Because we want Unto The End to be a richly skill-focused experience, it won’t feature systems such as levelling-up or XP. We want players to improve by mastering the moves that will be at their disposal from the outset of the journey. In addition to combat mastery, players will also need to be adept at observing what's happening on-screen. For example, we have no fixed HUD, and that means no health bar/meter, so players will need to be aware of the father's condition by reading his appearance.
With that in mind, it’s vital we make the father’s condition easy to read and interpret, so players can tell if he’s in perfect shape, or on the verge of dropping dead. At present, these are how the father’s four main states are shown:
Normal/Healthy
Nothing to worry about here. A nice and springy idle animation shows the father is at full health.
Injured
As well as a more stooping stance, you can see the father's breathing is laboured. In-game, the laboured breathing would be further emphasised by visible breath, and blood on his garb would be visible.
This is how it looks in-game:
Bleeding
The father dropping to one knee indicates a more serious state than being simply injured, and the player needs to use either a herb or salve to improve the father's condition. If no herb or salve is administered within a certain time, the father will die, which is the fourth state.
Dead
When you see this animation, it's too late. Time to restart from the last checkpoint and go again.
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- Stephen and Sara
https://store.steampowered.com/app/600080/Unto_The_End/