Knightmare.com

Yes I know that, I don't mean in every room, and not on the screen all the time. I mean when the views sees it there was no reason not to show the team.. some how? like they did with skulls floating around.

Probably because they didn't track the animation against the quest in real time - it was only in the edit suite they decided what would be a suitable point of the animation to show. The technical limitations of the time perhaps meant it was never instantly 'good to go' at a specific point in the sequence.

I imagine...

That's a good point.

Yes, Hobgoblin has phrased it better than I did.

If you show a team that they're on 50% health and they subsequently take 5 minutes to complete the room, by all accounts they're dead.

Certainly you'd run the risk of them panicking and rushing the room.

They'd be long dead in something like Series 1's battle of insults :p

"Ooh, nasty. Sorry team, but sometimes our supporting cast members just get too carried away..."

Well no, not at all. Because it wouldn't be left to just run it's course, you wouldn't click a start button and let it tick over.
The life force would be at whatever stage they needed it to be, which is exactly what happens now anyway.. but without showing the teams on their screen.

Though by showing the team the lifeforce the producers are committing to kill a dungeoneer in x minutes unless they get food.

Going back to Barry's winning quest - if the producers had shown a critical lifeforce status, estimating how long the team would need to guide Barry to the water drop, they probably would have died. By adding it in post production they can just make it look like a last second reprieve.

Some might say giving the team a finite amount of time would be a fairer way to play the game but it would have led to more boring lifeforce deaths.

True.

I do like the idea that it doesn't count down but take 'hits'
Like touching the skull or spikes, as well as other things that can drain your life force such as that symbol we saw a few weeks ago or some other nasty in a room.

Be interesting to see how the life force is use in the future.

Interestingly, a 'hit-taking' lifeforce would be more in line with the vast majority of computer and role-playing games. However, in KM's gameplay such hits are relatively rare so most of the time dungeoneers would be wandering around in no need of food. It would also lose the hurry up mechanic which is its main purpose.

The original animation was so fantastic that personally I have no problem with them using it just as they used to - the design outweighs any gameplay limitations. I love the blackly comic touch of the glances left and right as various bits peel away, and the flying eyeballs, accompanied with the tolling bells, could make any death seem incredibly dramatic. For me, it's definitely an instance where the need to create good television is more important than the need to create a robust and consistent gameplay mechanic.

The two later animations, while more 'hit-friendly', just didn't have the same impact.

Yes I agree.
As a kid I didn't realise it was added in post, and as fair as I was concerned it was a real threat. It's only been watching the repeats I noticed how the teams never acknowledged it. Best thing about being a kid it's easier to believe what you're seeing, you let your imagination run wild.