The game is fun! Though, I feel like there are two different things that feel very unintuitive with the game's design.
First, it feels very unintuitive that the Time in the corner is continuously counting down. It feels like it should reset to what it was at the beginning of the level when you touch an hour glass. That would reinforce that the player has gone back in time, allows the player to use the amount of time left as reference for when their last iteration is more easily, and removes some stress from the player in later levels where they're not sure if their plan will have enough time to be executed. That stress may be intended somewhat, but it feels off to me.
Second, how the game handles multiple iterations feels very off. If I grabbed the Blue hourglass then the Red hourglass, I would expect it so that my past versions would reset; a Blue Past Self starting at the original level spawn and a Red Past Self starting at the Blue hourglass and when the past selves touch their respective hour glass, I would expect them to vanish.
How the game currently has it set up is that if I grab a Blue Hourglass then a Red Hourglass, the Blue Past Self continues running despite me grabbing the Red Hourglass and a new Red Past Self spawns at the beginning of the level and it will go through the entirety of Blue's actions before doing anything new. This just doesn't feel right and makes it so I can't plan around my past selves as easily.
A better way to describe this would be like.
My suggested way time travel implementation:
A) I spawn at start, cut down tree, grab Blue hourglass.
B1) Blue spawns at start, cuts down tree, vanishes at Blue hourglass. B2) I continue from Blue, wait a second for Blue to act, grab an apple from the fallen tree, grab Red hourglass (causing Blue to reset if it didn't reach the Blue Hourglass yet).
C1) Blue spawns at start, cuts down tree, vanishes at Blue hourglass. C2) Red spawns at Blue hourglass, waits a second for Blue to act, grabs an apple from the fallen tree, vanishes at Red Hourglass. C3) I continue from Red hourglass, wait for Blue, wait for Red, walk past the tree, and exit the level
(if this went for another iteration, I could grab a green hour glass, Red and Blue would despawn and we would start from the top of Iteration D in a similar manner).
How the game would handle this is:
I spawn at Start. I cut down tree. I grab blue hourglass. Blue spawns at Start. I continue from Blue hourglass, wait for Blue. Blue cuts down tree. Blue moves on. I grab apple. I grab Red Hourglass. Red spawns at Start. I continue from Red hourglass, wait for Red. Red cuts down tree. Blue gets to Blue Hourglass, despawns. Red moves on. I continue from Red Hourglass Red gets to Blue hourglass, waiting because I waited before. I can't sneak past Red, so I have to wait for Red to finish waiting. Red continues on Red grabs apple I'm finally able to move on and finish level as Red gets to the Red Hourglass and vanishes.
(And if instead of finishing the level, I grabbed a third Green hourglass at this point, then I would only be dealing with Green starting from the very beginning. No Red or Blue, only Green.)
The difference between the two is that I can easily show how I'm iterating in my suggestion and you could really just pay attention to the bottom part of the list to see what's new while in the game's time travel logic I have to list actions linearly because my past selves don't reset at all, they continue acting.
This causes some logical issues where, even though I personally can't run in front of my past selves, my past selves can run in front of each other. Thankfully the game doesn't punish you for your past selves seeing each other, but it begs the question as to why it matters that I am seen by my past selves.
But ignoring logic issues, it can also cause logistical issues since. For whatever reason past selves can push each other around? So it's entirely possible that the past selves will nudge each other out of the way and be unable to press buttons.
The game works as it is and it is fun! But I feel like my suggestions would make it feel more intuitive and allow for more interesting puzzle solving and making
Hey thanks for lettin us know. Yeah unfortunately this is a WebGL issue in some browsers. We've put red text in above to warn people about it! Thankfully it doesn't stop you from playing throught the game as intended :)
Post jam we'll definitely look into trying to get WebGL to behave a bit better on this, will probably require some refactoring.
Really great idea! I got a bit stuck on the level with 2 buttons? But that might just be me haha, not very good with puzzles. Great scope for a jam, fitting audio and visuals!
Yeah unfortunately that was something that works great in the Unity Editor but then kicked us in the balls when we uploaded to WebGL :(. Thankfully you can still play the whole way through as intended :)
I love this so much! Perfect scope for a game jam. I've written a page of notes on the successes of the game design and art of this game, to inspire me in future game jams.
BUT there is a bug. On the level with the large, very wide, moving obstacle/wall you can simply skip the puzzle and walk right over the obstacle that blocks the exit. Same with the following level after that.
I hope you have enough time to fix it before the deadline.
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The game is fun! Though, I feel like there are two different things that feel very unintuitive with the game's design.
First, it feels very unintuitive that the Time in the corner is continuously counting down. It feels like it should reset to what it was at the beginning of the level when you touch an hour glass. That would reinforce that the player has gone back in time, allows the player to use the amount of time left as reference for when their last iteration is more easily, and removes some stress from the player in later levels where they're not sure if their plan will have enough time to be executed. That stress may be intended somewhat, but it feels off to me.
Second, how the game handles multiple iterations feels very off. If I grabbed the Blue hourglass then the Red hourglass, I would expect it so that my past versions would reset; a Blue Past Self starting at the original level spawn and a Red Past Self starting at the Blue hourglass and when the past selves touch their respective hour glass, I would expect them to vanish.
How the game currently has it set up is that if I grab a Blue Hourglass then a Red Hourglass, the Blue Past Self continues running despite me grabbing the Red Hourglass and a new Red Past Self spawns at the beginning of the level and it will go through the entirety of Blue's actions before doing anything new. This just doesn't feel right and makes it so I can't plan around my past selves as easily.
A better way to describe this would be like.
My suggested way time travel implementation:
A) I spawn at start, cut down tree, grab Blue hourglass.
B1) Blue spawns at start, cuts down tree, vanishes at Blue hourglass.
B2) I continue from Blue, wait a second for Blue to act, grab an apple from the fallen tree, grab Red hourglass (causing Blue to reset if it didn't reach the Blue Hourglass yet).
C1) Blue spawns at start, cuts down tree, vanishes at Blue hourglass.
C2) Red spawns at Blue hourglass, waits a second for Blue to act, grabs an apple from the fallen tree, vanishes at Red Hourglass.
C3) I continue from Red hourglass, wait for Blue, wait for Red, walk past the tree, and exit the level
(if this went for another iteration, I could grab a green hour glass, Red and Blue would despawn and we would start from the top of Iteration D in a similar manner).
How the game would handle this is:
I spawn at Start.
I cut down tree.
I grab blue hourglass.
Blue spawns at Start.
I continue from Blue hourglass, wait for Blue.
Blue cuts down tree.
Blue moves on.
I grab apple.
I grab Red Hourglass.
Red spawns at Start.
I continue from Red hourglass, wait for Red.
Red cuts down tree.
Blue gets to Blue Hourglass, despawns.
Red moves on.
I continue from Red Hourglass
Red gets to Blue hourglass, waiting because I waited before.
I can't sneak past Red, so I have to wait for Red to finish waiting.
Red continues on
Red grabs apple
I'm finally able to move on and finish level as Red gets to the Red Hourglass and vanishes.
(And if instead of finishing the level, I grabbed a third Green hourglass at this point, then I would only be dealing with Green starting from the very beginning. No Red or Blue, only Green.)
The difference between the two is that I can easily show how I'm iterating in my suggestion and you could really just pay attention to the bottom part of the list to see what's new while in the game's time travel logic I have to list actions linearly because my past selves don't reset at all, they continue acting.
This causes some logical issues where, even though I personally can't run in front of my past selves, my past selves can run in front of each other. Thankfully the game doesn't punish you for your past selves seeing each other, but it begs the question as to why it matters that I am seen by my past selves.
But ignoring logic issues, it can also cause logistical issues since. For whatever reason past selves can push each other around? So it's entirely possible that the past selves will nudge each other out of the way and be unable to press buttons.
The game works as it is and it is fun! But I feel like my suggestions would make it feel more intuitive and allow for more interesting puzzle solving and making
BUG REPORT:
YOu can walk over the Moving Gate things like it is the floor if it's not moving.
Hey thanks for lettin us know. Yeah unfortunately this is a WebGL issue in some browsers. We've put red text in above to warn people about it! Thankfully it doesn't stop you from playing throught the game as intended :)
Post jam we'll definitely look into trying to get WebGL to behave a bit better on this, will probably require some refactoring.
Oh sorry, I did'nt see the red text. I like the game though. Well done!!
Really great idea! I got a bit stuck on the level with 2 buttons? But that might just be me haha, not very good with puzzles. Great scope for a jam, fitting audio and visuals!
Really cool idea and level design, but there is a bug. a platforms whith spikes are fully passable.
Yeah unfortunately that was something that works great in the Unity Editor but then kicked us in the balls when we uploaded to WebGL :(. Thankfully you can still play the whole way through as intended :)
I love this so much! Perfect scope for a game jam. I've written a page of notes on the successes of the game design and art of this game, to inspire me in future game jams.
BUT there is a bug. On the level with the large, very wide, moving obstacle/wall you can simply skip the puzzle and walk right over the obstacle that blocks the exit. Same with the following level after that.
I hope you have enough time to fix it before the deadline.
This turned out to be a weird WebGL problem :( had it all fixed in Unity. It doesn't stop people from playing the game as intended thankfully :)