Interested in being a part of a private alpha for Valley 2? Read here.

[LaughingThesaurus]

People associate that with health, so it's immediately clear what that is.

While true, going with green seems like an odd choice.

It makes me think he's poisoned.

Green is the color of being healthy in health bars, and the color of being poisoned with more abstract health indicators.
Red is the color of being healthy with hearts, but it's the color of being nearly dead or on fire with health bars or numbers.
UI design is bizarre.

[Martyn van Buren]

Yeah I have to agree.  Green hearts are odd.  That isn't the toxic-looking forest green I associate with poison; it just makes me wonder if the character is a plant.  Which would be cool.

[Aklyon]

What if they were purple hearts? It would match the oblivion crystal and stuff.

[x4000]

Here they start green, get yellow when you are middling, and get red when you are low.

[madcow]

Here they start green, get yellow when you are middling, and get red when you are low.

I see, that makes sense.

Though please no beeping or flashing screen when one hit away from death!

[Oralordos]

Though please no beeping or flashing screen when one hit away from death!

shudders Zelda flashbacks. I never had a problem with Navi, but that low health beep was the most annoying thing ever.

[madcow]

Though please no beeping or flashing screen when one hit away from death!

shudders Zelda flashbacks. I never had a problem with Navi, but that low health beep was the most annoying thing ever.

That's exactly what I was thinking, I know it was in other games too. But the Zelda one I remember most.

[x4000]

Here it's more of a screech, and the whole screen shakes in a dizzying way and flashes red.  But only when you're lower than 70% health.







(I kid, of course.  There's nothing like the Zelda beeping, which I also found the greatest incentive not to take damage).

[Aklyon]

You could always do it the pokemon way and turn the beeping into a special audio track that interrupts the battle music after 4 previous generations of games have had beeping.

Because that was a pretty nifty idea.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I find that if there is a low health sound, it's got to be like, a heartbeat or other kind of deep sound. The metroid low health sounds also never bothered me, not in the "I'm so annoyed" sense. More of in the "I'm panicking because the siren won't go away" sense. What I'm getting at is, I do like when there's an indicator of low health. It's just that most indicators are so obnoxious that they get you killed more often than not.

Ooh, Aklyon, are you talking about a low health battle song that replaces the regular songs? That'd be pretty nifty as well.

[x4000]

I like the metroid low health sound as well, and actually some of the later Zeldas had a very dull un-grating sort of sound to them, too.  I'm not sure what we'll do with that sort of thing yet, thus far I'm still focused on more core areas.

[Aklyon]

Ooh, Aklyon, are you talking about a low health battle song that replaces the regular songs? That'd be pretty nifty as well.

Yep.

[MouldyK]

Yeah I have to agree.  Green hearts are odd.  That isn't the toxic-looking forest green I associate with poison; it just makes me wonder if the character is a plant.  Which would be cool.

You ruined the mid-game plot-twist!

Also, that music Aklyon is quite cool, but might get annoying if you are constantly on health-alert in the game. I'd prefer maybe more tranquil, sad music when you are low on health, sorta like you might die, so the music starts to die too. 

It will make the player more attached to there character. There is this character, which is of their own design, wandering through this harsh abyss with music which symbolises their death.

I mean can you imagine what emotions would seep into your brain when you hear this in a tower you are climbing? It would make you think "I have to do this! No time to lose!". It would bring the player closer to the character like never before.

Or even this as you wander through the grassy land with 10% health, trying to avoid being hit by the harsh environment ahead. These will immerse you into the environment even more than normal. 


I half-kid here, but the music should not be upbeat if you are low on health as it can get annoying if you are constantly at that health, feeling always on the edge with the music fast-paced like the Pokemon Black/White song. I would feel more fragile and cautious when the music is more tranquil and i'm low on health.

An example is when a slower-paced song comes onto AI War, especially this, I usually think of the task I have ahead of me: 5 planets captured, 60 to go through, overwhelming odds. For that brief moment in time, you feel like you might not be able to live up to the task you have been set.

If put at the right moment, music can make you feel a range of emotions. A bleeping every now and again does not. I think Galaxy 2 or a game I played recently did that often and I hated it so much.

[chemical_art]

The last time I remember a really "loud" beeping sound was from Wipeout HD. It's a game made to have you race at high speed to techno music. Once you are down to a third of your health a light beeping like a car interior dinging sound occurs that is first barely noticeable but as it gets louder starts to overtake both the sounds and the music of the game, till you get under 10% health and mostly all your hear is it.

It is jarring, but whether it is good or not is up to opinion. Usually you are in the "loud" 10% health range for 30 seconds tops before you either recover the health or you die, and most of the time your health drops from >10% to 0% in a weapons barrage, so on average you hear it once every few races. The process of it I think was meant to be jarring, to break you out of your trance to pay extra attention to preserving and recovering health.

I liked the system, but because it was intense and very rare. The situation to get the "quiet" alarm is fairly frequent, but mostly serves as another queue to not go offense but play defense for a moment to recover health. The loud alarm is key as a counter point to the usual trance sound effects of the game. But, for example, I encountered the blaring sound every race, I would get very annoyed.

So I think there is a definite relation between intensity and frequency of near death situations. At heart the near death situation, to be effective and not just a pure negative, you need it to alert you to situations you would not otherwise notice. In addition, it needs to somehow enhance the situation but not very frequently.  Lastly, the duration of the effect needs to be short, either by having the game somehow being of a nature being near death is short before exiting said state, or having the cues initially be strong but "fade away" if the near death state persists for more then a brief time.

[LaughingThesaurus]

I think my favorite thing for low health music that I just remembered was Yoshi's Story, where it actually is the same song, but really really sad, because Yoshis don't die, they just get sad.