To Health Bar or Not To Health Bar... That is the question

[Sharpleaf]

My team is having a little debate on whether or not to show enemies health (in a bar, with or without numbers). 

We're split about 50/50 so I thought I'd bring the question up here. 

 

In a casual game where it's my 1-3 guys vs 1-3 enemies, you take turns attacking, and you attack by choosing an action and who that action is taken against, do you feel the need for an enemy health bar?

Does showing health give any benefit? Does taking heath representations away lose any or gain any benefit? 

 

What are your thoughts on displaying health?

 

Thanks!

[AzraelTycka]

Hello,

 

I played a singleplayer game some time ago (don't really remember its name). The only health indicator was available for your character (it was a first person game) and no for your enemies (no bars, no graphics for damage, you literally didn't know if you are actually doing any damage at all until the monster died). Fights felt super boring thanks to that, you just didn't have any estimation of how long the fight would take and because enemies had a lot of hp or you had low damage it took ages to finish one fight.

 

Though games like Mario, Trine, ..., don't use health indicators as well. It all depends on your system I guess.

 

Is there any rpg like system in your game which says strength of each character/weapons (how much damage they do and so on)? If yes, then I would usually expect health indication in some way.

Games with Final Fantasy like fight system have health bars as well and again they mark your progress. Imagine fighting a boss in FF without any indication of health it can take several minutes to finish one and without showing some progress to player they could jsut quit the game because they won't feel any satisfaction during the fight.

 

But there are also many games which don't use them, I would say if it takes a few hits to kill enemies in your game or you have interactive enough fighting system (to keep player engaged in joy of fighting your enemies) then you might not need to display health bars.

 

As last, you can always bind it to some key or as a toggle option in settings ;-).

 

Good luck.

 

PS: Meaning that I don't think either way is wrong, therefore I'm not voting for one or the other ;-).

[Froton X]

In my game, I put the option to turn enemy health display On or Off.

[viibr]

I think you need them. If I'm playing a game I usually want to know how much damage I am doing (especially if it's an RPG) and how long the fight will take. I'd hate to be fighting a boss and not know how much damage I am doing (in comparison to the its health).

[Cris91]

I think you need them. If I'm playing a game I usually want to know how much damage I am doing (especially if it's an RPG) and how long the fight will take. I'd hate to be fighting a boss and not know how much damage I am doing (in comparison to the its health).

Agreed. I'd say it mostly depends on the gameplay and how the health bar affects the game positvely and negatively. Then see which one outweights the other and see if you can fix the other problems.

I'd hate to play a game like viibr described without health bars and on top of that not knowing if the other person is cheating/hacking. Maybe they're legit but I have no way of knowing.

So if it's multiplayer, hacking should be a concern to make the players feel more aware of the situation. Otherwise they might feel cheated.

Maybe tell us a bit more of the game and what are the main opinions of both sides!