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There are plenty of ways to encourage the player to physically make progress in a game (collectibles, for instance), but forcing him to do so is a bit different.
One approach is to simply take the player on an automated ride where his input bears little to no effect on the locomotion itself, e.g., autoscrolling stages in shmups, or wholly scripted camera movement in light-gun games. Another possibility, and the one I'll be focusing on, is what I like to call the "cattle prod." But first, a quick definition:
game death, n.
- An event in which the player fails to adequately advance through a challenge, often resulting in a restart at the last checkpoint/save spot or a "gave over" scenario.
Game death is a pretty nebulous concept, e.g., losing a race and having to repeat it doesn't have to actually involve anyone or anything being killed. However, it is also the ultimate consequence of not properly satisfying the requirements dictated by the cattle prod(s).
With this in mind, we can now talk about what makes a cattle prod work. Namely, diminishing resources that can bring on game death.
Cattle prods are implemented in a variety of ways, e.g., time limits, combo meters, autoscrolling walls, decaying health, unstoppable enemies, etc. The overall feeling they tend to evoke is that of tension (and the possible satisfaction of overcoming a challenge) although that intensity varies greatly from case to case.
From what I've noticed, there are three main factors that play into the stress level of a cattle prod:
1). Player Knowledge.
The more information the player possesses, the better he will be equipped to judge the situation at hand. Traversing a familiar level while being accompanied by a minimap that displays various points of interest is a lot less intimidating than being given a time limit and thrown into an unknown area filled with enemies.
2). Player Power.
The stronger the player is, the lesser the impact of any possible cattle prods. For example, if an RTS match begins with the player at a fully outfitted base with a lot of units and resources to mine, he won't be too worried (at least not immediately). However, remove the base, provide only a handful of starting units, severely diminish possible resources and create a massive opposing army, and the stress levels quickly increase.
3). Resource Availability/Lifespan.
The more sparse the resource and the quicker it runs out, the more intense the overall experience. If a checkpoint is fifteen minutes away in a rally-style racing game, the player tends to trust the designer to give him plenty of time to reach that goal. However, if a checkpoint can be seen just a block down the street but the player only has 10 seconds to reach it, the experience becomes much more rushed and hectic.
The dials on these 3 factors can be turned independently -- something that's particularly important when using multiple impetus mechanics at one time. In the end, though, they all represent a single concept:
cattle prod, n.
- A mechanic based on diminishing resources that forces the player to advance in order to avoid game death.
What are some of your favourite examples of cattle prods?
Radek Koncewicz is the CEO and creative lead of Incubator Games, and also runs the game design blog Significant-Bits.
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You mention its use in RTS games when players either run out of resources or simlarly start out with a finite squad of units. Having built a game that did that - MechCommander, I can say that while it did make players act smarter with their resources (their Mechs/vehicles) it also made it one of the hardest RTS games ever made. It's less forgiving and extremely frustrating to lose units. Players would replay levels again and again to keep from losing their most valuable Mechs. That wasn't the kind of replay value we were looking for and ultimately the game didn't do too well.
The thing with cattle prod/gas mechanics is that their implementation can vary quite drastically.
Food was mentioned above, and I think it's a good example. The mechanic of "refueling" a character can be very tedious, but it can also act as a great impetus for exploration. Aside from rougelikes, rations played a big part in the DS title Lost in Blue. Food was required to keep the character going, explore the island, and eventually make it back to the mainland. As the player discovered new areas and sources of food, he also received greater amounts of nourishment, and in turn could explore even more of the island.
Admittedly the whole thing got a bit stale after a while, especially when combined with the cooking minigames, but on its own it was a sound gameplay element. It fit the setting, provided lots of upgrades/rewards, and made backtracking a bit easier as there was always something useful to collect.
I also included a screenshot from Super Adventure Island, and its food mechanic merits a mention as well. The game consisted of linear left-to-right levels, but the constantly depleting hunger meter and the promise of more fruit ahead helped to keep the player going. It almost felt like a very organic and granular system of checkpoints and didn't have the "dread" factor associated with it that comes with auto-scrolling platformers.
QTE's also seem like they fall under the cattle prod category, particularly when they are whittled down to their 'press x to not die' core. The issue most people have with QTE's, it would therefore follow, is because all 3 mentioned factors are scaled to 0: player has no prior knowledge of what is about to happen (unless they have done this before and failed); player has no power to speak of, they either survive or they don't; and lastly, the event is incredibly brief. All together, this makes QTE's a highly stressful experience.
And lastly, some games, like Uncharted, communicate to the player that they are better served running than standing still by having the player character begin to run, and then returning control to the player. This indicates the cattle prod, even when the player doesn't know the area they are running to and said area is flooded with enemies.
Which leads me to suggest that perhaps player awareness that a cattle prod is in place at all is as important as the other factors. It might fall under the category of 'player knowledge', but it still seems worth mentioning.
As far as prods in general, I can think of two (though I wouldn't necessarily think of them as favorites). Gauntlet used the 'gas' varient - you always need food to keep going. D&D, depending on your GM, could use the precursor to the QTE - save or die spells/traps where one either passed a saving throw (or similar) and lived, or failed and died.