So your avatar died in a videogame. No big deal—at the click of a button, you can begin anew.

Uh, not so fast if you're playing Upsilon Circuit, where death is eternal. (Its development team, RobotLovesKitty, describes it as “perma-perma-death.”) In the game, eight people play at a time, as an endless audience of spectators support or thwart them with aid or obstacles. After one character dies, a random viewer takes his or her place.

The team behind Upsilon Circuit hopes the unconventional realism will invite players to treat their lives more carefully—their lives within the videogame, at least. “The only way we can go a step up from this is if we actually start killing the contestants in real life,” says codeveloper Calvin Goble. We’ll keep the perma-perma-death in the game world, please.