Best way to alert player that their time is expiring Thread

Suppose you have a multi player Game of two or three players. Each player gets their own turn. When a player get's their turn, I need to somehow alert him, or her that they need to make a decision by a designated period of time. For example if you have players, Jim, Dexter, and Sandra Komis, and it is Jims turn, and Jim does not respond by 10 seconds, I need to alert him that he has 20 more seconds to react. If he does not reply, control will be passed to the next player.

I could show a stop watch, and tick down the number of seconds remaining. But I want something more graceful and suttlel. Does anyone have anyy ideas on how to best aler the story?

If the game allows only limited time for each player, there should be timer or stopwatch shown on each player so it shouldn't be a problem.

As for alerting player, what about flashing the screen or at least the HUD when player's time is about to expire?

Ralphi wrote:

I could show a stop watch, and tick down the number of seconds remaining. But I want something more graceful and suttlel. Does anyone have anyy ideas on how to best aler the story?

Well, why do you think that a timer ticking down is not graceful und subtle? The task of a timer is to show how much time is left and I think the numbers passing by is the best way to achieve that. If you don't care about the exat seconds remaining, you could also alter the UI at, for example, 20 seconds remaining. Maybe some kind of particle effects around UI elements the player usually acts upon.

I would add a ticking sound towards and the end and make the timer blink...

I would most certainly would be of the idea of supporting on your voice actors, Sound Designers or Composer.

Perhaps a voice line or expressions, like a "hmm..." or "I wonder..." dialogue? possibly a "bell" or ticking sound!

Edited by: EduardoLopezComposer

The best way to answer this is to know exactly what kind of game you are making if you want something unique and not a standard timer. If it is a game of chess that is chill and relaxed, a simple timer would do, preferably the kind used for chess tournaments to add realism to it. If you are making a quirky game, something going across the screen like, "JIM it's YOUR TURN!!! You better hurry up...", "Jim you there?" And with only a little time left, "GO GO GO GO GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! could suffice. Or just have the timer music from Jeopardy. "I'm a little tea pot..." ^_^ Of course what ever you choose you do not want something annoying people will hate because it is obnoxious and or distracting, by being overly loud by noise or text, unless the whole concept of the game is in that style.

Ravensholm wrote:

The best way to answer this is to know exactly what kind of game you are making if you want something unique and not a standard timer. If it is a game of chess that is chill and relaxed, a simple timer would do, preferably the kind used for chess tournaments to add realism to it. If you are making a quirky game, something going across the screen like, Rachat de crédit "JIM it's YOUR TURN!!! You better hurry up...", "Jim you there?" And with only a little time left, "GO GO GO GO GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! could suffice. Or just have the timer music from Jeopardy. "I'm a little tea pot..." ^_^ Of course what ever you choose you do not want something annoying people will hate because it is obnoxious and or distracting, by being overly loud by noise or text, unless the whole concept of the game is in that style.

Yes, I agree with you

Why is there a link to a website on your quote of mine, but not actually in my original post?

Ralphi wrote:

Suppose you have a multi player Game of two or three players. Each player gets their own turn. When a player get's their turn, I need to somehow alert him, or her that they need to make a decision by a designated period of time. For example if you have players, Jim, Dexter, and Sandra Komis, and it is Jims turn, and Jim does not respond by 10 seconds, I need to alert him that he has 20 more seconds to react. If he does not reply, control will be passed to the next player.

I could show a stop watch, and tick down the number of seconds remaining. But I want something more graceful and suttlel. Does anyone have anyy ideas on how to best aler the story?

Why do you need this?

If this is like a dialogue decision, you might look at how Witcher 3 did it.

If you want noticeable, but don't want an UI element, just go with a sound prompt of some sort, such as a clock ticking noise, that intensifies the closer to 0 it gets, or even having the character itself say something like "OH GAWD I'M ALMOST OUTTA TIME, I GOTTA DO SOMETHING QUICK!" (Don't actually do that, I'm joking for that last suggestion).