Blood or no blood?

[poc301]

Hello everyone.  I am making a cutscene in Blender which shows 'what might happen' during a mystical vision where the EGO character gets impaled/killed with a large pike.  I was wondering if I should put in a bloody mess where he gets hit and killed by the pike, or if I should leave it bloodless.  I'm afraid of getting too gory and nasty, but I figure that since he is impaled, there will obviously be blood.  At the same time I don't want to offend those with tender sensibilities (Leisure Suit Larry reference ).  So, what do you guys think?  Should I make it bloody, or leave the blood out?

[LGM Unplugged]

If the gore adds something to the scene, makes it better.. Then by all means, put it in.. But if it's just gratiuitous, and makes you worried.. Don't do it. there should be blood, but if you don't want it over the top don't make it so.

[Nacho]

First of all, impalation implied death many days after the act, by infection mainly, it was painfull, but tresspassing the skin and the whole body became much after...

So, a real impalation shouldn't be too bloody, historically talking... :/

As for me, do it as less bloody as possible, there are many ways of showing a high torture without being gross, which is many times so much terrorific that showing the fact itself.

But it's your game!

[poc301]

Hahah

Its not a torture per se.  The EGO character is sitting on a log by the fire when the campfire suddenly goes out.  He looks at it questioningly, when all of a sudden a pike impales him from behind and he goes flying.

Here is a link to the ending of what I have done so far.  I need to do a lot of tweaking on stuff like the reflectivity of his pants, and a bunch more, but you will get the idea.

http://pocmobile.tripod.com/impale.zip

[Nacho]

Tripod does not allow download... Tripod is... how would you say in a kind way "a huge bunch of crap"

[poc301]

BLAH!  I hate Tripod, but my main server locked me out (the password got reset or something).

Go to : http://pocmobile.tripod.com

I put a link there to click-download the file.

BTW: I made a version with a particle effect blood.  It kicks butt.  I am going to use it.

[Mats Berglinn]

Myself, I hate blood and gore because it's sicken me.

If you are unsure, here is my suggestion: Why not script in two different modes in the game? One that has blood and the other one that is not blood. Right after you start a new game a question could appear asking "You want to see any blood in the game?" and you select yes or no. This is just a suggestion, you don't have to use this if you don't want to.

[MillsJROSS]

If I'd do anything to that video is make the text more readable. I had to pause it to read it.

As far as blood, if you want it spilling out, that's not to bad. It's when it gushes out people usually start feeling squemish.

-MillsJROSS

[poc301]

As I said, that is a very rough draft of a part of the cutscene.Ã,  I will definately change the font.Ã,  Either that, or turn off reflectivity so it doesn't 'glisten' in the firelight.

I can't script 2 versions because it is a Blender rendered AVI, not AGS.Ã,  But the blood doesn't gush.Ã,  The pike hits him, and he goes flying.Ã,  Some blood pops out when the spike comes out his front-side, but nothing too gory or over-the-top.

I'll render another version with blood in a minute and put it up.Ã,  I also re-rendered him a bit, so it looks a little more realistic.Ã,  I also added a sky since that original version...

EDIT: The version with the blood is now online at http://pocmobile.tripod.com

[kjetting]

It all depends on what kind of game you are making. If over-the-top goryness fits in well with the theme of the game, then do it. The gushing effect in your avi file was nice, but things would probably look better if there were blood splatters left on the ground after the impaling, and some on the pole as well. But then again, one of my favourite adventure game scenes of all time is the one in loom where the villain is disintegrated and his head goes flying towards the screen, so I might not be representative of the general consensus.
If people don't enjoy bloodsplatter in computer games they should probably not be playing a game where the protagonist gets impaled anyway, so I recommend you don't worry much about that. A little blood is fine and adds to the impression that "Yes, that pole actually went through his body". If you do gallons of bloodsplatter flying in all directions you will instead achieve a more splatterfilm-like effect where the gore is so over-the-top you can't help thinking it's hysterically funny. This game seems to be a little more along the "serious" vein, though.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Unless you want to go Kill Bill style, of course. And THAT was a goddamn serious movie.

[Totoro]

I can't script 2 versions because it is a Blender rendered AVI, not AGS. 

Why not? You could make the decision whether the user wants to see blood or not set a GlobalInt to a certain value. You put both avi into the gamae, and depending on the value of the GlobalInt the bloody or not-bloody version could be shown.
Don't get me wrong, I would not do that. But if you liked Mats' dea, there is no technical border that could stop you from doing so.

[BOYD1981]

if you can get actual real blood into the movie then great, otherwise you might have to just use red pixels and stuff...

[HillBilly]

The amount of blood in the bloody version was too much. I'd suggest you take none, or just some (dark red would fit nice).