should death be animated or not?

[AnasAbdin]

Right now, I'm working on the death scenes of Anastronaut. I wanted to ask you all about the method I should represent death... do you prefer it to be animated sprites on the same room the player dies? or, a separate video animation? I was thinking maybe a mix of both depending on the reason and method of soul travel...
either way, I am NOT showing blood or violence at all. at least not on my first game...

what do you think?

[Monsieur OUXX]

I hink it all depends how frequently the death happens: In Prince of Persia (the original one, where you die all the time) it's a small animation: It's short enough not to be intrusive, but detailed enough to add to the thrill.
If the death is kind of unique and a potential climax, then feel free to do a separate cutscene...But make sure it can be skipped!

[AnasAbdin]

Thanks Monsieur OUXX All movie scenes in my game are skip-able. the more freedom of choice the better. I don't think this would be an issue in death scenes since averagely they are less than 3 seconds in length... I was thinking of death-movie scenes for extra clues as well.

[Darth Mandarb]

I have mixed feelings on it... I mean, on the one hand, the first time you play through it everything is 'new' so an extended death scene is fine (and enjoyable)!  But if you die, replay, die again [repeat] it gets VERY monotonous and irritating (even if it's skip-able).  I think Prince of Persia (as mentioned) did it right.

The game that pops up in my mind is the old SNES version of Aladdin.  Every time you die (and for me that was a LOT) it was this fade out of the background, spin the character around dramatically, falls to the ground, music, Abu comes over to lament ... I mean, sure, it was a nicely animated sequence but after the umpteenth time it's just annoying!

Also, just out of curiosity... why no blood?  The character is dying right?  (it's just always something that has piqued my curiosity why it's "okay" to kill visually as long as there's no blood... the character is still dead )

[Bogdan]

Anas, I have an idea. Why don't you make the astronaut die animation and then... when he falls down he EXPLODES AND THERE'S BLOOD ALL OVER THE SCREEN!!!1 Like brains and livers are everywhere around and crows come to eat your remains. And then the animation lasts for like ten minutes until your corpse is gone. Make it un-skippable scene so it will make players use alt + f4 command...

That was obviously a joke.

ontopic: Have you played Chzo Mythos or Ben Jordan series? if you haven't: The screen changes into a picture of the scene when you die and there are big words GAME OVER at the top and a replay or restore a game button at the bottom of the screen.

[kconan]

  I would keep it short and sweet using sprites, and have a few varied options for each kind of death (provided your character can die more than one way).

[AnasAbdin]

@Darth:

I think Prince of Persia pulled it right for its style yeah. But my game is a different genre since sometimes there are 5 different death scenes in one room... I'm not against blood or anything, but I do want to keep my first game "blood-free" for marketing reasons at least.
As for the killing without blood-gut spill... I always thought of the character as sleeping deeply hehe helps alot!

I remember the most touching death scene I've ever encountered in a game was/is in Thexder, a pile of broken cold metal with sad music...

I remember the Aladdin death scene LOL I cracked up when I read it!!!

this is one death scene so you all get an idea of what I'm saying:

This occurs in a freezing planet, where the player slips into a dark cold lake. He simply slips in a goofy way making a little splash and sinks into the water... later his helmet floats and that's about it.


@Bogdan:
no I haven't played them.. I'm not into room change effect at all too   :

@kconan:
short and sweet, EXACTLY.

[Tabata]

... the player slips into a dark cold lake. He simply slips in a goofy way making a little splash and sinks into the water... later his helmet floats and that's about it.

Don't forget to have him lift one of his arms, when he slowly sinks â€" it's a classic 

[AnasAbdin]

Don't forget to have him lift one of his arms, when he slowly sinks â€" it's a classic 

lol too late, I already made him slip ending upside down... hmmm maybe a foot appears to give the classic scene a twist 

[Kimbra]

NOOOO! no death scenes for anastronaut at all!! I don't want to see him die!!!  :'(

[Darth Mandarb]

If he falls in freezing water you simply MUST have him pop back up and bob in the water in a big block of ice!!

(( kidding of course! ))

[AnasAbdin]

NOOOO! no death scenes for anastronaut at all!! I don't want to see him die!!!  :'(

lol then you'd better guide him correctly

If he falls in freezing water you simply MUST have him pop back up and bob in the water in a big block of ice!!

(( kidding of course! ))

LMAO!!! but this happens only if he fell into freezing water through a narrow hole!! hahaa but I can't remove the image of him floating in two directions up and and down hehhee

[poc301]

I say yes, do a small death animation.

In Murran Chronicles 3, there are 3 screens in the entire game where deaths are possible.  On those screens there are numerous ways to die, and I took the route of doing a custom death animation for each way to die (impaled by tentacle, burst into flames, magic spell from a bad dude in the end-battle, etc), and I have it cut to the "Game Over" screen with the still-frame of the last image from the death animation.  I think it turned out nicely, the death animation takes no more than 1-2 seconds to run, and it gets the point across.  The death screen is customized for how you died, and even gives pointers on how to survive.

I think it is all in how you do the death scene.  Some players are more willing to watch that stuff than others.

-Bill

[Abisso]

I recommend in-game death animations, 2-3 seconds long at most. If you're against blood, add an option to deactivate it (if you find a way to do so without too much effort), and maybe even an option to disable death scenes completely.

If you really have a cool, breathtaking and scary death animation in mind (which means you've got some mind issues probably ) make an exception and do a separate cutscene, or a longer sequence. But as a rule, I second what Darth said: when there's the chance you're going to watch a cut-scene frequently, for as good as it might be, it will get booooring, and possibly frustrating.

[markbilly]

I have animated all the player deaths in The Longevity Gene and, besides anything else, it's great fun doing them! But they are only a few seconds long - and not a cut-away cutscene - to save boring people.

[Monsieur OUXX]

On the same topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMNtxEpotk0

[DrewCCU]

This could just be me but did anyone think this might be a more philosophical post based on the topic title?

[AnasAbdin]

This could just be me but did anyone think this might be a more philosophical post based on the topic title?

It's not only you. The main reason behind my question was to get a better understanding of the subject. I did some 3 seconds videos for almost each death scene. However, when released, you'll notice they do not show the character being dead at all. For instance, you can see him get sucked into deep space while wearing his spacesuit, then he'll be standing in the middle of the 'death room' talking to the player -perhaps giving hints on how to avoid that certain way of death-... I already explained that to the people emailing me. What triggered that topic from the first place was my memories of game characters as a kid, I got attached less to characters whom I had seen their corpses... while an explosion of a ship in a space shooter game did not affect me at all (no corpse visible) so yeah, it is philosophical

[DrewCCU]

This could just be me but did anyone think this might be a more philosophical post based on the topic title?

It's not only you. The main reason behind my question was to get a better understanding of the subject. I did some 3 seconds videos for almost each death scene. However, when released, you'll notice they do not show the character being dead at all. For instance, you can see him get sucked into deep space while wearing his spacesuit, then he'll be standing in the middle of the 'death room' talking to the player -perhaps giving hints on how to avoid that certain way of death-... I already explained that to the people emailing me. What triggered that topic from the first place was my memories of game characters as a kid, I got attached less to characters whom I had seen their corpses... while an explosion of a ship in a space shooter game did not affect me at all (no corpse visible) so yeah, it is philosophical

I understand what you meant after reading the posts and yes, this topic is somewhat philisophical ... what I meant was that based on the topic title alone, I thought this post might have some connection to Frankenstein. Lol.

[Abisso]

This could just be me but did anyone think this might be a more philosophical post based on the topic title?

Actually the first thing that came to my mind when I read the title was: "Throw a party when I'm gone."