with 44 families and 355 variants. Families overlap: one puzzle can combine items, dialogue, deduction and a character schedule. Core actions, progression architecture and assistance are separate layers. Sources identify examples from neighboring adventure genres."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"point-and-click","id":"family-42","title":"Point-and-click adventures","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/point-and-click/#family-42","categoryIds":["section-6"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-22","title":"Failure and retries","description":"The player learns from failure and retries with retained knowledge or changed conditions.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/adventure-braid-04.webp","width":1280,"height":720,"game":"Braid","sourceUrl":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/","originalUrl":"https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/26800/0000007892.1920x1080.jpg?t=1734027955","credit":"Number None","rights":"Game imagery © its respective rights holders. Publisher-distributed Steam screenshot; all rights reserved. Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.","caption":"Repeated actions and their echo after rewinding in Braid","alt":"Repeated actions and their echo after rewinding in Braid","markers":[{"x":40,"y":65,"label":"Hero’s current position"},{"x":74,"y":54,"label":"An echo repeats rewound actions"}]},"tips":["Retain useful knowledge and reduce repetition of already understood actions."],"examples":[{"title":"Braid","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Original taxonomy adapted from user-selected design discussions; linked sources support specific examples, not the whole classification.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/point-and-click"}}