Spawning (video gaming)

In video games, spawning is the live creation of a character, item or mob. Respawning is the recreation of an entity after its death or destruction, perhaps after losing one of its lives.

All player characters typically spawn at the start of a round, whereas some objects or mobs may spawn after the occurrence of a particular event or delay. When a player character respawns, they generally do so in an earlier point of the level and get some kind of penalty. The term "spawning" is used almost exclusively in games where this happens frequently.